If America hopes to celebrate its 300th birthday, our current generation must “enquire of the former age” and “make supplication to the Almighty” to continue to shed His grace on our beloved nation.
“For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers: (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing…).”
–Job 8:8-9, KJV
The Great Republic stands on the precipice of its semi-quincentennial this July, marking an occasion that few constitutional systems have ever obtained. Depending on your source material, the typically recognized lifespan of a constitutional republic ranges from 15 to 20 years. Yes, that short. That is hardly an endorsement of a system of government designed to secure the binding obligations between citizens and their government for generations to come.
The reality of the fleeting parchment that so oft describes constitutional systems raises a natural question: Why is the United States of America different? How has she endured so far beyond what a constitutional actuary would conclude is her likely lifespan?
The answer, as is typical, is found in the wisdom of Scripture. Let us inquire then, as the book of Job beseeches us, of the former age and commit ourselves to the search of our fathers.
Nearly 250 years ago, our fathers committed themselves to the search of what begat a nation that would not be changed “for light and transient causes.” By any reasonable measuring stick, they succeeded. But how?
Interestingly enough, it was the first time in human history that learned men bothered to write down an inescapable — indeed, “self-evident” — truth: “That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
As Thomas Jefferson’s quill put it, these unalienable rights were nothing more than the “separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them.”
After listing the reasons for why the course of human events had led them to the remarkable recitation of the birthright of the Republic, the search of our fathers was to that of the Great Father — or, as the Declaration of Independence refers to Him, “the Supreme Judge of the world.” And, in America’s birth certificate, our fathers wrote that this Republic would be necessarily based on “a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence.”
Oh, what a search our fathers made!
Our Nation’s Storied History
Our birth certificate came in 1776 — July 4, to be exact. It was preceded by the remarkable battle at Lexington and Concord a year earlier, where the resolve to birth a new nation probably reached its peak gestation. And it was followed by remarkable resolve at Bunker Hill, where a ragtag band of inexperienced revolutionary soldiers demonstrated their commitment against a massive surge of professional British soldiers.
It was followed shortly after by George Washington crossing the Delaware, an eight-year revolutionary and historic struggle, and the British surrender at Yorktown.
In 1787, the convention delegates again appealed to Nature’s God for His divine providence and assistance in drafting and ratifying the Constitution of the United States. Those prayers worked, and her pages still stand triumphant.
Lewis and Clark headed West, and the Republic gave birth to its idea of Manifest Destiny, which is probably the earliest ever expression of American exceptionalism.
She struggled to hold herself together almost a century later, when southern states asserted their right to secession. It took a war that pitted brother against brother to reconcile her in what was only charitably described as the Late Unpleasantness.
Despite dealing with the more recent unpleasantries, her citizens still had the insight and knowledge to invent the lightbulb and the telephone in the 1870s and built a transcontinental railroad that allowed commerce from sea to shining sea.
Her citizens split a continent by digging the Panama Canal, making traversing two oceans far easier and spurring commercial activity far beyond what was possible before its waters flowed.
Wilbur and Orville Wright, who were described by their neighbors as Christian gentlemen who were moral to their core, appealed again to the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God in 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and invented the world’s first successful airplane.
She saw her innovative sons create the automobile and spur its production with the creation of the assembly line in 1913. In 1917, she joined World War I and brought about victory for those who had struggled to prevail before she arrived.
Generations of her citizenry stared down Black Tuesday and the ensuing Great Depression that followed in 1929.
She faced an unprecedented attack in December 1941 when the Imperial Japanese launched an assault on Pearl Harbor. She showed her resolve by having her men heroically storm the beaches of Normandy in 1944, turning the tide of World War II. Little did our enemies foresee that they had awakened the greatest military and economic power the world has ever known.
In her benevolence, she begat the Marshall Plan and funded a complete revitalization of Europe that was devastated in the world conflict.
Her sons and daughters stood on the backs of the Wright brothers with even grander visions of touching the stars, and in 1969, she succeeded in having her children plant a flag on the Moon in the Apollo 11 mission. In that moment, too, her children appealed to the Supreme Judge of the Universe, when Buzz Aldrin read a passage from the Gospel of John and took communion while physically present on the “lesser light” to “govern the night” that God created in Genesis 1:16.
She saw the birth of a new era of civil rights in the 1960s and 1970s. At that same time, her citizens invented the cellular telephone in 1973, a device that would revolutionize the way humans communicate with one another.
She saw the defeat of communism in Europe when her elected president, Ronald Reagan, stood at the Brandenburg Gate and said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Her children won the Cold War, liberated nations, launched the Hubble Space Telescope, and invented the Internet.
She suffered a devastating attack against her Christian values on September 11, 2001, when terrorists bent on destroying freedom attacked her symbols of international commerce and military might. And, though those same terrorists had designs on destroying her political symbols as well, Todd Beamer and his fellow passengers shouted, “Let’s roll,” and overpowered them in what Christ described as the greatest display of love — laying down their lives for their friends (John 15:13).
In 2003, Francis Collins mapped the Human Genome, giving a scientific understanding to what the psalmist described as God creating our “inmost being” and knitting us together in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13-14).
In 2022, she brought about an end to the constitutionally protected holocaust of an entire generation of people — the unborn — recognizing the human dignity and worth of all individuals through affirming no constitutional “right” to abortion.
Space simply does not permit a more thorough recitation of her 250 years of unparalleled exceptionalism. These recitations wholly omit the literary, musical, artistic, legal, political, and economic contributions with which her children have blessed the world.
Returning to the Search of Our Fathers
As Scripture says, “Shall [these] not teach thee, and tell thee” (Job 8:10). Indeed, “Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase” (Job 8:7).
But it is only through the inquiry of the former things that our fathers sought out the blessings of the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God. America’s history was birthed in the knowledge and admonition of the Lord, and the name of Christ has been proclaimed freely nationwide, leading many of her children to seek and find the Christ. And her end has greatly increased because of the founding principles of her fathers.
If the Lord shall see fit for her to have a quincentennial, it shall only come about should our current generation “enquire of the former age, and prepare itself to the search of their fathers.” And should she do so and “make supplication to the Almighty … surely now He would awake for [her] and make the habitation of [her] righteousness prosperous” (Job 8:5-6).
We are but of yesterday.
We must return to the search of our fathers should our future be prosperous and bright. God bless the United States of America, and may He continue to shed His grace on thee.
Daniel Schmid is a constitutional attorney and the associate vice president of legal affairs with Liberty Counsel. Since 2012, Daniel has been on the front lines of litigating critical First Amendment issues. In addition to his work as a litigator, Daniel teaches constitutional law and the Supreme Court and Appellate Clinic at Liberty University School of Law.
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