The year 2026 promises to be an extraordinary one for America and for every patriot who loves our country. This is the year we will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of our Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The Declaration, in my view, is the most extraordinary, significant political document ever written.
At the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, we hope and pray that 2026 will be more than just a celebration. We believe this can be an opportunity to remind ourselves and teach our children and grandchildren the true history of America’s founding as “one nation under God.”
Sadly, our children have been told by “progressive” educators that God and religion had nothing to do with America’s founding. The phrase “separation of church and state” appears nowhere in our Constitution or Bill of Rights, yet children have been taught it is a founding principle.
We believe America could not have started without God’s blessing, nor will it survive without His protection.
In fact, the Declaration of Independence itself makes clear that the God of the Bible loomed large in the minds of our Founding Fathers as they rebelled against the abuses of King George III.
The Declaration of Independence is not a long document, but God is referenced prominently four times.
The first time is in the first paragraph, in which the Continental Congress states that they were relying on “Nature and Nature’s God” in their quest for liberty.
The second paragraph’s first sentence then cites the central idea of the American republic—an idea in which God is the most important consideration.
Here is the sentence that every American child should know by heart:
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.1
Since this is the first principle of our nation, let’s dig deeper.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident . . .” tells us our Founders believed there were universal “truths.” Today, relativism rules the culture. We are discouraged from claiming universal truths. It is not uncommon to hear or read the phrase “My truth is . . .” There is no “my truth.” There is only truth, and our Founders believed everybody knew that truth because it came from God.
Next comes a startling assertion in an era when kings ruled. The assertion was that “all men are created equal.” What could that mean? Some people are born into rich families, others poor. People are different sizes and have different gifts. In what sense are they equal, then? The next six words explain. They read, “they are endowed by their Creator . . .” That’s how we are equal! We are made by our Creator, who is God, and we bear His image. This was revolutionary! These words made it clear that no government is above God. These words have threatened every tyrant in the world for the last 250 years.
And what did God “endow” or give us? The Founders said He gave us “certain unalienable rights.” Unalienable is a word seldom used today. It means not only that the rights can’t legitimately be taken away, but that they are so fundamental to our existence that we can’t legitimately surrender these rights without destroying ourselves.
The Founders then summarized these basic rights this way: “. . . that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Notice that the first right is life. Our Founders knew long before sonograms were invented that without the right to life, all other rights fail. The Founders, in their voluminous writings, made it clear that they defined liberty as “ordered liberty” under God—not the license to do whatever we wanted or whatever felt good.
Finally was “the pursuit of Happiness,” which was defined in 1776 as the pursuit of virtuous things. That was the only path to happiness.
After this key paragraph, the Declaration outlines all the ways the King of Great Britain had deprived them of these fundamental rights.
Then we get to the last paragraph in which God was called on again two important times.
The delegates appealed “to the Supreme Judge of the world” to stand with them in this pivotal moment in history. And in the last sentence, these men, knowing that unless they prevail, they will likely all be hanged, asserted again their faith with these stirring words:
And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.2
Do our Founders sound like men who wanted to keep God out of government? Of course not. They believed that God was at the center of the new nation being created.
Happy 250th birthday, America!
- The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, National Archives, “A Transcription,” accessed December 19, 2025, https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript.
- The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, National Archives.
