Chapter 23: What Was Lacking Spiritually? What was lacking was faith and trust. The colonists didn't really believe that God had their best interests at heart when He gave His laws. What about us? Do we believe that God had a purpose for the American colonies? If so, was His purpose a good one? In fact, was it the best possible purpose of all? If the answer to those questions is yes, then we need to ask ourselves one more question: Can anyone thwart God's purpose by obeying Him? Of course not.
So if the colonists had obeyed God's commandments, then God's perfect will for America would have come about in His own way and in His own time. All the colonists had to do was trust in Him. They had to believe in Him when He declares, "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). But to trust Him completely, the colonists needed to be truly regenerated men and women. The type of person the Spirit produces. The Holy Spirit produces persons who are the opposite of the rebellious colonists.
The Scriptures inform us, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23). Does that sound anything like Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty? Were they men of peace? Were they longsuffering? Were they kind and gentle? Peter instructs us on how born-again Christians must live.
"Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the King as supreme or to governors, as to those who are sent by Him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.
For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the King. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.
Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth; who, when He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously" (1 Peter 2:11-23). The problem with the American revolutionaries is that they weren't strangers or pilgrims in this world. They had made the world their home. As a result, they trampled upon commandment after commandment of God. Unlike Christ, they reviled and threatened those they viewed as oppressors.
They refused to honor the King and other governmental authorities. They forgot that it is the meek who shall inherit the earth, and it is the peacemakers who shall be called sons of God (Matthew 5:5-9). God commands us, "Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice; and to be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you" (Ephesians 4:31-32).
The vices listed in that first sentence characterized so many of the revolutionaries. They were filled with bitterness, anger, and wrath. They were clamorous and spoke evil of God's governmental ministers. In contrast, God calls His people to be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving. Real Christians are lovers of truth. Jesus told Pilate, "For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice" (John 18:37).
Jesus allows in His kingdom only those who are of the truth. A love of truth must permeate every fiber of a Christian's soul. And it will, if we are truly Spirit-begotten and if we continue to walk in the Spirit. After all, Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth (John 14:17). The Christian who has put on the complete armor of God has his waist girded with the truth (Ephesians 6:14).
The reason I bring this up is because misrepresentations, falsehoods, and deliberate lies are what stirred the colonists to armed rebellion. History books have correctly given Samuel Adams the title "Father of the American Revolution." He, more than any other American, was responsible for the revolution. Yet his methods were to publish lies and misrepresentations and to create imaginary conspiracies that supposedly existed to deprive the colonists of their rights.
If the revolutionary party had loved truth, they would not have allowed themselves to be led by men like Samuel Adams. They would have dug to get their facts right, and they would have made certain that the colonial population heard all sides of every issue. They would have denounced lying agitators such as Samuel Adams. The new man loathes hypocrisy. From reading the Gospel accounts, we can safely say that Jesus hates few things worse than hypocrisy.
He repeatedly denounced the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees. He asked His followers, "Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?" Or how can you say to your brother, "Let me remove the speck from your eye," and, "Look, a plank is in your own eye"? "Hypocrite, first remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye" (Matthew 7:3-5).
Peter tells us that the newborn child of God lays aside all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking (1 Peter 2:1). But had the revolutionists laid aside all hypocrisy? No, they hadn't. I say that because the Declaration of Independence they published states, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." I'm sure that statement must have sounded utterly hypocritical to Jesus Christ.
When the Declaration of Independence was published, the thirteen colonies included a half a million black slaves who had no rights whatsoever. They were chattel property. Thomas Jefferson, the very man who wrote those words of equality, owned hundreds of black slaves himself. One historian has reported that about one-third of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were slave owners.
Most Americans remember Patrick Henry's famous words, "Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" He was complaining that paying Parliament's taxes would mean that the colonists had somehow been reduced to chains and slavery. Those are strange words coming from a man who himself owned black slaves. And the only slavery confronting the Virginians at that time was a three-penny tax on tea.
I'm sure those black slaves would have given anything to have endured nothing more than the type of chains and slavery denounced by Patrick Henry. But it wasn't only the black slaves who colonists didn't treat as equals. They certainly didn't believe that Indians were created equal to white men either. This was clear from how the colonists treated the Indians ever since the time they first came to America.
Furthermore, as we've discussed, a foundational issue that led to the confrontation with Britain was that the colonial settlers wanted to move into the Indians' land lying west of the Appalachians. Moreover, protecting the Indians was one of the main reasons Britain needed to levy new taxes. Britain wanted the colonists to help defray part of the cost for maintaining sufficient soldiers on the frontiers. And one reason those soldiers were there was to keep the colonists from trespassing on Indian land.
The situation brings to mind Paul's words to the Romans, "You therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say, 'Do not commit adultery,' do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law?" (Romans 2:21-23). He could have added, "You who teach that all men are created equal, do you treat all men as equals?" Anxiety shows lack of trust.
One of the things I can't help but notice when I read the speeches, newspaper editorials, and pamphlets of the revolutionary party is their colossal anxiety over what would happen to them if they obeyed God's law and peacefully paid their taxes. They were afraid that if they obeyed God's word and submitted to the British government, Britain would take away all of their rights and liberties.
Unlike the first-century Christians, they couldn't say, "The Lord is my helper, I will not fear." Several years before the revolution, Britain sent troops to Boston at the request of the Massachusetts governor to help restore law and order there. When the troops arrived, the revolutionary party did all they could to instill anxiety in the hearts of the people.
Patrick Henry was one such revolutionary alarmist, who declared, "Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation, the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask, gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it?
Has Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the world to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us. They can be meant for no other.
They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging." During the revolution, when the British army was advancing on Philadelphia, the revolutionary Supreme Executive Council pleaded with the people to "consider the mournful prospect of seeing Americans like the wretched habitants of India, stripped of their freedom, robbed of their property, degraded beneath the brutes, and left to starve amid plenty, at the will of their lordly masters.
Let us determine once for all that we will die or be free." But we know that no such thing was in store for the colonists. Britain never had any design to strip the colonists of all their freedoms and reduce them to the status of the wretched habitants of India. If only the revolutionists had known the peace of God and had put their full confidence in Him, they would have had nothing to be anxious about.
As Paul encouraged us, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7) Those revolutionists could have known that peace if they had learned to put their full trust in God. But where were God's preachers in all of this? Why didn't they drum this into the colonists' ears?
Why didn't they call the people to their senses? After all, nearly all of the colonists professed to be Christians.