Celebrating America, despite our divisions
Why the violent reaction to Roe v. Wade being overturned? You would think that in effect the decision was anti-democracy (as many on the left claimed). But it was pro-democracy.
Based on the riots and the backlash from Hollywood, you would think that the Supreme Court took the right of the people to rule themselves through their legislators out of their hands. But in reality, the court restored the Constitutional principle that “we the people” should be in charge of our own lives through our elected representatives.
Roe v. Wade of 1973 in effect stipulated for half a century government by an oligarchy — the rule of seven robed men in a decision in 1973 by the Supreme Court that imposed abortion on demand by fiat. Last week’s Dobbs v. Jackson reversed this threat to democratic rule by putting the people themselves, again through their chosen delegates, back in power.
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This gets back to what America is all about: We the people, under God, getting to rule our own destiny. What a gift. But you wouldn’t know it from today’s headlines.
The decision to restore the people’s rule comes on the cusp of our nation’s birthday. On July 4th 2022, America will be 246 years old.
July 4, 1776 was the day in which the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, officially agreed by voice vote to adopt the final wording of the Declaration of Independence.
After 150 years of self-government under God in many of the colonies of British North America, the founding fathers, representing three million people — almost all professing Christians — voted for independence from Great Britain with dependence upon God.
The Declaration of Independence mentions God four times and says that our rights come from Him. One of the references to Deity comes near the end, as they said they were, “appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions.”
Dr. Peter Lillback is the founder of Providence Forum (now under the umbrella of D. James Kennedy Ministries), for which I now serve as executive director. He once told me that “the Supreme Judge of the world” was a reference to Jesus — since the founders knew and believed that Jesus is the Judge of the world.
Many books and documentaries today portray the founders as mostly deists or skeptics. But the reality is that the majority of them were committed Trinitarian Christians.
For example, 27 of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence had the equivalency of seminary degrees. Keep in mind that Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and several others were all started to train ministers of the Gospel (and didn’t go south until much later).
I recently produced a documentary for Providence Forum as part of my Foundation of American Liberty series, entitled “The Road to Independence."
The thesis of this hour-long documentary is that the Bible played a critical role in the push for American independence.
By the grace of God, we were fortunate to feature many expert guests on this program, including Dennis Prager, Os Guinness, Eric Metaxas, Bill Federer, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Dan Fisher, and others.
Attorney Jenna Ellis made this remark in the program: “The religious component to the founders’ separating was actually a central part of our revolution.”
For example, the ministers played a pivotal role in the whole push for independence. And the Great Awakening, a Christian movement that affected so many Americans, helped unify the 13 disparate colonies into a more cohesive whole as communication between them increased.
Ben Franklin said of the impact of Rev. George Whitefield, the great preacher of the Great Awakening: “It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious.”
Eric Metaxas says of Franklin in our video: “He was someone who saw that whenever religion breaks out — whenever revival breaks out, whenever people get God, get Jesus, whatever it was, whatever you called it — Franklin saw that crime went down, self-government went up.”
And the spiritual transformation spilled over into politics. John Adams noted, “The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the mind and hearts of the people: and change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations.”
Our problem today is that we have forgotten our spiritual roots. But Patrick Henry declared, “It is when a people forget God, that tyrants forge their chains.”
As a nation, we are working toward “a more perfect union,” to paraphrase the Constitution. We’re not there yet — but there is a reason that millions from around the world still clamor to come to America. And it has nothing to do with faux “constitutional rights” that were imposed on our founding document by previous courts.
Jerry Newcombe, D.Min., is the executive director of the Providence Forum, an outreach of D. James Kennedy Ministries, where Jerry also serves as senior producer and an on-air host. He has written/co-written 33 books, including George Washington’s Sacred Fire (with Providence Forum founder Peter Lillback, Ph.D.) and What If Jesus Had Never Been Born? (with D. James Kennedy, Ph.D.). www.djkm.org? @newcombejerry www.jerrynewcombe.com
