On July 4, 2026, America will turn 250 years old and to some that may sound old, but compared to many nations of the world, America is a mere toddler. Our cousin England will be 1100 years old and France is even older than that. The question begs how did a nation so young become so great in such a short period of time. It’s important that we know what made America great if we desire to keep it.
A French political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville came to America in her early years searching for the source of her greatness. His conclusion: I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers—and it was not there, in her fertile fields and boundless forest and it was not there, in her rich mines and her vast world commerce and it was not there, in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.
Christopher Columbus declared “It was the Lord who put into my mind that fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies. All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculing me. There is no question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit, because He comforted me with rays of marvelous inspiration from the Holy Scriptures.” From the beginning, America’s greatness was in her allegiance to God. The opening lines of the Mayflower Compact declare: “In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, having undertaken, for the glory of God, and the advancement of the Christian faith.”
America’s greatest leaders reminded us of the truth of our heritage. George Washington said, “It is impossible to rightly govern without God and the Bible. John Adams declared, “Our constitution was written for a moral and religious nation, it is wholly inadequate for the governing of any other.” Our first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay, wrote: “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” Benjamin Franklin declared: “I firmly believe this, that God governs in the affairs of men, and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel.” Finally, Abraham Lincoln warned us: “We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven... But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.”
America’s greatness can be found in our national motto: IN GOD WE TRUST. One of our greatest songs is entitled God Bless America, but it is high time for Americans to Bless God.
