American exceptionalism

America is different from any other nation in history. She is special. When America began in the late 18th century, she was insignificant on the world stage, although her unique form of government and unmatched liberty would become examples to the world. Her great personal, religious, economic, and civil liberties produced advancement and growth unlike any nation before her.

By the beginning of the 20th century, America had become the leading nation in the world and held that place for generations. She led the way in new inventions, discoveries, and advancements that benefited all men. She became the world’s most productive nation and a leader in education, medicine, technology, and science.

By 1960, she produced 39% of the world’s output with only 6% of its population. America, even with her faults and shortcomings, became the most free and prosperous nation to have ever existed. America became an exceptional nation. Her excellence had nothing to do with any inherent value of the American people, but it had to do with the valuable ideas on which she was founded.

A few of these ideas include the following: valuing the individual; freedom of worship; freedom of assembly; opportunity for all to labor and benefit from the fruit of their labor; freedom to elect representatives and have a voice in government; freedom of thought and expression of ideas; freedom to own property; freedom to obtain ideas, start businesses, and create wealth; limited jurisdiction of civil government; equal standing before the law for all people; no class distinctions; and the central role of the family. All these ideas are part of the American Dream.

These ideas produced great liberty, justice, prosperity, charity, virtue, and knowledge. They made America a success and made her powerful. Her power and wealth were used not for conquest but for good – for furthering liberty in the world.

A blessing

American’s private sector has ben generous to other nations by giving aid, starting hospitals and schools, sending forth missionaries, and much more. The American government has also assisted many nations who fought against tyrants seeking to oppress them and provided large sums of money to nations during natural disasters and other threats.

Throughout America’s history, people have flocked to her shores to experience the fruits of liberty and prosperity. Those that come are greatly blessed. Many escaped persecution and experienced freedom to worship God and pursue their callings. Other nations, recognizing this exceptionalism, have sought to imitate the principles that made America great, and have, to some degree, benefited from these principles as well.

Early Americans recognized the special nature of the nation in history.

Founding Father John Adams said, “I always consider the settlement of America with Reverence and Wonder – as the Opening of a grand scene and Design in Providence, for the Illumination of the Ignorant, and the Emancipation of the slavish Part of Mankind all over the Earth.”

Historian B.F. Morris stated, “God held this vast land in reserve, as the great field on which the experiment was to be made in favor of a civil and religious liberty.”

Emma Willard, historian and leading educator of women, said, “In observing the United States, there is much to convince us, that an Almighty, Overruling Providence, designed from the first, to place here a great, united people.”

French diplomat and philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville wrote:

In that land the great experiment was to be made by civilized man, of the attempt to construct society upon a new basis; and it was there, for the first time, that theories hitherto unknown, or deemed impracticable, were to exhibit a spectacle for which the world had not been prepared by the history of the past.

Many of the early colonizers of America came with the vision of establishing a unique nation in history. John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, wrote of the Puritans’ desire to be “A Modell of Christian Charity” or “a city upon a hill,” where all the people of the earth would look upon it and say of their own nation, “the Lord make it like that of New England.”

Quaker William Penn, founder of the province of Pennsylvania, said that God gave him the land that became Pennsylvania so that he could set up a model state – “a holy experiment” – that “should open its doors to every kindred” and be a refuge for men of all creeds.

An abandonment

Although, America’s founding principles made her unique, free, and powerful, there are those today who would have her abandon those principles. Many leaders in education and the media promote a different ideology, and some governmental leaders implement policies contrary to our original principles, diminishing our greatness.

As we abandon that which made us exceptional and embrace socialistic ideas, we witness increasing problems and diminishing liberties. Over the past few generations there has been an increase in crime, a breakdown of the family, an increase in social immorality, growth of taxes, runaway government spending, declining educational skills, attacks on religious liberty, and government intrusion into private, family, and church life.

Consider these statistics from Pew Research and the Institute for Family Studies, which reflect the breakdown of the family and sexual morality. In 1960, 72% of adults were married; today it is about 50%. In 1980, 18% of children were born outside of marriage; today over 40% are born outside of marriage. Currently, around 32% of people think premarital sex is wrong; 69% thought so in 1969.

In the 1960s, America was at the top of the nations in student achievement. But over the years, that position has steadily declined while academic spending has increased.

America also experienced a decline in her economy with the implementation of policies that do not protect private property rights or encourage business growth.

Such declines are largely due to rejecting the economic principles upon which the nation was founded and embracing humanistic, immoral ideas. If America continues to embrace man-centered philosophies and reject the principles that produced the American Dream, the nation will decline even further.

The source

America’s founding principles made her exceptional, powerful, and free. They produced the American Dream.

America has no parallel in history. The nation started from scratch, by a people providentially prepared and greatly influenced by the Protestant Reformation. They were a people who viewed the Bible as God’s authoritative word. Their notions for a new nation came from the Bible and were Christian in their origin.

Beginning in the 16th century, these ideas were released to many people through the printing of Bibles in common languages. The early settlers of America carried these seed ideas with them as they colonized the nation in the 17th and 18th centuries. These ideas were planted; then they grew and bore the fruit of a Christian republic that became known as America – the most free, prosperous, and exceptional nation in history.

However, in recent decades the United States has been casting aside the Bible from education, government, and law. The Ten Commandments are not being taught to children as fundamental principles. As a result, prisons and jails are filled with those who steal, murder, rape, and lie. Modern ideas teach that men are merely animals, yet the culture bemoans the societal result of men acting like animals.

Some people say that America’s greatest threat today comes from those who believe the nation should be governed by God-given moral standards. They say God cannot be mixed with government.

However, these are the official standards the founders gave to this great country – truths, according to the Declaration of Independence, that are self-evident; truths that claim, “All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” These rights, derived from “the laws of nature and of nature’s God,” are part of the founding principles that produced the American Dream.

The truths that America’s Founding Fathers believed and built this nation upon came from the Creator and His Holy Scriptures, the Bible. That Book, according to President Andrew Jackson, “is the Rock upon which our Republic rests.” While this fact is not known by most Americans and is not taught in government schools, the evidence is overwhelming. Therefore, if America is to return to her first and foundational moorings, American Christians must heed the call to pass the American Dream of “one nation under God” on to the next generations.

Editor’s Note: This revised article was posted with permission from the author. The original version was published October 14, 2022, at providencefoundation.com.