By Harold Pease, Ph.D
It always amazes me when otherwise intelligent people are unable to find evidence of God in our governing documents. The Declaration of Independence alone, the signing of which we commemorate July 4th, has five references to God—two in the first paragraph, one in the second, and two in the last. Let us read together its favored parts:
The first and second come together, “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God (emphasis added) entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” Who is responsible for “the laws of nature” but God—certainly not man nor nature itself. From the “laws of nature” sprang an awareness of natural law (sometimes called common sense), understood by early philosophers to be a source of higher law that never changes.
This was best explained by Cicero, a Roman politician as early as the 1st Century B. C. —even predating the existence of Christianity, when he wrote: “Nor may any other law override it, nor may it be repealed as a whole or in part… Nor is it one thing at Rome and another at Athens, one thing today and another tomorrow, but one eternal and unalterable law, that binds all nations forever.”
Of “Nature’s God,” the creator of the laws of nature, the second reference to deity is, of course, more explicit and needs no addition explanation. Simply, nature too, the wind, rain, sun, planet rotation, the universe itself, even the sprouting of seeds in their time obey God. Organized and governed through natural law—not chaos—is evidence that he exists and remains involved. God indeed is nature’s God as well as our own.
The third reference to God is the word “creator” found in the second paragraph. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Inalienable rights are endowed by God thus cannot be repealed by human law. The three identified may encompass others as well but the Founders saw God as more than just a creator — He wanted his creation free and happy as well. They boldly identified our base for unalienable rights as God, and identified this truth as self-evident. Any person endowed with common sense or reason would/could come to this conclusion.
So passionate were they with respect to these three “God-given rights” that such were identified as the purposes of government. “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
”Moreover, their right of revolution hinged upon a government’s denial of these “God-given rights.” They wrote: “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes… But when a long train of abuses and usurpations… evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government and to provide new Guards for their future security.” Once again, an appeal to natural law, which emanates from God, was noted and the loss of which always justifies revolution—any time period, people, place, or language! America would be the first to hinge their revolution on natural (God’s) law, as stipulated in the Declaration.
To ensure that the people retained the same right and means of revolution as they were using to claim and obtain their freedom, under the laws of nature as instituted by God, they later institutionalized “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms” in the subsequent Bill of Rights of the Constitution. This right they boldly declared in the strongest language possible “shall not be infringed.” They viewed it as “being necessary to the security of a free State.” So its placement as the second most valued freedom in the Bill of Rights had nothing to do with personal safety or hunting, these were already assumed and practiced for centuries. It was specifically placed right after freedom of religion, speech, press and assembly to make certain that these freedoms were never taken from future generations—you and I. It was aimed (pun intended) squarely at government.
The fourth and fifth references to God are found in the last paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. The rightness of their cause was left to God as judge. “We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown….” Not only did God exist but the Founders knew as well that they would be judged by Him for their intentions.
The fifth and last reference to God asks for, and expects given, His divine protection in their revolutionary course of action. “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” No European political prognosticator in that day gave the colonies a ghost of a change against the most powerful nation in the world. God did!!
There was no dissent noted with respect to these references to God and their placement or emphasis in this document by any of the participants then, nor should there be now.
(The above is Dr. Pease’s 668 published column on current events and the Constitution).
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www. www.LibertyUnderFire.org.