Transcript

America's Providential History Podcast explores the power and form of the American republic

>> Stephen McDowell: Welcome to America's Providential History Podcast, where we talk about the real story of America and explore the hand of God in our history. Now, here's your host, Stephen McDowell. Hello. Glad you're joining us for this edition of America's Providential History Podcast. In this podcast and in the next number of podcasts, we're going to be looking at the power and form of the American republic. In these first few podcasts, we'll look at the pillars of liberty, the power, the fundamental principles upon which our unique nation of the United States was built. After we explore these fundamental principles, these pillars of liberty, then we'll look at the framework of the American, republic and these, both the power and form. Understanding these principles and framework are essential for us to restore that unique form of government that the founders gave us. Patrick Henry wrote in 1799, he said, and whilst I see the dangers that threaten ours from France's intrigues in her arms, what he was referencing is that, the French Revolution was going on. We know that in, 1775 to 1783, that we fought a war for independence. That war we know as the American Revolution. It wasn't long after that that the nation of France had a revolution as well. But it had completely different outcome than the revolution that had taken place in America. In the United States, we were a nation birthed in Christian liberty, based upon Christian self government. And these biblical ideas that were included or embraced or expressed in our Declaration of Independence and our US Constitution produced great flourishing, great liberty, great freedom, growth and prosperity. But what was taking place in France, its outcome, its fruit was much different. And so this is what Patrick Henry was, speaking to or writing about. He said, and while I see the dangers that threaten ours from France's entire intrigues in her arms, I'm not so much alarmed as at the apprehension of her destroying the great pillars of all government and of social life. So he's pointing out here, look what's going on in France. And the underlying principles of the French Revolution will bring about the destruction of the great pillars of all government and social life. So then he speaks of some of these great pillars of government. He goes on to write, I mean, virtue, morality and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone that renders us invincible. These are the tactics we should study. If we lose these, we are conquered. Fallen indeed. So Patrick Henry identified what the framers of our nation understood, that some of the underlying principles, the pillars that support this free nation of America are virtue, morality and religion. And when our founders used the word religion. They were speaking of Christianity, the true religion. And so many of the founders spoke of virtue, morality and religion over and over again as the foundation of free nations. And he was reiterating what was a common understanding at that time. And so Patrick Henry points out some of the great pillars of the American republic, because this nation was built upon virtue, morality and religion. So we're going to look at not only those, those couple of pillars, but others as well that form the power of the American republic. If we were to look at a diagram where we have kind of underlying platforms or steps, that support a building or, the underlying steps or the underlying foundation is the power of the American republic. These are principles that are in the lives and thinking and action of citizens of the nation. And these principles, these pillars of liberty are the essential foundation to build a free society, to build a free constitutional form of government, an economic system that produces liberty, an educational system that transfers liberty to the succeeding generations, and so forth.

The principle of self government formed the foundation of the American republic

And so I want to take a look at seven fundamental pillars of liberty, seven fundamental principles upon which the American Republic rests, or in the words of the Declaration of Independence, which states, we hold these truths to be self evident. And so these are some of the truths that they understood were essential upon which to build a free nation. So what's the first pillar of liberty, the first principle that formed the foundation of the American republic? Well, that is the principle of self government. Now, when Americans today hear the word government, most of them began to think of something like Washington, D.C. the Capitol building, perhaps the state capitol, whatever state that you live in. What comes to the mind of most Americans when they hear the word government, they think of the concept of civil government. Now, civil government is an aspect of government, but it's really kind, of the last phase, in a way, the least important aspect of government. Government in general does not equal civil government. In fact, Noah Webster defines government this way. Direction, regulation, control and restraint. This is the general definition of the word government. It means direction, regulation, control, restraint. Now, there are two spheres of government. There's external forms of government that we see operating in the family and the church and schools, businesses, various associations, and in the civil realm. And civil government, that's one sphere of government. That's external government. But then there is a whole other sphere of government known as self government. self government is really where all government begins. All government begins internally in the heart and mind of man, with his ability to direct and regulate, control and manage his own affairs. See, it's important that we Understand that the internal is causative to the external. The external spheres of government and what those governments look like. Its form and its function, functionality is dependent upon, reflects the internal self government or lack of self government that a people possess. There was a Dutch political philosopher in the 17th century, Hugo Grotius, who said this regarding government. He said he knows not how to rule a kingdom that cannot manage a province, nor can he wield a province that cannot order a city, nor he order a city that knows not how to regulate a village, nor he a village that cannot guide a family. Nor can that man govern well a family that knows not how to govern himself. Neither can any govern himself unless his reason be lord, will and appetite, her vassals. Nor can reason rule unless herself be ruled by God and holy be obedient to him. Hugo Grotius summarizes well this idea of self government. Now, he identifies here there are many different spheres of government. There's various external spheres of government. He uses the term kingdom, province, city, village, family. Today in the United States, we would say the national government, state governments, county or city governments, maybe local, representatives and family. These are external spheres of government. And he points out that you're not going to be an effective governor in any of these external realms unless you first govern yourself. neither can he govern himself unless he be ruled by reason, unless his reason be lord, will and appetite, her vassals. And so a man will not be an effective governor. In fact, remember, qualifications for, elders in the church, according to Paul, as he's writing to Timothy, is that he needs to know how to manage his own household well, because if a man can't manage his own household, then he's not going to be able to manage the church or any other external realm of government well. And so a requirement for a governor in the church is to rule his own household. And according to Grotius and what the scripture teaches in order to do that, you need to subject your passions, your appetites, to your reason, and your reason must be ruled by God. So in other words, he's saying, if Jesus is not your Lord, you're not going to be an effective governor in any of these external spheres of life. See, all government begins with God. And that government that begins with God flows into society first, into the heart and mind of man. And that is, we subject ourselves to him, to his truth, and we, organize our life and rule our life in relation to his truth. Then we can learn to be an effective governors, leaders or managers in our families, in our civil Community and our business and associations and other external spheres of life. And so you see, the internal is primary. The internal is causative to the external. The type of external government that exists in nations, in families, in businesses and communities is a reflection of the self government or lack of self government in the heart of the people. And the ability to govern yourself well is based upon how much you submit your life to God and allow, his truth to govern your life.

Flow of power in a Christian society flows from God to other external spheres

Now something else we notice from Hugo Grotius quote, is the flow of power in a Christian society. In a Christian society, all authority, all power begins with God because he has all authority, all power, as Jesus tells us in the Great Commission. So it begins with God and it flows out into society by first flowing into the heart and mind of man, who God created to rule over his earth. We learn in Genesis chapter one. And then it will flow out from man to these other external spheres of, government. So God moves from the bottom up, from the inside out. Now, pagan, secular man, hit. The flow of power in societies governed by that philosophy is the opposite. The flow of power begins with the top down. It begins with the Caesar, the kings, the potentates, the rulers, the president, whatever term you say, it usually begins with the civil realm. That's where authority rests. And these authorities will allow some of this power to flow down to the people. So that's the exact opposite of how God intends the flow of power to work in society. And so effective government begins by the individual or learning to govern himself. So as I said, there are two spheres of government. There's internal government and there's external government. And the greater the amount of internal self government as internal self government grows within a people, that is an indication of the less amount of external governments necessary to operate upon your life. See, if you're doing from within what you're supposed to do, you don't need a whole bunch of rules and regulations externally. If we were going into a society and a community, a state nation, and we were to read the civil laws that exist and see how many laws exist. If you've got thousands and millions of laws and regulations like we have in the United States today, it's an, indication of the lack of self government in the heart of the people. Because if the people aren't doing what they're supposed to do from within, then it requires a whole bunch of different rules and regulations expressed externally to keep them in line or getting them to act right, externally. And so if we want to diminish the size of our civil government in the United States or in any nation. And we certainly need to diminish the size blown way out of proportion to what the Bible says government's supposed to do. And the bigger it gets, the more control it has, the more taxes it needs in order to carry on what they think its mission is. And this results in loss of liberty. You know, history has shown that as central as governments get bigger and bigger and become more centralized, it leads to loss of individual liberty. So the steps to begin to change that are for us to begin to walk internally in the liberty that Christ brings, begin to subject our life to him, learn how to, be self governed and do what we're supposed to do without anybody telling us. And as we then learn how to do that more and more effectively, we don't need a lot of laws, external regulations that tell us what to do, because we're going to do what's right from within. You know, you see, part of our mission as parents is to train our children to be self governed. I have four children. My oldest son is, now he's 40, 44 years old. He's just about to retire as a lieutenant colonel in the army. But when he was young, perhaps five or six years old, I was teaching him about this principle of self government and I gave him a definition he could understand. I told him that self government is doing what you're supposed to do without anybody telling you. Now, he could understand that definition of self government. Well, the next morning he woke up very early and came into my bedroom. I was still in the bed. He woke me up and said, dad, come here, I want to show you something. So he led me into his room. He pointed to his bed which he had made up by himself, and he looked up at me and said, dad, I was being self governed, wasn't I? See, the beginning of the transformation of nations begins here. Begins with our children learning how to do what they're supposed to do without anybody telling them. And so if we teach them to be self governed and we give them the instruction of God's word, which provides the guideline for what we're supposed to do. And the more that citizens act in accordance with Christian self government, the more liberty we have, the smaller the governments will have, and the more flourishing will come, from this. If we lack internal self government, then we will need some type of external constraints to get us to do what we ought to do or what we're supposed to do. You know, as an example, when my second son was a young Boy, I don't know, two years old or so, that we used to let him go out in this little courtyard out the back of our home. And it was fenced in. We let him play, but it had a kind of a swinging gate and we had to block it in, provide some external constraints. Because without those constraints, he would have just kind of wandered his way out of that area, out through the gate, and could have easily wandered out into the road and gotten smushed and run over. Since he lacked the internal self government necessary to know what to do to protect his life, we had to provide those external constraints. But of course, if he needed those constraints today, in his 40s, it would be a sad state of affairs and would, reflect badly upon us as parents because we didn't teach him how to be self governed. So we want to impart internal self government in all of our children, all the citizens. So they're doing what they're supposed to do and won't need all kinds of external rules and regulations to show them how to live and how to act, because we'll know it from within. So self government begins internally, in the heart of man. Now, self government cannot be imposed externally. You can't, you know, make a law and say you will be self governed. You can't even hold up a gun and say, be self governed. It can't be imposed externally because that's what self government is. It originates in the heart and mind of man with his understanding of I'll do what I'm supposed to do. I don't need somebody pulling me along or directing me from without. It's, from within. But man is limited in his personal self discipline. Now, every man, even those that aren't redeemed, have some knowledge of what's right and wrong. Paul tells us in Romans 1, we're all created in the image of God. Every man understands when they violate the basic concepts of what's right and wrong, they know from within them that murder is wrong. And so there is a capacity for man to have personal self discipline. Even men that aren't filled with the Holy Spirit, but man in his fallen state, and even man who has been redeemed. We're still learning how to be self governed. It's limited in how much personal self self discipline that we can possess. And so then what is the source for that internal control? If we are limited in how much we can control ourselves and govern ourselves, we need help. Now. Robert C. Winthrop was the speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1847 to 1849, he said this, he said all societies of men must be governed in some way or other. The less they may have of stringent state government, the more they must have of individual self government. The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint. Men, in a word must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by a power without them. Either by the word of God or by the strong arm of man, either by the Bible or the bayonet. So here Speaker Winthrop summarizes the history of government of all men for all time and all nations. Everybody's going to be governed in one way or another. Man must necessarily be controlled. He will be controlled. And there's really two options. Either by power within them, internally are power without, either by the word of God or the strong arm of man, either by the Bible or the bayonet. And I much rather be governed by the Bible, by the word of God planted in my heart and empowered by the Holy Spirit. And the more that citizens of a nation are governed from within by the word of God, by the Bible planted in their heart, then the greater freedom and liberty there will be for everyone. Because when everyone's doing what they're supposed to do, it means smaller government, less crime, less taxes, less need of judges and police force and everything. And so Christian self government is at the foundation of any free society. And the American republic was built upon the idea of Christian self government. It was really the first nation in the world that was built upon this idea, this concept of Christian self government. And this of course originated from the faith, the Bible based faith of those people who had come that we've explored in past podcasts had been coming for 170 years or so, planning the first 13 colonies and the pastors preaching and sharing the word of God and families, building godly character in the people. That this was a process of sowing seed, that would reap great fruit. And one of those most fundamental of principles that were planted in early America was this principle of Christian self government. And of course to impart self government, it's the role of the family. The foundation for self government is laid in the families of a nation. And this is the primary place where self government will be instilled in the heart of the people, in the families.

Christian union is the idea of voluntarily working together for common good

Now the church of course has a role as well to teach and instruct and encourage the families in fulfilling that mission and training up their children. So that's the first pillar of liberty, the Christian self Government. A second pillar of liberty is the idea of union or Christian union. Or to use a, a biblical term, we could use the term covenant. Covenant. You see, the people of a free nation will not only be self governed, but will also voluntarily work in union with each other for the common good of the entire nation. So it's important that we're self governed as we discussed, but we also need to recognize that we, you know, God created man to live with other people, that we need one another and that we have to work together in many, every sphere, many spheres of life. And a Christian concept of union is that we'll voluntarily work in union with each other for the common good of the nation. Now we could say this principle of Christian union, another way to express it is unity with union. See, union is external. The external union of a people results from an internal unity of ideas and principles residing in the hearts of the people. So you can, you have unity, comes when you have a common set of ideas that people embrace and that unity in the heart of people will express itself in an external union. now this is one of the roles that the church plays in early America. For 170 years the Church began to, they are the ones that supplied the unifying ideas that churches taught, the pastors taught a common set of truths rooted in the Christian faith. And while there were different denominations represented in the thirteen colonies, there was that common thread of Christianity that was sown in the hearts of the people, in the families of the people. And these were passed on through the families. And it was this disunity of ideas sown by the Church that enabled the nation to join together in union. We have a good example of a Christian union in the way God intended. In the birth of the United States of America. Two hundred and 50 years ago, 13 sovereign independent states came together to unite to form one nation, the United States of America. The reason they could unite is because they had a common set of ideas that originated from the Christian faith. And that common set of ideas has enabled this Republic to last 250 years. This is unprecedented in modern history. Lots of nations and republics have risen and fallen and new forms of government formed over and over and over again. But in the United States we've operated under one form of government, one covenant, the founding covenant, the Declaration of Independence. One, constitution ratified 13 years later for 250 years. Now that's a example of a Christian union, the United States of America. Now contrast that with the more recent historical example of the USSR that is The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, you know, under the Communists in the 20th century that Russia and the communists began to take over a number of other countries and imposed their philosophical ideas, upon all of those, nations. See, the USSR was an example of a non Christian union. Why is that? Well, we've got to ask, what was it that, that held the USSR together? Beginning around 1989 there began, that union fell apart. Why? Because it had been held together by external force and fear. And that when that external force began to be removed, then it collapsed. and many of the nations, many of these, nations went their own way because they weren't united by a set of common ideas, but it was something imposed upon them externally by force. And that will never produce a strong external union. So in the United States, Christianity provided the basis of a community united not by external bonds, but by the vital force of distinctive ideas and principles. And we see that expressed early on. Take for example the Mayflower Compact. This was a civil document drawn up by the Pilgrims in 1620 when they landed, in what is today Massachusetts out from under the jurisdiction of the charter for which they were sailing. When some of the non pilgrims talked about when they went ashore just doing whatever they wanted to do, the pilgrims got together in the main and said, no, you're not. And they drew up this civil document, we call it the Mayflower Compact, in which it states, having undertaken for the glory of God an advancement of the Christian faith, do by these present solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and of one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic. Now, ah, clearly these people, what they were doing, they undertook for the glory of God, the advancement of the Christian faith. We've explored some of that in earlier podcasts. You can go back and listen to those. But it was their Christian faith desiring to advance the kingdom of God that motivated them to leave Europe to come and start a new colony. And so that was their motive. But we also recognize something that unique, that they had done that when they decided, we have to form a civil society. We really have this, we're forming a whole new government. Because the charter we have was not for this, this area. And we're going to draw this up and everybody, all the men are going to sign this document before they go ashore to make sure that they understand that these laws, these principles apply to them as well as everyone else. But what they did, they did by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into A civil body politics. So they were operating under God in his presence, and that they did something unique. They covenanted together. Now, this is one unique aspect of the American form of government. It's based upon the biblical idea of covenant. They recognize a civil society in God's eyes, should not be made up of people who just live in a geographic area, but it's a people who have a common vision, a common set of ideas that join together because they want to build a civil society under God, to honor him and to advance liberty and to bring flourishing and blessing to the civil society. And so we see, and this is reflected in many of the founding covenants and documents and charters of the colonies, after this Christian idea of covenant, of forming a civil society based upon Christian covenant, is expressed many, many other times in our early civil documents. Now, the reason that they could form a civil society based upon the idea of covenant because years earlier, when they were living in England, around Scrooby, before they fled to Holland, that they covenanted together to form a church. You see, the pilgrim forefathers were separatists. They had separated from the Church of England. There was a group of people in England who were called Puritans, who had been working for decades to purify the Church of England ever since Henry VIII, way back in the 1530s, split from the Holy Roman Empire. He set up the Anglican Church, which had a lot of problems. It wasn't much different than the Church of Rome, except Henry was the pope for a long time. Many people who read the Bible began to recognize there's many unbiblical things about the church, and they wanted to purify it. They were called purifiers or puritans. And so after many decades of some working to purify it, not getting too far, there were a group of people in the late 1500s who began to separate from the Church of England. That's why they were called separatists. And our pilgrim forefathers separated from the church and formed their own church. they drew up a covenant, the Scrooby Covenant, because they recognized that a church is not comprised of people who live in a geographic area, but the church should be comprised of people who have a common vision to fulfill the mission God had called them to do. And so they covenanted together and formed a church. Then it was some years later, here they are in the New World, and they applied that principle in the civil realm. So now they were covenanting together into a civil body politic. So here we see this idea of Christian Union is a fundamental foundational concept of American polity. And it's one thing that made it unique. and so we must again infuse Christian ideas into the heart of the people. And the more that we succeed in, in promoting truth, promoting ideas around which we can all unite, we hold these truths to be self evident. And the more that the American people understand there is truth, that truth is rooted in the Bible. The Creator reveals this truth to it, the more that we embrace it, then we can unite and join together to make our union strong. See, the stronger the internal bonds within a, people will produce a stronger union. This is true in the family. If you want a strong family that works m together and supports one another, you need to sow a common set of ideas. What's the purpose of the family, the mission of the family? How should the family function and work? And if we teach the biblical concept, the family will be strong. Same with the church. If you want a strong church or the people moving together to accomplish a common vision, you need to teach what's the purpose of the church? What's our mission? What's unique mission of our local expression of the body of Christ. And so you need to sow that vision, those ideas in the heart of the people. The church will be strong and will be more effective because when people join together in union, it gives them more power. They have a greater ability to accomplish something good working in union with others than by themselves. That's why God calls us into unions. And family is a divine institution at creation.

If you want a strong nation, then you need a common set of ideas

The church is a divine institution and so is civil government. If you want a strong nation, then you need to have a common set of ideas that the citizens of a nation embrace. Like these seven principles that we will be covering. To the extent that citizens understand and not just have a mental knowledge, but they live and in accordance with these principles, the nation will be strong. And America has lasted 250 years because the foundation, just about all the citizens embraced an understanding of these pillars of liberty. And so we must once again communicate these pillars of liberty if we hope to assure that America remains strong, strong, united people. Now we've looked at just two of these fundamental principles of the American Republic. Two pillars of liberty. There are five others that we will cover in the next podcast coming up. So I hope you'll join us in the next couple of weeks as we continue to explore the power and form of the American Republic. Now if you want to learn more or read more about this, I encourage you to pick up some of our books. If you go to providencefoundation.com you can get many books that cover these, these principles and the foundation of America. America's Providential History is one of those where we cover, this. I wrote a book, Ruling over the Earth, A Biblical View of Civil Government. It takes a look at these foundational principles of free governments as well. So hope you take a look at that. And I hope you can join us, next week as we continue to look at these pillars of liberty. God bless.