Depending
Upon God in Our Cause
The opening and closing
paragraphs of the Articles
of Confederation include these words:
“…the Delegates of the United
States of America, in Congress assembled, did, on the 15th day of November, in
the Year of Our Lord One thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy seven, and in the
Second Year of the Independence of America, agree to certain articles of
Confederation and perpetual Union …it hath pleased the Great Governor of the
World to incline the hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in
congress, to approve of, and to authorize us to ratify the said articles of
confederation and perpetual union…”
There
was an appropriate leaning upon the sovereign God in adopting the Articles of
Confederation, in contrast to the
approach Federalists employed in illegally overturning the Articles of
Confederation and replacing them with the Federal Constitution. It takes no
special faith in the sovereign God to engage in such machination as the
Federalists employed. The Federal Constitution concedes as much, for absent
from it are words acknowledging such dependence on God.
Our cause requires much dependence
upon the sovereign God, for:
1.
Who
but the sovereign God can bring down the powerful Federal System, so as to
raise up and restore a confederated USA of Anglo-American Patriot
States, under the Articles
of Confederation, while those seeking such follow legal procedure
throughout the process?
2.
Who
can change the hearts of a sufficient number of individuals so that it can be done
in a decentralized fashion so as to reach a decentralized end?
3.
Who
but God can utilize a rather small number of people towards such an end?
Faith
in the sovereign God is not irrational, because what is more manifest than that
the created world is designed and held together by the Divine Creator and
Governor of it rather than mere chance, just as faith in Christ is not
irrational given the diverse prophecies wonderfully fulfilled in Him and
witnessed by many? The standard
philosophical objection, the so called “problem of evil”, is sufficiently
answered in such passages as these:
1.
“But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but
God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much
people alive.”
(Genesis 50:20) God uses even evil acts of men, such as the cruelty of Joseph’s
brothers, to accomplish good purposes.
2.
“Who is this that darkeneth
counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2) God reveals to Job how man is
of insufficient knowledge and understanding to question the omniscient God.
3.
“O man, who art thou that repliest
against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it: Why hast thou
made me thus?” (Romans 9:20) God reveals that man as creature is in no place to
question the universal Creator.
This
dependence on God does not relieve us of our moral duty to work towards the
cause. Ezra, Nehemiah, and their
compatriots had to work to return and rebuild Jerusalem, although their efforts
depended upon God for success. As
Matthew Henry notes in his commentary concerning them: “our prayers must be
seconded with our serious endeavors, else we mock God.”
So our dependence upon God is necessary,
such dependence on God is rational, and this dependence on God still involves
work on our side.
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