Put yourself in the buckled shoes of the Founding Fathers centuries ago, picking up a quill pen and then signing your name on a document, the Declaration of Independence. This could have been signing your own death warrant.
Recently, Americans celebrated the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, our nation’s birth certificate.
On July 4, 1776, 56 men in Philadelphia agreed by voice-vote to adopt the final wording of the Declaration of Independence. Only two names were attached to the document in its first copy. One was that of John Hancock, the president of the Second Continental Congress, which produced and approved the Declaration. Also named was Charles Thomson, the secretary for the Congress. (He later went on to become a distinguished Bible scholar.)
A month later, the members of Congress met again in Philadelphia at Independence Hall to sign the document.
On Aug. 1, the day before the signing, Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, gave a speech. Adams was a prime mover in the whole process. Thomas Jefferson called him “the patriarch of liberty.” Adams biographer Benjamin H. Irvin points out that the Declaration of Independence was essentially the culmination of Samuel Adams’ life work. Adams had recruited many to the patriot cause, including John Hancock and John Adams, a second cousin of Samuel.
I have written before about Samuel Adams, the largely forgotten Founding Father, whom biographer Stacy Schiff calls, “the most essential Founding Father.” Samuel Adams was the lightning rod of the American Revolution.
In his speech the day before the courageous signing of the document, Samuel Adams declared, “We have this day restored the Sovereign, to whom alone men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven … and from the rising to the setting sun, may His Kingdom come.”
Samuel Adams was known as “the last of the Puritans,” and I think we can add that he was “the first of the Founding Fathers.” Like so many Americans at the time, he was very concerned that all the sacrifices of his Puritan (and Pilgrim) forebears would be wasted if England were to completely take over America and force the Church of England on the colonies. Thus, the right of conscience was at stake.
To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Dr. Paul Jehle, president of the Plymouth Rock Foundation, and Dr. Mark Beliles, co-founder of Providence Foundation (Charlottesville, Virginia), organized a special webcast to highlight the Declaration and the signing.
As executive director of Providence Forum (of Coral Ridge Ministries), I was privileged to be a part of this event, even speaking briefly. I sat next to Paul Jehle in his church at Plymouth, along with the sheriff of “America’s Home Town” (which Plymouth is known as).
The website for the event, 250declaration.com, states: “Special online Event, Nationwide … On August 2nd two hundred and fifty years ago, America’s Founders signed the famous Declaration of Independence. Although they adopted its language earlier in July, August 2 was the moment that their names were fixed to a public document and their pledge became permanent.”
250declaration adds: “Today America needs a new commitment from its citizens and those from other nations who desire the same quality of liberty. Affirm our Nation’s Birth Certificate. Some of America’s top Christian historians and speakers will participate from various locations to give remarks and lead people to digitally ‘sign‘ the document. Just as the original Declaration ended with a pledge, we ask you to consider affixing your name and the region from where you live online. … You would be affirming the Declaration’s core ideas of God-given rights, the rule of law, consent of the governed, equality, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as well as the right to lawfully resist tyranny.”
And so in Jehle’s New Testament Church in Plymouth, Massachusetts, visitors were encouraged to sign copies of the Declaration of Independence in order to reaffirm our commitment to the founding principles contained therein. Plus, people in other locations, including online, were also signing copies.
What gave those Founding Fathers 250 years ago the courage to take such a bold act, as potentially signing their own death warrants?
The last sentence of the Declaration gives us the answer, “And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”
We have been given a great gift of liberty in this nation. Only through faith in the God of our fathers can it be maintained. As Thomas Jefferson, chief author of the Declaration, once asseverated, “God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?”
