God and Our Nation
Psalm 33: 12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. 13 The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men. 14 From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. … 18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; 19 To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. 20 Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield. 21 For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name. 22 Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, …we hope in thee.
Introduction: Our country is unique in that it alone is a Gentile country founded upon the principles of God's Word. A nation and a people carved out of the wilderness to create a place for the free worship of the Almighty. It has been this founding, and the subsequent revivals which returned us as nation to that foundation, that has been the major reason for the prosperity and blessings in our country.
The evidence is throughout our history. It is written into the documents that brought us to life and now sustain that life. The Declaration of Independence speaks of being "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." The Colonial Congress and the Constitutional Convention were opened daily in prayer. The motto of our country imprinted upon our coins is "In God We Trust."
Historical Evidence of Our Christian Heritage
The Colonies
Eleven of the first 13 States required faith in Jesus Christ and the Bible as qualification for holding public office.
November 3, 1620 - King James I grants the Charter of the Plymouth council.
"In the hope thereby to advance the enlargement of the Christian religion, to the glory of God Almighty."
November 11, 1620 - The Pilgrims sign the Mayflower Compact aboard the Mayflower, in Plymouth harbor.
"In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by the Grace of God, of England, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith,
Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the General good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord, King James of England, France and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620."
The Revolutionary War
In the Summer of 1775, as the country was in great peril, the Continental Congress issues a call to all citizens to fast and pray and confess their sin that the Lord might bless the land. "And it is recommended to Christians of all denominations, to assemble for public worship, and to abstain from servile labor and recreation on said day."
In a letter written to the King of England, John Adams and John Hancock made this bold statement at the risk of their lives. “We recognize no sovereign but God and no king but Jesus!
The Constitution
At least 50 out of the 55 men who framed the Constitution of the United States were professing Christians. (M.E. Bradford, A Worthy Company, Plymouth Rock Foundation, 1982).
Benjamin Franklin, at the Constitutional Convention
I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: "that God governs in the affairs of man." And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?
We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in the political building no better than the builders of Babel; we shall be divided by our little, partial local interests; our projects will be confounded; and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing government by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war or conquest.
I therefore beg leave to move that, henceforth, prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven and its blessing on our deliberation be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business.
(Historical note to above: the convention was then adjourned for three days of prayer, Bible reading and special church meetings, following which the Constitution was discussed and adopted.)
James Madison (the primary architect of the Constitution)
“We have staked the future of government not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions on the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”
The Supreme Court
First chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Honorable John Jay, who had also served as governor of New York, wrote "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty ... of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." --1816.
In 1892, Justice David Brewer, writing for the majority in the case of the Church of the Holy Trinity vs. the United States, said this: "This is a religious people. This is historically true. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation ...We find everywhere a clear recognition of the same truth ... 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. --1892
Justice William O. Douglas in 1952 wrote succinctly: "We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being."
One of our more liberal Supreme Court chief justices, Earl Warren, left no doubt about what he believed in 1954: "I believe no one can read the history of our country without realizing that the Good Book and the spirit of the Savior have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses ... Whether we look to the first Charter of Virginia ... or to the Charter of New England ... or to the Charter of Massachusetts Bay ... or to the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut ... the same objective is present ... a Christian land governed by Christian principles. I believe the entire Bill of Rights came into being because of the knowledge our forefathers had of the Bible and their belief in it: freedom of belief, of expression, of assembly, of petition, the dignity of the individual, the sanctity of the home, equal justice under law, and the reservation of powers to the people ... I like to believe we are living today in the spirit of the Christian religion. I like also to believe that as long as we do so, no great harm can come to our country." --1954
The Presidents
In his inaugural address, George Washington, said this, “No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency . . . We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.”
It was Washington, on his own initiative, who added "So help me God," to his inaugural oath. And then kissed the Bible to affirm his submission to the King of Kings.
John Adams, our first vice president and second president, wrote: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." -1798
Thomas Jefferson, our third president and one of the principle framers of the Constitution: "Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God?" -1781
Our sixth president, John Quincy Adams, said this: "Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the Foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity?" 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. - 1837
Abraham Lincoln’s words about God could fill a book. In 1861 he wrote, “It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. "Unless the great God who assisted [President Washington], shall be with me and aid me, I must fail. But if the same omniscient mind, and Almighty arm, that directed and protected him, shall guide and support me, I shall not fail ... Let us pray that the God of our fathers may not forsake us now."
April 30, 1863 - President Abraham Lincoln's Proclamation for a National Day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer.
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.- Proclamation of Thanksgiving, October 1863
Calvin Coolidge, our 30th president, in 1923 said this about America's founding fathers:
"They were intent upon establishing a Christian commonwealth in accordance with the principle of self-government. They were an inspired body of men. It has been said that God sifted the nations that He might send choice grain into the wilderness ... Who can fail to see it in the hand of Destiny? Who can doubt that it has been guided by a Divine Providence?"
Here are the words of Woodrow Wilson, our 28th president and governor of New Jersey: "America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of the Holy Scripture." --1911 (27)
Franklin Roosevelt prayed this prayer on a national radio hookup on D-Day, June 6, 1944, as our troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France:
"Almighty God ... with Thy blessing we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogance. Lead us to the saving of our country. Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen."
Harry Truman, our 33rd president, in 1946 understood the spiritual heritage of this nation: "If men and nations would but live by the precepts of the ancient prophets and the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, problems which now seem so difficult would soon disappear ... That is a supreme opportunity for the church to continue to fulfill its mission on earth. The Protestant church, the Catholic church, and the Jewish synagogue -- bound together in the American unity of brotherhood -- must provide the shock forces to accomplish this moral and spiritual awakening. No other agency can do it. Unless it is done, we are headed for the disaster we would deserve. Oh, for an Isaiah or a St. Paul to reawaken a sick world to its moral responsibilities."
Dwight Eisenhower who followed Truman, “You can’t explain free government in any other terms than religious. The Founding Fathers had to refer to the Creator in order to make their revolutionary experiment make sense; it was because ‘all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights’ that men could dare to be free.
Gerald Ford, our 38th president, in 1974, quoted a 1955 speech by Dwight D. Eisenhower "Without God there could be no American form of government, nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first--the most basic--expression of Americanism. Thus, the founding fathers of America saw it, and thus with God's help, it will continue to be."
And then we come to Ronald Reagan, truly the last great man to hold the office of president. He said, “A Divine plan placed this great continent between the oceans to be found by a people from every corner of the earth who had a special love of faith, freedom and peace.”
In another speech he said this about the Bible, “Inside the Bible’s pages lie all the answers to all the problems man has ever known. I hope Americans will read and study the Bible… It is my firm belief that the enduring values presented in tis pages have a great meaning for each of us and for our nation. The Bible can touch our hearts, order our minds and refresh our souls.”
So let me close with another great statement by this great man, “I believe with all my heart that standing up for American means standing up for the God who has so blessed our land.”
