THE CHRISTIAN/BIBLICAL BASIS FOR THE FOUNDATION OF OUR COUNTRY

Were our Founding Fathers Christian with a fervent love for the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Or were they primarily Deists, who only acknowledged the existence of a distant, impersonal god?

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Patrick Henry: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ! For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity and freedom of worship here."

George Washington: His personal prayer book, written in his own handwriting, declares continual fidelity to the Lord Jesus Christ: "O most Glorious God, in Jesus Christ my merciful and loving Father, I acknowledge and confess my guilt, in the weak and imperfect performance of the duties of this day."

John Marshall: Chief Justice of the Supreme Court described Washington: "Without making ostentatious professions of religion, he was a sincere believer in the Christian faith, and a truly devout man."

The Continental Congress, on September 11, 1777, recommended and approved that the Committee of Commerce "import 20,000 Bibles from Holland, Scotland, or elsewhere," because of the great need of the American people and the great shortage caused by the interruption of trade with England by the Revolutionary War.

John Adams: On March 6, 1789, President Adams called for a national day of fasting and prayer so that the nation might "call to mind our numerous offenses against the most high God, confess them before Him with the sincerest penitence, implore his pardoning mercy, through the Great Mediator and Redeemer, for our past transgression, and that through the grace of His Holy Spirit, we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience. . ."

John Quincy Adams: "The highest glory of the American Revolution was this; it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity." (July 4, 1821)

John Jay: First Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court: "Unto Him who is the author and giver of all good, I render sincere and humble thanks for His manifold and unmerited blessings, and especially for our redemption and salvation by His beloved Son."

Patrick Henry: In a letter to his sister Anne: "My heart is full. Perhaps I may never see you in this world. O may we meet in heaven, to which the merits of Jesus will carry those who love and serve Him."

George Mason: "Father" of the Bill of Rights; "My soul I resign into the hands of my Almighty Creator, whose tender mercies are all over His works, who hateth nothing that He hath made, and to the justice and wisdom of whose dispensations I willingly and cheerfully submit, humbly hoping from His unbounded mercy and benevolence, through the merits of my blessed Savior, a remission of my sins".

James Madison: "Chief Architect" of the U. S. Constitution, wrote in the margin of his Bible, "Christ's Divinity appears by St. John chapter XX, 2; 'And Thomas answered and said unto Him, my Lord and my God!' Resurrection testified to and witnessed by the Apostles, Acts IV, 33."

The First Act of Congress following their agreement of the precise wording of the First Amendment (Congress shall make no law concerning the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...) was to ask President Washington to declare a national day of fasting and prayer!

Constitution of the State of Delaware: Art. XXII Every person who shall be chosen a member of either house, or appointed to any office or place of trust... shall...make and subscribe the following declaration, to wit: "I, do profess faith in God the Father and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore and I do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration."

United States Supreme Court: Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 1892, 143 US 457, "These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation." (p.471) [This U. S. Supreme Court opinion includes a lengthy and detailed record of the historic evidences of America's Christian heritage.]

The Constitution And Separation Of Church And State

Organizations like the A.C.L.U., Americans United For Separation Of Church And State, and our modern Supreme Court, have so distorted our Constitution's First Amendment, that it is time to simply tell the truth! This is the First Amendment:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

FIRST, notice the very first word, CONGRESS. The First Amendment places the restrictions on the Congress, not individual citizens. It says that Government cannot restrict the free exercise of its citizens religious beliefs! The words "separation of church and state" are not found in the First Amendment, and yet modern judges have made radical decisions against the religious rights of its citizens, stating the "Separation" clause as its defense. In other words, our Government has purposely lied to its people about their Constitution! Since this principle is attributed to Thomas Jefferson, let's investigate. The First Amendment was debated in the first Congressional session of 1789, at which time Thomas Jefferson was out of the country in France as a U.S. Minister. Thirteen years later, on January 1, 1802, he wrote a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association of Danbury, Connecticut, calming their fears that Congress was NOT in the process of choosing any single Christian denomination as the national religion. Thus his written statement, "Building a wall of separation between Church and State", reassured the Baptists that the Government's hands were tied from interfering with, or in any way controlling, the affairs or decisions of the churches in America! To prove that Thomas Jefferson was not in favor of removing religion from Government, let us consider some of his official mandates: (1) as the Governor of Virginia, he decreed a day of "Public and solemn thanksgiving and prayer to Almighty God", (2) in 1798 he wrote at the occasion of the Kentucky Resolution; "No power over the freedom of religion...[is] delegated to the United States by the Constitution", (3) while President, he chaired the school board for the District of Columbia, where he used the Bible and Isaac Watts' Hymnal as the books to teach reading to students, (4) as President, he not only signed bills which appropriated financial support for chaplains in Congress and in the armed services, but he also signed the Articles of War in which he "Earnestly recommended to all officers and soldiers, diligently to attend divine services", (5) there are countless other examples of his intermingling religion and government, but he was also aware of how his statement to the Danbury Baptists was already being twisted from his true intent. Several months after the Danbury letter, on April 21, 1802, he wrote to Dr. Benjamin Rush; "My views...are the result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from the anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished anyone to be; sincerely attatched to His doctrines in preference to all others."

SECONDLY, another way of proving that the First Amendment was written with the intent of preventing the United States from "establishing" a national religion, is to study the three months of Congressional debate. Consider these few examples: (1) the initial draft, "The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established...", (2) another proposal, "No religion shall be established by law", (3) another draft, "That Congress should not establish a religion, and enforce the legal worship of it by law", (4) and, "Congress shall make no law establishing any particular denomination of religion in preference to another."

So clearly, the First Amendment was written to give American citizens total religious freedom without the fear of being forced to show devotion to any particular national religion! The First Amendment's "free exercise", means that Americans can profess their beliefs in any way, any place, and any time, without the prohibition of such, by laws from the government and the courts!