By Waylon Bailey
John Adams, our second president, was a man of deep belief.
This is what he said about the Word of God and the power of the Gospel: “Suppose a nation in some distant Region should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God. . .What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be.”
Samuel Adams, signer of the Declaration of Independence and father of the American revolution looked forward to the coming of God’s Kingdom: “I conceive that we cannot better express ourselves than by humbly supplicating the Supreme Ruler of the world that the end of tyrants may be broken to pieces, and the oppressed made free again; that wars may cease in all the earth, and that the confusions that are and have been among nations may be overruled by promoting and speedily bringing on that holy and happy period when the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ may be everywhere established, and all people everywhere willingly bow to the sceptre of Him who is Prince of Peace.”
Benjamin Rush, who both signed the Declaration of Independence and ratified the Constitution, vowed that “The gospel of Jesus Christ prescribes the wisest rules for just conduct in every situation of life. Happy they who are enabled to obey them in all situations.”
Patrick Henry summarized my statement for me on this Fourth of July: “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason people of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”
God can have a place in America if we give Him a place in our lives.
Waylon Bailey is pastor of First Baptist Church in Covington and a past Louisiana Baptist Convention president. This column first appeared in Bailey’s blog, which can be subscribed to by clicking here.
