On the stage of the Museum of the Bible during Rededicate America, as Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon, I bellowed a motto of the War for Independence: “No king but King Jesus!”

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I posted the phrase on social media, and a friend from high school called its veracity into question, so I did a little digging.

I was introduced to the phrase by David Barton, founder of WallBuilders, which holds a very impressive collection of original documents from our founding era. In an interview with Pat Robertson, Mr. Barton said, “…that motto, ‘No king but King Jesus’ was a big part of the Revolution.”

Here are some of the arguments he made:

The motto that was often used — it showed up in the Vermont Legislature — It was built actually on what Jefferson and Franklin had proposed as the national motto, which is, Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. That’s based on Acts four and five, where the Apostles said, “Well, do we obey God? Do we obey man? We think we’ll obey God.” North Carolina’s currency had a picture of a crown with an X over it, and it had a Bible under it, and it said, “The Bible is our law.”

The phrase may have been inspired when, on April 18, 1775, a British soldier told John Hancock, John Adams, and other Sons of Liberty to “disperse in the name of George the Sovereign King of England.” Mr. Adams replied, “We recognize no sovereign but God, and no king but Jesus!”

Slate conceded “historical references to it being said by Presbyterians…” before discounting its popularity:

But it was the Enlightenment, not Revelation, which was the underlying philosophy of the founders. While Jefferson was a member of the Anglican Church, he, like Washington, Adams, Madison, and Franklin, was a Deist. 

Were our founders Deists?

By definition (Merriam-Webster), Deists deny “the interference of the Creator with the laws of the universe.”

Is that what our founders believed?

Twenty-nine of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence attended colleges established to produce pastors.

One of the signers, Samuel Adams, spoke from the steps of what would soon be known as “Independence Hall” the day before the engrossed version of the Declaration was signed on August 2, 1776. He said, “This day we have restored the Sovereign to Whom alone men ought to be obedient.” As I put it in my monologue, “The Israelites rejected God as their king when they begged Him for a man, but we rejected a man and chose the Lord!”

Later in the speech, Samuel Adams said, “The hand of heaven appears to have led us…” Sounds like interference from the Creator to me.

Thomas Jefferson, who put together the first plan of public education for what’s now Washington, D.C., where he is said to have never missed a church service in the Capitol rotunda while President, recommended the same curriculum he had as a boy: The Bible. To that, he added the hymns of Dr. Isaac Watts. When he was Governor of Virginia, he called for a day of Thanksgiving and Prayer on December 9, 1779, not something one might do if he expected no interference from the Creator.

The President of the Continental Congress, John Hancock, also called for Thanksgiving when he served as Governor of Massachusetts. One year, he concluded with this prayer directive: “That all may bow to the Scepter of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, and the whole Earth be filled with HIS Glory.”

In his first inaugural address as President, George Washington — who had bullet holes in his coat and horses shot out from under him — said:

… it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. …

No wonder he chose the “Appeal to Heaven” flag to be flown from the ships of our first navy.

Benjamin Franklin may well have been the most secular of our founders, but — as portrayed in A Great Awakening — after partnering with Rev. George Whitefield to publish when and where he’d be speaking, Dr. Franklin helped Rev. Whitefield share the Gospel with as many as 80% of our colonists.

When the Constitutional Convention of 1787 was at loggerheads, Dr. Franklin addressed George Washington, who served as president of the Convention:

…how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings? In the beginning of the contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine Protection. — Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance.

I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth — that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without [H]is notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without [H]is aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that “except the Lord build the House they labor in vain that build it.” I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without [H]is concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel…

I therefore beg leave to move — that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that service. …

So, who were the Deists?

And who’s to tell whether our soldiers yelled, “No taxation without representation” — expressed in the 17th of the Declaration’s 27 grievances — or “No king but King Jesus” more often?

As Mr. Barton said of the latter, “It was the motto of the Revolution, and that’s established.”

Why does it matter?

I believe one of the reasons people want to undermine the Christian foundations of our nation is so people can live like in the days of the judges: In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25).

I don’t think there’s a soul who wants the government to establish a Church of America. Before escaping to our shores, the British government imprisoned 20 Pilgrims because they wanted to worship God alone and not the Church of England. Neither do we want to be governed by a Church of Paganism.

Our founders knew that morality needed to flourish.

In his best-selling book, Revolution, Eric Metaxas quotes Samuel Adams in a letter to a friend, May of 1776:

I have long been convinced that our enemies have made it an object, to eradicate from the minds of the people in general a sense of true religion & virtue, in hopes thereby the more easily to carry their point of enslaving them.

Rev. Dr. Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration, preached on May 17, 1776, 250 years before our nation was rededicated to the Lord. It was a Friday, and the First Continental Congress had called for it to be a day of solemn Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer. Rev. Dr. Witherspoon preached that day:

Nothing is more certain, than that corruption of manners makes a people ripe for destruction. A good form of government may hold the rotten materials together for some time, but beyond a certain pitch, even the best constitution will be ineffectual…

Eleven years later, his student, James Madison, led the way in framing our Constitution. He said:

We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.

Post your prayers for our nation to turn away from tyranny and back to our Judeo-Christian roots…

Rich Swingle has presented in 42 nations on six continents, mostly with his own one-man plays. Rich and his bride Joyce Swingle have 41 “screen children” from film, stage, and audio drama projects. At Rededicate America, Rich also portrayed Rev. John Bacon, who welcomed the Sons of Liberty to Old South Meeting House, where they planned what would be known as The Boston Tea Party. The Swingles’ home mission is New York City. www.RichDrama.com. Photo Credit: Matt Marzorati on Unsplash.