We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Thus begins the United States Constitution and the reason for it to be brought into existence. The ideals expressed, union, justice, tranquility or peace, general welfare, and liberty are the same principles found in scripture. Paul wrote to the Ephesians the following: [Eph 4:3] Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The teachings in the verse are components found in the Constitution. The goal of the founders was to create a nation with a government that would allow citizens to live freely without government interference as was happening under the English flag.

 The people, though living in individual states, were to have the same goals of freedom and liberty, and by joining with other states, the people would be able to defend themselves as a whole with a common national defense thus ensuring protection and peace for each state. Only by having the same mind could a national identity be established. The founders knew that division couldn’t form a cohesive nation just as Jesus said in Mark 3:25: "And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand." If the people didn’t have the same vision, goals, unity, and direction of purpose, then the nation couldn’t survive.

When the founders began the break with England, not all agreed to the separation and fought against it with word and deed. Eventually, those who wanted freedom and liberty, and the right to run their own lives, prevailed.  The founders refused to be under a bondage that denied them their rights as humans who were able to direct their own lives in the frame work of the principles and teachings of God. It was a constant battle to be free of England and it was much like what Paul told the Galatians about being free in Christ: [Gal 5:1] Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. The Declaration of Independence began the process of being free and the struggle became one of resisting those who wanted to continue the bondage to the Crown, both in the colonies and in England. Being subject to England was a form of bondage that denied freedom and dictated the content of the lives of the colonialists.  

It isn’t easy to maintain freedom and liberty; it requires vigilance to keep it. There is a verse containing a teaching about vigilance and the teaching in principle can be applied to the preservation of the nation. It is found in I Peter: [1 Pet 5:8] Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Just as there were forces in the early days of the church and lives of the Christians that wanted to destroy God’s work, the beginning of the formation of the nation faced the same type challenges and forces and they continue to this day. Whatever God brings into existence the forces of evil attempt to destroy it at every opportunity.

The First Amendment can be said to be insurance against the evil that can befall a nation. Through it, the people are ensured that their voices can be heard, and in a unified manner speak against the foes that would silence the message of God. It must be remembered that the major reason for this nation to come into being was so that God could be worshipped without interference from England (judges and atheists take note). Religious freedom (not freedom from religion) is very much a part of the more perfect union, which by design is filled with all the other freedoms and liberties that the founders worked so hard to bring to the people. They knew that a fractured belief would bring disunity and that is being seen today more and more as the years go by.

Paul wrote: [Eph 4:6] 6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. The Pledge of Allegiance expresses the principle of the one stated in that verse and sets forth the ideals of the founders with the words one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. The more perfect union created under God with his blessing is one that the people of no other nation in history has ever enjoyed. It can only continue if we maintain our unity and goals for freedom and liberty guided by belief in God, and through adhering to the provisions of the Constitution.

            Next Lesson Part XIV Centralized Government