Independence Day has always been a favorite holiday of mine. I love the barbecues, the time spent with friends and family, and, of course, the fireworks! I love reflecting on our history as a nation and the ways God has blessed us while also praying for revival and return to the Lord in our nation. (Is it biblical to be patriotic? Check out this podcast episode to learn more: Is Patriotism Biblical?)
This year marks an especially significant milestone as our country celebrates its 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Holidays like Independence Day are good times for us to pause and reflect on what God has done and to rededicate ourselves to walking in God’s ways. As we head into July, here’s a few things I’m reflecting on:
1: God’s providential hand in history.
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” – Declaration of Independence
If you read original writings from people during the time of the founding of the United States, you will see this mention of Providence over and over. Providence is defined as, “God conceived as the power sustaining and guiding human destiny.” (Merriam-Webster). These people truly believed that God would guide and sustain them. They trusted God’s sovereignty.
One story that strikingly displays God’s providence is in George Washington’s life during the French and Indian War. During the Battle of Monongahela he had two horses shot out from beneath him and four bullet holes in his coat, yet he walked away from the battle unharmed. Years later, a Native American chief told Washington that he’d ordered all his men to fire on Washington, yet all their bullets missed. The chief believed that Washington was being protected by the Divine.1 Truly, the Lord did spare Washington’s life and prepared him to be the leader that the early colonies needed in the War for Independence and later as the United States’ first president.
As I look back in history and see the way God’s hand was at work, I’m reminded that the same God is in control of the universe today. Nothing takes Him by surprise, and He can work all things together for His glory, our good, and His purposes on earth (Rom. 8:28).
2: Just as our founders applied God’s Word to forming our nation’s government, so we should apply God’s Word to all aspects of life.
The founding fathers cited the Bible more than any other document when creating our nation’s constitution.2 One of the ways we see the Bible show up is in the division of powers in government. This idea came from Isaiah 33:22 (NASB95):
For the Lord is our judge, The Lord is our lawgiver, The Lord is our king; He will save us—
The founders recognized these different aspects of government as described here referring to God’s government: judge, lawmaker, and king. But they also recognized that the human heart is born with a sin nature. John Adams is quoted as saying this:
“To expect self-denial from men when they have a majority in their favor, and consequently power to gratify themselves, is to disbelieve all history and universal experience – it is to disbelieve revelation and the Word of God, which informs us ‘the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked’ [Jeremiah 17:9]. . . . There is no man so blind as not to see that to talk of founding a government upon a supposition that nations and great bodies of men left to themselves will practice a course of self-denial is either to babble like a newborn infant or to deceive like an unprincipled impostor.”3
And George Washington said, “A just estimate of that love of power and proneness to abuse it which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power by dividing and distributing it into different depositories . . . has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern, some of them in our country and under our own eyes.”4
Our government was structured recognizing the sin nature of the human heart and our tendency to grasp for more power than we ought. So, they looked at the three offices of government that apply to God in Isaiah 33, and recognizing that God is perfect and can fulfill all three branches without corruption but the human heart is prone to corruption, they separated those three offices into three branches of government to hold the other branches accountable. Thus, the United States has the judicial branch, the legislative branch, and the executive branch.
The founders looked to early Israel’s government along with Greek and Roman governments to gain wisdom for setting up our representative form of government. Thomas Paine wrote, “Near three thousand years passed away from the Mosaic account of creation, till the Jews under a national delusion requested a king. Till then their form of government…was a kind of republic, administered by a judge and the elders of the tribes. Kings they had none, and it was held sinful to acknowledge any being under that title but the Lord of Hosts.”5 The founders chose a representative form of government both to protect from mob rule and from tyranny. Another check put in place for the protection against tyranny and mob rule is the electoral college; this form of election protects both state rights and popular vote through a system of representative votes based both on equal votes among the states in the Senate and votes based on the population of the state in the House of Representatives.6
Similarly, another way we see the Bible influencing our government is within the judicial branch. The way the lower courts eventually make their way up to the supreme court is seen in Exodus 18 when Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, tells Moses that he can’t handle all of the disputes in Israel by himself because he will get burnt out. Instead, he counsels Moses to appoint men over thousands and fifties and tens, and that if the lower courts couldn’t solve a case, then it would go to Moses. That’s what we see in our court systems here in the US: we have lower courts to handle issues, and if something can’t be resolved there it can make it’s way up to the Supreme Court.
Just as the founders looked to the Word to guide them in creating our government, we should look to God’s Word to guide us in all our major decisions as well as daily life. The Word is a lamp to guide us (Ps. 119:105), it is truth to anchor us (John 17:17), and it is to dwell in us richly (Col. 3:16).
What to learn more about what the Bible says about government? Check out this podcast episode: What does the Bible Say about Government + 5 Biblical Principles in the US Founding Documents
3: The United States government was created for a moral people.
John Adams once said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”7 Our government is built on a Christian worldview, where limited government is only possible when people govern themselves by the Word of God. Internal government is recognizing that one day I will answer to the God of the universe for my life. It’s recognizing that I am a sinner in need of a Savior and surrendering my life to Christ as Lord, and when Christ is Lord, that means I live by His ways and His will. Will it be imperfect? Absolutely. But the Christian is constantly being governed by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit on the personal level. That in turn flows to the family. Which flows to the church. Which flows to community. Which flows to government.
This is what gives me hope for the future, because I realize that the world is changed not from the top down but from individual to individual. Our nation has strayed from the Christian beliefs that founded it, but that doesn’t mean we cannot repent and return and continue working towards that more perfect union based upon the truth of God’s Word, not our own fallen human understanding.
I pray that we as a nation would truly take 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 and Isaiah 55:6-7 to heart:
If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:13-14
Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the Lord, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. Isaiah 55:6-7
As we near the 250th anniversary of the United States, I would love to have you joining me in prayer for our country, that we would repent from our sin and return to following the Lord personally and in every level of government. To that end, I’ve created a free downloadable PDF with a seven-day prayer strategy for the local and national government. You can get your free copy here: https://payhip.com/b/1RF8W
I hope you have a blessed Independence Day! May we continue to reflect on the goodness of God and rededicate ourselves to walking in His ways.
With love,
Kelsey
- “\R\N \N Bulletproof Faith: How George Washington Defied Death and Founded a Nation.\N \R\N.” 1hope4america.com, 2022, www.1hope4america.com/my-postc3d69b13.
↩︎ - AHEF. “The Bible-Inspired Influences on the U. S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.” American Heritage Education Foundation, Inc., 21 Dec. 2019, americanheritage.org/the-bible-inspired-influences-on-the-u-s-constitution-and-u-s-bill-of-rights/.
↩︎ - “How Does Jeremiah 17:9 Relate to the Constitutional Separation of Powers? – WallBuilders.” WallBuilders, 28 Dec. 2023, wallbuilders.com/resource/how-does-jeremiah-179-relate-to-the-constitutional-separation-of-powers/. ↩︎
- “How Does Jeremiah 17:9 Relate to the Constitutional Separation of Powers? – WallBuilders.” WallBuilders, 28 Dec. 2023, wallbuilders.com/resource/how-does-jeremiah-179-relate-to-the-constitutional-separation-of-powers/. ↩︎
- AHEF. “The Principle, Practice, and Morality of a Constitutional Republic in America.” American Heritage Education Foundation, Inc., 12 Nov. 2022, americanheritage.org/the-american-principle-practice-and-morality-of-a-constitutional-republic/.
↩︎ - “Electoral College: Preserve or Abolish? – WallBuilders.” WallBuilders, 26 Apr. 2024, wallbuilders.com/resource/electoral-college-preserve-or-abolish/.
↩︎ - Waite, Brett. “Our Constitution Was Made Only for a Moral and Religious People.” Onlinecoursesblog.hillsdale.edu, 7 Dec. 2023, onlinecoursesblog.hillsdale.edu/our-constitution-was-made-only-for-a-moral-and-religious-people/.
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