29 Nov America’s 250th Birthday: Relearning the Declaration of Independence
A fond and critical hope for America and the world is that one outgrowth of America’s 250th Birthday celebration in 2026 will be a renewed understanding and appreciation—in America and globally—for the divine spirit of the Declaration of Independence. Because as George Washington said, ‘our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind.”
Just what is that ‘cause’? And why is it the cause of mankind?
And is it possible that a 250-year-old document can offer principled guidance in 2025 for resolution of some of the most critical and divisive issues of today—e.g., racism, equality of the sexes, and the preservation of Christianity?
To grasp the ‘divine spirit’ of the Declaration, a good starting point is to understand the discernment of Benjamin Franklin; a brief refresher course on the importance of understanding ‘the letter and the spirit’ of written words is also helpful; and understanding the unmistakable Christian character of the American colonies in 1776—and of the United States of America in the ensuing 250 years—brings more light.
The Discernment of Benjamin Franklin
Franklin was the oldest founding father; possessor of a curious, clever and wide-ranging intellect; the source not only of the famous “…a Republic, if you can keep it” answer to a colonist’s question of what sort of government had been created, but also the man who, at a critical moment in the founders’ deliberations, called for prayer.
As chronicled in Bill Bennett’s “The American Patriot’s Almanac”, when an impasse had been reached in the drafting of the Constitution, and the fear was growing that the entire endeavor would collapse in rancor and confusion, the 81 year old Franklin “…made a simple but profound suggestion: they should pray for guidance. He reminded the others that the Continental Congress had asked for divine aid at the start of the Revolutionary War.”
“Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered,” he said. “And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance? I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can arise without His aid?
So Benjamin Franklin was clearly a spiritually minded man. Even before the constitutional deliberations, Franklin participated in a contest to determine the ‘great seal of the United States of America’. The description of his contest entry:
“Pharaoh sitting in an open Chariot, a Crown on his head and a Sword in his hand, passing through the divided Waters of the Red Sea in Pursuit of the Israelites: Rays from a Pillar of Fire in the Cloud, expressive of the divine Presence and Command, beaming on Moses who stands on the shore and extending his hand over the Sea causes it to overwhelm Pharaoh. Motto: Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”
No one knows Franklin’s entire thought-process behind his concept of an appropriate ‘great seal’, but it is apparent from his submission that he saw the formation of the United States of America as following in a direct line of light from the Bible’s account of humanity’s quest for freedom—as exemplified by the children of Israel escaping from their bondage to the Egyptian Pharoah. In other words, Franklin seemed to see the formation of the American nation as divinely inspired, perhaps even part of a divinely ordered plan in human history. (As an aside, it is this spiritual link to the children of Israel that is the real foundation of the enduring bond between America and Israel. That bond is not about politicians on either side whose conduct may abuse it at different times; it is not about the flows of financial aid; it is not really even about geographical borders on the earth or the tracing of human ancestry. It is about shared participation in an ‘arc of history’ toward spiritually-driven freedom that cannot be permanently altered. But that subject is best left to a future Substack post).
So…no less than Benjamin Franklin plainly saw the divine influence at work in the formation of America. The Declaration of Independence is the documentary starting point of that formation.
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Understanding the Letter and the Spirit of Words
St. Paul, author of much of what comprises the New Testament of the Bible, presented this idea very clearly when he spoke of able ministers as those who understood not just the letter of the words of divine wisdom, “… but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” 2 Cor. 3: 6. The same idea applies to the understanding of the critical, divinely inspired ideas of the Declaration of Independence.
The letter of the Declaration states as a ‘self-evident’ truth that ‘all men are created equal’. If interpretation and understanding stop with the letter, then the statement (1) is inapt for a country that permitted the institution of human slavery, and (2) leaves out of its promise half the population: women. But the spirit of those words cures their literal limitations.
Thomas Jefferson, primary author of the Declaration, certainly knew the spirit of the Declaration would not abide the continuation of slavery, when he said: “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just”. Whether or not he foresaw that a civil war would be necessary to resolve this flaw, he undoubtedly knew the nation would ultimately have to abide by the spirit of those words and abolish slavery, or its founding Declaration—and the nation itself—would not endure.
Because if all men are created equal, that is final and there is no wiggle room for inequality based on the content of melanin in the skin or any other physical characteristic. The spirit of being ‘created equal’ does not mean everyone is the same, but does mean that all individual human beings are equally deserving of a starting point of respect and dignity and God-given inalienable rights (unless and until the choices and actions of an individual violate the rule of law).
Ergo, in the simplest of terms, the spirit of the Declaration bans racism.
St. Paul’s words echo this conclusion, and they also provide the spirit that cures the other literal limitation of the Declaration:
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gal. 3:28 (italics added)
The spirit of the Declaration could not deprive inalienable rights to half of the Creator’s creation, even if humanity’s development up to that point generally relegated women to various forms of second-class status. And again, that spirit is not asserting that men and women are the same (or alterable!, which is another topic for a future post), but that they are entitled to the same starting point of respect and dignity and God-given inalienable rights.
No civil war was needed to bring women the protection of the Declaration; the inexorable tide of human development revealed the more inspired and divine interpretation of the Declaration which supported equal rights.
Ergo, and again in the simplest of terms, the divine spirit of the Declaration bans inequality of the sexes.
The Preservation of Christianity
The Mayflower settlers sowed the seeds of the Declaration when they affirmed that their purpose was a nation: “founded for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith” [Mayflower Compact]. All 13 original colonies that later became the first states of the United States included references to the God of the Bible or to divine authority in their foundational documents. (And not one mosque existed in the 13 colonies in 1776.)
This is the context for the oft-stated and accurate assertion that “America is a Christian nation”; it also captures the profoundly Christian religious atmosphere from which the Declaration emerged. (And it undoubtedly was the perspective from which founding father John Adams voiced his view that the Constitution was suitable only for ‘a moral and religious people’.)
Christianity has been and is in fact the bulwark against all manner of corruption and immorality in the nation. This doesn’t mean America’s leaders have been free of corruption and immorality—far from it, in fact—but it does mean that it is the Christian character of the nation that ultimately assures the exposure and removal of such corruption and immorality. Human legislation and regulation have their place, but they are not the power that protects and preserves moral clarity. Christianity is.
America’s Christian roots which undergird and are embodied in the Declaration and the Constitution have protected this nation for 250 years. They guided America’s leaders and America’s path through the storms, threats, and challenges of ending slavery, recognizing women’s equality under the law, defeating a wide array of domestic threats, and leading the freedom-loving world to victory in World Wars I and II, the Cold War, and other international conflicts.
Those same Christian underpinnings must guide America in facing head on today’s threat of Islamization now at America’s doorstep. Christianity in 2025 will be vital as America urgently comes to grips with the fundamental differences between ‘a Christian nation’ and ‘an Islamic nation’. Elsewhere in this Substack account you’ll find information addressing those differences.
Much more will be written on this subject in the weeks and months to come. Suffice to say for purposes of this posting that a nation rooted in the God-given freedom that is central to Christianity and America, is very different from a nation rooted in Islam and its totalitarian sharia law which denies freedom to individuals.
The critical, divinely inspired ideals of the Declaration of Independence could not possibly have emerged from an Islamic society.
Jesus’ teachings, and the development of law and ordered liberty in accordance with them, are the true ‘cause of mankind’ that George Washington spoke of. They undergird Western Civilization and the incomparable human flourishing it has enabled, and cannot (and should not) be made to coexist or compromise with Islamic sharia. Muslims can be free to live and practice sharia in Muslim-majority countries; but sharia must be banned in America—it violates the letter and the spirit of the Declaration, and would overthrow the Constitution as the supreme law of the land.
America’s 250th Birthday celebration must include a relearning of the inspired ideals of the document that created America’s actual birthday: the Declaration of Independence. A more universal understanding among all Americans of the letter of these ideals, their spirit, and their divine foundation, will be essential to propelling America to another 250 years as ‘the shining city upon a hill’.
Eric Georgatos