The Founders Meant to Keep Government Out of the Church, Not God Out of the Government

Paul Strand : Aug 14, 2020
CBN News

Not only did the First Amendment say, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion," but it also said, "or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

[CBN News] Recent legal battles over churches' religious liberties in California raise serious questions about the freedom to worship in America. So when our Founders came up with the First Amendment, were they trying to keep government free from religion? Or religion free from government? (Image: via PearlsofProfundity)

These days, the phrase "wall of separation between church and state" has come to mean keeping God or His Believers from having a big effect on government and public life. But that's far, far from what the Founding Fathers were thinking of when they were separating Church and state.

Fear of an All-Powerful State Church Wed to the Power of the Government

They were afraid of what so many of the Old World countries had: a religion established by the state as its one true religion, that would tyrannically rule over the faith and conscience of every citizen.

As the Providence Forum's Peter Lillback put it, "They recognized having a monolithic church was a dangerous thing." That's because it made the king not only their physical sovereign but also their all-powerful spiritual ruler.

Before the Pilgrims fled England, Wallbuilders' David Barton recalled, "The Pilgrims' pastor was executed because he made the statement that Jesus Christ is head of the Church. And the monarch said, ‘oh no, I'm the head of the Church. You're dead.'"

Wouldn't Allow a Church of America Like the Brits Had the Church of England

Knowing of such terror and tyranny, AmericanMinute.com historian William Federer explained how the Founders felt: "Their big fear was the federal government was going to follow the blueprint of every country in Europe and pick one national denomination."

So what they meant by saying in the First Amendment "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" was that the federal government was banned from creating—or "establishing"—a national religion with the national government wedded to it.

"They didn't want to have a national, established Church of America like you have the Church of England, forcing people to believe something that they didn't believe in," said Jerry Newcombe, host of the radio program "Vocal Point".

"What they said was, 'We don't want a state church here. Consciously, therefore, they were separating the Church from government," Lillback said.

But that was strictly to protect the churches and each Believer's faith and conscience from the government.

All About Protecting Each American's Conscience and Freedom to Believe

Not only did the First Amendment say, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion," but it also said, "or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

"What they wanted was the freedom that we have in the Bible: the rights of conscience," Barton said. "And they didn't want the state telling us how we could or couldn't practice our faith."

Lillback said the Founders keeping government control away from faith meant, "Each of us has a right to be who we are before God. It has been well said and it's a classic statement of religious liberty that man is not free unless he is free on the inside. We have to have the freedom to believe what we believe. That's what the First Amendment protects."

'God: He's on Both Sides of the Wall'

And that's what Christian historian Eddie Hyatt explained Thomas Jefferson was talking about when he wrote the letter that first used the famous "wall of separation" phrase to a group of worried Baptists.

"He said that the First Amendment had erected a wall of separation that would protect them from any intrusion of the government," Hyatt stated. "In Jefferson's mind, the wall of separation was a uni-directional wall, put there to keep the government out of the Church; not to keep the influence of the Church out of the government."

There was no antipathy towards the Lord in all of this, Lillback insisted, saying, "But the idea of God: He's on both sides of the wall. And He's welcome there. And He should be."

The Government Is Reaching Over that Wall, Bossing Around People of Faith

But today, there's been a complete flip.

Lillback said, "Those who once believed in this really high and impregnable wall of church and state, we now see the government reaching over that wall and saying, ‘but don't preach that text of Scripture.'"

Barton added, "All of a sudden the government's regulating religious activities, which is what Jefferson said they would not do because of separation of church and state."

Hyatt lamented, "The Founders would be so distressed to see how that statement has been turned on its head"... Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

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