“So help me God” was not in the oath of office as George Washington took that oath when he was inaugurated as the first President of the United States. It was added by Washington himself at the end of taking the actual oath. Although it has never been officially added to the oath, every President since Washington has also included the phrase at its conclusion.
What are they giving oath to? And what did they invoke God to assist them in?
Among the other things they pledge is “to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America”. And historically we know some have not, that some have outright broken the Constitution they pledged to protect and which they implored God to help them to do.
Did God fail to help them? Did the devil get in? Did the citizens not pray enough for their respective leader? Or was Jesus to be taken seriously when He said on the Cross, “It is finished”.
Before revolutionary America and since, people who do not accept or understand their own greatness or that of their peers often add God to the equation in almost every scenario. By doing so, they diminish the freedom and wisdom of their own heart (and of all others) which ironically God Himself imputed to all people.
This attitude of “adding God” to what is produced out of our own hearts (and should be recognized as such) can also diminish our mental capacity to pursue fact and truth.
The United States, whose birth we just celebrated, was not born out of the will of God.
Nor was it founded with God’s hands-on assistance.
It was conceived and forged by the will of men from within their own hearts.
Yes, it was conceived from the heart of mankind. The same heart of mankind freed by God Himself!
No act of God formed these United States.
Ever since the Cross, freedom has been integrally joined to the heart of every human being. And from then to now, a struggle has been engaged for that freedom of the heart (that God gave each person) to be realized in each one’s mind, intellect, will, and emotions–the human soul.
The birth of this nation was simply a slight reflection of that magnificent freedom.
This is akin to the reflection of light that comes off one molecule of water that has worked its way to the surface. This may possibly be for the first time in history that the light hit that molecule in just the right way, when it was finally at the surface (perhaps at the surface for the first time ever, too) and reflect it in such a way that it hit the beholder’s eye for just a split second.
And what a glorious image it was!
So much so, and so powerful a moment it was and so timely to he or she who experiences it, that it must have to be “miraculous” or to have that added “God factor”.
But it wasn’t a miracle. There was a scientific, observable, quantifiable explanation behind it, as wonderful as it was to the observer.
What happened in the 1770s must have seemed just as “miraculous” to those who experienced it and also to those who have looked back on those days. But the glory of this nation’s existence was not founded on the assumption that providence or the intervention of God is her strength.
But rather, it was without providence or intervention of any supernatural power that the U.S.A. was established and exists to this day.
At this point in our history, it is vital to understand that God is neither for nor against my ideas or yours–no matter how inspired they may be.
Still, it is equally important to know that God is the only source of freedom producing our ideas and thoughts.
When we think that our ideas are validated by God, it not only can give me the assumed right to assassinate the character of those who think differently than I — but since God is on my side — I MUST destroy the character of those who disagree with those ideas (or doctrines) that God has “blessed” and supposedly validated.
The power of the Cross is that man had no part in the freedom that was purchased for us.
The power of this nation is that God was not involved in establishing it.
If we are able to keep the glory of these two apart — God’s accomplishment at the Cross and humanity’s accomplishments on the Earth — we stand a chance to unleash the most creative power ever seen on this planet.
Perhaps we could even see true freedom manifest worldwide, not just for a few (or one) nation “blessed” by God.
God not only did not establish the United States. He also did not establish Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, modern-day Judaism, ET AL.
God, through Jesus Christ, did establish the Gospel. The only hope of true glory we really have.
– Mike Williams