Loyalist Preachers During the American Revolution (1765-1783)

Liberty U Digital ^ | May 2021 | Christena Renea Leaverton

[CondoleezzaProtege]

In the time leading up to and during the American Revolution (1765-1783), Loyalist preachers defended their stance on remaining loyal to Great Britain utilizing Bible themes and specific verses. Oftentimes, as with the Patriots, these Loyalist preachers took these themes and verses out of context or misquoted them.

Despite violent opposition, these men and women stood firm in their conviction and remained loyal to Great Britain and to God.

They believed they were to honor and submit to the governing authority. They believed this so abundantly that they would have remained loyal even to a tyrannical government.

They reminded others that, historically, Christians have always remained loyal, even in the face of evil. For resisting power was resisting God...

During the Revolutionary era, government and obedience were two of the main conflicts, so it stands to reason that sermons would revolve around this. Gregg L. Frazer tells us, “Ministers who remained loyal to Great Britain argued from the ‘very simply constructed text’ of 1 Peter 2 and the accepted, literal reading of Romans 13.”

[CondoleezzaProtege]

1 Peter 2:13-17
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, and honor the king.

Romans 13:1-7
Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God; therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil—do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same, for he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore, you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake, for because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, and honor to whom honor.

[hoosierham]

I cannot believe obeying Hitler and delivering millions of people tp execution was obeying God.
Nor obeying the Godless Communists or other mass murderers.

[MMusson]

John Wesley was pro British. It created a problem with the American Methodists.

[SoConPubbie]

Later in life he admitted the American Revolution was the correct response to the tyranny of the King.

[Presbyterian Reporter]

It was good to read there were only a handful of Loyalist Preachers during the Revolutionary War.

Compare that today and huge number of MainLine Preachers are socialists.

[kosciusko51]

The American Revolution was sometimes called the “Presbyterian Rebellion”

... As such, one loyalist, Rev. William Jones, told the British government in 1776 that the revolution was instigated by Presbyterians who were “Calvinists by profession, and Republicans in their politics” and that “this has been a Presbyterian war from the beginning.” Another loyalist in New York wrote in 1774 about the Presbyterians, “I fix all the blame for these extraordinary American proceedings upon them. Believe me, the Presbyterians have been the chief and principle instruments in all these flaming measures.”

[Fungi]

The American Revolution Was Fueled by Preaching
By Elizabeth Youmans • July 3, 2017

This is post 4 of 5 in the series “colonial education”

The Role of the Bible in Early American Education
Christ-Centered Education Produces Leaders
Christ-Centered Education Produces Leaders, part 2
The American Revolution Was Fueled by Preaching
Teach Character and Understanding at Home

Colonial preachers such as George Whitefield energized the American Revolution

From the mid-1600s to the mid-1800s, public schools as we know them today were virtually nonexistent. Parents, pastors, and tutors taught the rising generation how to read, write, and cipher and how to think and reason using the Bible as their primer or first book of instruction. In these 200 years, America produced five generations of extraordinary men and women who laid the foundation for a nation dedicated to the Christian principle of liberty and the art of self-government.

The private system of education in which our forefathers were educated included home, school, church, voluntary associations such as library companies and philosophical societies, circulating libraries, apprenticeships, and private study. It was a system supported primarily by private benefactors, although there was a veneer of government involvement in some colonies, such as in Puritan Massachusetts. All was done without compulsion.[1]

The Old Deluder’s Law of 1642 was passed in the Massachusetts colony. It stated: “All youth are be taught to read perfectly the English tongue, have knowledge in the laws and be taught some orthodox catechism.” Colonial America also had dame schools, in which neighborhood children were taught to read and write by women in their own kitchens.

Unlike modern America, in which the most influential voice in the culture is the media, in colonial America the pulpit served as the single most powerful voice to inspire the thinking and reasoning of the colonists. What fired the colonial pulpit was the influence of Reformers John Knox and John Calvin. Their teachings on the Kingdom of Christ and the authority of the Scripture gave rise to the colonial form of self- and civil government.

Jonathan Edwards’ preaching helped fuel the American RevolutionThe colonial pulpit, which began with men like Joseph Cotton, 1630 Puritan pastor of Boston, remained for 150 years the primary educational influence for the colonials through the preaching of such clergymen as Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards (evangelical patriarch), George Whitefield (First Great Awakening), Dr. John Witherspoon (signer of the Declaration of Independence), Samuel Davies (pastor of Patrick Henry), Jonas Clark (Lexington, 1775), and Peter Muhlenburg (“Give ‘em Watts, boys!”), to name just a few. These were giants indeed, men who faithfully led their congregations to think biblically. Some clergy even donned the garb of soldier during the American Revolution to fight tirelessly with pen and sword for the cause of Christian civilization on the North American continent. According to Yale historian, Harry S. Stout,

Over the span of the colonial era, American ministers delivered approximately eight million sermons, each lasting one to one-and-a-half hours. The average 70-year-old colonial churchgoer would have listened to some 7,000 sermons in his or her lifetime, totaling nearly 10,000 hours of concentrated listening. This is the number of classroom hours it would take to receive ten separate undergraduate degrees in a modern university, without ever repeating the same course![2]

The sermon provided colonial families an excellent educational experience. Sunday morning was not only a time to hear the latest news and see old friends, but it was also an opportunity to sit under a man of God who had spent many hours preparing for a two, three, or even four-hour sermon. Many a colonial pastor spent eight to twelve hours daily studying, praying over, and writing his sermon. Unlike sermons on the frontier in the mid-19th century, colonial sermons were filled with the fruits of years of study. They were geared not only to the emotions and will, but also to the intellect.

The sermon was one of the chief literary genres in colonial America. Listeners followed sermons closely, took mental notes, and discussed the message with their family on Sunday afternoon. Thus, without ever attending a college or seminary, a churchgoer in colonial America could gain an intimate knowledge of Bible doctrine, church history, and classical literature. Questions raised by the sermon could be answered by the pastor or by books in church libraries that sprang up all over the colonies. Often sermons were published, and listeners could review what they had heard on Sunday morning. They were often passed from family to family in a community, as fathers sat nightly with their families around the fireplace rereading the Scriptural references aloud and reviewing each principle with their children. Parents and pastors took seriously their role to educate both the head and the heart.

Sermons were also delivered on various public occasions, such as Days of Thanksgiving or Fasting and the election of officers of the local militia. They were often printed as political pamphlets, as pastors in the 17th and 18th centuries delivered dissertations on civil government. “The annual ‘Election Sermon’—a perpetual memorial that continued down through the generations from century to century—still bears witness [1860] that our forefathers ever began their civil year and its responsibilities with an appeal to Heaven, and recognized Christian morality as the only basis of good laws.”[3]

The years 1740 to 1790 marked an age of “mighty men of God!”—an era of remarkable patriot-preachers who, by their faithful preaching and their righteous lifestyle, laid the foundation for the American Revolution and the founding of the new Republic. “To the Puritan pulpit we owe the force that won our independence.”[4] England’s King George III referred to the Revolution as the “Parson’s Rebellion.”

George Bancroft, 19th century statesman and historian wrote, “the Revolution of 1776, so far as it was affected by religion, was a Presbyterian measure. It was the natural John Witherspoon was instrumental in the American Revolutionoutgrowth of the principles which the Presbyterianism of the Old World planted in her sons in the New World—the English Puritans, the Scottish Covenanters, the French Huguenots, the Dutch Calvinists, and the Presbyterians of Ulster [Ireland]. … The American Revolution was but the application of the principles of the Reformation to civil government.”[5]

Presbyterian Scotsman, Dr. John Witherspoon, was president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and was especially prominent in the independence movement. His influence as a pastor/educator was enormous. One crown official in the colonies wrote back to England that the labors of such clergymen as John Witherspoon so influenced the shape of the conflict that it had very much become a religious war. Witherspoon tutored James Madison, architect of the Constitution and U.S. President, Vice-President Aaron Burr, nine cabinet officers, 21 U.S. Senators, 39 Congressmen, three Supreme Court justices, 12 state governors, and numerous ministers, lawyers, judges, and other public officials. Five of the 55 members of the Constitutional Convention were his students. He nurtured a whole generation of statesmen with the Scriptures and the Covenanter’s view of civil government. He was elected as a delegate from New Jersey to the Continental Congress and served for five years. He was the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence, and during his period in Congress he served on over 120 committees. “One realizes after seeing the character of these men why it is said that the colonists treated them with the kind of reverential regard that they refused to give kings and Anglican bishops.”[6]

The true alliance between politics and religion is the lesson that was inculcated by the colonial clergy. “The pulpit of the Revolution is the voice of the Founding Fathers of the Republic, enforced by their example. They invoked God in their civil assemblies, called upon their chosen teachers of religion for counsel from the Bible, and recognized its precepts as the law of public conduct.”[7] They prepared the new nation for the struggle for liberty with the Word of God and a deep trust in Him in their hearts. This was the colonials’ source of moral energy.

The results of colonial education are most impressive. America’s educational institutions—family, church, and school—produced generations of articulate, Christian men and women who could discourse on complex issues of self- and civil government. Samuel Adams, colonial patriot and father of the American Revolution, summarized the ideal of American colonial education: “To develop a wise and virtuous man, fit to be trusted with the liberty of his country.”[8]

https://darrowmillerandfriends.com/2017/07/03/preaching-fueled-american-revolution/

[madison10]

My ancestor was a Presbyterian minister and a member of thr Black Robed Regiment, Matthias Burnet(t). Yes, the Presbyterians of that time were rebellious patriots. He gave s great sermon on a May election day in 1803:https://wallbuilders.com/resource/sermon-election-1803-connecticut/

“..what are the characteristics and qualifications of the persons you elect to office, and too much attention cannot be paid to it, by all who wish well to their county; because, if the men who, are raised by the people to legislate, judge of, or execute the laws for them, are weak and ignorant, the laws they frame must partake of the same qualities; or if they be corrupt in their principles, and dissolute and immoral in their lives, they will have a motive in their own breast and conduct to be remiss in the execution of the laws, however wise and good they maybe. Yea they become themselves examples and encouragers of vice to others, and thus contribute to weaken and destroy the very government they are sworn to maintain...”

[sauropod]

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[imardmd1]

Reading through the Declaration of Independence shows that it was a declaration of freedom from s powerful leader, King George III, who would mot obey God's law nor British law himself.himself.

Any person aware of the Holy Scriptures theology will that Biblical law supersedes the false theology that Kings have the Divine right thar whatever they wish to "be" the law, rather than to obey it.

And that is why the Magna Carta exists; and why, as one result of the Christian Bible texts translated into English, the common people now reading what their God-given rights really are, deposed the King for a king-less civil government, and executed two kings who tried to take it back as dictators.

God's greatest blessing to the world of humans was and it the eradication of aristocracy in the formation of a Christian nation, the United States of America, formed by Christian men of whom only The Lord Jesus Christ has the Divine Right to be King of All. whose singular primary attribute is Absolute Righteousness. It is He that is recognized in our founding documents.

Those who preached fealty to King George were very imperfect in their theology of government determined to prolong the feudalism of European culture, of which the colonists were determined to escape thet they might pursue the personal freedoms of life, liberty, and such happiness as they might attain.

.

[mairdie]

My family, for the most part, went the other way. 6th ggfather Rev Dr Noah Welles was the Presbyterian minister for Stamford CT. He published his sermon on patriotism and died of a disease contracted while ministering to American prisoners of war on a prison ship, 31 Dec 1776.

https://iment.com/maida/familytree/henry/bios/noahwelles-patriotismdescribedandrecommended-1764.htm

Patriotism Described and Recommended
Sermon Preached to the CT General Assembly
May 10th, 1764

5th great uncle Rev Dr John Henry Livingston

https://iment.com/maida/familytree/henry/bios/revjohnhenrylivingston.htm

was a Dutch Reform theologian who acted as a chaplain for the Revolutionary Army. He was the minister of the NYC Dutch Reformed Church but was forced to flee when the British took NYC. His immediate family lived right on the Hudson River, and he moved his new wife Sarah (1775) there. She was the daughter of one of the Declaration Signers, Philip Livingston, so there was always fear the family would be a target. To avoid incriminating anyone else, JHL burnt his diaries when there was immediate concern. The man was absolutely brilliant, having entered Yale aged 12 and graduating aged 16.

[Tennessee Nana]

I have at least FIVE Loyalist ancestors

I have certificates for them all

I’m a member of the UELAC United Empire Loyalist Association of Canada

Without apologies

Tennessee Nana UE

[Varsity Flight]

Presbyterians. ⚔️✅