"Providence?" To What or Whom Did Our Founding Fathers Refer?

Common Sense Commentary:

 The word "provide" comes from the Latin "pro" (ahead) plus "vider" (to see).  So to "provide" means, "to see ahead" .... "foresight", which is what the word "providential" means. Another related word is "provident" which means, "making provisions for the future" or "provide forward".  This is what Joseph, son of Israel, did in Egypt.  God revealed to him that, for the next seven years, there would  be plentiful harvests followed by seven years of desperate famine; and then God promoted him to a position of power, next to the Pharoah, to store up grain for the first seven years to "provide" food for Egypt and for God's people, Joseph's family, for the seven years of famine. That, my friends is what our God does for his people. That kind of "foreknowledge/foresight" can be passed along to chosen men of God from his own foreknowledge of, or even determination of, future events.  That is what the word prophecy often, not always, means. More often it means, "forth telling" or "speaking forth" truth. From the prophets of God  even to the created creatures of God, he gives foresight.  In animals, it is ingrained in their nature to store up food for the future winter months. To certain people he gives" foresight" to forecast, by knowledge or revelation, future events.  Read the prophetic, signs of the latter times and a certain foresight will be yours.  In some tiny but marvelous way, God even gives "foresight" to the ants. "Go to the ant thou sluggard ... which having no guide, overseer or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in harvest." Pr.6:6-8.
According to that verse, those who neglect to "provide" for their future needs are "sluggards".  The Hebrew word for sluggard is "astel" and means "slothful" ... (lazy, negligent sloth). See verses at end.

So what did our founding fathers mean by "Providence"?   The word, when capitalized, means, "Divine guidance" and was used by them, in reference to God, in many of their letters and documents.
It is referenced in the climactic, last sentence of our nation's  Declaration Of Independence from the mighiest empire on earth and its King, George III.  They "declared" in the last sentence of it, "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".

Why would they ALL dare to embrace and sign their names to such a pledge of absolute and final  commitment,  .... even their very lives?  Simply because of their "firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence".... God!   They simply believed that it was God's divine will, as reflected in God's word, that all men had a right to freedom and equality, having been created in His own image and likeness.  Their's was an act of OBEDIENCE TO GOD as also revealed in their equally powerful words, "Laws of Nature and of Nature's GOD" are self-evident "that all men are created equal" with "certain unalienable rights."

How utterly foolish can be the folly of those, who in the face of incontravertible facts, deny, debate and hate the clear and certain truth that our country was founded by Christian believers upon the foundational principles of God's Word?  Denial of that is a fool's errand... for "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God".  Psm.14:1.  The word "A theist" litterally means, "No God".  If you, as an American Atheist, have gone astray from these facts, God has not. "If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny himself." 2Tim.2:13.  And, dear Atheist and Agnostic, the day shall come, at the Judgement Seat of God, that, "...As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God." Rom.14:11.  So if you will one day confess what you cannot, then, deny, but too late ... why not confess Him now and accept His remedy for sins ... Jesus Christ as your Saviour? ........(Verses on slothfulness = Prov.6:6-9, 10:26, 13:4, 20:4, 26:16, 1Tim.5:8.)

Would to God we all ... Americans, had the commitment to make the pledge of our Fore-Fathers, to fight, if necessary, for equality for all citizens of the United States and to preserve our God given right to freedom from overbearing government.  I, personally, have little to give at 81 but a few years at most, so I offer that which is left of my life and posessions to the cause our forefathers lived and died for. RB

Pass it on. RB