Some are willing to acknowledge the part that Christian principles played in the foundation of our nation and government but would they be so bold to believe that the American Revolution itself was a Christian movement? I believe in some ways it was. Firstly, the First Great Awakening was one of the primary underlying causes of the movement towards independence. Secondly, the Founding Fathers themselves considered their fight for liberty to be a fight ordained by God.
“The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one dissoluble bond the principles of civil government and the principles of Christianity.”
-John Quincy Adams
“Were my soul trembling on the wing of eternity, were this hand freezing to death, were my voice choking with the last struggle, I would still, with the last gasp of that voice, implore you to remember the truth: God has given America to be free.”
-Patrick Henry
“A freeborn people are not required by the religion of Jesus Christ to submit to tyranny, but may make use of such power as God has given them to recover and support their laws and liberties.”
-Samuel Adams
“We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom alone men ought to be obedient. He reigns in Heaven, and with a propitious eye beholds his subjects assuming that freedom of thought and dignity of self-direction which He bestowed on them. From the rising to the setting sun, may His kingdom come!”
-Samuel Adams
“The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”
-John Adams
“Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants.”
-Benjamin Franklin
“Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.”
-Thomas Jefferson
The birth of our country was an act of divine providence and the principles of Christianity is the foundation on which our nation was built. Why have we forgotten this? Daniel Webster warns us not to forget our Christian heritage, “Finally, let us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our fathers were brought hither by their high veneration for the Christian religion.”