In the story of America's Great Seal, is the imagery suggested by Benjamin Franklin in August 1776. He chose the dramatic historical scene described in Exodus, where people confronted a tyrant in order to gain their freedom.
"Pharaoh sitting in an open Chariot, a Crown on his head and a Sword in his hand, passing through the divided Waters of the Red Sea in Pursuit of the Israelites: Rays from a Pillar of Fire in the Cloud, expressive of the divine Presence and Command, beaming on Moses who stands on the shore and extending his hand over the Sea causes it to overwhelm Pharaoh. Motto: Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God."
For decades the Colonists took every peaceful route to ease the tensions and problems between America and Great Britain. Which are the typical steps to the Just War Theory which describes that a war, while terrible (but less so with the right conduct), is not always the worst option. Important responsibilities, undesirable outcomes, or preventable atrocities may justify war.
The Declaration of Independence lists 27 grievances against the King of Britain. Independence wasn't a popular idea until the last few years and sparked by the Boston Massacre. Many Colonist wanted to keep trying to make peace. But as Thomas Paine explains in his book Common Sense, he replays the history of tyrants, argues that America was seen as a threat and as any tyrant they will eventually break the backs of the people.
The battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements where John Parker was a colonial militia officer who commanded the Lexington, Patriot, colonial militia. The British was coming to capture and destroy Colonial military supplies reportedly stored by the Massachusetts militia at Concord.
As the British approached the Minutemen, they cried out “in the name of the King of England throw down your arms.” This response rang out from the colonists, “We recognize no Sovereign but God and no King but Jesus!” Then Captain Parker said to his Minutemen, “Stand your ground, don’t fire unless fired upon. But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.” Then the first shot rang out, the shot heard around the world.
Paul Revere recalled it as having been "Let the soldiers pass by. Do not molest them without they begin first". The first shots rang out at sunrise and 4 minutemen laid dead. The war began.
This stance was also held by the just war theory that possessing a just cause is the first and arguably the most important condition of jus ad bellum. Most theorists hold that initiating acts of aggression is unjust and gives a group a just cause to defend itself.
The founders debated for years was rebelling against tyrants something that God would honor.
As to how the design of the Pine Tree flag came to be as the standard of the Massachusetts navy, "an appeal to Heaven" or similar expressions had been invoked by the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in several resolutions, Patrick Henry in his Liberty or Death speech, and the Second Continental Congress in the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms. Subsequently, it was used again by the Second Continental Congress in the Declaration of Independence.
The founders after divine providence, escalating events and Biblical scriptures had the majority of colonies ready to sign the Declaration.
https://www.amazon.com/Miracles-American-Revolution-Intervention-Republic/dp/1594672032
What Biblical scriptures would have brought them to conclude the Declaration to be just?
They viewed Romans 13 as the utmost foundation for God ordained Government. Verse 3 mimics the Declaration. Good Government shouldn't be a terror to good people but promote security and prosperity.
Romans 13:1-3 NIV
13 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended.
Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,
(and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness.)
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Other Biblical events like Moses freeing God's people from slavery and the tyrannical control of Pharaoh. When Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den (Daniel 6:10). When Meshach, Shadrach, and Abed-ego were commanded to bow to Nebuchadnezzar's 90-foot golden statue, they broke the king's law by refusing to bow (Daniel 3:18). When Herod ordered the 3 wise men to return with information regarding the whereabouts of the Christ child, they didn't return. Samson was used to help free his people from the Philistines.
Gideon was chosen to free his people from the Midianites. In Revelation where the Antichrist commands all those who are alive during the end times to worship him the faithful must resist. Obadiah who “feared the Lord greatly.” When the queen Jezebel was killing God’s prophets, Obadiah took a hundred of them and hid them from her so they could live.
And Acts 5:29 the Apostles stood up against the Sanhedrin and Peter stood up to say, "We ought to obey God rather than men."
(This is a history lesson and by no means a message to incite violence or call for disobedience. But to better explain our country's beginning wasn't just over taxes or tea but was decades of grievances. Right or wrong everyone has their own right to conscience as Paul says in Romans 14:23 (NIV)
23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
And living in a sinful fallen world sometimes the hardest decisions are those where death and pain are promised but the outcome of inaction is so much more severe.
Hopefully none of us or our kids will have to face such decisions as the Colonists did but as evident above the Founders acted in faith knowing God was on their side. )
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