The Gospel Dispensation and the Unanimous Declaration

In his 4^th of July speech in 1837, John Quincy Adams argued the following:

"Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer’s mission upon the earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity?"

Adams asked a question that on the surface might seem almost heretical to the devout Christian. Adams linked the founding of the nation with the birth of Christ. He quickly answers the question with an explanation of explained his meaning. He posited that the birth of the nation is “indissolubly” linked to the birth of Christ.  Adams used the phrase “chain of human events” to refer to what Christians call the providential hand of God. He connected the Declaration with the idea of the Social Compact put forth years earlier by men such as John Locke in the mid-17^th century. Social Compact theory suggests that in order to live together peacefully there must be a construct or pact that elevates agreement above the whims of men. The Mayflower Compact was such a construct. Before the English separatists would disembark from the Mayflower in 1620, they signed a basic agreement determining how they would live together in what they called the “civil body politick. Adams went on to assert that the founding of the United States of America forms a leading event in the “gospel dispensation.” The United States would become the largest liberty promoting nation in the history of the world. The liberty produced under this system propelled the nation into the largest exporter of Christian missionaries and Christian thought for the next two centuries, hence the “dispensation” of the gospel.

Excerpted from the section "The United States Constitution and Christianity" by Robert J. Menges and Dr. Peter Beck - The Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States