1 of 2

Some argue that the American Revolution was motivated by Christian ideals—the love of political and religious liberty, and the passion to create a society built on biblical values. Many scholars say the Revolution was merely the product of Enlightenment deists—rationalists who believed God, like a watchmaker, set the universe running and let people manage it by reason. They wanted to found a just and free society on rational, scientific principles.

How we resolve this disagreement depends upon how we pose the question. If the question is, Was there unambiguous biblical justification for the Revolution? we probably have to say no. While many Christians supported independence, many others (Tories) argued for submission to Great Britain—and many pacifists argued biblically that war under any circumstances was wrong.

If we ask instead whether the Revolution was sustained by Christian ideals (versus Enlightenment rationalism) the answer is tangled. In fact, both of these ideologies embraced the ideals and rhetoric of liberty and together were the driving forces behind the Revolution. Despite their pronounced differences, each supported the other and, in the words of historian Patricia Bonomi, “did not cause separate channels but flowed as one stream toward the crisis of 1776.”

Kingdom of Heaven

The responses of both Christians and rationalists to British rule followed similar lines, but their visions and arguments for independence were clearly different.

As talk of revolution increased, colonial clergymen preached the justness of the colonists’ cause. Samuel Langdon from Massachusetts, for example, preached in 1775: “If God be for us, who can be against us.… May we not be confident that the Most High … will plead our righteous cause?”

They also regularly preached on the theme of liberty. If God’s people had been “called to liberty,” as Galatians 5:13 promised, meaning liberty in Christ, then it did not seem much of a stretch to believe that this also meant freedom from political tyranny.

So many patriotic preachers joined in a chorus of dissent against the British attack on American liberties, John Adams was led to say, in the months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, “They [the clergy] engage with a fervor that will produce wonderful effects. Those … of every denomination … thunder and lighten every Sabbath.”

This religious zeal was to some extent an outgrowth of the Great Awakening, the great evangelical revival that spread through the colonies from roughly 1735 to 1755. Thousands of conversions took place, and many observers, including the Awakening’s greatest theologian, Jonathan Edwards, saw America becoming the center of God’s kingdom on earth. The conversions were proof that world history was culminating. The creation of new, converted men, especially political leaders, would make possible the realization of God’s promised kingdom. Edwards believed change was good for man and society, and this new evangelical emphasis helped focus American discontent. In particular, it offered a new vision that allowed for a breaking with the past.

The new vision corresponded with New England Puritans’ vision of themselves as God’s “New Israel.” Puritans and their various denominational descendants—Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists, and German and Dutch Reformed—supported independence because they believed in this vision. In the frantic days preceding the Continental Congress’s Declaration of Independence, Ebenezer Baldwin of Connecticut was only one of many contemplating the possibility that America might become “the principal seat of the glorious kingdom, which Christ shall erect upon Earth in the latter days.”

next page... |  1 of 2

share this page

RSS Feed   RSS Help