Second American Revolution: George Grant (5 of 7)

Question: Were the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution drafted to uphold the moral laws of God -- or were they Deistic humanist documents? If they were Christian documents, where have we gone so far off track? George Grant: King George was appalled at the American Revolution, not because he saw that there were colonists who were rebelling against the rule of parliament, but because he saw the covenantal implications. He called it the "Presbyterian Parson's Rebellion." He saw it as a continuation of the Scottish rebellion against his father some twenty years prior in which the covenanters rose up and established certain standards against which the king could not act. In other words, they were saying that there is but one Christ and Savior who wears the crown of all authority over all the nations of the earth. There is but one King of kings and Lord of lords. The king of Great Britain didn't much like that notion. He thought that he had a divine right to rule. The American Revolution was drawn from covenantal concepts that held the king in check and required action for justice when the king stepped beyond his bounds. A number of the Founding Fathers were influenced by Enlightenment ideas - ideas that ultimately came to be known as Deism or Unitarianism. Many were free thinkers. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were examples of these men. They demonstrated the fruit of their free thought in their private lives. But in their public demeanor they were gloriously inconsistent. Benjamin Franklin was best known in the Constitutional Convention for calling for prayer that divine providence would guide all the proceedings of that great assembly. Thomas Jefferson read the Bible every day, even if he only read portions of it as he was wont to do. The fact is that the Founding Fathers lived in an inescapably Christian culture. And though they were not perfect men and though they did not always have their theology buttoned up and sewn up tight, they were men who lived in the midst of a Christian culture and reflected that Christian culture in much of their thinking. Even the most profligate of the unbelievers, Franklin, was deeply engaged in the theological debates of the day. The great evangelist, George Whitefield, was one of Benjamin Franklin's best friends and was constantly engaging Franklin in thinking through the implications of the Gospel. Deism was a seed thought that filtered into the proceedings and thinking of the Founding Fathers. But Christianity was the cultural backdrop, it was inescapable for them and the Christian capital that we have inherited 200 years later even this far away from them is evident. The Founding Fathers wanted to have it both ways. They wanted all the fruit of Christianity without confessing its root. Ultimately, that sowed seeds that in many generations to come would bring about a bitter harvest. To be honest, we have to look at the Founding Fathers and see grave mistakes. The Constitution begins with startling words to come out of a Christian environment, "We the People," rather than under God. They readily confessed their Enlightnment roots. There are problems with our Founding Fathers and with their thought. But they were not a contradistinction to the great Christian heritage of the west. They embraced and affirmed it, often times unconsciously, but nevertheless constantly in all that they did and all that they said and all that they passed on to us.