Does God Appear In The United States Constitution?

Last updated on: October 20, 2015 at 11:37 am by Jack Wellman

Does God Appear In The United States Constitution? 2015-10-20T11:37:41-05:00 Jack Wellman

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Does God’s name appear in the U.S. Constitution? If so, where is it and if not, does this mean the founding fathers were not believers?

The Obvious God

God doesn’t hide Himself as some might think. Anyone with a brain can see that “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1) and in fact, “since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (Rom 1:20) because “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them” (Rom 1:19). God’s existence then is declared or proclaimed through His creation. God’s existence is clearly seen through “what has been made” because “God has shown it to them.” There is no excuse. Only the fool would say in his or her heart that there is no God (Psalm 14:1). For those who deny the existence of God, they are only suppressing the truth (Rom 1:18) because they love their sin and they don’t want to submit to anyone.

References to God

The U.S. Constitution may not directly say God’s name but it does clearly indicate Christianity because George Mason, who is called the “Father of the Bill of Rights” proposed the language of the First Amendment “All men have an equal, natural and unalienable right to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that no particular sect or society of Christians ought to be favored or established by law in preference to others.” [1] This was known as the Establishment Clause because the express purpose for writing this law was so that there would be no state-sanctioned religion as it was in England for which reason the Puritans fled in the first place. What the Puritans wanted was extreme reformed Protestantism, stripped away of ALL Catholic tendencies and the Anglican Church. In reading “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” the framers of the U.S. Constitution intended that the government not interfere with the worship of God or determine which was to be the religion of the state.

The Lord’s Day

Interestingly the Article I, Section 7 stated that “any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it” establishing Sunday as a day that the federal government would not be open. If the foundation of this nation had been Muslim then it might have been Friday or if by Jewish influence, we might expect the government would shut down on Saturday. If there were no Christian influence, would there even be a day of rest at all? Instead, what we see is that Sunday is singled out specifically and there can be no doubt that it was due to the observance of the Lord’s Day.

The Lord’s Name

The U.S. Constitution does reference the Lord and clearly, this is the Lord God for there is no doubt even with the way they dated their document as we read in the close of the Constitution in Article VII that this was “Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America” showing both the Lord’s name and also in specifying the year in which our Lord was born into human flesh and by which we date our years. During George Washington’s first Proclamation as President he said “it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.” [2] Strange talk for an unbeliever, if he were. The most likely reason that God doesn’t appear by name in the Articles of Confederation was because it does not appear in the Preamble in the Articles of Confederation because that document was what they based the Constitution on. It is not hard to see that the fundamental principles and laws of our nation were based upon the Ten Commandments and the ethics of Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

God’s name might not appear in the U.S. Constitution per se but clearly “the heavens proclaim his righteousness, for he is a God of justice” (Psalm 50:6) and His laws are the foundation of the laws of many nations. The inferences about God are clearly seen. Some modern historical revisionists want to change the fact that that this nation was not founded by Protestants but by secularists despite the fact that “God’s invisible qualities…have been clearly seen” and “what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them” so they “are without excuse.” No wonder the fool says in their “heart that there is no God.”

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.

1. Rowland, Kate (1892), The Life of George Mason (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons).

2. Vol 1. Messages and Papers of the Presidents, p. 64 (1896).

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