THE FIRST GOD STATEMENT IN THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: THE GOD OF NATURE 8/27/96

THE FIRST GOD STATEMENT IN THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: THE GOD OF NATURE
Preached at Union Baptist
July 7, '96
Text Mark 4:35-41
INTRODUCTION:

Last Thursday, July 4, was the 220th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. In observance of that precious, historic event, I want to start a short series on the God terms found in the Declaration of Independence. I expect to spend four messages on this subject.
On the way to Florida, I heard someone on the radio from the Wall Builders. He said there was around 250 founding fathers. Out of that 250 there were about 12 that were not connected to orthodox Christian- ity. Less that 5% of the founding fathers did not have a vital connec- tion to orthodox Christianity. He was counting over 50 that had signed the Declaration, over 50 that had drafted out constitution, and around 150 others that had great influence during that time. I sup- posed those that had drafted the Northwest Ordinance, those that drafted the articles of confederation, and others. We know that in his private life George Washington spoke often of his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We also know that the Bible was the most often quoted source during the period from 1760 to 1805. A study was made of 15,000 items. Those items were explicitly political and over 2,000 words long. 34% of the quotes were from the bible. 22% were from what is called the enlightenment. But 16% of so called enlightenment quotes were from outspoken Christians. There can be no doubt the world view of the founding fathers was Christian.
John Eidsmoe says that not only was the founding world view Christian, but it was Calvinism.(1) Eidsmoe is Lutheran; he is not a Calvinist. He said it was the Calvinist belief in the depravity of man that wanted to restrict the power of the central government.
Even those founding fathers that were not Christian, Jefferson, Franklin, and others, were greatly influenced by the Christian world view. They were hostile to the New England Calvinism that was so wide spread. They derided and vilified New England puritanism. But they did believe in the God whom they identified as the God of Christianity.
Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson did believe in God. Jefferson is called a Deist but was closer to what we know as Unitarian. He did not believe in the deity of Jesus; he didn't believe in the biblical miracles; He didn't believe in salvation through the blood of Jesus. But he did believe in what he thought was the God of the bible and he greatly admired Jesus as a great moral teacher. He was not a Christian. He did use the language of the enlightenment and most of the enlightenment were outspoken Christians. Jefferson read Montesquieu, Blackstone, and Locke the three Christian enlightenment thinkers who were quoted by our founding fathers more than any Deist or Unitarian.
Last year I went to Oxford as part of the Strategic Planning committee for Northmont Schools. When we were working on the belief statements someone mention faith in God. It wasn't me! That was called a God statement. One person objected and was able to keep it out of the belief statements. Now the foundation document of our nation, the document declaring our independence as a nation contained four God statements. What could possibly be wrong with one God statement being in the belief statements of a public school?
Let us consider the first of the God statements in the Declaration.
THE STATEMENT IN ITS CONTEXT
The first paragraph reads, "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 entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
We must admit that is a God statement - you may or may not agree with the statement, but it is a God statement. In the very first sentence of the Declaration, God is called upon as justification for our separation from England.
So let us consider this God statement. First, let us consider the laws of nature. Blackstone wrote: "This will of his Maker is called the law of nature. For as God, when He created matter, and endued it with a principle of mobility, established certain rules for the perpetual direction of that motion; so, when He created man, and endued him with free will to conduct himself in all parts of life, He laid down certain immutable laws of human nature, whereby that free will is in some degree regulated and restrained, and gave him also the faculty of reason to discover the purport of those laws."(2) Later, Blackstone compared the law of nature to the revealed law.(3)
The problem I have with the enlightenment's law of nature is the emphasis on the faculty of reason discovering these laws. I would say the revealed law is the truth test for the law of nature, but the enlightenment says that reason is the truth test.
I do not deny the existence of natural law. As Paul taught in Romans 1:20 "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:, and in Romans 2:15 "Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;." Augustine and Calvin both spoke of natural law being part of common grace. However, you could test natural law with revealed law - the Bible was the truth test.
Thomas Aquinas open the door for enlightenment thinking when he proposed what Blackstone wrote years later. It truly seems the enlightenment lead to modernism and modernism to post modernism - that is where we are today.
Now Nature's God of the Declaration is obviously the God of nature. The Deists could use that term to mean the Creator. Christians could use that term to mean the Creator which also is the Lord Jesus. Deists would object to Nature's God's present activity as the God of nature. Jefferson and the others obviously believed that God was reesently active in nature. Scripture affirms the God of nature has control over the winds and the sea. "Even the wind and the sea obey Him," was the observation of those early disciples (Mark 4:41).
By speaking of the God of nature in this context the founding fathers were saying that God is concerned with more than our religious life. They were saying that God is interested in our social and civil life. Some Christians at that time would test that with the Scriptures. Some would test that with human reason.
The Enlightenment would test that with human reason. Again, while I believe in common grace, I don't believe that common grace is a reliable truth test. I will test the view expressed in the Declaration with the Scripture. The reason I do that is because many people today seem to think that if it is natural it is pagan; they think that if it is secular it is pagan and has nothing to do with Christianity or truth.
IS NATURE'S GOD THE GOD OF THE BIBLE?

We are not asking, if Thomas Jefferson had a orthodox Christian understanding of God? I don't think so - Jefferson's understanding of God is not the understanding of Nature's God as revealed in the scripture. Jefferson's understanding of God is not the same understanding of God as Montesquieu; Blackstone; or Locke, whom he relied heavily on. Jefferson's religious faith is not the faith of the majority of the founding fathers. Yet the God of common grace is the God of revelation. When Jefferson wrote of nature's God, he was using language that men who signed that Declaration understood to be the God of nature as revealed in the Bible. Jefferson was a Unitarian and thought God could be discovered by human reason.
Is the God of the Christian the God of nature? We find that answer in Mark 4:41, "And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" Jesus could command even nature itself. The God of the Christian is the God of nature or nature's God.
Jefferson was a politician - he knew that Christians would never agree to any authority other than the authority of God, the God of the Bible. Jefferson was using language that he believed and that Christians could agree with and understand. He knew many would believe that to be the Lord Jesus Christ. In Jefferson's mind Nature's God was the God of the Christians. He certainly didn't accept the Christian's view of revelation.
LESSONS WE LEARN FROM THE DECLARATION'S FIRST GOD STATEMENT.

Why did our founding fathers refer to nature's God? The context of the declaration answers that question. Nature's God gave them the authority to separate from England. Why nature's God and not the Creator or the Father or the Supreme Judge? Because our politics is part of our natural or secular life in contrast to our spiritual or sacred life. They were addressing a secular situation so they spoke of the law of nature. Seeing they were using the law of nature, they spoke of Nature's God.
Many Christians treat their secular or natural life as separate from their spiritual or sacred life. I will not enter into that debate. One thing is certain; it is the same God over both. Note Romans 8:28 "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." What does all things include? All things that He is God over. Does the weather work for our good? He is the God over nature. He is God over natural or secular things also. The scripture is abundantly clear on that. This was the view expressed in the Declaration. This should govern our view of Separation of Church and State.
Obviously the founding Fathers never expected Separation of Church and State to mean that God had no place in government life. The man who would not allow the so called God statement in Northmont's belief statements would not have allowed the Declaration's phrase about nature's God. That man had swallowed the liberal's line that a public God statement was un-American and unconstitutional.
It is pure ignorance that claims that voluntary prayer in public school is against our founding fathers; or that tax exemption for Churches is against our founding. It is the sinful depravity of man expressing its hostility to God when someone oppose a reference to God in our public schools.
History is being revised to eliminate all Christian references in text books. If our nation has the authority for existence from the God of nature, you can be sure He holds them accountable.
This should govern our view of sin and righteousness and accountability. You can sin in the voting booth - your heavenly Father is nature's God. Your vocation is under the Father - He is God of your work. Your vacations are under the Father - He is God of your vacations. Your education is under the Father - He is God of your education. Your leisure time is under the Lord - He is God of your leisure. Your social life is under the Lord - He is God of your social life. If our fathers got their authority for separating from God, and there is only one God then He is the God of our politics.
Clearly Mark 4:35-41 teaches us that Jesus is the God of nature. Read Colossians 1:20, "And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." Note, All things in earth, or things in heaven. There is nothing that touches your life that isn't in the hands of Jesus Christ, the Lord and under His authority" He reconciles all things by His blood. You are accountable to Him. Romans 10:9, 10 makes it clear - When you receive Jesus, you receive Him as Lord and Savior. Romans 10:13 "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." When you call upon the Lord you have complete forgiveness of sins - heaven is your home - God is your father - Jesus is your Lord. When you are united to Christ by faith, you become a Christian. You can separate the sacred and the secular if you want, but both under the same God.

Trust and obey - there is no other way. Are you right with nature's God? There is a hell for ever sinner outside of Christ and a Christ for every sinner outside of hell. Will you turn to Christ? "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
1. John Eidsmoe,Christianity and the Constitution,(Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Book House, 1987) Chapter one - He also has a quote by the famous German historian Ranke, "John Calvin was the virtual founder of America." pg 18 [This aggrees with George M. Marsden who said, "... The areas where there is some largely genuine Calvinist influence on the United States form of government is in the view of human nature reflected in the Constitution." W. Stanford Reid,John Calvin - His influence in the Western World,(Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan Publishing House, 1982) pg 251.]
2. John Eidsmoe,Christianity and the Constitution,(Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Book House, 1987) pg. 57 Eidsmoe gives the original source
3. ibid, pg 58 Eidsmoe gives the original source