PART 4
By
Pastor Roger Anghis
July 11, 2010
NewsWithViews.com
Discovering America’s Christian Heritage
Foundation Scripture:
Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”
Christianity was not separated from the government in the days of our Founding Fathers. It directed their daily lives and was the basis of our Founding Documents. Religion was part of the government’s activities on a daily basis. In 1774 during a session of Congress there was prayer, not just a little prayer to bless the purpose of their meeting, but an extended prayer that lasted for some time and the entire Congress studied four chapters out of the Bible.
This is verified by a letter from John Adams to his wife, Abigail, about the sermon and the effect the prayer had on the people there.
George Washington in his farewell address stated: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”
The
first Bible society, The American Bible Society, was founded by many
of the Founding Fathers.
None were preachers which indicates the importance that they put on
Christianity in the daily lives of the people. The first president of
The American Bible Society was Elias Boudinot, President of the Continental
Congress. He signed the peace treaty with Great Britain, helped frame
the Bill of Rights. Other members were John Langdon and Charles Pickney,
both signers of the Constitution, John Jay the first Chef Justice of
the Supreme Court and one of the authors of the Federalist Papers, Justice
Bushrod Washington, Justice Smith Thompson who was also Secretary of
the Navy, Justice John Marshall who was an officer in Washington’s
military staff and Secretary of State under John Adams and the fourth
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Others involved in this society
were several governors and Attorney Generals.
All are considered to be Founding Fathers. It is amazing that those teaching history in our schools today are either ignorant of the subject themselves or have no problem with distorting the truth as they do. Between 1802 and 1816 one hundred and twenty Bible societies were formed ALL involving the Founding Fathers. Even the Virginia Bible Society is unique in that one of the founders of that society was Thomas Jefferson, the one Founding Father that the revisionists claim was not religious! He even wrote a book called The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. The purpose of the book was to give missionaries a tool to help evangelize the American Indian. He believed that if he could get the Indians to read the life and teachings of Jesus, it would change their lives.
There is so much of our history that is not taught. They seem to concentrate only on the bad parts while ignoring the better parts. We all have heard about the Salem witch trials but we are not told that it was two preachers of the gospel that brought about the end of the trials. We are not told that there were only 21 that died as a result of those trials but in Europe there were over 500,000 that died during the same time period. We aren’t told that the judge that was in charge of the witch trials went into church and repented openly and renounced what he had done.
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We are taught not what is reflective of our history, only bits of what happened that do not represent the true history and we are told what makes our history appear shady, greedy and anti-religious. Left out of our teachings are those that had a strong religious belief, specifically a Christian belief, because these are the ones that point out in their actions and in their writings that they looked to the Bible for direction and ideas. If we lose that concept we lose inalienable rights and we lose separation of powers (Jeremiah 17:9). David Barton explains this verse as follows. “Jeremiah 17:9 addresses the innate depravity of man -- the subject of numerous sermons in the Founding Era.
Understanding that unregenerate man tended to depravity and degeneracy, it became important to inhibit the opportunity for degeneracy and abuse of power in government by breaking it up and placing power into separate locations. Therefore, if one branch became degenerate, if power was separated and balanced among the three branches (see Isaiah 33:22), it might be possible for the other two branches to counteract the degenerate influence of the one. Even if two branches became degenerate, it was still possible for one to exert a counterbalancing influence. This was their logic behind separation of powers, based on Jeremiah 17:9's teaching of the innate degeneracy of man. They did not expect a branch that became degenerate to remain that way; they felt it could at some point be restored, and more likely so if the other branches remain upright. Christian political philosophers such as Baron Charles Montesquieu (Spirit of the Laws, 1748) and John Locke's Two Treatises of Government (1688) also contain explanations.”
One action our Founding Fathers did that we never hear about is they had a last will and testament. We have wills today but they went one step further and they included a ‘testament’ to their faith in Jesus Christ. Patrick Henry’s will divided up his estate to his children and then stated that “This is all I can give my children, but Jesus Christ can make them rich.”, and went on to explain that what Jesus can give them was more than anything that he could give them. Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration and a prisoner of war during the Revolutionary War, had been treated so badly that he never recovered from that mistreatment. He knew that his children would not have their father around while growing up so in his will he included the plan of salvation and every major Christian doctrine so that his children would have knowledge of what he believed. When Ethan Allen captured Fort Ticonderoga he demanded that the garrison be turned over to him. When asked under who’s authority he stated; ‘In the Name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress.’
To understand the truth of how our Founding Fathers believed you have to go back and read their own writings and study what they did. That evidence is irrefutable. However, in our activist courts today that evidence is not always accepted. In one case involving school prayer irrefutable evidence was brought forth showing that our Founding Fathers always prayed at school graduations. The Supreme Court Justice stated that it proved only one of two things, they were hypocrites and knowing that it was wrong to pray in public went ahead and did it anyway, or they did not understand the Constitution.
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To think that you have a better understanding of the Constitution over the men that wrote it is arrogance beyond belief. If we do nothing to reverse this type of thinking, i.e. replace those that ignore our historical actions and ignore our Constitution, then America will be lost. Reagan stated that America is the last chance for freedom. If we lose it, there will be no place for free men to go. The fate of America is in our hands.
Click here for part -----> 1, 2, 3, 4,
� 2010 Roger Anghis - All Rights Reserved
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Pastor Roger Anghis is the Founder of RestoreFreeSpeech.org, an organization designed to draw attention to the need of returning free speech rights to churches that was restricted in 1954.
President of The Damascus Project, TheDamascusProject.org, which has a stated purpose of teaching pastors and lay people the need of the churches involvement in the political arena and to teach the historical role of Christianity in the politics of the United States. Married-37 years, 3 children, three grandchildren.
Web site: RestoreFreeSpeech.org
E-Mail: editor@restorefreespeech.org
