After demonstrating that George Washington referenced
this verse nearly fifty times, 7 Dreisbach turns his attention to
the Declaration of Independence. The origin and meaning
of Jefferson’s famous phrase “the pursuit of happiness” has
long been debated. Dreisbach quotes a recent scholar who
sees in it the shadow of Micah 4:4.
For Jefferson and his contemporaries, happiness no doubt
demanded safety or security, which would have been in
keeping with the biblical phrase one colonist after another
used to describe the good life—to be at peace under their
vine and fig tree with none to make them afraid (Micah 4:4). 8
The Need for a Virtuous Public
The Founders understood that they were taking a great risk
in establishing a republic. Tyrants use the whip to keep
the people in line, but in a republic, the people bear rule
(through the representatives they choose). For a republic to
work, the people must be virtuous. They must fear to do evil
even in the absence of a threatening government.
In expressing this point, many Founders appealed to
Proverbs 14:34: “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is
a reproach to any people.” Their purpose in citing this verse
was to emphasize that true patriotism was not possible apart
from religion and piety. Such a view is at odds with modern
scholarship, but it was deeply embedded in the worldview
of the founding generation. In a letter to a friend in April
1776, Samuel Adams even claimed that the spreading of
irreligion was a ploy used by Britain to defeat independence:
“I have long been convinced that our Enemies have made
it an Object, to eradicate from the Minds of the People
in general a Sense of true Religion & Virtue, in hopes
thereby the more easily to carry their Point of enslaving
them ... Revelation assures us that “Righteousness exalteth
a Nation”—Communities are dealt with in this World by
the wise and just Ruler of the Universe ... The diminution
of publick Virtue is usually attended with that of publick
Happiness, and the publick Liberty will not long survive the
total Extinction of Morals.” 9
The Need for Divine Favor
One of the most frequently referenced verses by the Found-
ers was Micah 6:8: “What doth the Lord require of thee, but
to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy
God?” Why was this verse so important? Dreisbach observes
that one reason has to do with the need for divine favor. For
a nation to enjoy peace and prosperity, it must have God’s
blessing. In Micah 6:8, the Founders saw a recipe for divine
favor. If America would obey these admonitions, the Lord
would pour out the national blessings needed for survival. 10
The most famous use of this verse among the Founders
came from the pen of George Washington. In his Circular
Letter to the States in June 1783, Washington sought to shape
the character of the new nation. These are the closing lines
of the letter: “I now make it my earnest pray[er], that God
would ... be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love
mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility
and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristics
of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion and without an
humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can
never hope to be a happy Nation.” 11
For Washington, the American experiment could not be
successful without the religion of Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
The study of history is vitally important to the education of
the young. We cannot understand who we are as a nation
unless we understand where we have come from. We cannot
understand where we came from without understanding the
Founding Fathers. And we cannot understand the Founding
Fathers unless we understand the Book most responsible
for shaping them and their world. Here is where secular
education fails us. In pushing religion to the margins of our
history, it hides from students the most important parts of
our history. Or, as Dreisbach puts it, “The increasing bibli-
cal illiteracy of the modern age almost inevitably distorts the
conception Americans have of themselves as a people, the
nation, and their political experiment in self-government.” 12
Dr. Bryan Smith has worked in Christian education for over
twenty years. He has been a classroom teacher as well as a
textbook author. Currently, he serves at BJU Press as the Bible
Integration Senior Manager. In this position, he assists authors
and teachers in the work of integrating faith and learning in the
classroom. Bryan holds a Ph.D. in Old Testament Interpretation.
He and his wife, Becky, have six children.
FOOTNOTES
1. Daniel L. Dreisbach, Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2017).
2. Ibid., p. 6.
3. Ibid., p. 34.
4. Ibid., pp. 5-6.
5. Ibid., p. 4.
6. Ibid., p. 222.
7. Ibid., p. 225.
8. Ibid., p. 226. Dreisbach quotes from Pauline Maier’s American Scripture: Mak-
ing the Declaration of Independence (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), 134.
9. Ibid., p. 146.
10. Ibid., p. 101.
11. Ibid., p. 100.
12. Ibid., p. 9.
17