Symbol of Freedom and Faith

meridian magazine ^ | 4 July 2004 | meridian magazine

[BlueMoose]

Beginning in 1793, England and France were intent on crushing each other. For over 20 years they fought a war over territories staked out by both sides during the previous 200 years. The Americans, having won their independence only recently, entered the war in 1812 after many of their merchant ships had been confiscated or destroyed by the British.

[Alex Murphy]

....we should not be surprised to find that the Calvinists took a very important part in American Revolution. Calvin emphasized that the sovereignty of God, when applied to the affairs of government proved to be crucial, because God as the Supreme Ruler had all ultimate authority vested in Him, and all other authority flowed from God, as it pleased Him to bestow it.

The Scriptures, God's special revelation of Himself to mankind, were taken as the final authority for all of life, as containing eternal principles, which were for all ages, and all peoples. Calvin based his views on these very Scriptures. As we read earlier, in Paul's letter to the Romans, God's Word declares the state to be a divinely established institution.

History is eloquent in declaring that the American republican democracy was born of Christianity and that form of Christianity was Calvinism. The great revolutionary conflict which resulted in the founding of this nation was carried out mainly by Calvinists--many of whom had been trained in the rigidly Presbyterian college of Princeton....

....In fact, most of the early American culture was Reformed or tied strongly to it (just read the New England Primer). Von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, a Roman Catholic intellectual and National Review contributor, asserts: “If we call the American statesmen of the late eighteenth century the Founding Fathers of the United States, then the Pilgrims and Puritans were the grandfathers and Calvin the great-grandfather…”
-- from the thread John Calvin: Religious liberty and Political liberty

Related threads:
John Calvin, Calvinism, and the founding of America
Calvin's 500th Birthday Celebrated: Critics and Supporters Agree He was America's Founding Father
AMERICA AND JOHN CALVIN
America's debt to John Calvin
Lessons to be learned from Reformation
Theocracy: the Origin of American Democracy
American Government and Christianity - America's Christian Roots
The Faith of the Founders, How Christian Were They
John Calvin: Religious liberty and Political liberty
Abraham Kuyper on American Liberty
The Man Who Founded America
The Puritans and the founding of America
Perhaps Puritans weren't all that bad
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Bible Battles: King James vs. the Puritans
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In Praise of a Puritan America
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The Pilgrims and the founding of America
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Judge reminds: Faith ‘permeated our culture’ since the Pilgrims
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America’s Constitutional Foundation of Biblical Covenant
Reformation Faith & Representative Democracy
A Moral Vision [Oliver Cromwell, the American Revolution, and Pluralism]

[ClearCase_guy]

Beginning in 1793, England and France were intent on crushing each other.

I don't mean to be picky, but England and France fought countless wars. They tried to crush each other over the course of centuries. In the eighteenth century alone, there were Queen Anne's War, The Seven Years War, and the struggle mentioned here that led into the Napoleonic wars. They were on opposite sides in the American Revolution as well.

I just have a hard time with jumping into the topic with "beginning in 1793 ...".