Oh beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain;
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain.
These patriotic words,
coupled with the joyous but solemn melody, swell my heart with pride. I also recently discovered a song by Matt
Maher, Woke Up in America, that has
the same effect:
I’ve seen the horizon ablaze in Arizona,
Shoreline shinin’ above California,
Moonlight dancin’ over the Dakotas;
It breaks your heart, it’s so beautiful.
Lady Liberty, she leaves the light on
From the West Side all the way to Long
Island,
Carolina Coast to the Rocky Mountains;
Sun is shinin’ over me!
My parents gave me a life full of
dreams;
They gave me a heart to endure almost
anything.
But everyone gets a broken pair of
wings,
And if you try to fly you’ll fail.
…but a voice said, “lift up your head,”
And my heart burst out of my chest!
I woke up in America, for the love of God;
I woke up in America, for something
bigger than myself!
More than fireworks or fanfare,
More than a star-spangled banner…
More than wealth or depression,
More than a red and blue nation,
Here in our hells and our heaven,
You’re still beautiful America…
Before James Madison framed
the Bill of Rights, before George Washington crossed the Delaware River, before
the patriots made a teapot of Boston Harbor, before John Hancock signed his
name with a flourish at the bottom of the Declaration of Independence, America
already had a 200-year legacy of liberty.
Long before Patrick Henry passionately declared it in the Second
Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775, the first Americans declared with their
lives that they would rather die than live in chains. Our story of faith and freedom goes back much
farther in history than many Americans now realize.
By faith, the Pilgrim
congregation dared to separate from the Church of England and meet secretly,
then make a break for Holland in fall of 1607 – only to be caught twice and imprisoned, and lose just
about everything. The little
congregation finally started new lives in Leiden, Holland, in 1609. By faith the pilgrims reconsidered their
situation in 1619, because their children were beginning to conform to the
culture around them and lose their English culture, and because many of their
dear ones were still suffering in England under the bondage of the “divine
right” tyrant, King James. In July 1620,
once again by faith, the pilgrims sold their estates in Holland, departed from
everything they had known, said farewell to friends and family, and set out to
build a free nation in America. Walking
in faith despite King James’ warrant for his arrest, William Brewster came out
of hiding to lead them.
After a desperate journey
across the Atlantic at just under two miles per hour, the pilgrims sought God’s
will in faith and framed the Mayflower Compact.
In England, they had suffered under the imposition of the State Church;
in Holland they had seen the constant strife that results from much religious
liberty but little self-government, and how easily tyranny could take root as
one group sought to impose its will on another.
With their principles of self-government firmly in hand, they created
their own governing document. They
believed that true religious liberty could only be built upon the genuine
practice of self-government, and that the government of Christ begins in the
heart of the individual. Knowing that
there has always been only one foundation upon which any man can build, they
sought to build their house upon the Rock: everything they did started with
God.
 |
| Signing the Mayflower Compact |
In terms of authority, they
defined their rights as coming from God to the people, and then delegated to
governmental authorities. In England it
had been God, the king, the people; but here we have a new flow of power: God,
the people, and then the government.
This is the basis for inalienable rights: our liberties are granted by
God, and we grant the government the power to protect those rights. This is a monumental pillar for Christian
self-government, later to be restated in the Declaration of Independence as “We
the people…” It is also important to
realize that they were not trusting in a document, but a voluntary
relationship, a commitment to live together and strive towards a common
goal. The Mayflower Compact did not
provide a list of laws or job descriptions for governmental officers – that
would come when they wrote their Constitution in 1636 – but it did establish
that this would be a government based on the rule of law rather than the rule
of men. They would govern themselves
through their representatives, enacting laws that would justly protect the
equal rights of citizens. Little did
they know that what they had done was unique in the history of the world: they
had founded a government on a covenant rather than on a hereditary title. They foreshadowed the Declaration of
Independence, and the Constitution of Beautiful America. What they did understand was that this was a
great experiment. They knew that the
stakes were high and they had much to lose, but they also knew that God would
be faithful.
After just three months, at
winter’s end, 47 of the 102 colonists and half of the ship’s crew were
dead. The captain of the Mayflower was
leaving and implored them to join him, but no one went back. By faith every one of them stayed, knowing
that they had come for a great cause and purpose. Such is the strength of those who began our
nation! These passionate followers of
Jesus Christ sacrificed all they had to carry the torch of liberty to these beautiful
shores. They sought religious,
educational, and economic liberty, and set a precedent that our Founding
Fathers would follow as they built our nation’s legal framework.
In America, some of the
colonies experimented with established “state” churches, which necessarily
caused infighting and division among the colonies. By the time of the First Continental Congress,
the American colonies had learned the proper division between church and state:
civil government was meant to protect the rights of the church – it was not to
control the church, or favor one denomination over another. Our churches, all denominations and
religions, still live under this legal umbrella.
In the way of educational
liberty – one of the primary reasons the pilgrims left Holland – they believed
in the Biblical mandate that parents are to train up their children in the way
they should go (Deuteronomy 6:7). When
schools were created, their initial purpose was to teach children to read so
they could read the Bible for themselves.
For centuries in America, the Bible was the primary textbook utilized by
students who would become America’s greatest scientists, teachers, statesmen,
ministers, businessmen, and military leaders; any suggestions that something
else would be a more appropriate core textbook were routinely rejected. Today, though our public schools have been
completely secularized and we are fighting battles over the socialized, statist
education being implemented through the Common Core, education is still largely
free. Private schools, charter schools,
and home schools enjoy incredible liberty that is unique to our country.
To grasp the Biblical roots
of American economic policy, consider the Jamestown colony. After attempting a communal system where the
land and produce were shared, the colonists at Jamestown recognized a problem:
if everyone shared everything, whether or not they had worked for it, many
would slack in their work and overall production would decline. They implemented John Smith’s paraphrase of 2
Thessalonians 3:10, “You don’t work, you don’t eat.” It’s simple!
Each man must earn his own living.
They also lived by the free market system illustrated in the parable of
the vineyard in Matthew 20, where the employer and the employee agreed on wages
without interference and independently of what any other employee was being
paid, and any employee had the option to offer his services to another if he
was unsatisfied with the wages he was offered.
Individuals would come to America with very limited resources and,
through hard work and dedication to excellence, find their way to a higher rung
on the economic ladder, and so each successive generation became more
prosperous than the last. Needless to
say, our nation has fallen away from our founders’ policies and work ethic due
to the apathy bred by that same prosperity, but we have strong Biblical roots,
and it is much easier to restore something that has already been established
than to build it anew.
O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
On Independence Day in 2014,
we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. That day was the beginning of America as an
independent nation, but it was the climax of decades of faith in Providence,
freedom protected through self-government, and opportunity to fulfill
individual potential through free market economics. I am so thankful to live in a nation with
such a rich heritage. Yes, we have our
problems and missteps and divisions, but I can’t think of anywhere on earth I
would rather be. I am proud to be an
American – because our nation is built on the Holy Scriptures, by the grace of
God.
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood,
From sea to shining sea!
