[W]here the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
– 2 Corinthians 3:17
Writing as I am on this day, July 3, 2022, it’s hard for my thoughts not to turn to Independence Day as Americans celebrate the 246th anniversary of the founding of the American nation.
I don’t remember a time when Independence Day was not one of my favorite days on the calendar. Growing up in the 1970s, I recall the focus on the Bicentennial celebrations in 1976. I was ten years old at the time. Not old enough to understand or appreciate the full significance of the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, and the Constitution, but old enough to realize that the acts and the words of the founding fathers had created a new nation committed to the protection of individual liberty to an extent never before accomplished.
One lesson about the formation of the United States that I did not learn until years later was just how much it depended upon the Protestant Reformation kicked off by Martin Luther over 250 years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
This idea – the notion that the United States and the history of limited government and economic liberty historically, if not presently, enjoyed by its citizens is a by-product of the Reformation – would likely come as a surprise to many Americans today, even those who attend churches that claim to be Reformed.
Lux Lucet 