High School

Bible Education and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787

September 7, 2018
The Founding

Students in Riley Township, Ohio, 1950 (Toledo Blade).  The Northwest Ordinance promoted the building of schools in the northwestern territories annexed by the United States in the late 1700s and early 1800s including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. 

Founding-era Americans of the 1700s, like the early Puritans, strongly encouraged education and the teaching of the Bible in schools.  Early Americans believed education–Bible education, in particular–was essential in a free republic such as the United States.  Teaching the Bible was, they thought, an effective means to encourage religion and morality—and, ultimately, self-government—among the people.  In fact, schools had originally been formed by the Puritans in the 1600s to teach children to read and learn the Bible.  Later, in the new nation, the Founders continued to encourage the teaching of religion and morality in schools through the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.

Many founding-era Americans articulated their support for education and the teaching of religion and morality in schools.  Founder and President John Adams, for example, wrote of the need for education in a free society:  “Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people….”  Founder Benjamin Rush, a proponent of public education, supported the teaching of the Bible in schools for its moral importance.  He asserted that Bible education among youth is “the best means of awakening moral sensibility in their minds” and that all youth should be “carefully instructed in the principles and obligations of the Christian religion” as “the most essential part of education.”  Rush affirmed the civic and social benefits of teaching morality and religion, namely Christianity, in schools.  He considers, …

Bible education was important, early Americans thought, to prepare citizens for their civic responsibilities and self-governance, to perpetuate the American republic.  Knowledge and practice of the moral principles of the Bible prepared citizens to govern themselves and their country wisely and virtuously.  Moreover, it was important that citizens understood that the rights, freedoms, and laws of the new republic were founded on God-given unalienable rights, the Law of Nature, and a Bible-based philosophy and worldview.  As such, the Founders intended for education, religion, and morality to work together among the people to guarantee good government and liberty.  Without such virtue and knowledge among the people, a free nation, they believed, could not successfully endure.  They therefore saw the Bible as essential to education and lamented what would happen if it was neglected.

Cutler Hall at Ohio University in Athens, drawing by Henry Howe, 1846.  The founding of the university was promoted by the Northwest Ordinance.

During the ratification of the U. S. Constitution, many founding-era Americans wanted the new government to encourage morals and values and thus self-governance.  One Massachusetts delegate Charles Turner urged Congress to adopt a bill to promote Bible and moral education.  He stressed the importance of such education so that people could develop their natural, moral conscience or the “law unto themselves” of Romans 2:14-15: … 

After the Revolutionary War, when the United States acquired new western territory, the Confederation Congress was concerned about immorality and corruption in the new territories and stressed the importance of teaching the Bible, morality, and religion in these regions.  They thus enacted a law that encouraged education for the teaching of religion and morality in schools, known as the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.  This ordinance required all new states to build schools.  Article III of the ordinance stated:

Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.

The Confederation Congress adopted the Northwest Ordinance during the same period that the U. S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, and First Amendment were drafted and adopted.  (The ordinance was reapproved in 1789 by the first U. S. Congress under President George Washington.)  Since Congress adopted both this ordinance and the First Amendment, they did not view government encouragement of moral education as a violation of the First Amendment’s No Establishment Clause.  The No Establishment Clause permitted the national government’s encouragement of the teaching of religion and morality in schools.  Indeed, early Americans naturally identified education with the teaching of the Bible and morals, observes A. James Reichley in his Religion in American Public Life, “almost as a matter of course.”

Founding-era Americans enacted the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 in the new nation of the United States because they highly valued education and the teaching of morality and the Bible in schools to young people.  For they knew that such education was important for the development of virtuous citizens who could exercise self-governance in their lives and who could sustain a free, just society.  They also knew that virtue is best instilled through religion.  Clearly, early Americans strongly supported the presence and principles of virtuous religion and morality in all aspects of American life and society.

Contributed by AHEF and Angela E. Kamrath.

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Sources:
Kamrath, Angela E.  The Miracle of America:  The Influence of the Bible on the Founding History and Principles of the United States of America for a People of Every Belief.  Second Edition.  Houston, TX:  American Heritage Education Foundation, 2014, 2015.

Svoboda, Sandra.  “State’s Commitment to Education Dates to 1785 Land Ordinance.”  Toledo, OH:  The Toledo Blade, 2003.

Related blogs/videos:
1.  Why and how did schools begin in the United States?
2.  How the Great Awakening Effected Church and Society:  Education, Missions, Humanitarianism, Women, & the Gospel
3.  The Coming Crisis of Citizenship:  Higher Education’s Failure to Teach America’s History and Institutions
4.  Civic Knowledge:  Americans’ Increasing Ignorance of American History  & Government Can No Longer Be Ignored
5.  The Need and Legal Right to Teach Religious History in Public Schools
6.  American History & Western Civilization Challenge Bowl (AHWCCB)

Poster:  Declaration of Independence

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Activity:  The Miracle of America High School Teacher Course Guide, Unit 8, Part 3, Activity 5:  Encouraging Moral and Religious Education in America Today, p. 309, 390-391.  MS-HS.  www.americanheritage.org

Encouraging Moral and Religious Education in America Today

Purpose/Objective:  Students learn about the American Founders’ belief in and emphasis on the need for a moral, virtuous citizenry in order for the nation’s self-governing republic to succeed.  Students examine the Founders’ aims and means to encourage morality and virtue among citizens including moral education, Bible literacy, churches, and religion in society, and the free exercise of religion.

Suggested Readings:
1)  Chapter 8 of Miracle of America reference/text.  Students read sections Introduction to 8.2, 8.5, 8.8-8.10, 8.12-8.13, 8.17-8.20, & pp. 288-296.
2)  Related blogs/videos (see above).

Think Aloud:
Have students read passages related to the central ideas of this part of the unit.  Use a think-aloud strategy to encourage students to address questions related to the issue of moral education in America.  Have students note their responses and questions as they share ideas.  Teachers may use the think-aloud rubric listed in the online resources section at americanheritage.org to assess student understanding as they think aloud and respond to their own and others’ questions about the ideas presented.  See primary source quotes from chapter.  See also “Miracle of America Primary and Secondary Source Quotes” handout in “Supporting Resources” section of the course guide, pp. 390-391.

1.  What does the Northwest Ordinance say about moral and religious education?  What role does the government have, if any, on this issue?
2.  Does government (national, state, and/or local) today play a role in encouraging (not in  enforcing or regulating) moral and religious education in society?  Do you think it should/should not perform this role?  What did the American Founders and early Americans think?
3.  Do you think moral, religious, and/or Bible-based education is necessary today?  Why or why not?  Can our nation be strong without virtuous citizens?  Why or why not?  What did the American Founders and early Americans think?

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To download this whole unit, sign up as an AHEF member (no cost) to access the “resources” page on americanheritage.org.  To order the printed binder format of the course guide with all the units, go to the AHEF bookstore.

Copyright © American Heritage Education Foundation.  All rights reserved.

American Revolution Debate: The Lawfulness of Defensive War

August 23, 2018
The Founding

The Meeting Between Abraham and Melchizedek by Peter Paul Rubens, 1626.  This meeting occurred in Genesis 14.

In the 1700s, many patriot American colonists and clergymen justified their fight for liberty in the American Revolution with Judeo-Christian thought and ideas.  One argument they cited was the justness or lawfulness of defensive war.  They believed that defensive war was just and lawful before God to preserve their lives, liberty, rights, and property.

Clergymen often cited the Bible for examples and explanations to support defensive war and the preservation of their freedoms and rights.  In his 1775 sermon, “Defensive War in a Just Cause Sinless,” early American minister Rev. David Jones of Pennsylvania asserted that the oppressed have a duty to defend their liberties based on the Old Testament.  Jones compared the American Revolution to a number of defensive wars in the Old Testament.  Some of these wars involved…

In one instance, Jones considered Genesis 14 in which Abram, who was later called Abraham, armed himself and his servants to rescue his nephew Lot who had been taken captive by four kings.  The godly Melchizedeck, a high priest of God and a Christ figure, praised Abram’s battle success, saying in Genesis 14:19-20, “‘Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor or heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.’”  “This passage,” observed Jones, “proves not only that this [support for defensive war] was Abram’s belief, but also that Melchizedeck, priest of the most high God and the brightest type of Christ, was fully of the same opinion.  Therefore, it may be admitted as evidence in favor of a defensive war.”  Jones concluded from these examples that…

In his 1775 sermon, “A Self-Defensive War Lawful,” Pastor Rev. John Carmichael of Pennsylvania also believed resistance was justified under certain unavoidable circumstances.  Carmichael reasoned that when Jesus tells His followers to “turn the other cheek” in the New Testament, it is a proverbial expression.  It means that “we should be ready to put up with a good deal of ill-usage before we create disturbance, yes, that we should do anything consistent with our own safety.”  When Jesus teaches us to “love your enemies,” Carmichael further explained, he “can’t possibly [have] meant that we should love them better than ourselves—that we should put it in the enemy’s power to kill us, when we have it in our power to save our own life by killing the enemy.”  Jesus does not intend, he explains, “to forbid us to use lawful and proper means of self-preservation.”  In the case of the American Revolution, observed Carmichael, Americans had born Britain’s abuses patiently, but now they needed to defend their freedoms and way of life.

Americans held strong opinions about revolution against Britain.  Many patriots supported revolution and independence from Britain based on examples from the Bible that supported the defense of one’s life, freedom, rights, property, and way of life.  In fact, the phrase “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God” became a motto of the American Revolution.  As a result, many Americans asserted the justness, morality, and necessity of defensive war.  Consequently, many also favored the forming of an American military.  In a sermon on 2 Chronicles 13:12, Rev. William Emerson, chaplain in the Revolutionary Army, expressed, “Our military preparation here for our own defense is not only excusable but justified in the eyes of the impartial world.  Nay, for should we neglect to defend ourselves by military preparation, we never could answer it to God, to our own consciences, or to the rising generations.”

Contributed by AHEF and Angela E. Kamrath.

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Source:
Kamrath, Angela E.  The Miracle of America:  The Influence of the Bible on the Founding History and Principles of the United States of America for a People of Every Belief.  Second Edition.  Houston, TX:  American Heritage Education Foundation, 2014, 2015.

Related articles/videos:
1.  The Principle of Popular Sovereignty
2.  The Pilgrims Identified with the Israelites
3.  The Puritans Identified with the Israelites and Practiced Covenants
4.  Great Awakening Effects:  Unity, Democracy, Freedom, and Revolution 
5.  The American Revolution:  An Introduction
6.  The Bible was the Most Cited Source of the American Founding Era
7.  The American Revolution was sometimes called the “Presbyterian Rebellion”
8.  American Revolution Debate:  Submission to Authority
9.  American Revolution Debate:  God Desires Freedom, Not Slavery, for His People
10.  How the American Revolution shed light on the Moral Problem of Slavery
11.  Thomas Paine’s Common Sense:  God’s Opposition to Absolute Rule
12.  American Revolution Debate:  The American Quest for a New, Bible-Inspired Republic
13.  American Revolution Debate:  The Principle of Civil Covenants
14.  American Revolution Debate:  Obedience to God Over Man
15.  American Revolution Debate:  Ancient Israel’s Resistance to Oppression & Divided Kingdom
16.  American Revolution Debate:  The Lawfulness of Defensive War
17.  Freedom:  The Most Important Characteristic of America
18.  The Law of Nature:  The Universal Moral Law of Mankind

Poster:  Declaration of Independence

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Activity:  The Miracle of America High School Teacher Course Guide, Unit 6, Part 2, Activity 3:  Bible-Based Justification for Revolution, p. 219, 359.  MS-HS.

Bible-Based Justification for Revolution

Purpose/Objective:  Students examine the Bible-based arguments made by Patriot Americans in support of revolution against Britain.  Students learn about the influence of the Bible during the Founding era.

Suggested Readings:
1)  Chapter 6 of Miracle of America reference/text.  Students read sections 6.1 to 6.12.
2) Essay/Handout:  Principles of the American Revolution by Angela E. Kamrath found in the “Supporting Resources” of the Miracle of America HS Teacher Course Guide, pp. 354-356, or in the “Miracle of America Snapshots” handout under member resources at americanheritage.org.
3)  Related blogs/videos (see above).

Patriot Revolutionary Chart:
In your own words, explain/describe the following biblical principles or arguments used by many patriot Americans to justify/support the American Revolution.  Students may include the sources/thinkers who promoted each argument.  Provide relevant scripture verse(s) for each argument.  See the “Bible-Based Justification for Revolution” Patriot Chart in the “Supporting Resources” section of the course guide, p. 359.

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To download this whole unit, sign up as an AHEF member (no cost) to access the “resources” page on americanheritage.org.  To order the printed binder format of the course guide with all the units, go to the AHEF bookstore.

Copyright © American Heritage Education Foundation.  All rights reserved.

American Revolution Debate: Ancient Israel’s Resistance to Oppression and Divided Kingdom

August 9, 2018
The Founding

Rehoboam’s Insolence by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1530.  In 1 Kings 12, King Rehoboam of Israel, son of Solomon, rejects the people’s plea and the elders’ advice for lighter taxes.  Refusing to listen, Rehoboam responds by saying that his burden on the people will be heavier than his father’s:  “My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist.” 

During the American Revolution, many patriot American colonists defended their cause for liberty with Bible-based arguments.  Some of their arguments related to their identification with and learning from the ancient Israelites in the Bible.  In one such argument, they looked to Israel’s resistance to oppressive rulers and its division as a kingdom as found in 1 Kings 11-12 and 2 Chronicles 13.  In these verses, Israel is divided into two kingdoms, north and south, between two rulers, Jeroboam and Rehoboam respectively, as a result of tyranny and oppression.  Colonists drew from this aspect of Israel’s history to support and justify independence from Britain.

In 1 Kings 12, King Solomon’s son and successor, Rehoboam, became king of Israel.  But Rehoboam refused to listen to the people, rejected the elders’ counsel, and imposed oppressive policies and harsh taxes on the nation.  As a result, the ten northern tribes of Israel revolted and named Jeroboam as their new king.  Rehoboam’s southern kingdom remained with the two tribes of Judah.  Thus, Israel was divided into two kingdoms.  1 Kings 11:30-37 recounts that the prophet Ahijah had prophesied that Jeroboam would be the king of the north because Rehoboam’s father, Solomon, and the kingdom of Judah forsook God and violated God’s laws, not walking in God’s ways “to do what is right.”  Yet God would continue to let Rehoboam rule Judah.

Later, as told in 2 Chronicles 13, Jeroboam went to war against the succeeding king of Judah, Abijah, in an attempt to conquer the southern kingdom.  King Abijah, though, warned Jeroboam that an attack on Judah would not succeed because it was against God’s will.  2 Chronicles 13:12-18 shows Abijah’s warning to Jeroboam and the outcome: …

Though Jeroboam’s northern army was larger than Judah’s, it was unsuccessful and took many losses due to God’s protection of Judah.

Interestingly, some important political writings of the Reformation era in Europe cited Israel’s revolt and division as support for the idea of resistance to tyranny.  Such writings, including John Ponet’s 1556 Short Treatise on Political Power and Samuel Rutherford’s 1644 Lex Rex (The Law and the King), held that Israel’s divided kingdom was an example of when rulers are justly punished by God for their tyranny and oppression.  Ponet writes, “Rehoboam, because he would reign as a tyrant and not be subject to law or counsel, had ten tribes of his kingdom taken away from him and given to Jeroboam.”  Rutherford likewise observed that Rehoboam lost ten tribes “due to oppression.”  They argued that God’s punishment showed that He opposed tyranny and oppression for His people.  Such writings influenced European and American thinkers like British philosopher John Locke who, with his 1689 Second Treatise of Civil Government, in turn, impacted American political thought and the American Founders.

American colonists in the 1700s similarly drew from this biblical conflict in ancient Israel to support and defend their revolutionary war.  In fact, colonists found support, justification, and courage for their revolution in both sides of Israel’s conflict and division.

Firstly, colonists identified with the revolt of the northern tribes against Rehoboam and his oppressive policies.  Many colonists saw the British government as a similarly oppressive force of harsh policies and taxes from which the American colonies had a just right to separate.  In a 1775 sermon on 2 Chronicles 13:12, Rev. William Emerson, for example, preached on Israel’s divided kingdom and America’s similar right of rebellion.  He discussed the right of Americans, like the Israelites, to revolt against oppressive laws.  “Through his oppressive policies and disregard for the people,” affirms Harry Stout in his The New England Soul, “Rehoboam illustrated the evils of tyranny and the right of the northern tribes to revolt.”

Secondly, colonists also identified with the smaller but undefeated Judah which survived attack from the northern kingdom due to God’s will and protection.  Colonists believed that, with God’s help and protection, the smaller American colonies would similarly survive attack from the larger, stronger British army.  Emerson recounted Jeroboam’s defeat against Judah and applied that biblical event to the conflict between the American colonies and Britain.  He exhorted colonists that God would defend America against all odds because it was God’s will that America should be free.  He and others called for trust in God for victory against Britain.  “By engaging in an unsuccessful war with Judah (unsuccessful because he made war over the prohibitions of God’s prophets),” affirms Stout, “Jeroboam illustrated how a king with superior armies could not defeat his countrymen to the south because God would not allow it.”

As early Americans prepared for and fought in the revolutionary war, they looked to the Bible and ancient Israel’s history for guidance and support for their cause of liberty.  The biblical precedent of ancient Israel’s revolt and division helped early Americans support and justify their resistance to what they viewed as Britain’s tyranny and oppression and their quest for a new, independent nation.  It also helped the fledgling colonies prepare for and enter a daunting war against one of the world’s strongest powers, giving them courage to fight against all odds, because they believed that God was with them and desired their freedom.

Contributed by AHEF and Angela E. Kamrath.

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Sources:
Kamrath, Angela E.  The Miracle of America:  The Influence of the Bible on the Founding History and Principles of the United States of America for a People of Every Belief.  Second Edition.  Houston, TX:  American Heritage Education Foundation, 2014, 2015.

Stout, Harry S.  The New England Soul:  Preaching and Religious Culture in Colonial New England.  New York, NY:  Oxford University Press, 1986.

Related articles/videos:
1.  The Principle of Popular Sovereignty
2.  The Pilgrims Identified with the Israelites
3.  The Pilgrims’ Mayflower Compact was a Covenant
4.  The Puritans Identified with the Israelites and Practiced Covenants
5.  The Puritans Elected Representatives to Govern in their American Colonies
6.  Why the Puritans Favored Limited Government
7.  Thomas Hooker as the “father of American Democracy”
8.  Why Thomas Hooker Favored Democracy over Aristocracy
9.  Great Awakening Effects:  Unity, Democracy, Freedom, and Revolution 
10.  The American Revolution:  An Introduction
11.  The Bible was the Most Cited Source of the American Founding Era
12.  The American Revolution was sometimes called the “Presbyterian Rebellion”
13.  American Revolution Debate:  Submission to Authority
14.  American Revolution Debate:  God Desires Freedom, Not Slavery, for His People
15.  How the American Revolution shed light on the Moral Problem of Slavery
16.  Thomas Paine’s Common Sense:  God’s Opposition to Absolute Rule
17.  American Revolution Debate:  The American Quest for a New, Bible-Inspired Republic
18.  American Revolution Debate:  The Principle of Civil Covenants
19.  American Revolution Debate:  Obedience to God Over Man
20.  American Revolution Debate:  Ancient Israel’s Resistance to Oppression & Divided Kingdom
21.  American Revolution Debate:  The Lawfulness of Defensive War
22.  Freedom:  The Most Important Characteristic of America

Poster:  Declaration of Independence

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Activity:  The Miracle of America High School Teacher Course Guide, Unit 6, Part 2, Activity 3:  Bible-Based Justification for Revolution, p. 219, 359.  MS-HS.

Bible-Based Justification for Revolution

Purpose/Objective:  Students examine the Bible-based arguments made by Patriot Americans in support of revolution against Britain.  Students learn about the influence of the Bible during the Founding era.

Suggested Readings:
1)  Chapter 6 of Miracle of America reference/text.  Students read sections 6.1 to 6.12.
2) Essay/Handout:  Principles of the American Revolution by Angela E. Kamrath found in the “Supporting Resources” of the Miracle of America HS Teacher Course Guide, pp. 354-356, or in the “Miracle of America Snapshots” handout under member resources at americanheritage.org.
3)  Related blogs/videos (see above).

Patriot Revolutionary Chart:
In your own words, explain/describe the following biblical principles or arguments used by many patriot Americans to justify/support the American Revolution.  Students may include the sources/thinkers who promoted each argument.  Provide relevant scripture verse(s) for each argument.  See the “Bible-Based Justification for Revolution” Patriot Chart in the “Supporting Resources” section of the course guide, p. 359.

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To download this whole unit, sign up as an AHEF member (no cost) to access the “resources” page on americanheritage.org.  To order the printed binder format of the course guide with all the units, go to the AHEF bookstore.

Copyright © American Heritage Education Foundation.  All rights reserved.

American Revolution Debate: Obedience to God Over Man

July 26, 2018
The Founding

Peter Preaching in Jerusalem by Charles Poerson, 1642.  In Acts 5, Peter and the apostles are brought before the religionists for violating a restriction prohibiting the preaching of the Christian Gospel.  When questioned, Peter replies, “We must obey God rather than men.”

Before and during the American Revolution, early American colonists argued a number of Bible-based principles to support their revolutionary cause and independence from Britain.  One principle taken up by patriot Americans to defend their cause was the principle that all people and man-made laws are subject to the Law of Nature, also understood as God’s universal moral law.  As such, tyrannical or unjust civil laws that are contrary to the Law of Nature should not be obeyed.

Up until the mid-1700s, colonists had generally relied on British law and their colonial charters for the protection of their rights in the American colonies.  They initially cited these laws when the British government began to impose intrusive policies in their colonies.  However, when the British Crown rejected their petition for certain rights as Englishmen, they could no longer defend themselves by British law.  So instead, they turned to the Law of Nature to defend their natural rights and freedoms.

Early Americans recognized the Law of Nature, a universal moral law identified for centuries in Western Civilization, that applies to all mankind.  Often understood as originating from the Creator God, this law existed before man-made or civil laws.  It sets down standards of right and wrong and of just governance in society.  It includes the idea of not harming others but of treating others, as oneself, with love.  It supports the idea, as British philosopher John Locke articulated, that man has natural rights of life and liberty.  This law is naturally revealed in a person’s right reason, conscience, and/or common moral sense, and it aligns with God’s moral law in the Bible.  Colonists believed that just civil laws that abide by God’s moral law should lead to freedom from oppression, not tyranny, for the people.

Colonists drew a defense for the Law of Nature and their natural rights largely from Locke’s 1689 Second Treatise of Civil Government.  In his work, Locke asserted that based on the Law of Nature, man possessed certain natural rights of “life, liberty, and estate.”  If these rights were violated, the people had a right to resist.  Locke thus developed a natural rights and revolution theory.  Because patriot colonists saw British policies as oppressive and unjust violations of the Law of Nature and their natural rights, they believed they had no obligation to submit to such policies or the British government.

What many Americans may not know is that Locke’s secular ideas reflected and were influenced by earlier Bible-based, Reformation-era ideas and writings on the Law of Nature and resistance theory.  The idea that Law of Nature is above man-made law, for example, reflected a Judeo-Christian, Bible-based view that one should obey God’s moral law over man’s law, or God over man.

The principle to obey God over man emerged during the Protestant Reformation in Europe in writings such as Martin Luther’s 1523 Secular Authority:  To What Extent It Should be Obeyed, John Calvin’s 1536 Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Ponet’s 1556 Short Treatise of Political Power, and Stephen Junius Brutus’s 1579 Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos (Defense of Liberty Against Tyrants).

These early European writings argued that while men should generally submit to their governors, men should not make or obey laws or commands when they are contrary to God’s moral law or the Law of Nature, requiring one to do evil.  Luther made this point based on Acts 5:29, posing, “When a prince is in the wrong, are his people bound to follow him?  I answer, No, for it is no one’s duty to do wrong.  We ought to obey God, who desires the right, rather than men.”  Calvin similarly asserted, “If man’s rulers command anything against God, it ought not to have the least attention.”  He also cited Acts 5:29, saying, “Since this edict has been proclaimed by…Peter, ‘We ought to obey God rather than men,’ let us console ourselves…that we truly perform the obedience which God requires of us when we suffer anything rather than deviate from piety.”  Ponet argued from Romans 13:1-5 and Acts 5:29 that civil governors are ordained by God to do good, not evil, and so if they command evil, they should not be obeyed.  He writes, 

Brutus maintained this same argument, expressing, “If God is in the position of superior lord, and the king in that of vassal, who would not decree that the lord should be obeyed rather than the vassal?  …  So not only are we not obliged to obey a king commanding something contrary to God’s law, but also if we should obey we would be rebels [to God].”

Such influential writings asserted that civil governors are ordained by God for justice and the prosperity and benefit of the people, not for injustice or the state’s ruin.  As such, the legitimate authorities, representatives, and people of a state have a responsibility to check and resist evil, corruption, and tyranny among their governors.  If a ruler or ruling body violates God’s natural, moral law, the ruler’s law should be checked and resisted.  Governors, called to uphold justice and restrain evil, should be corrected or punished if they themselves commit evils.  For “next after God, men are born to love, honor, and maintain their country,” says Ponet, and “where justice is not executed…there cannot be but a most corrupt, ungodly, and vicious state.”  Brutus likewise says, “Natural Law teaches us to preserve and protect our life and liberty—without which life is scarcely life at all—against all force and injustice.  …  So he who disputes whether it is lawful to fight back seems to be fighting nature itself,” and “If someone should try to infringe this [natural] law by force or deceit, we are all obliged to resist him because he violates the society to which he owes everything, and because he undermines the country to which we are bound by nature, laws, and oath.”

The principle to obey the Law of Nature or God over man emerged in American founding-era writings including Jonathan Mayhew’s 1750 sermon, Discourses Concerning Unlimited Submission, Samuel Adams’s 1772 Rights of Colonists, and the Declaration of Independence of 1776.  Mayhew observed that “no civil rulers are to be obeyed when they enjoin things that are inconsistent with the commands of God.”  Adams expressed that “just and true liberty…is a thing that all men are clearly entitled to by the eternal and immutable laws of God and nature” and that such rights are best understood by studying the teachings “found closely written and promulgated in the New Testament.”  Our Declaration of Independence ultimately states that all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” and that men are entitled by the “Law of Nature and Nature’s God” to govern themselves.

Drawing upon the Law of Nature, American patriots defended their natural rights of life and liberty and of self-government during the American Revolution.  Their defense was heavily influenced by Locke’s work, which, in turn, reflected a Bible-based idea that God’s moral law is above man’s law.  Because colonists viewed Britain’s rule in the colonies as oppressive, unjust, and violating their rights, they believed British power and policies should not be obeyed but actively resisted for the benefit of the people and to maintain a free, just country. Their views supported the American cause of liberty.

Contributed by AHEF and Angela E. Kamrath.

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Sources:
Kamrath, Angela E.  The Miracle of America:  The Influence of the Bible on the Founding History and Principles of the United States of America for a People of Every Belief.  Second Edition.  Houston, TX:  American Heritage Education Foundation, 2014, 2015.

Related articles/videos:
1.  The Principle of Popular Sovereignty
2.  The Pilgrims Identified with the Israelites
3.  The Puritans Identified with the Israelites and Practiced Covenants
4.  Early Americans supported Religious Tolerance based on God as Judge of Conscience
5.  Great Awakening Effects:  Unity, Democracy, Freedom, and Revolution 
6.  The American Revolution:  An Introduction
7.  The Bible was the Most Cited Source of the American Founding Era
8.  The American Revolution was sometimes called the “Presbyterian Rebellion”
9.  American Revolution Debate:  Submission to Authority
10.  American Revolution Debate:  God Desires Freedom, Not Slavery, for His People
11.  How the American Revolution shed light on the Moral Problem of Slavery
12.  Thomas Paine’s Common Sense:  God’s Opposition to Absolute Rule
13.  American Revolution Debate:  The American Quest for a New, Bible-Inspired Republic
14.  American Revolution Debate:  The Principle of Civil Covenants
15.  American Revolution Debate:  Obedience to God Over Man
16.  American Revolution Debate:  Ancient Israel’s Resistance to Oppression & Divided Kingdom
17.  American Revolution Debate:  The Lawfulness of Defensive War
18.  Freedom:  The Most Important Characteristic of America

Poster:  Declaration of Independence

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Activity:  The Miracle of America High School Teacher Course Guide, Unit 6, Part 2, Activity 3:  Bible-Based Justification for Revolution, p. 219, 359.  MS-HS.

Bible-Based Justification for Revolution

Purpose/Objective:  Students examine the Bible-based arguments made by Patriot Americans in support of revolution against Britain.  Students learn about the influence of the Bible during the Founding era.

Suggested Readings:
1)  Chapter 6 of Miracle of America reference/text.  Students read sections 6.1 to 6.12.
2) Essay/Handout:  Principles of the American Revolution by Angela E. Kamrath found in the “Supporting Resources” of the Miracle of America HS Teacher Course Guide, pp. 354-356, or in the “Miracle of America Snapshots” handout under member resources at americanheritage.org.
3)  Related blogs/videos (see above).

Patriot Revolutionary Chart:
In your own words, explain/describe the following biblical principles or arguments used by many patriot Americans to justify/support the American Revolution.  Students may include the sources/thinkers who promoted each argument.  Provide relevant scripture verse(s) for each argument.  See the “Bible-Based Justification for Revolution” Patriot Chart in the “Supporting Resources” section of the course guide, p. 359.

—–

To download this whole unit, sign up as an AHEF member (no cost) to access the “resources” page on americanheritage.org.  To order the printed binder format of the course guide with all the units, go to the AHEF bookstore.

Copyright © American Heritage Education Foundation.  All rights reserved.

American Revolution Debate: The Principle of Civil Covenants

July 12, 2018
The Founding
July 12, 2018
July 12, 2018

Proclaiming Joash King by Edward Bird, 1815, Royal Academy of Arts

Before and during the American Revolution, American colonists asserted several Bible-based reasons to support their revolutionary cause and independence from Britain.  One reason they justified resistance was based on their understanding and value of “civil covenants.”

A civil covenant is an oath or solemn promise, often made before God as witness or guarantor, between the people of a civil state and their rulers.  The people elect a ruler, legitimizing the ruler’s authority, and the ruler takes an oath to rule justly and lawfully, doing good and not evil.  The people, in turn, promise to honor and submit to their ruler.  If the ruler becomes tyrannical or unjust, he breaks the covenant, and the people are released from their duty to submit.

Civil covenants were derived from the practice of covenants by the ancient Israelites in the Bible.  The principle was then picked up by the Christianized kingdoms of Europe where, as it were, many of Jewish descent also migrated.  In the late 1000s and early 1100s, for example, an Alsatian monk named Manegold of Lautenbach argued from the Bible in his Liber Ad Gebehardum (Letter to Gebehard) that Emperor Henry IV could be deposed because he broke his oath with the people to rule justly.  Manegold based this covenant on … 

Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos (A Defense of Liberty Against Tyrants) presented two political covenants from the Bible for the civil state – between God and nation, and king and people.

The principle of civil covenants was further developed during the Reformation era of the 1500s and 1600s in Europe among French Huguenots who also cited the Bible, just as Manegold, to justify resistance to tyrants.  For example, the anonymous Stephen Junius Brutus wrote a widely-read 1579 political tract, Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos (A Defense of Liberty Against Tyrants) that identified two civil covenants practiced by the Israelites. … 

In 2 Kings 11 and 2 Chronicles 23, Joash is crowned king by covenant by Jehoiada the Priest and the people.

Not long after, British pastor Rev. Samuel Rutherford wrote his well-known 1644 Lex Rex (The Law and the Prince) acknowledging the two political covenants in the Bible between God and nation, and king and people.  With his work, Rutherford built on the covenant principle from Vindiciae and ultimately impacted the English Civil War.  Lex Rex also influenced British philosopher John Locke’s “social contract” idea which appeared in Locke’s 1689 Second Treatise of Civil Government.  This idea became important to the American Founders.

The relationship between the British Crown and the American colonies was based on a civil covenant as indicated by the colonial charters.  Colonists, however, believed that Britain, with its intrusive policies in the 1700s, had violated its promise to rule in favor of their rights, protection, preservation, and well-being (though King George III thought the colonists were the ones who had seditiously breached the covenant).  To Americans, Britain’s breach of covenant meant that Britain lost authority over the colonies, and the colonies had a right to defend themselves.

In addition, many colonists believed that God had a special covenant with America as the New Israel, the “promised land” of God’s people, and thus desired America’s freedom.  This covenant, they believed, could not be practiced in an oppressive environment because it required God’s Word to be authoritative and His people to freely, voluntarily commit to its principles.  Drawing from Exodus where God leads the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt, many colonists and clergy believed that God would similarly defend America’s freedom.  Rev. Judah Champion of Connecticut preached, “The Most High has gloriously owned the cause of liberty in New England and will continue to own it, unless we so abuse, as to sin away our privileges.”  Rev. Edward Barnard of Massachusetts asserted in a 1776 sermon on Psalm 122:3 that the colonies, like Jerusalem, were “compacted” together.  He argued that God gave America just as Israel “political laws as well as religious institutions whereby their liberty was secured beyond the possibility of reversal by an arbitrary monarch.”  Colonists thus believed that with God’s help they could successfully resist Britain.

American colonists held to the principle of civil covenants to help guide and support their cause for freedom and independence during the Revolutionary War.  Originating in the Bible and passed down through Western Civilization, this principle ultimately became a realized defense and foundation for a free, just society in America.  It was, in fact, the basis for the New England Pilgrim’s Mayflower Compact of 1620 and for Locke’s more secularized “social contract” to which the American Founders looked when forming the new nation of the United States of America.

Contributed by AHEF and Angela E. Kamrath.

—–

Source for more information:
Kamrath, Angela E.  The Miracle of America:  The Influence of the Bible on the Founding History and Principles of the United States of America for a People of Every Belief.  Second Edition.  Houston, TX:  American Heritage Education Foundation, 2014, 2015.

Related articles/videos:
1.  The Principle of Popular Sovereignty
2.  The Pilgrims Identified with the Israelites
3.  The Pilgrims’ Mayflower Compact was a Covenant
4.  The Puritans Identified with the Israelites and Practiced Covenants
5Great Awakening Effects:  Unity, Democracy, Freedom, and Revolution 
6.  The American Revolution:  An Introduction
7.  The Bible was the Most Cited Source of the American Founding Era
8.  American Revolution often called the “Presbyterian Rebellion”
9.  American Revolution Debate:  Submission to Authority
10.  American Revolution Debate:  God Desires Freedom, Not Slavery, for His People
11.  How the American Revolution shed light on the Moral Problem of Slavery
12.  Thomas Paine’s Common Sense:  God’s Opposition to Absolute Rule
13.  American Revolution Debate:  The American Quest for a New, Bible-Inspired Republic
14.  American Revolution Debate:  The Principle of Civil Covenants
15.  American Revolution Debate:  Obedience to God Over Man
16.  American Revolution Debate:  Ancient Israel’s Resistance to Oppression & Divided Kingdom
17.  American Revolution Debate:  The Lawfulness of Defensive War
18.  Freedom:  The Most Important Characteristic of America

Poster:  Declaration of Independence

—–

Activity:  The Miracle of America High School Teacher Course Guide, Unit 6, Part 2, Activity 3:  Bible-Based Justification for Revolution, p. 219, 359.  MS-HS.

Bible-Based Justification for Revolution

Purpose/Objective:  Students examine the Bible-based arguments made by Patriot Americans in support of revolution against Britain.  Students learn about the influence of the Bible during the Founding era.

Suggested Readings:
1)  Chapter 6 of Miracle of America reference/text.  Students read sections 6.1 to 6.12.
2) Essay/Handout:  Principles of the American Revolution by Angela E. Kamrath found in the “Supporting Resources” of the Miracle of America HS Teacher Course Guide, pp. 354-356, or in the “Miracle of America Snapshots” handout under member resources at americanheritage.org.
3)  Related blogs/videos (see above).

Patriot Revolutionary Chart:
In your own words, explain/describe the following biblical principles or arguments used by many patriot Americans to justify/support the American Revolution.  Students may include the sources/thinkers who promoted each argument.  Provide relevant scripture verse(s) for each argument.  See the “Bible-Based Justification for Revolution” Patriot Chart in the “Supporting Resources” section of the course guide, p. 359.

—–

To download this whole unit, sign up as an AHEF member (no cost) to access the “resources” page on americanheritage.org.  To order the printed binder format of the course guide with all the units, go to the AHEF bookstore.

Copyright © American Heritage Education Foundation.  All rights reserved.

American Revolution Debate: The American Quest for a New, Bible-Inspired Republic

June 22, 2018
The Founding

Moses Elects the Council of Seventy Elders by Jacob de Wit, 1737

American colonists supported the American Revolution and independence from Britain for political, economic, and religious reasons.  One reason colonists supported resistance was their desire to depart from Britain’s autocratic, monarchic government in the hope of creating a new republican government in America.

Revolutionary colonists and ministers looked to the governing practices of the ancient Israelites in the Bible to support and defend republican government.  They noted God’s preference for what they saw as a “republic” in the nation of Israel.  A republic is a state governed by representatives of the people.  Israel resembled a republic, they saw, because it had no earthly absolute king and appointed representatives to govern.  In support of this view, they cited Judges 8, 1 Samuel 8, and 1 Kings 12 to show Israel’s peace and prosperity under its original government of judges, God’s disapproval of their desire for a king (who ruled not for God but on his own behalf), and Israel’s division and suffering under various evil kings.

Support for a republic grew among colonists following a 1775 sermon given by Harvard College President Samuel Langdon before the Massachusetts Legislature.  Langdon outlined the qualities of Israel’s original government of judges prior to absolute monarchy: 

Langdon then pointed out to the legislature the potential opportunity in the revolution to create a new republic in America:

Who knows but in the midst of all the distresses of the present war to defeat attempts of arbitrary power, God may in mercy restore to us our judges as at first, and our counselors as at the beginning.

On your wisdom, religion, and public spirit, honored gentlemen, we depend to determine what may be done as to the important matter of reviving the form of government…that we may again have law and justice….

Soon after Langdon’s sermon, Thomas Paine’s widely-read 1776 pamphlet, Common Sense, was published which questioned not only Britain’s policies but the legitimacy of the king’s rule and power.  It influenced thousands of colonists with the idea that monarchy was disapproved by God based on the Bible’s teachings and the practices of the ancient Israelites.  It thus refuted the Divine Right of Kings doctrine in favor of popular sovereignty or the people’s rule, and it asserted that the law is or should be king, as in the rule of law.

Republicanism was the form of government, revolutionary Americans believed, most preferred by God for Israel and thus for America.  Revolutionary leader and Declaration signer Samuel Adams reflected the views of many Americans when he wrote in a 1785 letter to Declaration signer Richard Henry Lee of his belief that God prefers a republic for America:  “I firmly believe that the benevolent Creator designed the republican form of government for man.”

Ultimately, Americans declared their independence from Britain with the Declaration of Independence of 1776 and formed a new, self-governing nation, the United States of America.  They set up the nation as a constitutional republic based on the principles of popular sovereignty, consent of the governed, representative government, limited government, and rule of law.

Contributed by AHEF and Angela E. Kamrath.

—–

Source for more information:
Kamrath, Angela E.  The Miracle of America:  The Influence of the Bible on the Founding History and Principles of the United States of America for a People of Every Belief.  Second Edition.  Houston, TX:  American Heritage Education Foundation, 2014, 2015.

Related articles/videos:
1.  The Principle of Popular Sovereignty:  Consent of the Governed
2.  The Pilgrims Identified with the Israelites
3.  The Puritans Identified with the Israelites and Practiced Covenants
4.  The Puritans Elected Representatives to Govern in their American Colonies
5.  Why the Puritans Favored Limited Government
6.  Thomas Hooker as the “father of American Democracy”
7.  Why Thomas Hooker Favored Democracy over Aristocracy
8.  Great Awakening Effects:  Unity, Democracy, Freedom, and Revolution 
9.  The American Revolution:  An Introduction
10.  The Bible was the Most Cited Source of the American Founding Era
11.  The American Revolution was sometimes called the “Presbyterian Rebellion”
12.  American Revolution Debate:  Submission to Authority
13.  American Revolution Debate:  God Desires Freedom, Not Slavery, for His People
14.  How the American Revolution shed light on the Moral Problem of Slavery
15.  Thomas Paine’s Common Sense:  God’s Opposition to Absolute Rule
16.  American Revolution Debate:  The American Quest for a New, Bible-Inspired Republic
17.  American Revolution Debate:  The Principle of Civil Covenants
18.  American Revolution Debate:  Obedience to God Over Man
19.  American Revolution Debate:  Ancient Israel’s Resistance to Oppression & Divided Kingdom
20.  American Revolution Debate:  The Lawfulness of Defensive War
21.  Freedom:  The Most Important Characteristic of America

Poster:  Declaration of Independence

—–

Activity:  The Miracle of America High School Teacher Course Guide, Unit 6, Part 2, Activity 3:  Bible-Based Justification for Revolution, p. 219, 359.  MS-HS.

Bible-Based Justification for Revolution

Purpose/Objective:  Students examine the bible-based arguments made by Patriot Americans in support of revolution against Britain.  Students learn about the influence of the Bible during the Founding era.

Suggested Readings:
1)  Chapter 6 of Miracle of America reference/text.  Students read sections 6.1 to 6.12.
2) Essay/Handout:  Principles of the American Revolution by Angela E. Kamrath found in the “Supporting Resources” of the Miracle of America HS Teacher Course Guide, pp. 354-356, or in the “Miracle of America Snapshots” handout under member resources at americanheritage.org.
3)  Related blogs/videos (see above).

Patriot Revolutionary Chart:
In your own words, explain/describe the following biblical principles or arguments used by many patriot Americans to justify/support the American Revolution.  Students may include the sources/thinkers who promoted each argument.  Provide relevant scripture verse(s) for each argument.  See the “Bible-Based Justification for Revolution” Patriot Chart in the “Supporting Resources” section of the course guide, p. 359.

—–

To download this whole unit, sign up as an AHEF member (no cost) to access the “resources” page on americanheritage.org.  To order the printed binder format of the course guide with all the units, go to the AHEF bookstore.

Copyright © American Heritage Education Foundation.  All rights reserved.

How the American Revolution Shed Light on the Moral Problem of Slavery

June 8, 2018
The Founding

Slaves Working on a Plantation

When Great Britain’s policies became more intrusive in the American colonies and as the American Revolution unfolded in the mid-1700s, patriot Americans sought to protect their rights and freedoms as Englishmen.  As it became clear to the colonists that they would not be afforded their rights, they ultimately sought independence from British rule.  One argument of the colonists in support of freedom and independence from Britain was the assertion that God, in creating mankind, made all men equal in value and dignity and bestowed on them the natural rights of life and liberty.  Just prior to the revolution, the Great Awakening, a Christian evangelical revival, had strengthened these beliefs.  The American Founders thus acknowledged in the Declaration of Independence of 1776 that “all men are created equal.”  As it were, slavery had also become a fairly common practice in colonial America by this time, just as it existed in other parts of the world.  Some colonists in America depended on slaves, largely African-American, for crop labor.  With the onset of revolution, the issue of slavery became a more frequent topic in American political writings, particularly in New England and the middle colonies.  As calls by colonists for freedom from British oppression increased, so did calls by many colonists to end the slave trade.  In this way, the American Revolution began to draw more attention to the moral problem of slavery in colonial and early America.

During the Revolutionary War, an increasing number of early Americans asserted that slavery violated God’s moral law and natural, human rights.  Slaves were often bought and sold as property and considered by others to have no rights or dignity.  Also, children and descendants of slaves were typically considered slaves as well.  Many clergymen and Christian or moral-minded colonists increasingly protested the practice of slavery.  For example, …  

Slave Auction, 1861.

Growing numbers of colonial and early Americans also spoke out against slavery in response to the American revolutionary cause for freedom from British oppression.  Richard Wells of Philadelphia asked in 1774 how Americans could “reconcile the exercise of SLAVERY with our professions of freedom.  …  What arguments can we advance in slaves’ favor which will not militate against ourselves, whilst England remains superior by land and sea?”  If colonists disengaged in the practice of slavery, he said, it would “breathe such an independent spirit of liberty, and so corroborate our own claims, that I should dare to hope for an intervening arm of Providence to be extended in our favor.”[5]  Levi Hart posed, “When, oh when shall the happy day come, that Americans shall be consistently engaged in the cause of liberty?”  To Rev. Samuel Hopkins of Rhode Island, a student of Great Awakening theologian Jonathan Edwards, the causes of American liberty and of slavery were the same.  In 1776, he sent a pamphlet to the Continental Congress asking how Americans, so adverse to enslavement by British Parliament, could overlook the slavery of African-Americans “who have as good a claim to liberty as themselves.”  America’s struggle for liberty, he thought, could never be fully realized while slavery continued.  He warned of God’s judgment and called for repentance.[6]

While the slave trade did not end at this time, revolutionary and religious influences helped to encourage voices and efforts to abolish the institution in America as early as 1767.  In 1771 and 1774, the Massachusetts legislature voted to abolish the slave trade (though the law was vetoed).  Rhode Island and Connecticut declared that imported slaves would be freed.  Delaware prohibited the importation of slaves.  Pennsylvania ended the slave trade by taxation.  In 1775, the Quakers formed the first anti-slavery society in the western world.  In 1776, the Continental Congress voted to prohibit the importation of slaves into the thirteen colonies.  Slavery was, says Bernard Bailyn in his Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, “subjected to severe pressure as a result of the extension of revolutionary ideas, and it bore the marks ever after.  As long as the institution lasted, the burden of proof would lie with its advocates to show why the statement ‘all men are created equal’ did not mean precisely what it said:  all men, ‘white or black.’”[7]

Slavery was not abolished prior to or during the American Revolution likely due to the growing use of slaves for crops and the war which occupied the attention of Americans.[8]  This social, moral ill would see and take more time, attention, events, and history.  It would come to the forefront of the nation in the American Civil War of the mid-1800s.[9]  Yet the Revolutionary War helped to shed increasing light on the issue of slavery and the need to uphold for every citizen the principle in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal.”

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[1]  Samuel Cooke, A Sermon Preached at Cambridge, 30 May 1770 (Boston, 1770), 41-42, quoted in Bernard Bailyn, Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, enlarged ed. (Cambridge, MA:  Belknap/Harvard U Press, 1967, 1992), 239.

[2]  Benjamin Rush, “On Slave Keeping,” 1773, in The Selected Writings of Benjamin Rush (New York, 1947), 17, quoted in Bernard Bailyn, Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, enlarged ed. (Cambridge, MA:  Belknap/Harvard U Press, 1967, 1992), 239.

[3]  John Allen, An Oration on the Beauties of Liberty, or The Essential Rights of the Americans, 1772, quoted in Bernard Bailyn, Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, enlarged ed. (Cambridge, MA:  Belknap/Harvard U Press, 1967, 1992), 240-241.  In Isaiah 58:6, God instructs the Israelites through the prophet Isaiah, “‘Is this not the fast that I have chosen:  To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?’”

[4]  Levi Hart, Liberty Described and Recommended (Hartford, CT:  1775), v, 9 ff., 15, 16, 20-23, quoted in Bernard Bailyn, Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, enlarged ed. (Cambridge, MA:  Belknap/Harvard U Press, 1967, 1992), 243.  In John 8:34-36, Jesus tells the Jews, “‘Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.  And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.  Therefore if the Son [of God] makes you free, you shall be free indeed [brackets mine].’”

[5]  Richard Wells, A Few Political Reflections (Philadelphia, PA:  1774), 79-83, quoted in Bernard Bailyn, Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, enlarged ed. (Cambridge, MA:  Belknap/Harvard U Press, 1967, 1992), 239-241.

[6]  Samuel Hopkins, Slavery of the Africans, in The Works of Samuel Hopkins, vol. 2, ed. Sewall Harding (Boston, MA:  Doctrinal Tract and Book Society, 1852), 571.

[7]  Bernard Bailyn, Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, enlarged ed. (Cambridge, MA:  Belknap/Harvard U Press, 1967, 1992), 246.

[8]  H. Richard Niebuhr, The Kingdom of God in America (Middleton, CT:  Wesleyan U Press, 1988), 121.

[9]  For an overview of the biblical verses and arguments used to both denounce and support slavery prior to the American Civil War in the 1800s, see Bruce Feiler, America’s Prophet:  Moses and the American Story (New York:  William Morrow, 2009), 153-157.

—–

Contributed by AHEF and Angela E. Kamrath.

This essay is available as a printable PDF handout in the member resources section on americanheritage.org.  Simply sign up and login as a member (no cost), go to the resources page, and look under Miracle of America articles.

Source for more information:
Kamrath, Angela E.  The Miracle of America:  The Influence of the Bible on the Founding History and Principles of the United States of America for a People of Every Belief.  Second Edition.  Houston, TX:  American Heritage Education Foundation, 2014, 2015 2020.  Third Edition (2020) is now available!

Related articles/videos:
1.  The Principle of Popular Sovereignty
2.  Great Awakening Emerges in Early America, Impacting Religion, Society, Politics
3.  Great Awakening Principle:  The Judeo-Christian Law of Love
4.  Great Awakening Principle:  The Dignity of the Human Being
5.  Great Awakening Principle:  All Men Equal Before God
6.  Great Awakening Principle:  Happiness
7.  Great Awakening Effects:  Education, Missions, Women, & the Gospel
8.  Great Awakening Effects:  Unity, Democracy, Freedom, and Revolution 
9.  The American Revolution:  An Introduction
10.  The Bible was the Most Cited Source of the American Founding Era
11.  The American Revolution was sometimes called the “Presbyterian Rebellion”
12.  American Revolution Debate:  Submission to Authority
13.  American Revolution Debate:  God Desires Freedom, Not Slavery, for His People
14.  How the American Revolution shed light on the Moral Problem of Slavery
15.  Thomas Paine’s Common Sense:  God’s Opposition to Absolute Rule
16.  American Revolution Debate:  The American Quest for a New, Bible-Inspired Republic
17.  American Revolution Debate:  The Principle of Civil Covenants
18.  American Revolution Debate:  Obedience to God Over Man
19.  American Revolution Debate:  Ancient Israel’s Resistance to Oppression & Divided Kingdom
20.  American Revolution Debate:  The Lawfulness of Defensive War
21.  Freedom:  The Most Important Characteristic of America

Poster:  Declaration of Independence

—–

Activity:  The Miracle of America High School Teacher Course Guide, Unit 6, Part 2, Activity 3:  Bible-Based Justification for Revolution, p. 219, 359.  MS-HS.

Bible-Based Justification for Revolution… 

—–

To download this whole unit, sign up as an AHEF member (no cost) to access the “resources” page on americanheritage.org.  To order the printed binder format of the course guide with all the units, go to the AHEF bookstore.

Copyright © American Heritage Education Foundation.  All rights reserved.

American Revolution Debate: God Desires Freedom, Not Slavery, for His People

June 1, 2018
The Founding

Israelites Leaving Egypt by David Roberts, 1830.  Depicts the release of the captive ancient Israelites by Pharaoh and the beginning of their journey to the Promised Land of Canaan, as told in the book of Exodus.

Prior to and during the American Revolution, American colonists of the 1700s intensely debated whether it was biblical to go to war with Britain.  The “loyalists” of King George III and Britain opposed revolution.  The “patriots” supported revolution.  One argument of the patriots in support of resistance to Britain was the Bible-based view that God desires freedom—literal and spiritual—rather than bondage and slavery for His people.

Like the American Puritans of the early 1600s, Americans of the revolutionary era compared themselves to the ancient Israelites, God’s people, in the Old Testament of the Bible.  They cited the Israelites’ escape from slavery in Egypt and their coming into the Promised Land of Canaan in the book of Exodus.  When Pharaoh of Egypt refused to obey God and free the captive Israelites, God sent plagues upon Egypt until Pharaoh let the people go.  Such acts of God, patriots believed, demonstrated that God ordains liberty for His people.  Much like the Israelites’ Promised Land, colonists saw America as the “Promised Land” of civil and religious liberty for God’s believers.

Various American ministers drew a connection between the Israelites and the American colonists.  Rev. Stephen Johnson of Connecticut warned in 1766 that enslaving God’s people is a great sin in God’s sight, violating mankinds’ natural rights and hindering God’s covenant with His people.  In a 1776 sermon, Rev. Samuel Cooper of Boston (like Puritan John Cotton and his God’s Promise to His Plantation) cited 2 Samuel 7:10 and the idea that the American people had a just cause for freedom from Britain based on God’s promise and covenant with them.  2 Samuel 7:10 says, “I [God] will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more; nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously.”  Patriot Americans cited God’s desire for liberty for the Israelites as support for their own revolutionary cause.

Patriot Americans also supported the revolutionary cause from the New Testament.  The New Testament used words like “slavery,” “bondage,” “deliverance,” “freedom,” and “liberty” to describe the believer’s spiritual freedom from sin in Christ.  Ministers used such terms to compare spiritual liberty with political liberty, and thus to support civil liberty.  Ministers cited Galatians 5:1 in which the Apostle Paul declares, “Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”  Galatians 5:1 was often invoked during the American Revolution and became an American motto.  The Bible’s principle of spiritual liberty became an American principle of religious and civil liberty.

With these Bible-centered arguments, the American patriots justified the revolutionary cause and freedom from Britain.  They believed that God desires freedom—both spiritual and civil—for His covenant people and expects His people to seek and defend it.

Contributed by AHEF and Angela E. Kamrath.

—–

Sources:
Kamrath, Angela E.  The Miracle of America:  The Influence of the Bible on the Founding History and Principles of the United States of America for a People of Every Belief.  Second Edition.  Houston, TX:  American Heritage Education Foundation, 2014, 2015.

Related articles/videos:
1.  The Principle of Popular Sovereignty
2.  The Pilgrims Identified with the Israelites
3.  The Pilgrims’ Mayflower Compact was a Covenant
4.  The Puritans Identified with the Israelites and Practiced Covenants
5.  The Puritans Elected Representatives to Govern in their American Colonies
6.  Why the Puritans Favored Limited Government
7.  Thomas Hooker as the “father of American Democracy”
8.  Why Thomas Hooker Favored Democracy over Aristocracy
9.  Great Awakening Effects:  Unity, Democracy, Freedom, and Revolution 
10.  The American Revolution:  An Introduction
11.  The Bible was the Most Cited Source of the American Founding Era
12.  The American Revolution was sometimes called the “Presbyterian Rebellion”
13.  American Revolution Debate:  Submission to Authority
14.  American Revolution Debate:  God Desires Freedom, Not Slavery, for His People
15.  How the American Revolution shed light on the Moral Problem of Slavery
16.  Thomas Paine’s Common Sense:  God’s Opposition to Absolute Rule
17.  American Revolution Debate:  The American Quest for a New, Bible-Inspired Republic
18.  American Revolution Debate:  The Principle of Civil Covenants
19.  American Revolution Debate:  Obedience to God Over Man
20.  American Revolution Debate:  Ancient Israel’s Resistance to Oppression & Divided Kingdom
21.  American Revolution Debate:  The Lawfulness of Defensive War
22.  Freedom:  The Most Important Characteristic of America

Poster:  Declaration of Independence

—–

Activity:  The Miracle of America High School Teacher Course Guide, Unit 6, Part 2, Activity 3:  Bible-Based Justification for Revolution, p. 219, 359.  MS-HS.

Bible-Based Justification for Revolution

Purpose/Objective:  Students examine the bible-based arguments made by Patriot Americans in support of revolution against Britain.  Students learn about the influence of the Bible during the Founding era.

Suggested Readings:
1)  Chapter 6 of Miracle of America reference/text.  Students read sections 6.1 to 6.12.
2) Essay/Handout:  Principles of the American Revolution by Angela E. Kamrath found in the “Supporting Resources” of the Miracle of America HS Teacher Course Guide, pp. 354-356, or in the “Miracle of America Snapshots” handout under member resources at americanheritage.org.
3)  Related blogs/videos (see above).

Patriot Revolutionary Chart:
In your own words, explain/describe the following biblical principles or arguments used by many patriot Americans to justify/support the American Revolution.  Students may include the sources/thinkers who promoted each argument.  Provide relevant scripture verse(s) for each argument.  See the “Bible-Based Justification for Revolution” Patriot Chart in the “Supporting Resources” section of the course guide, p. 359.

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To download this whole unit, sign up as an AHEF member (no cost) to access the “resources” page on americanheritage.org.  To order the printed binder format of the course guide with all the units, go to the AHEF bookstore.

Copyright © American Heritage Education Foundation.  All rights reserved.

American Revolution Debate: Proper Submission to Authority

May 25, 2018
The Founding

Jonathan Mayhew, 1885, in The History: American Episcopal Church 1587-1883 by William Stevens Perry.  Mayhew preached on resistance to tyranny based on the Bible during the revolutionary era.

Prior to and during the American Revolution, American colonists of the 1700s intensely debated whether it was biblical to go to war with Britain and defend their rights and freedoms.  Those who opposed revolution were called “loyalists” or “Tories” of King George III and Britain.  Those who supported revolution were often called “patriots” or “Whigs” after the pro-reform political party in England.  What both sides agreed on was that the Bible was central to this discussion.

While many colonists believed the Bible commanded obedience to authority and opposed resistance, many others believed resistance was consistent with the Bible and Christian teaching.  Both loyalist and patriot Americans used biblical themes to oppose or defend revolution.  Many voices in the colonies contributed to the debate over revolution including loyalist and patriot clergy, political leaders, and colonists.  They largely debated over justification of war based on Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 with regard to the biblical mandate to submit to civil authority.  Incidentally, German reformer Martin Luther had presented these verses in his 1523 treatise during the Protestant Reformation, titled Secular Authority:  To What Extent It Should Be Obeyed, as the basis for civil government.  French reformer John Calvin had also presented these verses in his work on reformed Christian doctrine, his 1536 Institutes of the Christian Religion, to indicate the honor and obedience that men are to afford to their governors.

The Apostle Paul in Romans 13:1-5 writes:

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities.  For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.  Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.  For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil.  Do you want to be unafraid of the authority?  Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.  For he is God’s minister to you for good.  But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.  Therefore, you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience sake.

The Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 2:13-17 writes:

Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.  For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.  Honor people.  Love the brotherhood.  Fear God.  Honor the king.

The Loyalist Position

To loyalists, Romans 13 taught unlimited submission to lawful civil authority and government, almost without exception.  Such was the historical view of the church.  Loyalists supported obedience to authority regardless of the government’s form or actions.  Finding the British government lawful (according to English law), they opposed revolution and resistance to Britain.

Loyalists pointed out that the early Christians in the Bible remained subject to authorities even when those authorities were evil or tyrannous.  For the early Christians did not speak of or arrange political rebellion.  Such was the submission, they believed, that all Christians should properly take at all times.  One loyalist, Rev. Jonathan Boucher, alluding to Romans 13, reflected the loyalist view when he preached in 1763 to 1775 that resistance was inconsistent with the Bible and church doctrine, saying, “To resist against a lawful government is to oppose the ordinance of God, and to injure and destroy institutions most essential to human happiness.”  He pressed men to submit even if the authority was evil: …

The Patriot Position

The patriots, on the other hand, opposed passive obedience and unlimited submission to civil authorities and government, based on the same Bible verses.  While they believed that good, moral civil authority and government is God-ordained and should be submitted to, as the Bible says, they did not believe the Bible supported total submission to evil, tyrannous authorities that violated God’s moral law and did not properly represent or benefit the people.  Romans 13, they pointed out, speaks of submission to an authority that is “not a terror to good works, but to evil” and is a “minister to you for good.”  1 Peter 2 likewise speaks of submission to a government that punishes evildoers and praises those who do good.  Therefore, these verses, they believed, clearly do not call for submission to immoral, unjust authorities.  In fact, in revealing the moral purpose of civil government, the verses actually support resistance to unjust governments.  As such, the patriots believed resistance to tyrannical authority is a natural, God-given human right.

A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission by Jonathan Mayhew, 1750

One outspoken clergyman who represented well the patriot view, Congregationalist preacher Rev. Jonathan Mayhew of Boston, believed resistance to tyranny was a Christian duty.  His 1750 Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission was one of the most widely-read sermons of the revolutionary era in support of resistance based on the Bible.  Reflecting reformed political thought, it set off a public debate in Boston newspapers on the issue of Christian obedience to authority.

Mayhew argued from Romans 13 that Christians are called to submit to just governments regardless of their form—monarchy, aristocracy, or republic.  However, tyrannous, oppressive governments that ruin nations and lives are not to be absolutely submitted to because they contradict the Law of Nature, reason, and the purpose of government in the Bible.  “Rulers have no authority from God to do mischief,” Mayhew argues.  “It is blasphemy to call tyrants and oppressors God’s ministers.  They are more properly ‘the messengers of Satan to buffet us’ [2 Corinthians 12:7].”  He elaborates: …

Mayhew asserted that contrary to the idea that people should submit to evil authorities, people have a duty to defend against tyranny and injustice for the good of society and to guard the people’s God-given freedoms.  For God does not desire His people to live under oppression.

American Founder John Adams commented that Mayhew’s sermon revealed “the principles and feelings which produced the Revolution.”  One early historian called it the “morning gun of the revolution,” and modern historians affirm that it was an impetus of the American Revolution.

Americans on both sides of the Revolutionary War debate held to arguments that centered on the Bible.  With their different interpretations of scripture, loyalists believed war with Britain was unbiblical while patriots believed God supported their liberty cause.  Ultimately, the colonists were compelled to fight for their freedom, declared their independence from Britain based on God-given equality, natural rights, and consent of the governed, and founded one of the freest nations in history, the self-governing nation of the United States.

Contributed by AHEF and Angela E. Kamrath.

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Sources:
Kamrath, Angela E.  The Miracle of America:  The Influence of the Bible on the Founding History and Principles of the United States of America for a People of Every Belief.  Second Edition.  Houston, TX:  American Heritage Education Foundation, 2014, 2015.

Related articles/videos:
1.  The Principle of Popular Sovereignty
2.  The Pilgrims Identified with the Israelites
3.  The Pilgrims’ Mayflower Compact was a Covenant
4.  The Puritans Identified with the Israelites and Practiced Covenants
5.  The Puritans Elected Representatives to Govern in their American Colonies
6.  Why the Puritans Favored Limited Government
7.  Thomas Hooker as the “father of American Democracy”
8.  Why Thomas Hooker Favored Democracy over Aristocracy
9.  Early Americans supported Religious Tolerance based on God as Judge of Conscience
10.  Great Awakening Effects:  Unity, Democracy, Freedom, and Revolution 
11.  The American Revolution:  An Introduction
12.  The Bible was the Most Cited Source of the American Founding Era
13.  The American Revolution was sometimes called the “Presbyterian Rebellion”
14.  American Revolution Debate:  Submission to Authority
15.  American Revolution Debate:  God Desires Freedom, Not Slavery, for His People
16.  How the American Revolution shed light on the Moral Problem of Slavery
17.  Thomas Paine’s Common Sense:  God’s Opposition to Absolute Rule
18.  American Revolution Debate:  The American Quest for a New, Bible-Inspired Republic
19.  American Revolution Debate:  The Principle of Civil Covenants
20.  American Revolution Debate:  Obedience to God Over Man
21.  American Revolution Debate:  Ancient Israel’s Resistance to Oppression & Divided Kingdom
22.  American Revolution Debate:  The Lawfulness of Defensive War
23.  Freedom:  The Most Important Characteristic of America

Poster:  Declaration of Independence

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Activity:  The Miracle of America High School Teacher Course Guide, Unit 6, Part 1, Activity 4:  Sermons on the Revolution Debate, p. 207, 358.  MS-HS.

Sermons on the Revolution Debate

Purpose/Objective:  Students learn about the historical context of the American Revolution, the influence of the Bible during the Founding era, and the Bible-centered debate on revolution between loyalists and patriots.

Suggested Readings:
1)  Chapter 6 of Miracle of America reference/text.  Students read sections 6.1 and 6.3 in particular.
2) Essay/Handout:  Principles of the American Revolution by Angela E. Kamrath found in the “Supporting Resources” of the Miracle of America HS Teacher Course Guide, pp. 354-356, or in the “Miracle of America Snapshots” handout under member resources at americanheritage.org.
3)  Related blogs/videos (see above).

Debate Comparison Chart:
Review with students sermons excerpted in Chapter 6.3 of the Miracle of America sourcebook as well as other primary sources in the chapter.  These may be copied and distributed to the class.  Have students read them either aloud, to themselves, or alone.  Then discuss.  Other primary sources in the chapter should also be studied and discussed as time permits.  These primary sources will give students firsthand knowledge of some of the arguments and interpretations of colonists.  Students may create a comparison chart to outline and organize arguments from the two opposing viewpoints.  This activity may be completed from part 2 of this unit after examining the patriots’ arguments in depth.  See the “Bible-Centered Debate on Revolution” Comparison Chart in the “Supporting Resources” section of the course guide, p. 388.

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To download this whole unit, sign up as an AHEF member (no cost) to access the “resources” page on americanheritage.org.  To order the printed binder format of the course guide with all the units, go to the AHEF bookstore.

Copyright © American Heritage Education Foundation.  All rights reserved.

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