UNDER GOD

Written in 1892, our Pledge of Allegiance was a celebratory remark used throughout the public schools to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus discovering the New World. Since then, it has become a national oath of loyalty to the country, a statement of unity, and a defense of the American way of life.

The Pledge of Allegiance gained popularity among adults during the patriotic fervor of World War II. It was an unofficial pledge until June 22, 1942, when Congress included the pledge in the United States Flag Code (Title 36). This was the first official sanction given to the words that schoolchildren had been saying for almost fifty years. In 1945, the pledge received its official title: The Pledge of Allegiance.

In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved the addition of  ‘under God’  in order to differentiate the United States from the officially atheist Soviet Union:

“In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource in peace and war.”

In any discussion of authority in America, we must always remember that the authority for government comes from ‘We the People’ under the authority of God. It does not come from government except as granted by the people, to their representatives, and to which government the people promise all due submission. The power of government still rests upon the shoulders of the people and their duly elected representatives in determining which laws are righteous and therefore under God and worthy of our submission, and which laws are unjust, detrimental to society, in opposition to God’s revealed will, and therefore not worthy of due submission. Instead, unrighteous laws must be opposed, rescinded, repealed, and removed. To submit to unrighteous laws is to be in rebellion to God.

Note the use of Eisenhower’s words, ‘spiritual weapons’.  President Eisenhower understood that the reality, in our national heritage, of religious faith was still necessary and our most powerful resource in peace and in war.  That faith in God and obedience to our covenant with Him truly is a ‘spiritual weapon’!

Our position under God, our obedience to Him . . . Our most powerful resource then, in 1954 . . . and now, in 2013!

THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

I pledge allegiance to the flag

Of the United States of America,

And to the Republic for which it stands,

One Nation under God, Indivisible,

With Liberty And Justice

For All!