Celebrating 250 Years: Patrick Henry’s Most Famous Speech & The Bible -6

  Principle: when first things are first… “in His time”(Act1:7), God moves to bless—which means to confirm, establish, and multiply(increase)! For example, if the first priority of a nation* is not God**, it becomes exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for Him to bless the people. Why? When the first priority is not first, all remaining priorities are thrown out of order. For example, one would naturally think that a second priority would move up to become first place when the first priority is rejected. However, this is rarely the case as man’s sin nature causes the lesser priorities to compete for the top spot of the order of things. 
 However, when the first priority is God, He literally intervenes to make the 2nd, 3rd,4th, and 5th priorities align in their proper order. Remember, God is the Creator of order (Jer31:35-37), and works only through His divine system of order!!
  Allow me to offer one example of how America making God our first priority, which reveals the reason God has so blessed this nation***! In 1775 the government leaders of the Virginia colony met in their Second Virginia Convention to determine their future involvement in the threatening war with Britain. The first group of delegates asserted that Britain was too powerful and America too weak. However, Patrick Henry, also a delegate, rose and responded with not only his most famous speech, but one of the most famous speeches in American history:
 
‘Give me Liberty or give me death’
“Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three million people armed in the holy cause of liberty and in such a country as that which we possess are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God Who presides over the destinies of nations, and Who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave…Gentlemen may cry, “Peace, peace,” but there is no peace. The war has actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
 
  First, notice this speech was directed to government officials! Why is this important? Because Henry’s speech overwhelmingly indicates how the Word of God was the norm in the American ‘culture’, at the time of the founding of our country and uncovers another reason this is a Christian nation.
 Of course, you ask how Henry’s speech relates to my above assertion. Although Henry’s words are absent of Bible references, yet it is filled with Biblical speech. For example,
1.“God of nature”. Henry’s use of “God of nature” is a reference to the ‘Creator God’ (Gen1; Ps121:2), Whom not only created all things but also made His creation to behave according to certain laws (Rom1:20; 2:14,15). In addition, Henry’s words allude to the term “laws of nature and of nature’s God,” which was later used by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence; BUT…does NOT refer to deism! For example, William Blackstone used seven pages4* in his ‘Commentaries on the Laws of England’ to explain the ‘laws of nature and of nature’s God’, revealing that its foundation was rooted in the Bible. Before the war with Britain, Blackstone’s ‘Commentaries’ were mandatory reading for all law students in the American colonies and would have been very familiar to Patrick Henry as well as the other delegates in the Virginia Convention.
2.“holy cause of liberty”. Liberty was a “holy cause” because God created man to be free to serve Him (2Cor3:17; Gal5:1,13;). The word “holy” means separated to God, and separated from the world, which means Biblical liberty begins with freedom from sin, yet organically leads to political freedom, and freedom to create.
3.“we shall not fight our battles alone”.  One origin of these words is 2Chronicles 32:8.
4. “just God”. This clause originates in Is45:21; Deut32:4; Ps75:7; 2Thes1:6.
5.“Who presides over the destinies of nations?”. This statement originates in Dan4:17; Duet32:8; Ps67:2,4; Job12:23; Ps9:17; Ps22:28; Ps47:3; Ps72:11,17; Ps86:9; Ps113:4; Is2:2
6.“Who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us”. This is from 2Chron32:8.
7.“The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone”. This comes from Eccl9:11
8.“Peace, peace, but there is no peace”. This is from Jer8:11.
9.“Why stand we here idle?”.  This is from Matt20:6
 
  As you can see, Henry’s government speech was filled with the Word of God, even though he was not a pastor/preacher/reverend… but instead a government official!!!
  First, this reveals just how important it was for early Americans to live according to the Word of God.
  Second, this teaches the delegates had faith in God, through Christ---they were Christians, not just Christianized. Henry used Scripture to encourage the delegates to be like David in his battle with Goliath, and believe God to also deliver them from an impossible-to-defeat foe!!
  Third, because the Word of God was so natural and normal to the American culture at that time, Bible references in speeches were unnecessary. I repeat, the Bible was assumed to be the source of American opinions.
   In conclusion, because America has historically made the Word of God our top priority, God has blessed this nation more than any nation…in the history of the world!!!!
 
 
*individual or family too
**Bible, Word of God
***Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. -Ps33:12
4* ‘Defending the Declaration’, by Gary Amos. Pg 42
 
Quotebit
Rev. Richard Wurmbrand was imprisoned in Communist Romania for 14 years. He stated of America in 1967: "America is the hope of every enslaved man, because it is the last bastion of freedom in the world.