America a Covenant Nation

In the last article, I talked about Ancient Israel.  The issues Israel faced, were as a result of having been blessed and chosen of God, a Covenant Nation, and then turning against God.  A covenant is a two way promise between a person or nation and God, as in God’s covenant with Abraham, or Israel’s covenant with God.  As long as you obey God’s commandments, you are bless, however, turn away, and without repentance, that nation will be destroyed.  So is America a covenant nation?  Many Christians today believe so.  To investigate this claim, I will look at why settlers came to America and what they did when they got here.  I will also look at the activities of our first forms of government.

The Settlement of the New World

In the late 1500’s to early 1600’s a colonial “space race” was afoot, between the wolds leading powers, to control the resources of the new world.  Spain took an early lead with settlements established throughout the West Indies or today’s Caribbean.  In 1564, France tried, unsuccessfully to stake their own claim in the area.  Their first attempt, Fort Caroline, failed when destroyed by the Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés of Spain.  The later attempts of the French were more successful with trading posts in Newfoundland and other parts of Canada, and the Mississippi river.  But what drove these two nations to settle?  For the Spanish it was primarily the wealth, with settlements primarily military in nature.  France had similar ambitions, establishing more trade posts than actual settlements, sending traders and merchants.  Any religious effort from the French and Spanish was focused on the conversion of the native American’s to the Catholic faith.

The English, on the other had, did not settle the resource rich areas of the Caribbean nor the fishing and trapping rich regions of Newfoundland.  Instead they landed on the woody coasts lines of Virginia.  Instead of sending soldiers, merchants, and missionaries, they sent Farmers, craftsmen, and tradesmen.  The English went to spread Protestantism through permanent Protestant settlements.  This difference would play a significant role in the establishment of America that would ultimately lead to the Revolutionary war and Independence.

Jamestown

The English settlement can be subdivided into two efforts.  First in 1607 with Jamestown and second in 1630 with Plymouth.  While Roanoke was lost to time, Jamestown managed to barely hang on long enough, and with divine intervention, to create Virginia Colony.  The difference between the two came in who settled and to what end.  Jamestown was established by wealthy men seeking adventurers in the new world.  The colony initially practiced an early form of socialism with each receiving according to their needs, but only contributing in accordance to class status.  Given the limited resources and constant trouble with the natives, this mode of government almost destroyed the colony.  It wasn’t until captain John Smith took control as governor of the colony, and a few miracles, that things changed.  Smith imposed a strict rule, to eat you worked.  This was the start of American industrialism of hard work.  If you look close enough, you can see the hand of God protecting what would become the Untied States of America from the goals of the French and Spanish and leading the people of Jamestown in the direction he desired.  This is similar to the way He lead Ancient Israel from Egypt into the promised land and set them up as a Covenant Nation.

Plymouth and John Winthrop

It was during this time in England that Calvinism began to gain traction causing a movement to “purify” the Church of England.  These followers were eventually called Puritans.  Among the Puritan movement was a sub-movement that believed that the Church in England could not be cleaned and that separation was the only option.  This groups became known as separatist.  Both groups were under constant persecution by the Church in England.  In 1630 a separatist leader by the name of John Winthrop, fleeing the religious persecution, lead a group of separatist across the Atlantic to build what he called “a city on a hill“.

In the original contract the Pilgrims were to be delivered to Virginia Colony, but a storm caused them to way anchor in Cape Code.  They eventually sailed north and established Plymouth.  This voided the contract and allowed them to create their own form of government “The Mayflower Compact“.  This permitted them, while not totally free of the King, to establish a form of elective government.  In setting up the government, William Bradford and others created a nation highlighted by a “Covenant” with God, specifically in bonding the settlers with God for the advancement and Glory of God and the Christian Faith, in other words, a Covenant Nation.

Having undertaken for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together in a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid;

Again, we can see the hand of God in leading this group to where they needed to be, from freeing them from their original contract, to landing in an area that had recently become available with a friendly neighboring native

American tribe.  In one of the most remembered sermons of the time, John Winthrop reaffirmed their status as a Covenant Nation with God.

 

But it is religion and morality alone, which can establish the principles upon which freedom can surely stand.

A century later, a newly established Continental Congress recognized our unique relationship with God. And on May 17, 1776, declared a “day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer” throughout the colonies. “. . . confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and by a sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease his displeasure, and through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain his pardon and forgiveness.”   This was not the last time Congress would make such an appeal to the citizens of the United States.  Again on Dec. 18th 1777 Congress set apart a day of Thanksgiving, “express the grateful feelings of their hearts and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor” with a recommendation of supplication to God.

In the Declaration of Independence there are no less than five references to God.  For example, recognition where our hard sought liberty actual comes from.  “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.” As well as an appeal to the almighty for successes in the coming conflict, “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.”

Further evidence is in the designs of the national seal first proposed by Jefferson and Franklin.  Jefferson’s was the children of Israel in the wilderness led by a pillar of fire.  Franklin favored the parting of the red sea.

In George Washington’s First Inauguration, April 30, 1789. As he held the Bible to take the Presidential Oath of Office, he raised his arm in a fashion one would take when making an oath or covenant with God. He then opened the Bible to Genesis 49 where Jacob is blessing his prosperity.  George Washington then refers to the phrase “over the wall to a new land of everlasting hills.” indicating the relationship of the blessing with the nation and covenant of the Untied States of America.  As Washington finished his oath, he declared, “so help me God.” Then he bowed down reverently and kissed the Bible.  Later in his inaugural address Washington equally affirmed our status as a Covenant Nation:

It would be particularly improper to omit in this first official Act, my ferment supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the Universe, who presides in the Council of Nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that his benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States.

Read John McNaughton’s more detailed article on the subject here.

Finally, in the Book of Mormon, Lehi in his last recorded sermon, pertaining to the inhabitants of the American Continent:

2nd Nephi 7:  Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be blessed forever.

In the next article I will provide a timeline of events that have led to our moral decline.