by Dr. Wayne C. Sedlak
Pastor Reformation Hope Church
“O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endures forever.” – Psalm 107:1 (Psalm of Reformation throughout the earth.)
“O LORD, how great are thy works! And thy thoughts are very deep.” -Psa. 92: 5 (Psalm giving thanks to the Lord for rooting His people in worship and uprooting their enemies.)
- Thankfulness for the Heritage of the Colonies
Our colonial forefathers experienced the earthquake-like impact of sermons that changed their lives throughout the early history of the nation. In 1741, Jonathan Edwards preached “Sinners in the hands of an angry God,” and over 300 people in the town of Northampton ( population 1100 ) bowed the knee to Jesus Christ. That sermon is marked as the beginning of the Great Awakening which stirred the colonies to Reformation, ultimately leading to a breach with the immorality and criminal violation of oaths of King George III, crown appointed colonial Royal Governors and the Parliament of England.[1]
The Rev. Samuel Davies preached a sermon “The Curse of Cowardice” from the book of Jeremiah. That sermon was reprinted over and over throughout the colonies causing a massive enlistment of soldiers against their adversaries in the French and Indian War. Quite literally, the sermon turned the tide of the war from despair to victory.
In 1760, another minister, Ezra Stiles, preached a sermon that called for the union of the American colonies. That sermon became the basis for pointing in thankfulness to the great heritage that preceded them in the colonies from the founding of Plymouth especially (1520) through 1760. It was remarkable in light of the fact that Sam Adams noted most of the people in the pews of the churches to that point in history had been influenced by (what we would call today “liberal”) churches to become compliant to the increasingly tyrannical and illegal regulations of King, governors and Parliament. Increased resistance in the colonies against the criminal and illegal exactions of Parliament dates from the sermon preached before a convention of clergyman in that year.
But again, the sermon took on much greater significance as people began to reflect with thankfulness upon the Great Heritage to which that sermon, and many others following it, pointed. The powerful Heritage was not only a source of Thankfulness, but it became a source of instruction as people began to adopt the theology that had instructed that Heritage over the previous 140 years. That is the reason Prime Minister Horace Walpole said to Parliament,
“Sister America has run off with a Presbyterian Parson.”
Yes, this Nation – our United States – and contrary to the historical redactions and sloppy historiographic rants of Supreme Court after Supreme Court decisions over the past century…our United States was birthed by a Theology that created a Heritage of powerfully motivated individuals who captured events which changed the world.
In 1815, Pres. James Madison announced his 1815 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation. America, in that year, had just defeated for the second time in the War of 1812, the greatest Empire in the world, the mighty British Empire. Again, the emphasis was not on turkeys, food, or material blessings. The Proclamation gave rise to a call for Thankfulness for the great heritage given to us by the Lord, in which Proclamation the President cited from the Book of James, chapter 1. The Proclamation stated:
No people ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the goodness of the Great Disposer of Events of the destiny of the Nations then the people of the United States… And to the same Divine Author of Every Good and Perfect Gift we are indebted for all those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land.
This thankfulness was reflected all throughout the years leading up to and including our War of Independence. On May 1, 1783 Ezra Stiles again offered a powerful public message before the Gov. and the General Assembly of Connecticut, entitled “The United States Elevated to Glory and Honor”:
In our lowest and most dangerous state in 1776 and 1777, we sustained ourselves against the British Army of 60,000 troops, commanded by… the best generals Britain could procure throughout Europe, with a naval force of 22,000 seamen and above 80 men of war.
Who but a Washington, inspired by Heaven, could conceive the surprise move upon the enemy at Princeton – that Christmas Eve when Washington and his army crossed the Delaware?
Who but the Ruler of the winds could delay the British reinforcements by three months of contrary ocean winds at a critical point of the war?
Or what but “a providential miracle” at the last minute detected the treacherous scheme of traitor Benedict Arnold, which would have delivered the American Army, including George Washington himself, into the hands of the enemy?
On the French role in the Revolution, it is God who so ordered the balancing interests of nations as to produce an irresistible motive in the European maritime powers to take our part…
The United States are under peculiar obligations to become a holy people under the Lord our God.
- Greatness and Honor are NOT founded in the State
The Heritage, to which our forefathers of that era pointed, really began with the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony. Yes, there was the Jamestown experiment which was a disaster in starvation, famine, massacres, the introduction of slavery (indentured servitude at first) and even temporary tyranny.
But the heritage to which everyone aspired was really begun – as Alex d’Tocqueville, visiting diplomat from France stated in his famous work of 1840 Democracy in America – in New England, and it began with an Idea, he wrote. You see, he traveled from place to place in order to study old, archived histories, then still in existence throughout America. He became increasingly aware of the fact that America was unique in its foundation. He would conclude the real governing power in the United States was NOT the State (Washington DC nor the various state capitals), but the churches. He visited many churches and he found, in his own words, “…pulpits aflame with righteousness.” He would later conclude in a letter to a friend that
“America is great because America is good. If America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
It was the Heritage, carved out by the churches using the Word of the Lord as the Standard of Righteousness, that created the Heritage for which Americans later were thankful.
The Laws of the Lord were embedded in the colonial constitutions… the Law first taught to magistrates as they sat in worship in the pews throughout the churches of America. They would be instructed by their pulpits from the Word of the Lord. Indeed, d’Tocqueville pointed to the fact that the real prerequisite for any man coming to office throughout the colonies (and the young United States that followed), was that he first (as per Deuteronomy 1:13ff.) be a man renowned for character – Christian character – formed by his upbringing and equipped by the churches. As Britain steadily replaced voting with installed rulers without the consent of the governed, such character in office steadily declined.
However, the prerequisite to being a man in office throughout the United States, as established by its colonial past, was that he first was a man sitting in the pews of the churches being instructed in Righteousness of but one King, Jesus Christ. It certainly did not always work out that way, but everyone knew that to be the Standard from God’s Word. A sermon in 1638 by Rev. Thomas Hooker established God’s demand that free men vote such faithful men of character into office as per Deut. 1: 13ff. That sermon was cited throughout the colonies and directly led to our voting system today… a voting system captured, and perverted by the Left.
It was d’Tocqueville who wrote about that Great Idea brought to our shores as an experiment by the Pilgrims and their Puritan brethren. That Idea attracted thousands to our shores from England who followed the Pilgrims in the Great Migration (of the 1630s). That Idea, said d’Tocqueville, was that they could form an entire society based upon Word of the Lord for all matters public and private.
They knew the Bible taught Christ’s Preeminence over this world and the next and His Preeminence over thrones, kingdoms, principalities and authorities. They knew the Bible taught Christ’s Preeminence in His demand for the conscience and behavior of each one of us. But the Pilgrims and their Puritan brethren knew that the Word of the Lord also instructed that Preeminence of Jesus Christ will remain invisible to man’s understanding until it is “manifested” by the power of the Holy Spirit THROUGH THE CHURCHES (cf. Col. 1:16-18; Romans 8: 19ff) which remain faithful to His Word and not ashamed of either the Law, the Prophets, or the Gospel embedded in both the Old and New Testaments.
By the time James Madison gave his Thanksgiving Presidential Proclamation of 1815, Americans had been unofficially celebrating in many places each year, the Heritage of their Pilgrim forefathers. The Holiday which we call Thanksgiving was officially pronounced much later in our history. But it was the Pilgrim Idea that so gripped our people for many years… the Idea that the Word of the Lord with its foundation in the Law of the Lord[2], is given as a Gift to the nations by Christ (cf. Isaiah 42; Romans 7: 7-16, 22-25)
[1] It is an historical oddity often left untaught, that the Parliament actually had NO legal authority in the colonies which were governed by their own colonial charters and the King. The King was bound to said charters as well. This point was repeatedly stated before Parliament itself by famous members of that body, such as Edmund Burke and the greatest statesman of the age, William Pitt the elder who said before Parliament: “ I rejoice that America has resisted. Three million of people so dead to all feelings of liberty, as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest.” – January 14, 1766, Speech before Parliament against the Stamp Act placed upon the colonies.
[2] The Law of the Lord has always been regarded as the Pentateuch – the first five books of the Bible – and the rabbis always called the Pentateuch, Torah (Law).” More to the point, all of the Prophets and the prophetic Writings (Ketuvim), expanded on its applications under the inerrant Inspiration given them by the Lord. Indeed, the Apostle Paul in Romans 7 and 8, shows us the various functions of the Law of the Lord and Romans 8:7 shows us that the opposite of the Law the Lord is NOT “grace.” The opposite of the Law the Lord is “carnal.”
