Young Christian Leaders' Alliance

The Bible states in I Samuel 15:23,“Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” God is clear throughout His Word that rebellion against constituted authority, which He has set up, is a great evil.

Some today believe the American Founders rebelled against Great Britain when they fought the War of Independence. Modern readers of the 1776 Declaration have been taught to see the document as lawless and revolutionary (in today’s sense of the word).  The American Revolution has been compared to the French Revolution several years later, or to other rebellions, which actually would be better contrasted against the experience of the American colonists. If it is true that the American Founders were godly and wise men who upheld the Truth of Scripture, why would they carry out a rebellion against their king merely because of high taxes?  In fact, they did nothing of the sort. 

The War of Independence was fought to defend a country which had been free for over 150 years prior. The citizens of the American continent had been respected as Englishmen, but under their own legislatures rather than Parliament. With the accession of King George III there was a shift in the attitude toward the colonists. They began to be viewed as subjects of an empire, rather than people with equal rights as their colonial charters (or constitutions) demanded. 

The colonists began to protest. They even held events such as the Boston Tea Party in 1773, to keep unlawful acts from being enforced. Yet, very few people wereever harmed, and there were never any mobs in the streets or storming of castles, as in the French Revolution. The colonists sought every possible way to attain reconciliation with the king. However, on April 19, 1775, British soldiers invaded the inland of Massachusetts in the battles of Lexington and Concord. The British government had declared war on its own citizens. Still, the Continental Congress implored the king to cease this tyrannical treatment, sending him the conciliatory Olive Branch Petition. Instead of responding, the king declared the colonies to be in a state of rebellion. 

Finally, in December of 1775, the British government approved the Prohibitory Act, banning all trade with America and declaring the colonies out of the king’s protection. 

***  To be continued…