The number one question people have is what their purpose is. The sense of purpose has been the most powerful motivating force in history, especially a Divinely ordained purpose. American Founding Fathers were infused with a sense of Divine purpose more powerful than all their learning and brilliance—a mandate that they believed would change the course of nations.
When the odds are against you, having a sense of a Divine calling can be encouraging. They were convinced they were serving One who was bigger than any odds, regardless of how small and weak they were or how big and powerful their enemies. This released something in them even greater than courage—it released faith.
The American Founding Fathers grasped a magnificent truth—true unity is a unity of diversity, not a unity of conformity. Such could only be seen by those looking through the eyes of liberty. It was likely that no other leader in the world could have seen that the diversity in different colonies was actually a strength, and an opportunity for unprecedented unity—one that would have much greater power than any unity from a forced conformity.
The American Founding Fathers were a diverse group. Their vision for the country was diverse, but they came to see the differences as different parts to a whole. When they first gathered, they were divided mostly by their Christian denominational affiliations, or in the case of those like Jefferson, by believing that there should not even be denominations. They worked through it and became unified around the core principles of their Christian faith expressed in diverse ways.
Their overall vision ranged from those who thought they were establishing the kingdom of God on earth to those that saw their nation as a special fortress for freedom and a haven for the poor, oppressed, and persecuted from other nations. Freedom was the foundation and the common denominator. Protecting freedom was the core purpose they were resolved to fight for and design their government for.
There was agreement that religious liberty was the foundation upon which all other freedoms were based. This was even held by the few who were secular in their devotion. Religious freedom demanded the freedom of speech, and freedom of speech demanded freedom of the press. It was believed, and articulated by virtually all of the Founders, that if religious freedom were lost, the loss of all other freedoms would follow. Religious liberty was considered the linchpin freedom that held all of the others together.
Their ideals were high and unprecedented at the time, but could they actually work? Were the American people able to succeed in establishing a lasting republic when no others ever had? Every attempt in history to form a democratic government had quickly dissolved into anarchy followed by an even worse tyranny. It would take uncommon courage and boldness to even try what they sought to do, but it would take even greater vision, character, and wisdom to succeed.
As we covered, and will do so in more depth later, the foundations of greater vision, character, and wisdom had been firmly laid in the colonies by the Great Awakening. There would still be a mighty struggle, just as there is in building and preserving any nation. However, the Americans faced entirely new challenges because they were sailing in completely uncharted waters, first to be a republic—which had not succeeded before—and then a type of republic far more ambitious than had even been conceived of before.
The previous attempts to build republics, beginning in ancient Greece, had not lasted long enough to provide instructions on how to actually govern as a republic. Like Columbus who discovered the Americas, they did not have a map, but they had a compass. They would keep going in the direction they were headed until they found solid ground. Then they would seek wisdom for each step and make a map for others to follow.
It takes a special kind of courage to go into a battle, but even more so against a greatly superior force as the Americans faced with the British. It takes a different kind of courage to be an explorer, to cast off and sail into the unknown not knowing what you will find. After prevailing in the war for independence, the Americans had to muster this different kind of courage to preserve the freedom they had won and establish a lasting republic.
Winning the war had been one of the greatest feats in military history, but then they accomplished possibly the greatest feat in human politics. With the exception of what Moses had been used to do, the American Republic had been the greatest miracle in human government since. But it had not been done through one person, but rather many diverse men who had become one in purpose. Now we need the same kind of courage, faith, and willingness to sacrifice, as well as a miracle of unity to preserve the Republic, as it did to found it.
Let us never doubt that it is possible because we have a God for which nothing is impossible. The unity we need first is with Him. It is through God that we have our purpose, and it is only by His hand that we can regain it and see it ultimately accomplished. For this reason, we must be praying for revival and another Great Awakening, even more than praying for our government.
Just as physical courage is different from political courage, the kind of leadership needed in war is different from the leadership required in peacetime. The peace won by The Revolutionary War was not stable because the government of the colonies was unstable at first. It was too loose of a federation with very little real authority or power. How correcting this was accomplished is one of the most remarkable studies in leadership in recorded history. We must study this as the same wisdom is needed now to preserve the Republic while maintaining our liberty.
Going through personal transitions can be difficult, but to carry an entire nation through what the new American nation was going through required some of the greatest political leadership ever. The whole world did not believe it could be done. Kings and world leaders made wagers on how quickly America would revert to becoming another imperial government or monarchy.
What the Founders sought to do would be extremely hard to do at all, much less do perfectly. Mistakes were expected and they were made. Even so, what they did defied all the laws of political and social physics. That they did it as well as they did should put them in the company of Moses for the miracles wrought through them. What they did defies logic, as all miracles do. Social and political miracles can be no less awesome than physical miracles. There was no doubt that a greater Power was working through our Founders, and they readily acknowledged Him.
Yet, even a divinely inspired government will turn into bad government if we do not have the right people in it, just as we see in Scripture with Israel. The present dysfunction of our government today is not caused by the form of government, but rather by the people in it and their departure from the strong constitutional moorings necessary to preserve the Republic. The remedy to the great crises of our time can be found by reconnecting to The Constitution.
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Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. –John Adams, second President of the United States and considered one of the three most influential of the Founders.
One great advantage of the Christian religion is that it brings the great principle of the law of nature and nations, love your neighbor as yourself, and do unto others as you would that others should do to you, to the knowledge, belief, and veneration of the whole people. – John Adams
© 2020 by Rick Joyner. All rights reserved.
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