Jim Huntzinger | On August 26, 2015

Sinai Desert, Egypt (Photo by Marc Ryckaert)
(CC3.0) (Resized-Cropped)

Well above all civilizations, the ancient Hebrews were the structure and law followed by American Founding generation. A significant study of other civilizations, like the Greeks, Romans, and others, were evaluated by Enlightenment writer Charles Montesquieu, but the most perfect was the Hebrew republic as it was directed by God through Moses. The Founding generation view the ancient Hebrew’s superior to even the other great civilizations such as the Roman republic and Greek democracy, as Reverend Langdon explained at the time of the Constitution. [The Greek laws] were far from being worthy,” preached Langdon, “to be compared with the laws of Israel in regard to the security of life, liberty, property, and public morals.”[1] Pastor Langdon is also directly linking the fundamental law reiterated in the moral compact of the Declaration with the structural compact of the Constitution in his sermon and equated it to the superior Mosaic laws of ancient Israel. Langdon also directly compares the 12 tribes of Israel to the 13 colonies which form the Union, Langdon’s direct language; as well as, linking virtue and morals directly to liberty – and Jesus’s sacrifice as a final victory for liberty. These were attributes of the Hebrew nation and must also be the same attributes of the new Union. Langdon explains:

…history is the best instructor both in polity and morals. I have presented you the portrait of a nation highly favored by heaven with civil and religious institutions…instead of the twelve tribes of Israel, we may substitute the thirteen states of the American union, and see this application plainly offering itself; God, in the course of his kind providence, has given you an excellent constitution of government, founded on the most rational, equitable, and liberal principles, by which all that liberty is secured which a people can reasonably claim, and you are empowered to make righteous laws for promoting public order and good morals. He has moreover, given you by his son Jesus Christ – who is far superior to Moses – a complete revelation of His will and perfect system of true religion plainly delivered in the sacred writings. It will, therefore, be your wisdom in the eyes of the nations, and your true interest and happiness, to conform your practice in the strictest manner to the doctrines and commands of your government adhere faithfully to the doctrines and commands of the gospel, and practice every public and private virtue.[2]

Fundamental law is developed directly from God’s word in scripture. Langdon, as does many of the colonial clergy define happiness, which is articulated in the Declaration to a moral and behavioral alignment with God; that is a direct relationship with God, not the contemporary definition of happiness erroneously portrayed today. The happiness of the moral compact is the property of an individual bestowed to them by God as a result of Him creating each individual and gifting them the property of conscience, labor, and ownership. An individual must build a personal relationship with God to fully comprehend and achieve this transfer of property – happiness. What does Langdon tell us that this results in? “By this,” expounds Langdon, “you will increase in numbers, wealth, and power, and obtain reputation and dignity among nations.” And if you relinquish this practice, you will, “Else, the contrary conduct will male you poor, distressed, and contemptible.”[3]

Pastor Langdon was certainly not the only influential colonial clergymen to disclose the purpose of the American governance to emulate the Hebrew republic. Nine years earlier in 1779, Pastor James Dana gave a vivid sermon on the proper structure and purpose of good and Godly government. In his oration his give a brilliant description of the Hebrew republic as the proper and only model for the new American republic. “The only form of government expressly instituted by heaven was that of the Hebrews.” Dana continues his discourse:

Theirs was a confederate republic with Jehovah at the head. It consisted of twelve distinct states; each sovereign in the administration of justice within itself, while their councils and force were united in whatever concerned them all. Their constitution was most friendly to public liberty. For besides the independence of the respective states on each other, and their confederacy as one kingdom for the better security of their common and particular rights.[4]

In 1788 Pastor Samuel Langdon utterly dismisses any notion of the Constitution, and as a result, the American government is secular in any form. Tying the Constitution directly to the Fundamental Law expounded in the Declaration, virtue and liberty as obedience to God’s will, and our constitutional government a direct descendant of the Biblical constitutional compact of the ancient Hebrews and the Pentateuch.[5] In 1779 Pastor James Dana delivers a sermon aligning the American cause directly with the ancient Hebrews. “When our ancestors sought a retreat from oppression,” declares Reverend Dana, “he made a path for them through the sea and furnished them a table in the wilderness.”[6]

Reverend Samuel Langdon in 1788 during the heart of the ratification of the Constitution, at the point where six States had ratified it so it had yet to be the fully accepted Compact for the Union, made this direct disclosure to Americans. The Union and its covenant was utterly modeled upon the Biblical constitution and the nation of Israel and the critical-ness to success of emulating this polity:

[T]he Israelites may be considered as a pattern to the world in all ages. From them we may learn what will exalt our character and what will depress and bring us to ruin.

Let us therefore look over their constitution and laws, enquire into their practice and observe how their prosperity and fame depended on their strict observance of the divine commands both as their government and religion.

They had both a civil and military establishment under divine direction, and a complete body of judicial laws drawn up and delivered to them by Moses in God’s name. They also had a form of religious worship by the same authority, minutely prescribed, designed to preserve among them the knowledge of the great Creator of the Universe and teach them to love and serve Him while idolatry prevailed through the rest of the world…

The government therefore was a proper republic.[7]

The Founding generation deliberately and knowingly, in order to form a more perfect Union, looked to the most perfect Republic in history for their structure because God had sanctioned it.

America is a miracle, and the first such miracle since the Godly nation of ancient Israel. In 1788 the American colonial Pastor Samuel Langdon declared, “all these [events of the American Revolution] laid together fall little short of real miracles and a heavenly charter of liberty for these United States…we cannot acknowledge that God has graciously patronized our cause and taken us under His special care as He did His ancient covenant people.”[8] If We the People choose to relinquish His providence we will suffer the same smite as did tribes of Israel. Let us choose the Light.

[1] Samuel Langdon, 1788, “The Republic of the Israelites and Example to the American States,” taken from Joel McDurmon, 2015, God’s Law and Government in America, (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, Inc.), pp. 129-130.

[2] Samuel Langdon, 1788, “The Republic of the Israelites and Example to the American States,” taken from Joel McDurmon, 2015, God’s Law and Government in America, (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, Inc.), pp. 137-138.

[3] Samuel Langdon, 1788, “The Republic of the Israelites and Example to the American States,” taken from Joel McDurmon, 2015, God’s Law and Government in America, (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, Inc.), p. 138.

[4] James Dana, 1779, “On the Providence of God in the Rise and Fall of Empires,” taken from Joel McDurmon, 2015, God’s Law and Government in America, (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, Inc.), p. 103.

[5] Samuel Langdon, 1788, “The Republic of the Israelites and Example to the American States,” taken from Joel McDurmon, 2015, God’s Law and Government in America, (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, Inc.), p. 137-148.

[6] James Dana, 1779, “On the Providence of God in the Rise and Fall of Empires,” taken from Joel McDurmon, 2015, God’s Law and Government in America, (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, Inc.), p. 98.

[7] Samuel Langdon, 1788, “The Republic of the Israelites and Example to the American States,” taken from Joel McDurmon, 2015, God’s Law and Government in America, (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, Inc.), pp. 124-125.

[8] Samuel Langdon, 1788, “The Republic of the Israelites and Example to the American States,” taken from Joel McDurmon, 2015, God’s Law and Government in America, (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, Inc.), p. 138.

Jim Huntzinger

Jim Huntzinger began his career as a manufacturing engineer with Aisin Seiki (a Toyota Group company and manufacturer of automotive components) when they transplanted to North America to support Toyota. Over his career he has also researched at length the evolution of manufacturing in the United States with an emphasis on lean’s influence and development. In addition to his research on TWI, he has extensively researched the history of Ford’s Highland Park plant and its direct tie to Toyota’s business model and methods of operation.

Huntzinger is the President and Founder of Lean Frontiers and a graduate from Purdue University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering Technology and received a M.S. in Engineering Management from the Milwaukee School of Engineering. He authored the book, Lean Cost Management: Accounting for Lean by Establishing Flow, was a contributing author to Lean Accounting: Best Practices for Sustainable Integration.