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Oaths 9 – Does God Forget?

As mentioned in a previous post on Oaths (Oaths 2), the first colonists arriving on the shores of the American continent were Christians, some more explicit in their commitment to a biblical system of civil government than others. The forms of government ranged from that of the Puritans, who explicitly sought to set up a biblical commonwealth, to that of the Pilgrims, who also sought to set up a civil government on Christian principles, to the Virginia settlement, which simply sought to continue the political Christianity of Great Britain. The most compromised of versions would put modern, 21st century America to shame with respect to commitment to the true God of the bible.

So, when those Christian colonists arrived on these shores with radical, as well as somewhat watered down, commitments to the God of the bible, was He watching? Did he see their faith in Him? Did He bless them because they sought the God of the bible? Did He hold future generations to the original covenantal commitments? Does He still do so? Or does He forget about those original vows to serve Him and not the creation? Can man write a new document and say, “Almighty God, we’re done with your ancient, old-fashioned precepts and have come up with something more modern, more suited to our tastes these days. We’ve unilaterally revoked any requirement you have over us as Creator or which you might seek to impose based on covenants that are now centuries old. We divorce you, divorce you, divorce you!” What does God think of that?

First, it is safe to assert that the U.S. Constitution, as originally drafted, did not require that that generation or that later generations forsake, despise, and disobey the God of the bible. However, it is also safe to say that there are elements of American society which interpret it that way. Their position is that no aspect of the bible can order or even influence public policy, on the state or federal level. Their publicly stated goal is to expunge every aspect of the bible from civil government. They are the Jeroboams of our time.

Second, it is also safe to assert that the U.S. Constitution does not contain the explicit covenantal commitments and aspirations of the original colonists who sought to implement societies modeled upon the biblical covenant. See earlier posts (Oaths 3, Oaths 4) on the oaths required for those serving in civil government in the colonies and under early State Constitutions.

Critical questions: Why wouldn’t God hold the descendants of the original colonists to those original commitments? Does the U.S. Constitution represent a failure of faithfulness to those commitments, or is it merely a modification, allowing for liberty of the States and Federal entities to operate within those original covenantal commitments? If the latter, can we still remain faithful to those original covenants, as modified by the U.S. Constitution and the amendments to that document? Or has the predation of our modern Jeroboams accomplished too much damage to even retain the minimum faithfulness needed to fulfill the original covenants? If the U.S. Constitution is an utter failure to continue the original covenants, what is the path forward for the nation? For the Church? For a thorough historical defense of the U.S. Constitution as utter failure, see Gary North’s “Political Polytheism.”