Civil Government
Calvin moved outside the purely theological realm to affect life in other ways. In the church as an institution, he taught a form of government which was a representative, constitutional republic, in which representative elders from the congregation rule the church body. Also in the state Calvin was a constitutionalist. James I of England, as a monarch, knew this well when he said, "Presbyterianism agreeth with monarchy like God with the devil." French historian Alexis de Tocqueville came to America in its beginning and examined out ways. He said that because Calvin exalted one sovereign beneath Him, all concepts of divine right of kings or infallible decrees of popes could not endure before the awful majesty of the sovereign God. So it was that personal freedom and representative, constitutional, republican government came to America, largely by influence of various Calvinists.
Roots of America
The passengers on the Mayflower called Pilgrims were Calvinists of strictest order. They stated while they were on the Mayflower that they were in complete agreement with the church in Amsterdam, Holland, which they had left and which was a Dutch Calvinist church. So also were thousands of English Puritans who followed later into Massachusetts.
According to historians there were three million Americans at the time of the Revolution. Of these, 900,000 were Scotch Presbuterians, 600,000 were English Puritans, and 400,000 German or Dutch Reformed. Two-thirds of the colonists were Calvinists in background at least.
The American historian Bancroft, said the American Revolution, so far as it was affected by religion, was a Presbyterian movement. One zealot wrote King George saying, "I fix all the blame for these extraordinary proceedings upon the Presbyterians." Prime Minister William Pitt, upon receiving word of the revolution back in England, rose in the House of Lords and uttered these famous words, "Cousin America has run off with a Presbyterian parson." He meant John Witherspoon, the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence, president of Princeton at the time. It is also interesting to note that when the British surrendered at Yorktown, all of Gen. Washington’s colonels (the commissioned officers of the American Army) except one, were actually Presbyterian elders.
Is all this mere coincidence?
-Dr. D. James Kennedy, Christian Observer, June 16, 1989
Roots of America
The passengers on the Mayflower called Pilgrims were Calvinists of strictest order. They stated while they were on the Mayflower that they were in complete agreement with the church in Amsterdam, Holland, which they had left and which was a Dutch Calvinist church. So also were thousands of English Puritans who followed later into Massachusetts.
According to historians there were three million Americans at the time of the Revolution. Of these, 900,000 were Scotch Presbuterians, 600,000 were English Puritans, and 400,000 German or Dutch Reformed. Two-thirds of the colonists were Calvinists in background at least.
The American historian Bancroft, said the American Revolution, so far as it was affected by religion, was a Presbyterian movement. One zealot wrote King George saying, "I fix all the blame for these extraordinary proceedings upon the Presbyterians." Prime Minister William Pitt, upon receiving word of the revolution back in England, rose in the House of Lords and uttered these famous words, "Cousin America has run off with a Presbyterian parson." He meant John Witherspoon, the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence, president of Princeton at the time. It is also interesting to note that when the British surrendered at Yorktown, all of Gen. Washington’s colonels (the commissioned officers of the American Army) except one, were actually Presbyterian elders.
Is all this mere coincidence?
-Dr. D. James Kennedy, Christian Observer, June 16, 1989
BACK