In the summer of 1776, 56 men signed their names to a revolutionary parchment that had virtually no chance of survival. They were outgunned, outnumbered, and outmatched by the most powerful empire in the world. Yet they mutually pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor on that audacious conviction that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” As America crosses the historic threshold of her 250th birthday, it is worth pausing in honest amazement and gratitude to Almighty God. We are still here, and that is nothing short of a miracle.
The U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1789, remains to this day the oldest working written national constitution in the world. No other republic or democracy can claim 250 years of uninterrupted constitutional governance. France is on its fifth republic. Russia’s new constitution is barely 30 years old. Canada and Mexico, America’s neighbors, are new by comparison. This singular improbability was not by accident.
The roots of American liberty run deeper than Valley Forge, Yorktown, or Independence Hall. They run through the Great Awakening of the 1730s and ’40s to the 1760s, when preachers like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and John Wesley filled pulpits, traveled road circuits, called men to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, and ignited a spiritual fire in the colonies. That awakening brought souls to Christ and created the spiritual condition upon which a shared faith, virtue, and liberty produced the Declaration of Independence in just one generation. It was the pulpit that shaped the heart of a republic and set it on a trajectory to become one of the most exceptional nations in the world.
Yet from the beginning, America has never been a perfect nation. It has been fraught with failures that did not live up to the very promises of freedom it sought to establish. Throughout her history, the injustices of slavery and segregation were pursued by Christian citizens seeking to remedy and redeem what was morally bankrupt and spiritually broken. And after World War II, a secular consensus sought to rewrite America’s story, stripping its Christian founding and replacing it with secular-humanism and cultural revolutions that sought the ideological deconstruction of family, faith, and freedom. Americans forgot their heritage and history, civic illiteracy took hold, and pulpits lost their prophetic voice to rally the nation.
During the Bicentennial celebration of America in 1976, Liberty University founder Dr. Jerry Falwell launched his “I Love America” tour, standing on the steps of the state capitols from coast to coast, rallying a sleeping church to love and defend the nation God had entrusted to our care. He once said, “The idea that religion and politics don’t mix was invented by the devil to keep Christians from running their own country.” That is hardly an extreme statement today. Francis Schaeffer similarly warned that when a civilization cuts itself loose from its Christian foundations, it does not float free, it sinks: “There is no other base than the Christian one. Either a man begins from God and His revelation, or he begins from himself.” Those warnings have echoed across the decades with urgent clarity.
Recent polling shows a reverse trend. Bible sales are up 40% since 2022. Christian app downloads are up 80% in the past year. Pew’s latest research shows faith’s long decline is reversing as church attendance, Bible reading, and baptism are all on the rise. For the first time in a decade, Christianity is seen as the answer and not the problem in America.
This is one of the greatest impacts Charlie Kirk made in his generation not only for American freedom and traditional values but for faith in Jesus Christ. More than anything, he wanted to be remembered for his courageous faith. His life was taken by the very lost boy he was desperately trying to reach.
Christ is not finished with America, and America is not finished after 250 years. This year is already a year of celebration. It is also a year of remembrance to refocus not only on our founding but our Christian faith that made America’s founding possible. It is also a time of recommitment where Christians must recognize the responsibility they bear as citizens of this great republic and strive to preserve and keep the freedoms we’ve been given. On this 250-year anniversary, may the church of the Lord Jesus Christ stand as witness to all that God has done and vow to never quit on America.
Ryan Helfenbein is the Executive Director of the Standing for Freedom Center and Senior Vice President of Communications & Public Engagement at Liberty University. For more information, visit StandingforFreedom.com.
UNIVERSITY EVENTS COMMEMORATING AMERICA’S 250TH ANNIVERSARY
America’s Founding Conference
The Liberty University Department of History is hosting the America’s Founding: Legacy and Influence conference on April 17–18 at the School of Business. This multidisciplinary conference will explore our country’s beginnings, the development of its constitutional ideals, and its influence around the world. Through research presentations, public history initiatives, and scholarly dialogue, participants will reflect on the biblical principles and visionary leadership that shaped our nation and consider how those same foundations continue to inspire faith, freedom, and service today.
The keynote session featuring Maj. Gen. USMC (Ret.) Jason Bohm, dean of the Helms School of Government, is scheduled for 7 p.m. April 17.
Tours will be available at the Liberty University Chaplains Museum, located on the terrace level of the Jerry Falwell Library.
The conference is free and open to the public. Registration is not required. For information, visit Liberty.edu/History250 or email history@liberty.edu.
Historical marker ceremony
A historical marker will be installed at the site of a former Continental Army arsenal on the university-owned Bedford Alum Springs Hotel property at New London during a ceremony at 4 p.m. on April 17. Students have conducted archaeology at the arsenal site, which played a vital role in both the American Revolution and the securing of the Northwest Territory. The marker is being donated by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Local dignitaries, officers from national and state DAR chapters, and the general public are invited to attend. The event is part of the VA250 movement commemorating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, the Revolutionary War, and the Independence of the United States in Virginia.
I Love America: A celebration of America’s 250th anniversary
The event was presented by the School of Music, May 5, 7:30 p.m. in the Center for Music and the Worship Arts, Concert Hall. The concert will feature the Liberty University Symphony Orchestra, a 300-voice choir, Chamber Singers, E-41 Bluegrass group, Shine a cappella group, and more. The ticketed event is open to the public.
250th Anniversary Gala
The formal gathering was held on March 31 in the Montview Student Union, Alumni Ballroom, and was sponsored by the LU One office. The event was part of the Helms School of Government’s Spring Public Policy Conference, We Hold These Truths: The Quest for Liberty. Faculty, students, and guests heard from historical reenactors Thomas Jefferson (played by Bill Barker of Monticello) and Patrick Henry (played by Patrick Henry Jolly, his fifth great-grandson), and enjoyed live music from the School of Music.
LOOKING BACK
Editor’s Note: As Liberty celebrates America’s 250th anniversary this year, we thought it was fitting to remember the Bicentennial celebration on campus. Were you there? Email us at news@liberty.edu.
On July 4, 1976, Liberty University founder Dr. Jerry Falwell and thousands of other proud Americans gathered on campus to celebrate America’s 200th anniversary with a Bicentennial event. The gathering was a glorious celebration with jubilant, patriotic music, a stirring address by United States Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr., and powerful preaching by Dr. B.R. Lakin, a longtime evangelist and close friend to Falwell.
With over 25,000 people in attendance, the event was the largest Bicentennial event in Virginia and was nationally broadcast on “The Old-Time Gospel Hour,” Falwell’s television ministry program.
The event was held during an especially patriotic time at Liberty; the year before, students from the school’s various music groups had started to perform at “I Love America” rallies across the country. They traveled to 112 major U.S. cities through the fall of 1976. Their performance at the Bicentennial received a standing ovation.
Keeping in the Bicentennial theme, then-Liberty Baptist College (renamed Liberty University in 1985) unveiled a replica of the Liberty Bell at the event to commemorate the donors who had assisted in paying off the mortgage for the Liberty Mountain property. The bell has been displayed on campus ever since, in a pavilion near DeMoss Hall (along with names of donors), then at the top of the Freedom Tower, and briefly at the entrance of Williams Stadium. The bell is now awaiting placement in the new Champion Center, scheduled to open this fall.
The year of 1976 marked celebrations of multiple other milestones on Liberty Mountain, including the 20th year for Thomas Road Baptist Church, founded by Falwell, who served as pastor.
