President Donald Trump, members of Congress, Supreme Court, Military, and fellow citizens of the restored Republic of the United States of America. It is my sincere honor to deliver an address on America’s covenant with God. Before we begin, I would ask that you take a moment to bow your head and pray. God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We ask for your forgiveness of our sins and for our nation’s transgressions against your divine laws. We have gone astray from the purpose for which this country was founded. Once again you saved the country from certain destruction, guiding her through Three Great Perils, or struggles for survival. Therefore, we ask for your continued blessings, guidance, and protection for ourselves and our country as we enter a new era. And we ask this through Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.
The American Covenant is a sacred and binding agreement between God and this nation. It was forged with the Declaration of Independence during the throws of the Revolutionary War. The essence of this covenant is best summarized by Father Bill McCarthy from in his book A Personal Relationship with Jesus. “The essence of this covenant is, ‘I will be your God and you will be My people.’ If we surrender to God all that we are and all that we have (because He is our God), God will give us all that He is and all that He has (because we are his people). We are, therefore, made joint heirs with Christ of all the blessings, graces and gifts of the Father.” The terms of this covenant involve shining the light of the Gospel, of true liberty, truth, and justice to the entire world.
The Declaration of Independence is a spiritual covenantal document between a people and their God. Member states voluntarily joined together under a frame of government as “One Nation Under God.” Declaration of Independence is the country’s mission statement. I would like to take a moment to share a few excerpts from the declaration to highlight the covenantal aspects of the document.
We hold these truths to be self-evident [It is obvious, we all agree.], that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator [which is God] with certain unalienable Rights [rights that cannot be taken away by man or government], 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. …
The purpose of civil government stated in the declaration is to secure and protect God-given rights; life (the right to life), and the blessings of liberty, and happiness [property] [The founder used the term property and happiness are used interchangeably; property is not only external but internal as well. Your internal property is your conscience.]
The Declaration continues. …
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.
The duly elected representatives asked for divine assistance, an “Appeal to Heaven,” to bring forth the principles and tenets set forth in the declaration into fruition. And a trust in God that their prayers and petitions would be heard and answered. In a word, “thy will,” (if it’s God’s will), not their will “be done.”
Benjamin Franklin said that their petitions and prayers “they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending providence in our favor.” Most noticeable were the miracles, coincidences, and syncretistic events that unfolded on the battlefieds in Revolutionary War which George Washington witnessed firsthand. He said, that “The Hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge His obligations.”
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the country’s frame of government do not grant rights. Short of voting and running for office and being lected office, you have no rights. What you have God-given rights, natural rights given by God and nature’s God which are recognized and protected by the Constitution. This makes the United States unique among all the nations on earth.
The preamble to the Constitution states.
We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
But what are the blessings of liberty? True liberty is uniquely Christian spiritual covenantal relationship with God. It is scared because it is our connection with God which resides in the human heart. Gospels of Jesus Christ defines liberty, or this Law of Liberty.
— 2 Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. [liberty]” RSV
The blessings of liberty can only come from God. That is true liberty.
If the nation needed sign from heaven on covenant established by our country’s founders. It was given on July 4, 1826. On the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, the two men most responsible for the document, died a few hours apart. The date bore was a visible mark of God for a reason. Biblically it was the Jubilee year of the country’s independence from their bondage with England. From the book Leviticus in the Bible “Consecrate the fiftieth year and ‘Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof.’ It shall be a Jubilee for you;”
For the people and nations that follow God’s Laws and commandments, He grants special graces such as peace, happiness, justice, prosperity, and national protection. We have the free will and choice to live under the covenant in obedience to God’s Laws and Commandments and enjoy God’s blessing. Conversely, if we reject God’s Laws and live in disobedience, then we will suffer the unenviable consequences of our actions.
John Quincy Adams stated “They,” [the American people, which includes you, and I today], John Quincy Adams stated. “Were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of the Gospel, which they nearly all acknowledged as the rules of their conduct. They were bound by the principles which they themselves had proclaimed in the Declaration.”
This is our country’s providential and covenantal history. And it is our shared destiny as a nation that cannot escape. Our country’s founders clearly warned us that the spiritual destiny of the United States of America is inextricably connected to our adherence to, or departure from the Laws of God. But along with the blessings of liberty, so too comes the obligations. To preserve and defend our nation’s covenant with God, and to safely pass it on to the next generation.