Coral Ridge MinistriesDr. D. James Kennedy, Founder
From the 10 Truths Series
Few objective historians would dispute that America’s system of law and liberty is deeply rooted in the principles of the Bible and the biblical traditions of the Puritans.
Peter Marshall, former chaplain to the United States Senate, and an expert on America’s spiritual heritage, declared, “The Constitution of the United States has a path of descent that you can trace directly back to Puritan New England.” Upon arriving in America, the Puritans quickly established a social order governed by law. In 1639, they adopted the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, which served as the first governing constitution among the colonies. Connecticut still bears the nickname: the “Constitution State.”
Puritans Framed First Colonial Constitution
The Founders marveled at the genius of the Puritans’ form of government. George Washington thought Connecticut’s Constitution was so brilliant that he ordered every delegate at the Constitutional Convention to have a copy. The preamble of this Constitution declared, “[T]he Word of God requires that to maintain the peace and union of such a people there should be an orderly and decent Government established according to God….” Likewise, it stipulated that all governing officials were bound to rule according to established laws and where those were lacking, they should govern “according to the Rule of the Word of God.” The Puritans adopted Article I of their new constitution by unanimous vote, affirming, “The Scriptures do hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men in all duties which they are to perform to God and men.”
According to the Connecticut Department of State, the constitution established by the Puritans “was never regarded by the colonists as the source of their government, but as a protection for and guaranty of the government.” This belief has been handed down to subsequent generations of Americans. President John F. Kennedy declared in his Inaugural Address, “The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.”
Puritans Looked to Higher Source for Rights
The Puritan concept of law placed liberty under the guidance of the God of Scripture. Our Founders repeatedly asserted that this philosophy alone could guard the sovereign rights of the citizenry from the whims of a tyrannical government. John Dickinson, a signer of the Constitution from Delaware, stated, Kings or parliaments could not give the rights essential to happiness…. We claim them from a higher source—from the King of Kings, and Lord of all the Earth. They are not annexed to us by parchments and seals. They are created in us by the decrees of Providence, which establish the laws of our nature.
The Declaration of Independence declares that all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” America’s Founding Fathers surely understood that liberty was the gift of God. Thomas Jefferson, who penned the Declaration, feared the day when skeptics and governing officials would attempt to usurp the role of God as the Author of Liberty. He wrote: God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? … Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.
Jefferson wisely saw that if Americans would ever deny that God is the source of our liberties, we would surely suffer the consequences. This was a major concern of America’s Founding Fathers, and they spoke vehemently against it. Alexander Hamilton, a signer of the U.S. Constitution and a co-author of the Federalist Papers, described humanistic legal systems as nothing more than “absurd and impious doctrine.”
God’s Law Is Supreme
Alexander Hamilton and the other Founding Fathers often quoted the widely read eighteenth century legal commentator, William Blackstone, who wrote: The law of nature … dictated by God, Himself, is, of course, superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times. No human laws are of any validity if contrary to this. Rufus King, a signer of the Constitution from Massachusetts, echoed these sentiments. “The law established by the Creator,” he wrote, “… extends over the whole globe, is everywhere and at all times binding upon mankind.” King claimed that it is “the law of God by which he makes his way known to man and is paramount to all human control.”
America’s Founding Fathers acknowledged that God is the source of both law and liberty. Likewise, they understood that our nation’s government must adhere to His immutable principles in order to prosper. George Washington, in his first Inaugural Address, stated: [T]he propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained. Skeptics claim that Christians are trying to force some draconian form of theocratic rule upon America. But Dr. Kennedy often asserted, “In no way am I advocating a theocracy. All I am advocating is a return, as much as possible, to the faith of our nation’s Founders.”
It was the faith of our Founders that enabled them to imagine a nation governed by laws that would be superior to any other, because they were laws established by the Creator. The following chapter will show how our Founders’ faith also inspired them with the zeal to be willing to sacrifice their personal safety and to give up personal fortune in order to establish America as a new independent nation governed under the laws of God and providing liberty to all its citizens.
Coral Ridge Ministries. Copyright 2008. All Rights Reserved.
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