Seven Essential Concepts

1. The American Foundation: The three centuries preceding the founding of our country saw an explosion of new thinking and reaction against the status quo of religion and politics. "History doesn't turn corners," but moves like a mighty river in flowing deeper and wider! The four great movements in these foundation centuries for our modern world … Renaissance, Protestant Reformation, Enlightenment and Counter Catholic Reformation … all merged in the mindsets of our Founding Fathers. They would blend the best in human potential and desire with the best in the Creator's purposes and gifts. With this vision they would create the most complete, wise and ideal government in history for offering life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to its citizens. The similarity of the American Dream to the Creator's words to Adam and Eve are amazing. Beyond any power of their own they discovered He had offered them life. He also granted them liberty over and with all He had created. The only exception was His counsel not to use their freedom to choose the knowledge of evil that would destroy them! Lastly, He told them He had prepared for them a Garden, filled with His good things, where they could pursue anything they wanted to increase their happiness. In their thinking the Founders envisioned a government as close to these realities as possible.

This would mean three things: 1) Whatever was there to take God's way would give them pleasure as they received His creation. 2) They could discover their wonderful potential of being created in their "God-likeness." They, too, would work in His Garden of governmental order to keep it and perfect it even as God had "worked" to create it. His kind of work would give them significance, pride and self-esteem. 3) Most importantly, the Creator promised their fullness of His "grace and truth" would be complete when they found Him in the Garden where they could walk together in the cool of the day in spiritual discovery. He would explain to them by reason and revelation all that was in His Garden, and the "whys" behind it all. If they listened for His Voice, He would let them know when they could be "together." They would develop the Creator's "one mind" together about reality!

I am convinced from my reading and study that this earthly garden motif was the major foundation dream in the hearts of our American Founders. Theirs was to be a "God-government" with the maximum benefits for all the people, even the non-traditional God evaders or deniers. This "social contract" between citizens and government would truly usher in "a new order of the ages" in "the course of human events." The secure rights of the governed would be empowered by their common consent. And the proof of this vision will be submitted to a "candid world." Lastly, their final appeal will be "to the Supreme Judge of the world" for the honesty and righteousness of their intentions! So wrote the Signers of the Declaration in declaring their theological presuppositions concerning the founding of the United States of America!

2. Kingdom and Government: The vision of a kingdom as taught by Jesus the man in the New Testament captured multitudes of hearts even though their personal "god-commitment" was no doubt casually varied or deeply lacking. At the same time the religiously committed were passionate about creating a government that exhibited the ideals and standards of Jesus the Messiah as He proclaimed them in the "Sermon on the Mount." American citizens with secular priorities wanted an "ethical government" strengthened by the vision values of the Judeo-Christian Kingdom. Conversely, those with Kingdom priorities wanted to create a "political government" that brought no threat from secular authority. For these two different reasons the majority of our Founding Fathers had a unified vision! The secular folks exalted government of justice flowed as a mighty stream. (Amos 5:24) The sacred folks wanted a government resting on God's shoulders as much as possible. (Isa. 9:6)

Who can deny or even doubt that the Declaration of Independence is a religious and theological document. It declares that a person's right to be human, free, safe and decisive is rooted in a reality higher than the power, thoughts and desires of other humans. There is a higher reality called "God" Who has created us to live a life in which we have liberty to pursue our own idea of happiness. No government, king or any other human can dominate or rule me without my consent! "The Supreme Judge" is my authority to be and my why for what I do. And so it is also with every citizen of America!

We must never forget that the success of our War of Independence was a very narrow victory. Approximately a third of American colonists opposed separation from England with many fighting against the Patriots. At wars end over 60,000 English sympathizers left the colonies relocating from Canada to Africa! No doubt the struggle for independence would have been lost without the help of the French, and the "unified vision" that sustained our Founders through terribly difficult, painful and costly times!

3. The U.S. Declaration-"The why of our Constitution": It is critical in solving the seeming conflict and impasse between Christ Believing and non-Christ Believing citizens that we recognize a bedrock fundamental distinction in our American vision. Our United States Declaration, Constitution and enduring vision was founded on the God of Creation, and "not" the God of Redemption. "God," as such, is referred to five times in the Declaration as (1) Nature's God, (2) their Creator, (3) the Supreme Judge of the world (4) the Divine Providence and (5) One Who gives then "Sacred" honor.

5. The U.S. Constitution-"The how of our Declaration": The Constitution has only two references to "religion." First, that there shall be no religious test for qualification to any office or public trust under the United States (Article VI). Second, that they completed the Constitution by unanimous consent on "… the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven …." (Emphasis added.) It was signed first by George Washington as president of the Convention and deputy from Virginia! There is little doubt that Jesus Christ had to be the Lord referenced. All United States citizens are invited by right to be a part of their government regardless of their source of ideas … religious or secularly rooted and/or motivated. It is assumed, however, that their initiatives as citizens are based on the same realities and hopes that initiated our nation … "Divine Providence in the Course of human events"!

The genius here is that the Founders constructed a government where the deeply religious (including earnest God is Jesus people) and the committed secularist (there is a God, but Whoever He might be is marginal) could come together "as they were!" Their mutual goal was to create and sustain a system of limited but equal freedom under laws of consent where each citizen had the right to life, liberty, pursuit of their own happiness and other unnamed opportunities. The God they recognized would rightfully save them from the unjust tyranny of other men (even the church) while at the same time free them to seek and share their quest in life without tyrannizing others (even their enemies).

It is sheer insanity to declare that "religion" had or has no place in the American political public forum. That is akin to declaring that a "God-faith" is irrelevant to a functional worldview so people of religious faith must keep their ideas out of politics. Our faith is what we are. It is the source of what we believe and hold dear. Our faith is what determines what we think ought to happen in life and within a government what declares its citizens have "certain unalienable rights." The secularist citizen who acknowledges a marginal God still possesses these "unalienable rights" also. They, too, live by some faith that is supreme above the power of other men or a single man, in this case King George. The very core of American belief is theological without it have to be distinctly Christian. Most of our Founders would ascribe to some degree to be Judeo-Christian "believers," but, in their thinking, did not exclude those who were not. No human being can escape the "created demand" that they must live their lives by faith in Something or Someone bigger than themselves. Their "faith" must be somewhere … in and idea, another person, a purpose or cause, the idol of self, etc. … or else they live the life of a pure idiot! Faith is a must for every single person. The debate has always been over where one "puts" his or her faith.

The founders defined their God idea in the Declaration. Those with Christian beliefs, the Judea heritage, deistic leanings, transcendental Higher Power mysteries and many others of religious persuasion could and have approved it. We Christians may read into it "more" than we should because the majority of the Founders undeniably espoused Christianity. This certainly carries more integrity in thought than the secularist citizens who would read far "less" than they should into the Founders' obvious appeal to a God Who is Supreme over the earth. Even though they "play down" their God belief in their political agenda, they still acknowledge there is "some kind" of God. The spiritualist citizen has their equal right to "play up" the God factor. In governmental discourse the great danger here is twofold. First, the lack of mature, civil, knowledgeable and pragmatic balance between the two. Second, when the "secular extremist" seeks to marginalize and eliminate the sacred vision (which in many ways is taking place today) or, and equally so, when the "religious fundamentalists" seeks to force their particular god-agenda on the secular vision.

The adamant, vigorous and ill motived crowd that wants the name of God off our coins, out of our Pledge of Allegiance erased from our monuments and stricken from public discourse betray the mindset of the Founders! Similarly, the religious idealists desert the Founder's heart when they seek to push their "brand" of god vision on all other citizens, and choke their freedom to be secularists. (I.e. Jesus only, Sharia law, radical fundamentalism, etc.) However, it is this tension between the two, held in balance by a democracy of the majority constrained by elected republican leadership, that creates a government that allows the maximum of liberty under law to all of its citizens. This governing tension in America between the secular and sacred visions has been on going for 250 years, and will continue. Neither source … secular or sacred … should have the human power to subject the other. Both must learn to peacefully thrive in the marketplace of ideas. Their views have and will surge as the tide on the balanced advocacy of sacrificing and thinking citizens. This "good tension" has created our unique American character. Living it our reveals the greatness of the Founding Dream of the United States of America.

6. Our Creation Commission: The belief in a Creator God vastly limits a person's authority over others. Believers recognizes that he or she is subject to a higher reality than self-supremacy. "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 …." This sentence from the Declaration's third paragraph is a magnificent theological statement. It clearly declares that if each man or woman has a Creator, He is due our first allegiance and first accountability as we live in His creation with His created others. There is a higher law on earth than the self, than leaders or kings, than government, than others who would deny us of our Creator given rights to be what He intended. Of all of our "rights" received from the Creator, the first and supreme right is our capacity to submit to His Divine Providence. All of our rights lined out should result in our discover of His Right to be our Supreme Judge. Our Founders "appealed" to Him "… for the rectitude (integrity, virtue, righteousness) of our intentions…." Space prohibits my delving into the magnificent implications of this statement. Suffice to say that to deny the Founders obvious idea of God being involved in their "course of human events" is to destroy their vision of America which will destroy the American Dream along with it. If a person rejects the authority of the Creator God, he or she becomes "their own creator-god," and the consequences are eventually devastating. The person who assumes he or she is adequate to be their own "god" is surely the most pitiful human on earth. The pages of history bear sad and profound witness to their short lived pretenses!

Such a person increasingly sees no divine value in other people, and others become nothing more than tools, accidental happenings of evolutionary nature, a human means to an end, a high level animal, etc. to be used to fulfill the creator-deniers own self-centered whims and goals. The ultimate result would be to create a nation of pure atheists, where the only reality that matters is what they conceive as real and of value in their tiny, partial mind. In other words, "There is no Nature's God, Supreme Judge, Creator, Divine Providence or "sacred" Honor to be had." The only so-called "god" in their America is "the god of the secular," an entity that is a creation of their own ignorant, limited and flawed thinking! This so called theology exalts the self, the material, the pragmatic, the functional and the temporary. These "gods" are delusional creations magnified by their dimwitted creators! For a time they receive the applause, support and affirmation of their fellow cultural "practical atheists," but they are giving their lives to chase shadows and treasure up dust! They have essentially declared that they can be maximally human while minimizing the God idea!

The Founding Fathers couldn't disagree more with our nation's creator-denier citizens and their defunct theology! The Founder's Declaration envisioned a good Creator of government who must be acknowledged as a true, noble and benevolent God! Just Who this Creator is must be determined by each citizen on their own. But that there is a Creator to Whom every citizen is responsible is undeniable, if one is honest about the language of the Declaration. Christians say the Creator is Jesus. Jews say it is Jehovah. Deists and/or theists would call Him the "Prime Mover." Casual religionists that He is "the Man Upstairs." Muslims that He is Allah. Native Americans point to the Great Spirit. Citizen immigrants from the Far East would call Him by other names, etc. Yet, in all cases there is a God to Whom they look for some sort of authority, knowledge, benevolence and responsibility.

Who "their God" really is has usually been a secondary issue for most Americans. What should be primary for all of our citizens is that there is a God to Whom we owe an allegiance Who is greater than our own self-idolization! Creator authority will then translate to creature responsibility. Our American experience has apparently come closer to fulfilling that creation mandate more than any other nation that has ever existed on earth. Even with our multiple failures, what other nation has excelled us in giving liberty and blessing to a higher percentage of its people? Any pride we have should be primarily focused on the Creator, Who has aided us, and not in the blessings we have secured and enjoyed for ourselves and our posterity. "And God (the Creator) took the man and woman (the created ones) and put them in the garden to work it and take care of it (the creation)." (Gen. 2:15) "American Exceptionalism" has grasped that concept as well, if not better, than any nation that has ever existed on planet earth! Our country has been the envy of all who have recognized the power of freedom, self-reliance, equality and opportunity under government of, for and by its people!

Let me remind you again-for emphasis-what my dear friend, Paul Pillai, shared with me. He is recognized as having one of the strongest and most effective Christian ministries in India. We were discussing America and India contrasts once, and his statement was a profound summery. "My brother, everything bad in America is worse in India. And everything good in India is better in America!" In my experience, study, world wide travel and thinking, we Americans can say this of every nation on earth. The only question remaining is the same one uttered to an inquiring citizen by Benjamin Franklin approximately 220 years ago. "We have created a republic, Madam, if we can keep it." Our Founding Vision has "kept well." The question to each of us is: "Are we losing it?" Our national commission is this: We are "Someone's" creation! We citizens must possess a higher purpose for God, country and others than simply living for the lower significance of self-worship, self-pleasure, self-security and self-aggrandizement. Our Founders had a higher vision, and it was rooted in "the Laws of Nature and Natures God." This "new order of the ages" cannot be limited to the minds of men alone. We have "had that." There must be "more." The Founders declared that "the more" must be "… our firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence …" and the mutually pledging "… to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor"!

7. American Exceptionalism and Divine Reconciliation: There are differing opinions and definitions of what this term means. To the best of my knowledge it wasn't even used by our Founding Fathers. (The first recorded use of the term dates from the 1920's.) Never-the-less, the thought, vision, passion, pride and ambition of the concept is overwhelmingly apparent. I would summarize and define the essence of "American Exceptionalism" this way: This is the vision and dream that the United States of America was divinely created and favored to conceive and bring a new light of liberty … well being … prosperity … and method of government to maximumaly benefit its own citizens and the rest of the world. The United States would become "a new order of the ages" … "the eye of wisdom atop the pyramid of mankind's efforts" … "out of the many they would become one"! America was truly to be "a city set on a hill giving light to the rest of humanity." It was to be "Utopia" realized, an ideal society, a model community. No nation on earth has ever existed that has given more to all of its citizens in the way the Creator obviously intended than the United States of America. George Washington himself put it in focus, "The time is now … (to) determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen … The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army … Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions …" etc. (from "General Orders," July 2, 1776) Yes! America is a unique and exceptional nation … one of a kind! Telling and compelling illustrations abound in abundance.

Pinnacle Truth and Divine Reconciliation: This is my own term and refers to the mature balancing, merging and achieving of secular resolving truth (the laws of nature) and sacred redeeming truth (Nature's God) as put forth, as I see it, in the Declaration. It is a joining: There is "Enlightenment freedom" for "under truth" people to question, doubt and reason; there is "Judeo-Christian liberation" for people to process a revelation of justice, compassion and redemption "under grace." Together grace and truth will create, achieve and resolve mankind's falleness into the maximum blessing possible for a people who exalt the goals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness under a covenant of law. Pinnacle Truth is the fuel of Pinnacle Leaders who can guide the United States of America to continuously "rebirth itself" into a Pinnacle Nation! The error line is recognized and the drift that would take us away from our "Proven Blend" is corrected and rejected. (See the two "Error Lines" on the chart on page 1.

Again, our America is exceptional because the roots of our founding go deep into a unique and fresh understanding of the human condition and its divine destiny. Our country has sought to be a positive balanced mix of secular realties (what man is and can be) and sacred aspirations (what man isn't and should be). This is the Pinnacle Citizen's core belief: 1) By uniting our human potential in discovering and applying "the laws of nature," 2) and at the same time recognizing and yielding to "Nature's God," 3) we will create a most noble and "… more perfect Union … and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity ...."

Is it not obvious to all that the primary and controlling idea and philosophy in the founding of America is the Judeo-Christian mindset. Certainly its influence was greater than any other in the minds of our Founders. The evidence is overwhelming. Admittedly, the ardent, committed Christians were in the minority, but their Judeo-Christian views were generally accepted by the culture and adamant social attacks against "Nature's God" were miniscule. Whereas the authentic Judeo-Christian ethic and worldview has initiated and undergirded the American Vision, we must recognize that immature and pseudo Christianity has often marred and diminished the American Dream. The same can be said, however, for secularist mal-intent and corruption verses secularist tolerance and fair play. It is this blend of enlightened and positive secularism plus genuine and validated Judeo-Christianity that has delivered and blessed the American people with their abundance of liberty, equality, excellence and community!

The ratification of the Constitution as written, approved and presented to the States in September 1787 by the Constitutional Convention was no sure thing. It took the 55 Signers over three and a half months to compose it. One state, Rhode Island, didn't even attend. Three states ratified it unanimously: Delaware, New Jersey and Georgia. Five states finally said yes by good majorities: Pennsylvania (46 to 23), Connecticut (128 to 40), Maryland (63 to 11), South Carolina (149 to 73), North Carolina (194 to 77). Five states eventually approved, but they were squeakers: Massachusetts (87 to 68), New Hampshire (57 to 47), Virginia (89 to 79), New York (30 to 27, Rhode Island (34 to 32). Honest confrontation, vigorous debate of issues, integrity of motives and appeals to the Supreme Judge of and for truth in the world has always been the American way. Every citizen, young and old, must seek to personally live out this magnificent heritage with passionate intent!

The "ratification" of the Constitution is a continuous process that must be constantly renewed in the minds and hearts of each generation of Americans. It is only the Veteran Americans who most fully recognized the treasure that is theirs as a gift from our Founding Fathers. Their keen minds and heart thirst for freedom grasped the times in which they lived; they declared their risky but exalted vision in the American Declaration, the world's greatest document on the practical theology of human freedom; they endured the loss of their fortunes and the shedding of their own blood while grieving over the suffering of their fellow citizens! Yet, out of those some 13 years (1776-1789) of intense struggle, human conflict and sacrificial effort, they gave us the world's greatest document for the provision and practical methodology for human life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and prosperity … the Constitution of the United States of America. To the degree that every citizen comprehends and authenticates both our Declaration and our Constitution truths in their own minds and hearts, and those kind of citizens ethically dominate our political and governmental structures, will our nation be vitally renewed. Only then will America continue to be a light on the hill for all the nations of the earth to see and emulate! This was and is the brilliant vision of our Founding Fathers who clearly stated their "firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence!"

The concept of and belief in God, to Whom all mankind owes responsibility for righteous and just behavior, was fully and unashamedly included in America's founding public forum. Who would deny the greatness of what this country, above all others, has achieved on this struggling earth? To exclude this Creator, Nature's God, and Supreme Judge of the world from the public forum of what America is and has been will destroy our foundation of supernatural rootedness. Our hope and authority would then rest on nothing more than flawed minds and self-centered reasoning sourced in the whims of natural men! An honest search through history and the study of contemporary world leaders would declare they are impotent to create a new order for the ages apart from nature's true God. It is this vision alone that brings good to all mankind. It is this concept alone a lasting government could be built on! Only fools would not comprehend the chaos, tyranny, poverty, injustice and hopelessness millions are doomed to endure without the authority of a righteous and benevolent Creator! Our Founding Father's powerfully demonstrated their belief that a new nation of life, liberty and happiness could never be established if founded on the mere minds of ambivalent, self-aggrandizing and defective human beings! Hence, "… all men are created equal, that them are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights (sacred) … That to secure these rights (secular) Governments are instituted among Men…."

Only students of the Declaration can become the best students of the Constitution and be master students of the Dream of American Exceptionalism.