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This Monday is the day in which we commemorate the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I love quoting John Quincy Adams at this time of the year. On July 4, 1837, he spoke these words:
Why is it that, next to the birth day of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day?. . . Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer’s mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity, and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfillment of the prophecies announced directly from Heaven at the birth of the Savior and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets six hundred years before?
Adams was exactly right. The United States of America is the only nation in human history established by mostly Christian people, founded upon 2,000 years of Christian thought and the faith and courage of the Protestant Reformation. New Covenant preaching was proclaimed from colonial pulpits, and Biblical Natural Law principles were foremost in the minds of America’s founders. Ergo, our country was dedicated to the purpose of religious and personal liberty and equal justice under the law. This truth is easily observed within America’s earliest history.
America’s forebears established a written covenant with God as early as November 11, 1620, when they penned The Mayflower Compact. It states in part (spelling in the original):
In the name of God, Amen. . . . Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith and honour of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colonie in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant, and combine our selves together into a civil body politick; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, Acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colonie: unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
From the beginning, the sentiments and statements of America’s founders make it clear that this country has enjoyed a love and appreciation for the rights and freedoms recognized in Natural Law and the Holy Scriptures that is unique in the annals of human history. No other nation has such a heritage.
The Declaration of Independence states, “[Men] are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It also states that these rights are “self-evident” and that they were formed by the “Laws of Nature” and “Nature’s God.”
These principles are taken directly from the Scriptures—and from Natural Law philosophers such as Hugo Grotius, John Locke, Samuel Von Pufendorf, Emer de Vattel and Charles Montesquieu. Furthermore, one cannot read what these men wrote without quickly observing that they formed much of their writings upon the Scriptures.
According to one political science professor, researcher and historian, Don Lutz, America’s political leaders (including the Founding Fathers) from 1760 – 1805 quoted St. Paul more than any other man (Montesquieu was second) and the Bible more than any other book. In fact, the Book of Deuteronomy alone was quoted twice as much as the writings of Locke. And ninety-eight percent of America’s founding generation (including the founders) affiliated with Protestant Christianity—hence the evidence of the influence of the Protestant Reformation upon America’s founding. (Source)
John Quincy Adams was right: The birth of Christ and the birth of America are indissolubly linked. America will continue to endure only as long as that link is unbroken.
From my family to yours: Merry Christmas!
© Chuck Baldwin
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