This weekend our nation marks two hundred and fifty years since the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. A quarter of a millennium. Fourteen years ago I put together a study on the Baptists and the American Revolution, and the anniversary seems a fitting time to dust it off and share what our forefathers did when the hour of decision came.

Reading History with Open Eyes

When studying Baptist history, it is important to realize that the authors themselves have certain agendas and beliefs which they make sure to emphasize, exaggerate, or even lie about. This is true with any history. A good illustration is Martyr’s Mirror. The author of that great work was a Mennonite, and as a Mennonite he did not believe it right or proper to fight in war, and he made sure that nothing in the book contradicted his own convictions. So we read carefully, weighing every historian against the record itself.

A Time to Take Up Arms

While it was rare for the Baptists to take up arms against a foe, it was not unheard of, and certainly nowhere forbidden, especially in cases of self-defense or the defense of others. The same Jesus who said, “But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also” (Matthew 5:39, LSB), also told His disciples, “But now, whoever has a money belt is to take it along, likewise also a bag, and whoever has no sword should sell his garment and buy one” (Luke 22:36, LSB). Rightly dividing the Scriptures, we must recognize that there is a time to take up arms against our enemies and there is a time to refrain. Such a time of decision came for the Baptists in 1775.

No Baptists on the Parchment

Look down the list of the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence and you will not find a Baptist among them. Some have tried to claim John Hart of New Jersey for us, but the evidence places him elsewhere. It is simply a fact: no Baptist put his name to that most excellent document. William Cathcart, in his book The Baptists and the American Revolution, explains why we should not be surprised:

“Baptists have ever been the ardent friends of civil and religious liberty. Their history in the New World overflows with testimonies of this character. They have never regarded the military profession with much favor, and as a rule, have only resorted to arms in great emergencies when the worst enemies threatened an entire people. So that we must not look for them among the principal commanders of the Revolution.” (p. 3)

Baptists in 1776 were not men of rank and station. They were farmers and tradesmen and persecuted preachers, some of whom had sat in Virginia jails for the crime of preaching the gospel without a license from the Established Church. They had no seats in the halls of power. What they had was conviction, and when the emergency came, they gave something the signers could not put on parchment. They took up arms.

They Cast Their Strength into the Cause

The record is remarkable. Rhode Island, the most Baptist colony in America, was the first to take an official stand against Great Britain, withdrawing from the Crown on May 4, 1776, two full months before the Declaration was adopted. This was the colony whose first work after incorporation in 1644 was to pass a law that “Every man who submits peaceably to civil government in this Colony shall worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience without molestation.” Liberty of conscience and love of civil liberty grew from the same root.

The Baptists of Virginia anticipated the Continental Congress by a year. In August of 1775 their Association, meeting in Cumberland, sent a Memorial to the Convention at Richmond declaring “that in some Cases it was lawful to go to War, and also for us to make a Military resistance against Great Britain, in regard to their unjust Invasion, and tyrannical Oppression of, and repeated Hostilities against America.” They promised soldiers, and they sent preachers to go with them. The Virginia historian Robert Reid Howison wrote of them:

“No class of the people of America were more devoted advocates of the principles of the Revolution, none were more willing to give their money and goods to their country, none more prompt to march to the field of battle, and none more heroic in actual conflict than the Baptists of Virginia.”

The Baptists of South Carolina likewise took a noble stand. Richard Furman, a young man, was pastor in Charleston.

“He was an ardent advocate of rebellion. Everywhere, on stumps and in barns, as well as in pulpits, he preached resistance to Britain. Pursued by the Tories, young Furman fled to the American camp, and there by his prayers and eloquent appeals so reassured the patriots that Cornwallis is said to have remarked that ‘he feared the prayers of that godly youth more than the armies of Sumter and Marion’” (McCrady, History of South Carolina under the Royal Government, 456, New York, 1899).

In the north, John Gano, the foremost chaplain of the Revolution and a trusted friend of George Washington, stood continually under fire at Chatterton’s Hill rather than dampen the spirits of the soldiers. Washington himself said that “Baptist chaplains were the most prominent and useful in the army.”

John T. Christian summed up the whole record in his history: the Baptists were loyal and trusted citizens, accustomed to a hardy life, long trained in the rugged school of experience. “Not a man of them proved a traitor. They cast their united strength into the American cause.” No Baptist signed the Declaration. Thousands of Baptists bled for it.

Why They Fought

Their courage did not come from love of war. It came from a people who had suffered under state churches on two continents and understood, better than most of their countrymen, what was at stake. Cathcart put it well:

“These religious descendents of men who had suffered for truth in every country of Europe, and in every age of persecution, since Stephen’s blood was shed, were among the most fearless heroes and earnest men the world ever saw. They would journey any distance, and make any sacrifice of time, property or liberty to spread their principles.” (p. 87)

The liberty they fought for was not merely political. They wanted a land where no man would be jailed for preaching, taxed to support a religion he did not believe, or compelled in matters of conscience. In large measure, by the good hand of God, they got it. The First Amendment owes a real debt to Baptist blood.

Two Hundred and Fifty Years Later

I will be honest with you. I am not happy with everything our republic has become. Much that our forefathers would have called sin is now celebrated in the streets, the fear of God has faded from public life, and liberty is too often twisted into a license for wickedness. A pastor who loves his country cannot look at America in 2026 without grief mixed into his gratitude.

But I am glad to be living here today. I can gather with the Lord’s church on Sunday without a license from any bishop or magistrate. I can preach the whole counsel of God without fear of the jail cell that held our Virginia forefathers. I can print, publish, and proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ from Brunswick, Georgia to the ends of the earth, and no earthly power stops me. That is not a small thing. Most believers in most centuries never knew such freedom, and many of our brethren around the world do not know it now.

So this Fourth of July, thank God for the liberty we still enjoy, and remember the men who purchased it. Remember all the signers of the Declaration of Independence. But also, remember the persecuted Baptist preachers who came out of Virginia jails and marched to the field. Remember Furman on his stump, Gano under fire, and a generation of plain believers who counted the cost and paid it. Then use the liberty they won for the purpose they prized above all: the free course of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The testimony these men left behind!

If you do not have a church home, we would love to have you visit us at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in Brunswick, Georgia. You can find our service times and location at sgbcbrunswick.com/services, or contact us with any questions.