Providential Orchestration and the American Founding

7 min.

America 250 • Religious Liberty • The Restoration

As part of America’s 250th anniversary, the First Presidency invited members of the Church to join in a special fast of gratitude on July 5 — specifically for the divine gift of religious liberty. Their invitation linked the Declaration of Independence with the principle of free exercise, elevating religious liberty to its rightful place among the most sacred blessings God has given this nation.

The Declaration announced civil liberty. The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom announced religious liberty.

Both were authored by “wise men raised up,” and both were essential foundations for the Restoration. Our leaders’ emphasis suggests a desire that we more fully understand this connection — that civil and religious liberties are inseparable, and that both must be defended with vigilance. Religious liberty can be lost. And if it were, the tragedy would be immeasurable.

The American Miracle

The American founding produced many miracles — the Declaration, the Constitution, and a nation prepared for the Restoration. Yet the Founders knew liberty could not endure unless three final pillars were secured:

• freedom of conscience.
• a merit‑based economy.
• a culture grounded in religion and morality.

The first of these — liberty of conscience — would become the soul of the First Amendment.

Jefferson Takes Up the Task

In 1776, Thomas Jefferson crafted not merely a political declaration but a spiritual emancipation — a proclamation that faith must never be coerced, belief must never be compelled, and the human soul must answer only to God. This became the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, the clearest articulation of the principle that conscience is sacred and religion flourishes only when protected from state power.

Jefferson’s Statute stands as the bridge between America’s founding and the rise of the Restoration — the capstone of the Founders’ work and the spiritual foundation upon which all later freedoms would stand.

The Battle for Liberty of Conscience

For a decade, Jefferson waged a cultural and political war in Virginia to separate church and state. Accused of impiety and atheism, he nevertheless held a deep conviction in the moral order of the universe. By treating religion as a private matter, he freed his mind from ecclesiastical coercion and enabled himself to think boldly and independently.

Jefferson understood the devastation religious conflict had inflicted on Europe. State religion had produced persecution, corruption, and tyranny. If America repeated those mistakes, liberty would rot at the root.

Rejecting Coercion, Defending Conscience

Jefferson rejected the doctrine of original sin and insisted that human nature could be trusted if conscience remained free. To defenders of state churches, this was heresy — “a mere disguise for atheism.”

To Jefferson, trusting conscience was the foundation of education, liberty, and human dignity. His study of Christian history convinced him that Christ’s teachings had been buried under centuries of ecclesiastical “rubbish.” Only the free exercise of reason could recover their beauty and simplicity.

The Hierarchy’s Fear of Religious Liberty

Throughout Christian history, institutions often responded to dissent with severity. When believers sought to follow personal conscience or claimed divine guidance beyond established creeds, authorities sometimes resorted to coercion, punishment, or exclusion. The harsh penalties for heresy reveal how deeply threatened some institutions felt when confronted with new revelation or independent spiritual inquiry.

A similar dynamic emerged in the 19th century when Joseph Smith and the early Latter‑day Saints were labeled “non‑Christian.” The charge was not simply doctrinal. It reflected anxieties about new scripture, new revelation, and a restored church that did not fit inherited categories. Although the world has changed, echoes of that mindset persist today.

As in times past, when threatened by the exercise of religious liberty by those with whom they disagree, institutions and their spokespersons frequently use their free speech to attack others. Responding with accusations and vitriol rather than introspection, they appear to have appointed themselves arbiters of truth and defenders of sola scriptura.

The First Salvo of Religious Liberty

In the same year he wrote the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson fired the opening shot in the battle for religious freedom. He rejected “the speculations of crazy theologists” and insisted that true Christianity meant following Christ’s ethics “uncontaminated by additions, adulterations, and distortions.”

Jefferson declared that “God himself cannot save a man against his will.” Voluntary religion was the only genuine religion.

The Old World’s Machinery Must Fall

America inherited Europe’s religious systems: state churches, heresy laws, religious taxes, and sectarian political dominance. Eight colonies still had official churches. Dissent was punished. Heresy — including denial of the Trinity — remained a capital offense.

Jefferson refused to rely on temporary tolerance; he wanted every coercive law swept away.

Jefferson and Madison: The Partnership That Changed History

James Madison joined Jefferson in probing the relationship between religion and democracy. Madison warned that the same authority that could establish Christianity could establish any sect. He declared: “Liberty of conscience is the most sacred of all property.” Working together, they dismantled the system of state-supported clergy which had been described by Jefferson as an “artificial aristocracy” that relied on privilege rather than persuasion.

Disestablishment and the Statute

Jefferson’s 1779 effort to disestablish the Episcopal Church culminated in Madison’s 1785 petition, signed by thousands, which “extinguished the ambitious hope of making laws for the human mind.”

The Statute thundered: “Almighty God hath created the mind free.” And it guaranteed: “No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship… but all men shall be free to profess their opinions in matters of religion.”

Virginia became the first state to fully separate church and state. Massachusetts — the last — did not do so until 1833.

Jefferson’s Foundation and the Restoration

Jefferson warned: “Coerced belief begets habits of hypocrisy and meanness.” Madison insisted conscience must remain free. Their victory broke the machinery of coercion — compulsory tithes, paid state clergy, heresy laws, sectarian dominance — and created the first modern society where belief could flourish without state interference.

Because of Jefferson and Madison:

• the Restoration could occur.
• the Book of Mormon could be published.
• priesthood authority could be restored.
• houses of worship could be built.
• missionaries could be sent.
• the true nature of God and man could be revealed.

In 1789, Madison drafted the amendments that became the Bill of Rights. Washington approved them without changing a word. The First Amendment enshrined Jefferson’s triumph:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

A remarkable assembly of inspired men had cleared the ground so the seeds of freedom — and the Restoration — could take root.

Condensed Quotes from Modern Church Leaders

Neil L. Andersen: Religious freedom reflects a universal human yearning — the desire for respect, humane treatment, and the space to practice beliefs individually or in community.

Quentin L. Cook: Rights are inalienable only when grounded in a Divine Creator. If rights come merely from man, they can be taken by man — which is why religious liberty protects all other human rights.

James E. Faust: Traditional jurisprudence held that God is the source of human rights and government exists to secure them. Secular systems that locate rights in the state risk eroding moral purpose and shared values.

D. Todd Christofferson: Faith cannot be coerced. Religious liberty protects the freedom to seek truth — or reject it — and shields society from state‑imposed belief of any kind.

Bruce R. Hafen: Human rights existed before the state. They come directly from God, and the state’s role is to protect them, not invent them.

Conclusion

Jefferson and Madison did more than secure political rights — they liberated the human soul. By breaking the chains of state religion, they created a nation where conscience could flourish, revelation could move freely, and the Restoration could unfold without coercion or fear.

Their work remains one of history’s greatest gifts to mankind: a fortress of liberty built not on power, but on principle.

Lead‑In to Adam Smith

And remarkably, in the same year Jefferson began his work on religious freedom, Providence raised up another voice whose influence would shape both the Founders and the Restoration — a Scottish moral philosopher whose insights into human nature, markets, and liberty would transform the modern world.

His name was Adam Smith. And his masterpiece, The Wealth of Nations, would become the economic counterpart to Jefferson’s spiritual revolution.

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