The trembling President
I opened the latest edition of Barnabas Aid, the magazine of Barnabas Fund, to read these words from Thomas Jefferson, America’s third president:
“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.”
One wonders what Jefferson would have felt about America – or Britain – today! Would he be shaking all over? It is a striking quotation, for a number of reasons. First, here is a national political leader speaking frankly and openly about God, as if he is real and as if he matters. When did you last hear anything like that? Second, there is a clear sense that the liberties we enjoy have been given to us by God. They are not for us to create or decide, and we should look to God himself to say what they are. Third, there is a strong awareness that we are accountable to God for what we do with what he has given us, including those liberties. God gives life and liberty; he is also a God of wrath and justice. Jefferson seems to have had no trouble holding together both halves of that last sentence. And nor should he, because that is the God of the Bible.