responsible , only morally responsible , self-governed people under God can keep government freedom-granting .
The more citizens there are who do not practice selfgovernment under the God of the Bible , the greater risk we all have of losing what freedoms we yet enjoy . The choice is simple : Either the people will regain their ability to morally govern themselves internally via submission to Jesus Christ , or the strong arm of government will come in and control us externally . Benjamin Franklin said , “ Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom . As nations become corrupt and vicious , they have more need of masters .” 7
Robert Winthrop put it this way in 1852 : “ Men , in a word , must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them , or by a power without them ; either by the Word of God , or by the strong arm of man , either by the Bible , or by the bayonet .” 8
In 1787 , when the Constitution was first drafted , it was not unreasonable to think citizens would be the kind of moral and religious people necessary for a freedomgranting government to work . Early citizens , especially the educated ones , were Bible-conscious and understood what self-government under God was all about . After all , they had sacrificed much to gain the opportunity to practice it .
Here is what Calvin Coolidge had to say about it : “ America became the common meeting-place of all those streams of people , great and small , who were undertaking to deliver themselves from all kinds of despotism and servitude , and to establish institutions of self-government and freedom . . . . It was the principle of personal judgment in matters of religion for which the English and Dutch were contending , and which set the common people to reading the Bible . There came to them a new vision of the importance of the individual , which brought him into direct contact with the Creator . It was this conception applied to affairs of government that made the people sovereign . . . . The logical result of this was the free man , educated in a free school , exercising a free conscience , maintaining a free government . The basis of it all , historically and logically , is religious belief . These are the fundamental principles on which American institutions rest . . . . It was the American colonies that defended and reestablished these everlasting truths . They set them out in resolutions and declarations , supported them on the battlefield , wrote them into their laws , and adopted them in their Constitution .” 9
“ Either the people will regain their ability to morally govern themselves internally via submission to Jesus Christ , or the strong arm of government will come in and control us externally .”
Not all early Americans were followers of Christ by any means , and those who were followers were not faultless . But the overriding thrust of the colonies , and the new nation that followed , was openly Bible-based and Christian-oriented .
The following official statement issued by the House Judiciary Committee of Congress on March 27 , 1854 , bears this out : “ At the time of the adoption of the Constitution and the amendments , the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged , but not any one sect . . . . In this age there is no substitute for Christianity . . . . That was the religion of the founders of the republic , and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants .” 10 Two months later , the following was declared by the Committee : “ The great , vital , and conservative element in our system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and divine truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ .” 11
The very basis of law in early America was openly founded upon the Bible , as seen in Commentaries on the Laws of England by William Blackstone , an English jurist who greatly influenced the colonists . He wrote from the assumption that God is the source of all authority and that His Word rests above all other words , even those of kings . His commentaries clearly leaned upon Scripture for support . This is evident in even a casual glance at his work , which was the standard text for lawyers trained in early America for many years .
The historical evidence for Christianity as the compelling force behind American laws and civil institutions is so weighty that when the United States Supreme Court had occasion to look into this matter in the case of Church of the Holy Trinity v . United States ( 1892 ), the court issued the following statement quoting no less than eighty-seven precedents : “ Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of The Redeemer of mankind . It is impossible that it should be otherwise ; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our
28 THE RENEWANATION REVIEW