“The Calling to Manhood”

April 21, 2026
Nearly 250 years ago at a meeting hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, fifty-six men entered the valley of decision. As delegates from the thirteen American Colonies, they gathered to consider what course of action they should take after “a long train of abuses” from a tyrannical government had increasingly encroached on their freedoms and threatened to remove them once and for all. The British army and navy had laid siege to Boston and the Americans were resisting. Peace with Britain was still possible, but at what price? As leaders and ministers in their communities, these men had been preaching, based on the Bible, that God made all men free and equal. Now the time had come for them to decide whether to declare independence and start their own nation: Did they really believe in the things they preached?