“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” — John Adams
The French and American Revolutions happened within a dozen years of one another, yet they centered around two very different concepts of individual liberty. For the French, the goal was to ensure political equality. For the Americans, it was personal independence. This distinction helps shed light on what made the outcomes of the two Revolutions so different.
To understand the American Revolution you have to go back to the period between 1730 and 1750 when there was a revival that spread across the colonies. It began with Johnathon Edwards, John and Charles Wesley and an amazing evangelist be the name of George Whitfield. Whitfield preached 18,000 sermons and it was estimated that over 80% of the colonists heard Whitfield preach. Other pastors were swept up in this movement and many historians admit that there would not have been a revolution without this “great awakening”.
We think of the Boston Tea Party and slogans of “No Taxation Without Representation” as the key causes of the American Revolution and although they were issues those were not the root causes. Pastors began preaching about individual liberty, rights granted by God (natural law) and, in fact, you can find phrases in our Declaration taken directly from sermons given. The British called these pastors “the Black-Robed Regiment” and knew they were the enemy, they were not organized or in any army but were united in preaching religious liberty. Churches were burned and pastors jailed for a clear voice that their rights did not come from a King or government but only from God.
The French Revolution was totally different. During his despotic period of leadership, Robespierre went as far as to create a Cult of the Supreme Being, a state religion based on secularism. This was part of Robespierre’s revolutionary program to completely destroy France’s Roman Catholic tradition in pursuit of an ambiguous “political equality” amongst the masses. Instead of trying to fight for freedom-based principles like the Founding Fathers did, Robespierre was more concerned with destroying all features of French civic society in the name of progress.
In a cruel twist of irony, Robespierre and his Committee of Public Safety behaved more like the previous French monarchy once they seized control. For that reason, the French Revolution turned into a chaotic murder spree that saw tens of thousands of people executed at the guillotine for simply opposing Robespierre’s vision. Hundreds of priests and nuns were killed and any vestige of Christian influence was abolished.
“History has to repeat itself,” said Woody Allen, “because nobody was listening the first time around.” Or to put it another way, one historian noted that the only thing we can learn from history is that we don’t learn from history! We have watched tyrannical governments enslave the peoples and demand obedience for thousands of years. Most recently we have seen Stalin, Hitler, Mao Zedong, Castro, Pol Pot and many others take power and ban all obedience to God and outlaw the church. They must have total control and no competition.
Many are familiar with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a brave pastor living in Germany under Hitler. Eric Metaxas wrote a bestselling biography about Bonhoeffer and this is what he said recently about America compared to what happened in Germany in the 1930’s. “Probably the principled similarity has to do with Religious Freedom. In Bonhoeffer’s day, before his eyes, a robustly Christian nation was swiftly secularized by a powerful government. The church was divided and didn’t know what to make of it and they didn’t respond as they should have. So the church was overwhelmed by the state, and for all intents and purpose eventually ceased to exist.” Erwin Lutzer wrote an outstanding book entitled Hitler’s Cross and goes into detail how the church was lost. It wasn’t just Bonhoeffer that stood up, however, over 700 priests and pastors were sent to the concentration camps according to Lutzer.
The Great Reset is upon us…or at least the powers that be are trying to bring it to fruition. What was once a fringe “conspiracy theory” is now on display plain as day for everyone to see. The economic, political, academic, and media elites around the world are leveraging the chaos, confusion, and restrictions on liberty from the COVID-19 lockdowns and using them to radically alter society around the world. The religious attacks are obvious. Whether it is allowing worship services to continue or a religious exemption regarding a vaccine. Christians who push back are vilified. Any discussion of natural law or our freedom under the Bill of Rights are ignored or under outright attack.
Are we at a 1776 moment or 1789? Do we have pastors and Christian leaders that have the courage to speak up and be referred to as the “Black Robe Regiment”? We are accepting lies about our freedom. What is a boy or a girl? What is marriage? What exactly is the power of the state over our lives? It is not hyperbole to state that we are in the most critical time in our history since the civil war. America is the last, best hope for Western Civilization as we look at the world today. Politicians are not the answer. The answer is the truth of the Bible and leaders who are not afraid to join together to proclaim it.
There was a Second Awakening in the early 1800; s and one of the leaders was Charles Finney. His words in 1873 resound today:
“Christ crucified for the sins of the world is the Christ that the people need. If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours in a great degree. If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discrimination, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in religion, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it. Let us not ignore this fact, my dear brethren; but let us lay it to heart, and be thoroughly awake to our responsibility in respect to the morals of this nation.”
5 replies on “1776 Versus 1789 – The Great Reset or The Great Awakening?”
President John Adams wrote that: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
This is an accurate quotation. However, it’s often employed by Christians as if Adams was referring to Christianity and Yahweh’s morality as codified in His commandments, statutes, and judgments. This is untrue.
Adams emphasized that the same “moral liberty resides in Hindoos and Mohametans, as well as in Christians” (John Adams, Letter no. 13 to John Taylor (1814), in “Works of John Adams,” 6:474.)
He once asked, “Where is to be found theology more orthodox or phylosophy [sic] more profound than in the introduction to the [Hindu] Shast[r]a?” (John Adams, December 25, 1813, letter to Jefferson, in “Adams-Jefferson Letters,” 2:412.)
Any nation’s constitution and government benefits from moral Christian citizens, even those nations whose constitution are not based upon Yahweh’s morality as found in His perfect law and altogether righteous judgments (Psalm 19:7-9) – such as the United States of America. However, when such constitutions are not based upon Yahweh’s law, it is inevitable that such nations will become more and more immoral and corrupt, being they do not have a Biblical standard to fall back upon. Case in point, the United States of America, aka Constitutional Republic.
For more regarding the late 1700 founders’ religious persuasions, Dr. Albert Mohler’s interview with Dr. Gregg Frazer at https://albertmohler.com/2012/09/10/what-did-americas-founders-really-believe-a-conversation-with-historian-gregg-frazer.
Dr. Frazer proves from the key founders’ own writings that they were neither Deists in the purest sense of the word, nor were they Christians in the Biblical sense of the word. Instead, they were Theistic Rationalists.
Dr. Mohler is President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Frazer is Professor of History of the Master’s College in California.
Hi Ted,
What do you think is necessary in order for someone to be a Christian? In other words, what must one do to inherit eternal life?
EARLY 1600s vs. LATE 1700s
America and the United States of America are NOT the same thing! Not even close.
In fact, early 1600’s Puritan America whose governments of, by, and for God were established upon the Bible’s immutable/unchanging moral law was sacrificed on the altar of the late 1700s Enlightenment United States of America whose humanistic government of, by, and for the people was established upon capricious man-made traditions (aka the biblically seditious Constitution).
The latter is also known as the Grand Experiment in Self Government. Self-government!?! Gee, what could go wrong? Everything, just open your eyes and look around you. Everything gone wrong in America nationally is the consequence of this monumental case of biblical sedition committed by the 1787 cadre of Enlightenment and Masonic theistic rationalists.
Thus, ours is not to save the United States of America but, Lord willing, to restore America.
For more regarding these two polar opposite forms of government, see Chapter 3 “The Preamble: We the People vs. Yahweh” of free online book “Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective” at https://www.bibleversusconstitution.org/BlvcOnline/biblelaw-constitutionalism-pt3.html
Then find out how much you really know about the Constitution as compared to the Bible. Take our 10-question Constitution Survey in the sidebar and receive a free copy of the 85-page “Primer” of “BL vs. USC.”
We have already lost our larger religious organizations, most are united with the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) being rapidly implemented by the World Economic Forum. Even one of the most Christian based organizations, Salvation Army, is tied in with the SDGs. It will have to be the people who pull our churches back in line, if that is even possible now.
Outstanding article. Thanks. Mr. Weiland advocates for theocratic governance not based on liberty or free will. We were a country founded by a Christian people based on Christian Principles. The confluence of “The Great Awakening” and Enlightenment political philosophy is unique in all of history. Blaise Pascual stated: “There is only one way for man to reach God and that is through Jesus Christ, God can reach down to man anytime and way He wants” The hand of God surely has reached down on the United States, in its founding and throughout our history through the Civil War and the great Wars of the 20th century. Without acknowledging His Grace and goodness and without giving thanks for His guidance, we proceed into dangerous waters.