An “Appeal to Heaven”
Do you believe that our nation is in deep trouble? Deep in debt, run by bureaucrats, a government not following our Constitution, immorality, possibility of war, and so many other problems face us today! As I’ve spoken to people, I keep hearing a sense of hopelessness – the inability to do anything to make a difference and change the direction toward the Godly nation we once were. Well, I bring you great news!! There IS hope – and there IS something each of us can do to bring about the needed change!
It goes back to what our Founding Fathers – and before that, to the pilgrims – and what they did. They appealed to Heaven! To God, upon Whose principles our nation was originally founded. It worked then – and it will work now! God’s plan for our nation was to be a light to the world; and this has proven to be true through the years with the number of missionaries we have sent out worldwide to bring His good news to the entire earth.
Our enemies have infiltrated every aspect of our beloved land. It’s time to take it back from them. And, as George Washington and other founding fathers understood, we need to Appeal to Heaven for God’s intervention, as we ourselves cannot do the job.
An “Appeal to Heaven” is a phrase our founding fathers brought about from the writings of John Locke, the English philosopher who wrote a series of papers on “Natural Laws”, stating that human rights originate with God, not government. He made the case that when people have done everything humanly possible to experience those God-given rights and have failed to do so, there remains but one option:
“And where the boy of the people or any single man, is deprived of their right, or is under the exercise of a power without right, and have no appeal on earth, then they have a liberty to appeal to heaven…” (1)
Our founding fathers took this phrase and ran with it, understanding that in the quest for America’s freedom from Britain’s tyranny, they would have to go to war, while knowing that Britain’s great military, weapons and wealth would be overpowering to the colony’s lack of resources. They needed God’s all-powerful intervention and help. So they took the stance that, the right to freedom came from God; He would help them. “We will appeal to heaven,” they declared.
Our nation was originally dedicated to God by the Pilgrims. One of the early leaders, John Winthrop of the puritan’s Massachusetts Bay Colony, used the verse “a city [nation] set on a hill that can’t be hidden…a light to the world” from Matthew 5:14, in a statement about what he believed God wanted to build in America. They believed that America had a God-given destiny, as did our founding fathers, and subsequent leaders of our nation.
President John F. Kennedy referenced Matthew 5:14 in a famous speech, as did President Ronald Reagan and other U.S. presidents. (2) George Washington commissioned several ships highlighting their dependence on providential help. Each vessel flew an “Appeal to Heaven” banner (also known as the Pine Tree Flag).
That same flag became very popular, flying throughout the colonies, and was adopted as the Massachusetts state navy’s official flag. It was (and still is) the symbol of an unwavering spirit of liberty and a statement as to where their faith was placed – not in themselves, but in God.
The Pine Tree flag came about as the official symbol as a result of what happened with the Iroquois tribes. One of their great leaders united five native tribes (later adding a sixth), and established a confederacy among them, with a Constitution. According to their Constitution,(3) their covenant began with the planting of the “Tree of Peace”, where they buried their weapons in a symbolic act beneath a great evergreen tree. The Iroquois nation was influential to our founding fathers – with Benjamin Franklin an advocate in promoting what they did as an example for the colonies. He said in a letter:
“It would be a strange thing if [these] six nations….should be capable of forming a scheme for such an union and be able to execute it in such a manner as that it has subsisted ages and appears indissoluble; and yet that a like union should be impracticable for ten or a dozen English colonies, to whom it is more necessary and must be more advantageous, and who cannot be supposed to want an equal understanding of their interests.” (4)
The symbolism surrounding the evergreen is that of eternal fidelity. In Genesis 21:33, Abraham planted one as a symbolic everlasting covenant.
Over the years, the symbolism and use of the Pine Tree Flag has been lost in the public eye. Our nation has lost its way, and at this point in history, I believe only God can bring us back. How will that happen?
As in the beginning days of our nation, we are in dire straits. It seems we are a ship without a rudder: our leaders, for the most part, don’t use common sense in the laws they pass; the court system seems to be broken and doesn’t follow the Constitution; our society has been immoral on so many fronts. Having been actively involved in the political realm for almost 30 years and trying to make a difference, I have watched as the situation has grown steadily worse. In my opinion, we have no recourse but to Appeal to Heaven.
Here is what we must do:
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”-??II Chronicles? ?7?:?14? ?NKJV??
I know that thousands of believers are praying for spiritual revival. Continue on. If you aren’t already praying for this, start now. God listens to – and answers – prayer. Join in with our forebearers, and pray, declaring God’s favor and blessing over America. By faith, call our nation back to the path of our founders, to fulfill its destiny. People in every generation – from the time of the pilgrims – has stood and acknowledged God, and in His mercy, love and forgiveness, He has responded. It is our turn.
The Appeal to Heaven banner is a symbol – wear it, fly it, consider it as our battle cry to the heavenlies for spiritual revival across our land. As Pastor Dutch Sheets so eloquently puts it: “Appeal to heaven daily for a spiritual revolution that will knock out the Goliaths of our day.” (5)
God will answer.
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- John Locke, “The Second Treatise of Civil Government. Chapter XIV, of Prerogative, Section 168.” 1690.
- John F. Kennedy, “The City Upon A Hill” speech given at Mass. General Court, 1/9/1961; Ronald Reagan, “We will Be a City Upon a Hill” speech, First Conservative Political Action Conference, 1/25/1974; also quoted by Presidents John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Bill Clinton.
- Www.iroquiosdemocracy.pdx.edu/hteml/greatlaw.html – Sections 1 and 65.
- Benjamin Franklin’s letter to James Parker on the Iroquois League. 1751.
- Dutch Sheets, An Appeal to Heaven, page 66.
