1995 Issue 7 - The Causes of the War of Independence Part 3, The Spiritual Issues - Counsel of Chalcedon

8/12/2019 1995 Issue 7 - The Causes of the War of Independence Part 3, The Spiritual Issues - Counsel of Chalcedon

1/4

THE CAUSES OF

THE WAR OF

INDEPENDENCE (III)

THE SPIRITUAL

ISSUES

As

important

as

the

economic

and legal issues

were,

they,

in and of

themselves,

would not have

brought about the War.

The

spiritual

convictions which

prevailed

in 1775, were '

crucial in convincing the

people that they must fight to

preserve their independence.

These

convictions

were

present largely as a result of

the Cireat Awakening of

the

1740 s.

The

Cireat

Awakening

was a revival brought about

by

Ciod

through the

preaching of such men

as

Jonathan Edwards, Cieorge

Whitefield, Ciilbert Tennant,

and others. The spiritual

foundations

of Puritanism

had eroded

over

the

previous

50

years

(from

around 1680

to 1730) though the people

still held to the same moral

and ethical

standards

set

by

the Puritans (the

Biblical

morality

and a

basically

Biblical

world and life

view).

But the heart of the

faith

-

love

for

the

living

Ciod

and

His Word - had been lost.

The Cireat Awakening

changed all this.

This revival had the effect

of restoring

the foundations

laid by

the Fathers. The

nation was again

focused

upon

the chief end

of

man

-

to glorify Ciod and to enjoy

Him

forever

(see the

Westminster

Confession

of

Faith,

Shorter

Catechism,

question

1). Uberty

and

freedom were

no

longer

words

conveying

a

convenient

social

ideal; they

were

moral, Biblical

imperatives.

A government or

king

which sought to control and

rule all areas of life was not

simply in error - it was

Anti-Christ, seeking to take

the

place

of the sovereign

Ciod Himself. The

constitutional illegalities and

unjust economic policies of

England were in fact

evidences of ungodliness and

tyranny and

covenant-breaking.

Carl Bridenbaugh

notes,

It

is

indeed high time we

repossess the important

historical truth that religion

was a fundamental cause of

the American Revolution.

(quoted in James Adams,

Yankee Doodle Went to

Church, p.34) This was in

part, a direct consequence of

the Cireat Awakening.

As

a result of the Cireat

Awakening, a renewed

theological

consensus and

unity appeared that had been

missing for

some time. The

people were

one

not in a

political sense, but in a far

more basic and vital

theological

sense. This is

noted by many who wrote

during this period. JohnJay

makes

this observation in The

Federalist number

2.

Having noted that the

countJy

is united in a

geographical sense, he says,

With equal pleasure I have

as often taken notice that

August, 1995 l' IRE COUNSEL of

Chalcedon 11


2/4

Providence has been pleased

to give this one

connected

countJy

to

one

united people

-- a people

descended

from

the same

ancestors, speaking

the same language,

professing the same

religion, attached

to

the

same

principles of governm,ent

(emphasis added) .

This unity was

critical both for the .War

and the settling of the

fonn of government

later. John Quincy

Adams would

say

that

the highest glory

of

the

American

Revolution

was this, it connected

in one indissoluble

bond, the principle

of civil

government with the

principles of

Christianity.

(quoted

in Adams,

op.

cit.,

p.

40

Thus, though not

evelything about the Great

Awakening was good

(the

revival of individualism

for

example) it did have two very

important

results

in this

nation:

The Great Awakening

restored Puritan theology

The influence of this theology

(popularly known

as

Calvinism) cannot

be

ignored

in the founding of this nation.

Dr. E. W. Smith makes this

observation:

If the average American

citizen were

asked,

who was

the founder of America, the

true

author of our great

Republic, he might be puzzled

to

answer. We

can

imagine

his amazement at hearing the

answer

given

to this question

by the

famous

Gennan

historian, Ranke,

one of

the

profoundest scholars

of

modem

times.

Says Ranke,

'John Calvin was the virtual

founder of America.

These

revolutionary principles

of

republican

liberty and

self-government, taught and

embodied in the

system

of

Calvin, were brought

to

America, and in this new

land where they have

borne

so mighty a harvest were

planted, by whose handsl -

the hands

of

the Calvinists.

The vital relation of Calvin

and Calvinism to the

founding of the

free

institutions of America,

however strange in

some

ears

the statement

of

Ranke may

have sounded, is recognized

and affinned

by historians of

all

lands and creeds. (fhe

Creeds of Presbyterians, p.

142, quoted

by Lorraine

Boettner, The Reformed

Doctrine of Predestination,

p.389

2 THE COUNSELof Chalcedon August,1995

Nineteenth centUly

historian, George Bancroft,

makes a similar observation

calling

Calvin the father of

America:

He who will not

honor the

memory

and

respect

the

influence of

Calvin

knows

but

little

of

the

origin of American liberty.

(quoted in

Boettner,

Ibid.,

p.

390

Historian Erik

von

Kuehnelt-Leddihn

notes: If we call the

American statesmen of

the

late

eighteenth

century the Founding

Fathers

of

the Vnited

States, then the

Pilgrims

and

Puritans

were the grandfathers and

Calvin the

great-grandfather.

In

saying

this, one need not

exclude the Virginians

because

Anglicanism has

essentially

Calvinistic

foundations still recognizable

in

the Thirty-nine Articles,

and the

Pilgrim

Fathers, like

the

Puritans

generally,

represented

a kind of

re-refonned Anglicanism.

Though the fashionable

eighteenth century

Deism

may have pervaded some

intellectual

circles, the

prevailing

spirit

of Americans

before

and after

the War

of

Independence was essentially

Calvinistic

(quoted by

Archie P

Jones,

The

Christian Roots

of

the War

for Independence, The

Journal of Christian


3/4

Reconstr Jction, vol. III,

Summer, 1976, no, 1,

p,

14)

Russell Kilk emphasizes

the

influence of

Calvinism in

these words: "In colonial

America, everyone with the

rudiments

of

schooling

knew

one book

thoroughly:

The

Bible, And

the Old

Testament mattered as much

as the New, for the

American

colonies

were

founded in a time of renewed

Hebrew scholarship, and the

Calvinistic character

of

Christian faith in early

America

emphasized

the

legacy

of

Israel.

John

Calvin's Hebrew

scholarship,

and his expounding of the

doctrine

of

sin and human

depravity,

impressed the Old

.Testament

aspect of

Christianity more strongly

upon America than upon

European

states or other

la 1ds

where Christians were in the

majority," (quoted

by John

Robbins, The Political

Philosophy

of the Founding

Fathers,

The Journal of

Christian Reconstruction,

vol. III, Summer, 1976, no, 1

p,

67)

The pervasiveness

of

Calvinism in

the

post-Cireat

For

over

100

ye

arS

Ameriams have been subjected to hi storical misill

fonnation. We have been given lies for tru th and myths for facts.

Mode

m,

wlbelieving historians have hidden the truth

of our

nation's .

history from

us

.America:TheFirst35Q

Years

not only

corrects

the lies,

but

-also

Plints

out things "overlooked"

by

modem historian

s. t

interprets American his

tOlY

from a

Ouistian

perspective so that you

Awakening era of colonial

America is illustrated by the

fact that even the few Roman

Catholics present (only

around 0,000 at the time of

the War)

took

on many

Calvinistic attitudes and

attributes: American

Catholics

were

for

a long

time,

as shown in their

puritanical ways, a tiny

minority much influenced by

the Protestant culture that

surrounded them, their

religious sobriety, their

clericalism and legalism and

total

acceptance of Thomistic

theology, They were at the

ontlnued on page

4

hearnotonlywhathappened, bywhyithappened-and

whatitmeans

. .

to us today. 32 lectures on 16-90 minute cassettes, 200 page note- special

rate f T ounsel of

halcedon

readers

book,

16

page

study

guide, lecture outlines, index bibliography. .

MERICA:

The First

350

Years

c

-$64.95 x _

Louisiana residents add 7 sales tax

SHIPPlllIC AND HANDLWG: Add 10% (15% UPS) =

(Check or Money Order) Total Enclosed

(name)

(Street Address or P.O. Box)

(Oty)

. (State)

(Zip)

PLEASE ALLOW 4-6 WEEKS'FOR DEUVERY

Send self-addressed stamped envelope

to

receive more information

August, 1995

lHE

COUNSEL

of

Chalcedon 13


4/4

continued rom page 3

same time culturally Calvinistic

and

intellectually medieval

and

this was the occasion of many

misunderstandings between

them and their Continental

coreligionists. To many

American and Irish-American

Catholics the Italian immigrants

seemed more pagan than .

Christian. (Erik von

KuehneIt-Leddihn, quoted by

Archie Jones, op.

cit.,

p . .

15)

So

thorough was this

influence that one Arminian

clergyman complained that the

only way for a minister to get

into the graces of the populace

was

to espouse Calvinistic

Principles. (Ibid., p.

40)

The Cireat Awakening

focused the people on the

theological implications of what

was

going

on

around them.

Prior to the Cireat Awakening,

there were many divisions

among the citizens

on

economic

and

social issues, after the

revival the division was more

theological than economic or

social. Archie Jones notes:

America

was

henceforth

divided between ratiomilists

and

evangelicals. Rationalists

manifested an Enlightenment

confidence in human nature

and

man s

reason, evangelicals

manifested a Calvinistic

conviction of human depravity,

combined with an equally

Calvinistic confidence in the

power of Ciod's grace

to

transform men's lives and, only

through this means, society."

(Ibid., p.37j

What specific doctrines were

influential To be continued.

FaL ilies Il. ;u:hi lll

liICir

chitd

n: l

ill IK' home

ulTer

lhe

p:rcllt(. ,oil

luip( ror Ihe uphuilding. or I I.:

KillgdLl

1 \ l r ( h r j

Documents

1995 Issue 7 - The Causes of the War of Independence Part 3, The Spiritual Issues - Counsel of Chalcedon