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Early American Oaths

Oaths, lack of respect for them, and failure to understand their importance point toward our country’s problems and perhaps their solution. But first, who is the sovereign of this United States? I don’t mean in the absolute biblical sense; that’s clearly God. I mean in the publicly acknowledged by the people sense and as evidenced by our founding documents.

First question: Does God care? If He rules the world and if He cares about the world that He created, then yes is the obvious answer. He cares about the type of government you erect over your society. He showed that when He lead the Israelites out of Egypt and went about assisting Moses in setting up . . . what? Laws. Judges. Governing processes. He saves individuals from sin and death, and He saves societies from slavery and wandering in the wilderness. He cares about your civil government and its founding documents.

Second question: But you’ll argue, “I believe, and my church believes, what does it matter what anyone else believes or does in the civil government or, as you say, what is written in the documents publicly acknowledging their covenant status?” You hit on it right there and answered it in your very question. The public or official or covenant or legally binding governing documents are the evidence of a people’s faith. Just as taking an oath in court doesn’t mean you will, in fact, tell the truth, but it is evidence that you’re more likely to tell the truth if you can imagine God (the God of the bible more particularly) Himself watching and judging your words.

Our ancestors, or at least their elected representatives, voted to ratify the U.S. Constitution, the key founding document. It is evidence of their faith. The document doesn’t make them a certain status before God or create some relationship of favor between God and the people ratifying. It is evidence of something. It shows how they thought, how they related to God in His status as Governor of the universe.

So back to the original question of this post, that dealing with the first element of a covenantal relationship. Who is the sovereign of the United States, as evidenced by the founding, covenantal documents? First some history. The following are words from some earlier founding documents, those of Plymouth, Massachusetts and the Puritan establishment in Connecticut.

“IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the 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 another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. IN WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini; 1620.” Mayflower Compact, from Yale Law School’s the Avalon Project, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/mayflower.asp, accessed on 19 Feb 2014.

Is there any question in your mind as to who is the sovereign of those pilgrims who were setting up a colony on the shores of Massachusetts? To summarize, they acknowledge they are subject to King James, but the document is suffused also with the acknowledgement of God. By the grace of God, they undertook their voyage for His glory and for the advancement of the Christian faith. they submit to a human government for their better ordering and preservation, and they intend to enact laws intended for the general good of the colony. Respecting the purity of their allegiance to God as their sovereign, the most you can criticize is that they asserted the sharing of sovereignty between the king (James) and the King of kings.

“For as much as it hath pleased Almighty God by the wise disposition of his divine providence so to order and dispose of things that we the Inhabitants and Residents of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield are now cohabiting and dwelling in and upon the River of Connectecotte and the lands thereunto adjoining; and well knowing where a people are gathered together the word of God requires that to maintain the peace and union of such a people there should be an orderly and decent Government established according to God, to order and dispose of the affairs of the people at all seasons as occasion shall require; do therefore associate and conjoin ourselves to be as one Public State or Commonwealth; and do for ourselves and our successors and such as shall be adjoined to us at any time hereafter, enter into Combination and Confederation together, to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus which we now profess, as also, the discipline of the Churches, which according to the truth of the said Gospel is now practiced amongst us; as also in our civil affairs to be guided and governed according to such Laws, Rules, Orders and Decrees as shall be made, ordered, and decreed as followeth:

“It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that there shall be yearly two General Assemblies or Courts, the one the second Thursday in April, the other the second Thursday in September following; the first shall be called the Court of Election, wherein shall be yearly chosen from time to time, so many Magistrates and other public Officers as shall be found requisite: Whereof one to be chosen Governor for the year ensuing and until another be chosen, and no other Magistrate to be chosen for more than one year: provided always there be six chosen besides the Governor, which being chosen and sworn according to an Oath recorded for that purpose, shall have the power to administer justice according to the Laws here established, and for want thereof, according to the Rule of the Word of God; . . . .” Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, January 14, 1639, from American History, http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1600-1650/the-fundamental-orders-of-connecticut-1639.php, accessed 19 Feb., 2014.

The above is only the beginning of a lengthy governing document, but it tells you alot about the belief of the people of Connecticut about the sovereign and His relationship to their governance of their colony. Notice that Almighty God in providence ordered things there. He’s also the historical prologue to the entire enterprise. The goal is the prosperity, success and continuation of the project: “to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus which we now profess, as also, the discipline of the Churches, which according to the truth of the said Gospel is now practiced amongst us; as also in our civil affairs to be guided and governed according to such Laws, Rules, Orders and Decrees as shall be made, ordered, and decreed as followeth: . . .” What kind of men should rule according to this document? – “chosen and sworn according to an Oath recorded for that purpose, shall have the power to administer justice according to the Laws here established, and for want thereof, according to the Rule of the Word of God; . . . .” You’ll be hard pressed to find a more thoroughly biblical/Christian statement in a founding governing document.

Notice the type of men shall serve. The charter states: “provided always there be six chosen besides the Governor, which being chosen and sworn according to an Oath recorded for that purpose, shall have the power to administer justice according to the Laws here established, and for want thereof, according to the Rule of the Word of God; . . . .”

What kind of oath should such men adhere to that would evidence a faith in the God of the bible and the wise application of His law?