On July 4, 1776, a nation was born, and the Declaration of Independence has become our most time-honored document. However, perhaps a better name for this historic writing should have been the “Declaration of Dependence.” If we read the closing words of the Declaration of Independence, we find the following: “…with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” A declaration was thus made of dependence on Almighty God.
In the book The Rebirth of America, reference is made to those fifty-six men who penned their names to this wonderful document:
“The fifty-six courageous men who signed that document understood that this was not just high-sounding rhetoric. They knew that if they succeeded, the best they could expect would be years of hardship in a struggling new nation. If they lost they would face a hangman’s noose as traitors.
“Of the fifty-six, few were long to survive. Five were captured by the British and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes, from Rhode Island to Charleston, sacked, looted, occupied by the enemy or burned. Two lost their sons in the army. One had two sons captured. Nine of the fifty-six died in the war, from its hardships or from its bullets.
“Whatever ideas you have of the men who met that hot summer in Philadelphia, it is important that we remember certain facts about the men who made this pledge: They were not poor men or wild-eyed pirates. They were men of means—rich men, most of them, who enjoyed much ease and luxury in their personal lives. Not hungry men, but prosperous men, wealthy landowners, substantially secure in their prosperity, and respected in their communities.
“But they considered liberty much more important than the security they enjoyed, and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. They fulfilled their pledge. They paid the price. And freedom was won.”1
These fifty-six men not only knew the importance of the protection of divine Providence, but also knew what kind of rights their God of the Bible guaranteed them; for we read in the second paragraph of their “Declaration”:
“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…”
One of the original signers of this historic document, Thomas Jefferson (the Third President of the United States), captured the consensus of all the other signers best when he asked: “Can the liberties of a nation be secure, when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?”2
There can be little doubt that our country came into existence through the courage and convictions of men who based their ideas and ideals on the Word of God—The Bible.
1 The Rebirth of America (Philadelphia: Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation, 1986), p. 15.
2 https://www.nps.gov/thje/learn/photosmultimedia/quotations.htm