This weeks #FoundationsFriday comes to you from a letter penned by Benjamin Franklin. This weeks article: “The Creator and Our Happiness”
“Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by His Providence. That He ought to be worshipped….That the most acceptable service we render to him is in doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them.
-Benjamin Franklin (March 9, 1790)
The more I examine the rich truth of God’s presence at the founding of our nation the more I am convinced of God’s providential hand in our establishment. In a letter to Ezra Stilies, President of Yale University, Benjamin Franklin appeals to him through the, “one God” that he calls the “Creator of the Universe.” We know Franklin to be referring to the God of the Bible because later on in his letter he refers to Jesus. I always find it amazing when the founders refer to God and use Him as their rock!
What I find the most interesting is after the description that Franklin gives of God he goes on to say that the, “most acceptable service we render to Him is in doing good to his other children.” What is he saying? Perhaps this is a reference back to the Bible yet again, where we read, “Do good unto ALL MEN especially to those of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10). While not a direct quotation, the principal is there. Perhaps that is why this founder could ascribe his name to a document that begins with these words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
ALL MEN are given certain rights from their CREATOR. While we easily assert the meaning of Life and Liberty, the right to pursue happiness is more interesting. Why would the founders in one of the greatest documents ever penned appeal to the simple happiness of people? Well, to answer that we must do some digging and find out what the founders meant. If you do some examination of the term happiness used in the 1700’s it actually meant to do that which was right before God and his fellow man. To be happy was to do justly. Why would they concern themselves with this notion? Well when you look further at this letter, Franklin says that the immortal soul would be dealt justice on the day we stand before the Creator. So to truly live happily the way the founders intended we must know the Creator and His justice. However, we have long abandoned the idea of happiness being the idea to do that which is right before God and man and have replaced it with the concepts and passions of selfish ambition. Dare I say, it is because we have forgotten our Creator.
By Andrew Chavarrilla