America’s Christian Origin
Posted: Tuesday, July 06, 2010
by John Waddey
firstcenturychristian
Moses exhorts us to "Remember the days of old, Consider the years of many generations; Ask thy father, and he will show thee; thine elders, and they will tell thee. When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, He set the bounds of the people..." (Deut. 32:7).
The citizens of America are constantly told that "America is not a Christian nation." This is heard from the Oval office to the kindergartens of our nation. Judges, lawyers, politicians and liberal spokespersons in the media and academia continually tell us, "There is a wall of separation between church and state." This lie, so oft repeated, had its beginning with the ruling of the Supreme Court in the Everson v. Board of Education case in 1947. There is no such wall mentioned in our Constitution. The Ten Commandments have been barred from courtrooms and classrooms. Prayer and Bible reading are now illegal in public schools, including their after hours sports activities. Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving activities that have any religious significance have been declared to be wrong. Even the words are banned. This was not the case when I was a child in school. How and why did all of this come to pass?
I. Why Did the First Immigrants Come to America?
* The Charter of Maryland (1632), declares that "Coecilius Calvert, Baron of Baltimore...being animated with a laudable and pious Zeal for extending the Christian Religion...hath humbly besought Leave of Us that he may transport...a numerous Colony of the English Nation, to a certain Region...having no Knowledge of the Divine Being."
* William Bradford, leader of the Pilgrims, wrote, A great hope & inward zeall they had of laying some good foundation, or at least to make some way there unto, for ye propagating & advancing ye gospell of ye kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of ye world."
* The charter of Carolina (1653) stated, "Excited with a laudable and pious zeal for the propagation of the Christian faith...in the parts of America not yet cultivated or planted..."
* The New England Confederation (1643) states, "We all came into these parts of America, with one and the same end and aim, namely, to advance the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ."
* The first settlers in Georgia. "When they touched shore, (they) kneeled in thanks to God. They said, "Our end in leaving our native country is not to gain riches and honor, but singly this: to live wholly to the glory of God." Their object was "to make Georgia a religious colony..." Other quotes for other colonies, expressing the same intent, can be cited.
II. How Did the First Colonies View Their Relationship to Christianity?
* In Virginia: "Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith...to plant the first colony in the northern Parts of Virginia...(we) combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick..."
* The Puritans in New England: John Winthrop wrote. "Wee are a Company professing our selues fellow members of Christ...Wee are entered into Covenant with him for this worke."
Notice the kind of rulers they expected to lead their colonies:
* The Massachusetts Constitution, Chapter VI, Article I "(All persons elected to State office or to the Legislature-must) make-and-subscribe the following declaration, viz, "I________, do declare, that I believe the Christian religion, and have firm persuasion of its truth."
* The Constitution of Maryland, Article XXXV, "That no other test or qualification ought to be required...than such oath of support and fidelity to this state...and a declaration of a belief in the Christian religion."
* The Tennessee Constitution, Article VIII, Section II, "No person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this State."
Several other states had similar laws.
III. What Was the Religious Make Up of Those Men of the Constitutional Convention Who Wrote Our Constitution? "With no more than five exceptions (and perhaps no more than three), they were orthodox members of one of the established Christian communions: Approximately twenty-nine were Anglicans, sixteen to eighteen Calvinists, two Methodists, two Lutherans, two Roman Catholics, one lapsed Quaker and sometime Anglican and one open DeistDr. Franklin, who attended every kind of Christian worship..and contributed to all denominations." Franklin called for daily prayers for their deliberations in creating our Constitution. " One thing is certain, they were not a band of secularists, atheists and infidels, but that lie is now told.
IV. What Did the Founders Have in Mind When They Wrote the Congress Shall Make No Law Regarding the Establishment of Religion?
* John Jay worked long and hard to bring our Constitution into existence. He was the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He was one of the authors of the Federalist Papers that played a vital role in explaining the meaning of our Constitution. Jay wrote, "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."(Emphasis mine, JHW).
* James Kent in his Commentaries on American Law wrote, "To construe it (the Constitution) as breaking down the common law barriers against licentious, wanton, and impious attacks upon Christianity itself, would be an enormous perversion of its meaning."
* In 1853, U. S. Senator Badger discussed the words "an establishment of religion." He said, "It referred, without doubt, to that establishment which existed in the mother-country (England)...endowment (of a particular denomination jhw) at the public expense, peculiar privileges to its members, or disadvantages or penalties upon those who should reject its doctrines or belong to other communions..." He continued, "But they had no fear or jealousy of religion itself, nor did they wish to see us an irreligious people..."
* In 1854, Congressman Meacham of the House Committee on the Judiciary asked, "What is an establishment of religion? It must have a creed defining, what a man must believe; it must have rites and ordinances, which believers must observe;...it must have tests for the submissive and penalties for the non-conformists. There never was an established religion without all these..." He continued, "Had the people, during the Revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle. At the time of the adoption of the Constitution and the amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encourage, ...Any attempt to level and discard all religion would have been viewed with universal indignation."
* Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story (appointed by James Madison) wrote, "We are not to attribute this prohibition of a national religious establishment to an indifference to religion in general, and especially to Christianity (which none could hold in more reverence, than the framers of the Constitution)...the general, if not the universal, sentiment in America was that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the State...Any attempt to level all religions, and to make it a matter of state policy to hold all in utter indifference, would have created universal disapprobation, if not universal indignation."
V. How Did the Our First President View the Role of Christianity in the Life of the Nation?
* George Washington wrote, I am sure there never was a people, who had more reason to acknowledge a divine interposition in their affairs, than those of the United States; and I should be pained to believe, that they have forgotten that agency, which was so often manifested during our revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that God, who is alone able to protect them." (Correspondence Mar. 11, 1792).
* Washington also said, "The hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations."
* In a circular letter sent to all state governors, Washington wrote, "I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection...that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation." (Sent at the close of the war in 1783).
* When Washington assumed command of the Continental Armies his first general order was "Every officer and man...to live, and act, as becomes a Christian Soldier defending th dearest Rights and Liberties of his country." (July 9, 1776).
* As president, Washington said, "Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert...? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds...reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail, in exclusion of religious principle."
VI. How Did the Continental Congress View the Role of the Bible in Our Nation?
* "That the use of the Bible is so universal and its importance so great...your Committee recommends that Congress will order the Committee of Commerce to import 20,000 Bibles from Holland, Scotland or elsewhere, into the different parts of the States of the Union. Whereupon, the Congress was moved, to order the Committee of Commerce to import twenty-thousand copies of the Bible." Congress encouraged Robert Aitken in printing of the Bible in our new nation.
* On November 1, 1777 Congress called for a national day of thanksgiving and prayer for the victory at Saratoga, one of many such calls issued in those early days.
VII. Did the Founders View America as a Christian Nation?
* Patrick Henry said what was commonly believed, "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." This reminds us that it was Christianity, not Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or Atheism that produced the American nation with its creed of freedom and justice for all.
* In 1799, the Supreme Court of Maryland ruled, "By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion; and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed upon the same equal footing, and are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty" (Runkel v. Winemiller).
* In 1846 the Supreme Court of South Carolina ruled, "Christianity is a part of the common law of the land, with liberty of conscience to all. It has always been so recognized...If Christianity is a part of the common law, its disturbance is punishable at common law...Christianity has reference to the principles of right and wrong...it is the foundation of those morals and manners upon which our society is formed; it is their basis. Remove this and they would fall....(Morality) has grown upon the basis of Christianity" (City of Charleston v. S. A. Benjamin).
* In 1892 the Supreme Court Ruled, "No purpose or action against religion can be imputed to any legislation, state or national, because this is a religious people... This is a Christian nation" (Emphasis mine, jhw). (Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States).
VIII. Why Were Our Great Universities Founded? We asked this because today virtually all of our state and non-religious colleges are thoroughly atheistic and anti-Christian.
* "One hundred and six of the first one hundred and eight colleges in America were founded on the Christian faith. By the time of the Civil War, non-religious universities could be counted on one hand. College presidents were almost always clergymen until around 1900." They along with our entire public school system have fallen into the hands of militant secularists who use their institutions to indoctrinate our sons and daughters and diminish if not destroy their faith.
IX. Why Is it So Important that We Recover our Understanding of Ourselves as a Christian Nation?
* Solomon tells us, "Except Jehovah build the house, They labor in vain that build it. Except Jehovah keep the city, The watchman waketh but in vain..." (Ps. 127:1). He was speaking of nations when he issued this admonition. Today, God is purposely excluded from our nation's decision making process and most of her public activities.
* God told Jeremiah, "At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom to pluck up and to break down, and to destroy it; if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from the evil; I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them" (Jer. 18:7-8).
* Again God says, "Righteousness exalteth a nation; But sin is a reproach to any people" (Prov. 14:34).
* God tells us, "..if my people who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land" (II Chron. 7:14).
X. Christianity Is Essential in the Life of a Nation for Its Prosperity and Survival.
* John Witherspoon, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, wrote, "It is in the man of piety and inward principle, that we may expect to find the uncorrupted patriot, the useful citizen, and the invincible soldierGod grant that in America true religion and civil liberty may be inseparable and that the unjust attempts to destroy the one, may in the issue tend to the support and establishment of both."
* President John Adams wrote, "While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader...If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security."
* Samuel Adams, a key leader in the framing of our nation, wrote, "A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy."
* Alexander Hamilton declared, "If we and our posterity shall be true to the Christian religionif we and they shall live always in the fear of God and shall respect his commandmentsif we and they shall maintain just moral sentiments, and such conscientious convictions of duty as shall control the heart and lifewe may have the highest hopes of the future fortunes of our country...But if we and our posterity neglect religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity."
* Again we cite George Washington who wrote, "Besides, the Constitution of the United States contemplates, and is fitted for; such a state of society as Christianity alone can form....These virtues, in our nation, are the offspring of Christianity, and without the continued general belief of its doctrines and practice of its precepts they will gradually decline and eventually perish."
Dr. Sterling Lacy, in his book, Valley of Decision wrote, "America has become the battleground between the world's two oldest religions...the first is expressed primarily by Christianity. The second by humanism. It is not a question of whether morality can or should be legislated. It is a question of which religious guidelines will undergird the legislation: religious guidelines that deify God, or religious guidelines that deify man?
While the wall of separation of church and state is not found in the United States Constitution, it was found in the Constitution of the former Soviet Union: Article 52 stated, "The church in the USSR is separated from the state, and the school from the church." To construe our Constitution as a charter for a secular state is to deliberately pervert it or to ignorantly do so. "The Constitution was designed to perpetuate a Christian order" in our nation.
Now we can see how great is the deception that has been imposed upon the citizens of our land.
__________
1. All quotes, save for Scripture citations, are from David Barton's The Myth of Separation. (Wall Builder Press Aledo, TX, 1992).
2. Much valuable information is found in The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States by Benjamin F. Morris, (American Vision Inc. Powder Springs, GA. Reprint of 1863 edition)
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