Celebrating God’s Providence in America (Part 2)

From the Great Awakening to Common Sense

Remembering America's 250th Anniversary with Gratitude, Humility, and Historical Care in a Three-Part Series

---

Premise: Divine Providence is the biblical truth that the sovereign God of Scripture actively directs the affairs of nations and individuals according to His wise purposes.

As we continue in our series on the Providence of God’s hand upon the history of our nation, we see the Almighty’s hand clearly working in the establishment of a new and very special type of nation which the world had not yet experienced.

4 More Providential Moments Worth Remembering at the 250^th Anniversary of America’s Founding

5. The Great Awakening (1730s-1740s): standing personally before God with Christ as sole Mediator

The Great Awakening renewed religious seriousness across the colonies. It also weakened automatic deference to inherited status, established elites, and merely formal religion. The revivals taught ordinary men and women that they stood personally before God, that conversion mattered, that conscience mattered, and that spiritual authority could not simply be inherited by office. This did not cause the Revolution by itself, but it helped form a people less willing to believe that authority was legitimate merely because it was old, distant, or aristocratic.

“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” 1 Timothy 2:5:

6. George Washington Survives Braddock's Defeat (1755): Washington's miraculous escape

During the French and Indian War, George Washington survived the disastrous British defeat under General Braddock near the Monongahela. The young Washington had horses shot from under him and bullets pass through his clothing, yet he survived. Later generations sometimes embellished this story, but Washington's escape was remarkable. Many Americans saw it providentially: the man who would later become indispensable to the Revolution had been preserved long before the Revolution began.

“For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” (Psalm 91:11)

7. The First Continental Congress Opens with Prayer (1774 and 1787): acknowledging public dependence on God

When the First Continental Congress met in 1774, it opened with prayer. That moment does not make the Congress a church, nor does it erase denominational differences among the colonies. But it does reveal that public dependence on God was natural to many founding-era leaders. As colonial resistance began to take organized form, prayer was not treated as embarrassing or irrelevant. The political crisis was also understood as a moral and spiritual crisis.

Bonus! Benjamin Franklin’s Call to Prayer (1787) At the deadlocked Constitutional Convention, Franklin urged delegates to pray, reminding them that “God governs in the affairs of men.” Many credit this moment with breaking the impasse and leading to the Constitution.  Franklin argued that just as a sparrow cannot fall without divine notice, an empire cannot rise without God's aid, urging the delegates to pray for "the Father of Lights" to illuminate their political deliberations. 

 “Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” James 1:5

8. Thomas Paine's Common Sense (1776): the Biblical Case Against Monarchy

Thomas Paine was not an orthodox evangelical Christian, but Common Sense powerfully used biblical arguments against monarchy. Paine reminded Bible-reading colonists that Israel's desire for a king in 1 Samuel was portrayed as a rejection of God's rule. This mattered because it helped ordinary people see resistance to monarchy not merely as political rebellion, but as a morally serious rejection of hereditary, divine-right claims to rule.

And the LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king.” 1 Samuel 8:7

---

The early history of our nation is marked with profound spirituality as God granted the spread of the gospel through the Great Awakening. Our history unfolded under the sovereign hand of God, accompanied by prayer and miracles.

Coming Soon: Part 3 of 3 From Declarations to the Constitution

If you missed Part 1 of this three-part series, you may read it here:

Part 1 of 3—From the Mayflower to William Penn