The Magna Carta (1215) was drafted by Archbishop Stephen Langton and agreed to by King John, granting protection of religious/church rights, prohibiting illegal imprisonment, forbidding taxation without council consent, and guaranteeing speedy trials. King Edward I confirmed it in 1297 as part of England’s statute law. When King Charles I was found to be in violation, Parliament forced him to sign the 1628 Petition of Right, in which the king was prohibited from taxing without Parliament’s consent, imprisoning without cause, forcing citizens to house soldiers, and declaring martial law in peacetime. Then, the English Bill of Rights was accepted by William and Mary of Orange in 1689, protecting the rights of free speech, free elections, bearing arms, speedy trials, trials by jury, and no cruel or unusual punishments.
Our American Duty
Our American Duty
It has been relayed to me that it was wrong/sinful when the American colonies declared independence from Great Britain, violating Romans 13 in the act of rebellion against the king. The volumes composed relating and analyzing the events surrounding the American Revolution could fill multiple libraries, and I feel as though I have hardly read one shelf of them. However, I can tell you that having studied and taught on the Revolution since 2005, everything I have learned from both secular and Christian historians has done nothing but convince me that the above sentiment of the Revolution is a faulty understanding of the fight for freedom.
One must understand that the growing sentiment of colonists throughout the 17th and 18th centuries was one of proud, yet independent Englishmen. They had great pride in their British citizenship, belonging to one of the largest global empires the world had seen. They were also quite proud of the seemingly independent, self-sustaining accomplishments of their colonies. As proud British citizens, they championed their English heritage and unquestionably unique standing in the world as theirs was a history of overcoming tyranny and guaranteeing rights.
From this history, it is easy to understand why British citizens were so proud of their heritage and why the American colonists were horrified to see their rights being stripped by the King and Parliament. [For a greater understanding of what took place, we highly recommend CTF’s Our American Founding program for your church.]
The colonial preachers saw in the acts of British government clear violations of not only British law, but of God’s law, including Romans 13. For example, minister Jonathan Mayhew opened his 1750 A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers sermon with a verse-by-verse commentary of Romans 13:1-7 and the government’s violation of God’s ordinances.¹ His message gave rise to the Revolutionary motto: “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”²
Indeed, there were ministers who signed the Declaration of Independence (e.g. Lyman Hall, Robert Treat Paine, John Witherspoon), the Constitution (e.g. Abraham Baldwin, Roger Sherman, Hugh Williamson), and composed the Bill of Rights (e.g. Benjamin Contee, Abiel Foster, John Muhlenberg, Paine Wingate). The first Speaker of the House was preacher Frederick Muhlenberg; his and John Adams’s signatures are the only two on the Bill of Rights.
Here is the special, unique circumstance in which America found itself at its founding:
1. It was a government of, by, and for the people based on God’s Law – incredible!
2. The citizens are charged by the ones who developed and established the government that if the government ever wavers from its proper function and authority and infringes upon the God-given, Constitutionally-protected rights of the citizenry, then it is our solemn duty to refuse and reject such government and replace it with those who will adhere to God’s Word and the Constitution [preferably through peaceful elections].
That is the entire purpose of the Constitution – to protect the people from the government!
If it doesn’t do that, we are charged by our founding document, passed unanimously by our founding fathers, to NOT
comply, but to resist and replace. It says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, – That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is
the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness… But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”³
There have always been those who oppose liberty, preferring an elite, ruling class with lower classes subservient and dependent upon them. It is the DUTY
of every American citizen to stop and prevent the government’s abuse of people and any efforts to infringe upon their rights. We are to take care of our fellow citizens, even if they look or believe differently from us (Luke 10:25-37).
And it is, has always been, and ever shall be CHRISTIANS who stand up for this, not those who are Christians in name only, but those who are Bible-based, founded solidly on the Word of God, who fight this treatment of their fellow brother and sister of humanity in the name of the King of kings – Jesus Christ our Lord.⁴
