Articles on the current administration and politics in general.

Twenty Five Inconvenient Realities

The Separation of Church and State is a phrase often used by people who want to insist that Christianity had no real role in our nation’s founding – cerntainly nothing that had any significant influence on those that articulated our cause, created our Constitution and fought the battles that culminated in the surrender of Great Britain.

You see this in comments like what you see below from the “Freedom From Religion” website:

The Christian Right is trying to rewrite the history of the United States, as part of their campaign to force their religion on others who ask merely to be left alone. According to this Orwellian revision, the Founding Fathers of this country were pious Christians who wanted the United States to be a Christian nation, with laws that favored Christians and Christianity.

Not true! The early presidents and patriots were generally Deists or Unitarians, believing in some form of impersonal Providence but rejecting the divinity of Jesus and the absurdities of the Old and New Testaments.

You have to be very selective in the information you use to validate such a statement. At the same time, you have to be willfully oblivious to the specific references to God and Christ that punctuate the relevant events and documentation that established the United States.

Below is a brief yet potent list:

 1) The Declaration of Independence

What qualified our statement to King George as a legitimate cause as opposed to a mere complaint is the way in which our Founders showed how his monarchy violated Divine Absolutes. However unjust or belligerent his adminstration may have been, it was the manner in which his rule restricted rights that were not his to dispense as much as they were God’s to guarantee – that is what gave our cause the Substance it needed to resonate as something that was True and not just preferred.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.1

That is the starting point. The rights we have are God-given and the governments that are established by men to ensure those rights, but…

…whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.2

We are founded on a Biblical Absolute and not a legal argument.

 2) Sixteen Congressional Proclamations for Fasting

During the eight years we were at war with Great Britain, Congress proclaimed a National Day of Fasting, Prayer and Humiliation 16 different times. You can view an image of those proclamations as they are preserved in the Library of Congress as well as a readable transcription by clicking here.

The verbiage of these proclamations is not conducive to an all-inclusive dynamic as far as it being something that accommodates all faiths. Rather, it specifies Christ and a need to seek His Forgiveness and Direction.

For example, a portion of the Proclamation from March 20, 1781 reads as follows:

The United States in Congress assembled, therefore do earnestly recommend, that Thursday the third of May next, may be observed as a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer, that we may, with united hearts, confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and by sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease his righteous displeasure, and through the merits of our blessed Savior, obtain pardon and forgiveness:

There’s a couple of things that are worth noticing: First, the commitee that was tasked with drafting this proclamation included James Madison who many want to believe to be a Deist. Someone with that kind of spiritual temperment would not be advocating Christ as “our blessed Savior.”

Secondly, to characterize Congress as a humanistic enterprise that placed no priority on the Reality and the Necessity of Divine Intervention requires a willful disregard for the repeated directives that came from their collective pen that recommended an intentional timeframe dedictated to an intensely focused and humble posturing before Jesus Christ.

In 1854, James Meacham, the Representative from Vermont, delivered a report pertaining to an issue involving the First Amendment. At one point, he said this:

Down to the Revolution, every colony did sustain [the Christian] religion in some form. It was deemed peculiarly proper that the religion of liberty should be upheld by a free people. Had the people, during the Revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have strangled in its cradle. At the time of the Constitution and the amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged, not any one sect. Any attempt to level and discard all religion would have been viewed with universal indignation.3

In the same report, Meacham concluded by saying:

In this age there can be no substitute for Christianity; that, in its general principles, is the great conservative element on which we must rely for the purity and permanence of free institutions. That was the religion of the founders of the Republic, and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants.4

 3) The Treaty of Paris

The first words of the Treaty that represented Great Britain’s surrender to America in 1783 were:

In the Name of the most Holy & undivided Trinity.5

 4) The Liberty Bell

The Liberty Bell was used to summon delegates to Pennslyvania Hall to discuss the matters of the day. Benjamin Franklin wrote to Catherine Ray in 1755, “Adieu, the Bell rings, and I must go among the Grave ones and talk Politicks.”6

It’s most famous tolling, however, was on July 8, 1776 when it was used to summon the townspeople to hear the public reading of the Declaration of Independence.7

Yet, up until that point, the bell wasn’t seen as an icon as much as it is today because of the way the text that’s inscribed on the bell was applied to the issue of slavery in 1844.

The inscription is Leviticus 25:10:

Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. (Lev 25:10 [KJV])

William Lloyd Garrison, abolitionist and publisher of The Liberator, reprinted a poem written by H.R.H. Moore which represented the first documented use of the name, “The Liberty Bell.” Garrison saw it as an appropriate and effective way to combine the Biblical substance of the verse inscribed on the bell with the poetry of Moore which included the line, “Ring it, till the slave is free” and let the collective meaning serve as a rebuke against those who supported slavery.

In an article printed in Time Magazine, Dr Ben Carson tells of how when the body of Abraham Lincoln was laid in Independence Hall, he was placed in a manner where the Liberty Bell and the inscription was directly overhead. During the 20 hour public viewing, over 150,000 people paid their respects to the Great Emancipator.

In the article penned by Dr Carson, he concludes by saying:

Whether you’re black or white, Democrat or Republican, The Liberty Bell’s true story reminds Americans of all stripes that our nation’s history—and future—belongs to us all. It challenges us to tear down systems that hold us captive and honor the price great men and women have paid to cast and re-cast the American mold to form a more perfect union.8

The story of the Liberty Bell and the nation it represents possesses the profound and essential content that it does because of how it points to a Divine Absolute and not just a desired political climate.

 5) Washington’s General Orders

On May 2, 1778, General Washington issued the following General Orders:

The Commander in Chief directs that divine Service be performed every Sunday at 11 o’clock in those Brigades to which there are Chaplains—those which have none to attend the places of worship nearest to them—It is expected that Officers of all Ranks will by their attendance set an Example to their men. 

While we are zealously performing the duties of good Citizens and soldiers we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of Religion—To the distinguished Character of Patriot, it should be our highest Glory to add the more distinguished Character of Christian—The signal Instances of providential Goodness which we have experienced and which have now almost crowned our labors with complete Success, demand from us in a peculiar manner the warmest returns of Gratitude & Piety to the Supreme Author of all Good.9

George Washington made frequent references to the Power and Goodness of God throughout his career as the Commanding General of the Continental Army as well as his time as Commander in Chief.

The fact that he made a point of ensuring that Christian worship services were held throughout the army he commanded and made it clear that he expected his officers to lead by example by being both present and engaged reveals the priority he placed on the acknowledgement of the “Supreme Author of all Good.”

While enduring the hardship and lethal challenges of the winter spent at Valley Forge, Washington directed his troops to set aside a day for thanksgiving and fasting. On December 18, 1777, Reverend Israel Evans delivered one of the sermons and Washington later wrote him to thank him. In that letter, he said:

…it will ever be the first wish of my heart to aid your pious endeavours to inculcate a due sense of the dependence we ought to place in that all-wise and powerful Being, on whom alone our success depends.10

 6) Third Verse of our National Anthem

Our national motto is derived from the third verse or our National Anthem:

Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust

Yet again another example of how many recognize that the “separation” of church and state doesn’t mean the elmination of the church and its influence on the state.

 7) The Thoughts of Thomas Jefferson
The Four Evangelists

Thomas Jefferson did not believe in the divinity of Christ, but he nevertheless looked to the Bible as the greatest source of moral teachings known to man:

…there never was a more pure and sublime system of morality delivered to man than is to be found in the four evangelists.24

That was Jefferson’s primary justification for admiring the Christian faith, while not subscribing to it completely. But before one can dismiss Jefferson’s perspective as being inconsequential to the way in which it contributed to the philsophical structure of the American government, you have to first acknowledge the way in which he pointed to the Scriptures as being the Standard that defined moral behavior:

…the religion of Jesus is founded on the Unity of God, and this principle chiefly, gave it triumph over the rabble of heathen gods then acknoleged. thinking men of all nations rallied readily to the doctrine of one only god, and embraced it with the pure morals which Jesus inculcated.25

The following quote is anecdotal, meaning that you won’t find it in anything written by Jefferson himself. But it’s nevertheless preserved in the Library of Congress as an exchange between Jefferson and a friend of his that was observed  by Reverend Ethan Allen who was the pastor of Christ Church where Jefferson attended. Seeing him on his way to church one Sunday, Jefferson’s friend asked him where he was going. Jefferson responded by saying he was on his way to church to which his friend responded with a bit of surprise asking him why he would go to church when he didn’t believe a word of it. Jefferson replied by saying,

No nation has ever existed or been governed without religion nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has been given to man and I, as Chief Magistrate of this nation, am bound to give it the sanction of my example.26

Again, it isn’t documented anywhere in Jefferson’s writings, but it’s credibility is believable given it’s place within the Library of Congress and the fact that it captures both the outward behavior and the documented inner workings of Jefferson’s mind when it came to the substance of the Christian faith.

Thomas Jefferson’s orthodoxy wasn’t at all with what most would regard as doctrinally sound. While he believed that Jesus represented the greatest expositor of moral standards ever, Jefferson did not subscribe at all to His Deity.11

In a letter to Thomas B. Parker in 1819, he said:

my fundamental principle would be the reverse of Calvin’s, that we are to be saved by our good works which are within our power, and not by our faith which is not within our power.12

But while his convictions pertaining to the Gospel of Jesus Christ may have been questionable, he still saw religion as being a necessary component to the philosphical foundation a government had to be based on in order to define and defend an individual’s rights.

You see this in a letter he wrote to P.H. Wendover in 1813. Jefferson, referring to the discourses of a Mr. McCloud, says…

I feel my portion of indebtment to the reverend author for the distinguished learning, the logic and the eloquence with which has proved that religion, as well as reason, confirms that soundness of those principles on which our government has been founded and its rights asserted.13

In addition, while serving in the House of Burgesses, Thomas Jefferson worked alongside Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee to craft a resolution for the state of Virginia to set aside a day of fasting and prayer. He said

We were under conviction of the necessity of arousing our people from the lethargy into which they had fallen as to passing events; and thought that the appointment of a day of general fasting and prayer would be most likely to call up and alarm their attention.14

Later, he wrote that the reaction was like a “shock of electricity…”

We returned home, and in our several counties invited the clergy to meet assemblies of the people on the 1st of June [actually at various times in June and July], to perform the ceremonies of the day, and to address to them discourses suited to the occasion. The people met generally, with anxiety and alarm in their countenances, and the effect of the day thro’ the whole colony was like a shock of electricity, arousing every man and placing him erect and solidly on his centre.15

The bottom line is that Thomas Jefferson saw in Christianity a reliable and needed foundation that, while it could not be coerced, could nevertheless support a legitimate assertion of individual rights and justify a national pursuit of independence.

 8) The Testimony of John Adams on the Second Continental Congress

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson corresponded frequently after they had both retired from public life. In one particular letter, Adams and Jefferson were discussing a recent comment that had found its way into print that suggested that “Science and Morals are the great Pillars on which this Country has been raised to its present population, Opulence and prosperity, and these alone, can advance, Support and preserve it.”16

In his letter to Jefferson, Adams disagreed and he articulated his position in part by saying…

The general Principles, on which the Fathers Achieved Independence, were the only Principles in which, that beautiful Assembly of young Gentlemen could Unite, and these Principles only could be intended by them in their Address, or by me in my Answer. And what were these general Principles? I answer, the general Principles of Christianity, in which all those Sects were United…17

Among those that comprised the Second Continental Congress you had men that owned slaves and those that despised the slave trade. In addition, you had varying temperaments, vocations, as well as different philosophies when it came to loyalty to the crown.

Adams was part of the five-man team tasked with writing the “Declaration of Independence.” Whatever was getting ready to be sent to King George had to be both substantial and unanimous. But how do you unite a group of statesmen with such different backgrounds and perspectives given the risks that were involved?

As one who was there to witness it first hand, Adams could confidently say that it was because of the way each of the delegates could come together beneath the umbrella of their Christian faith that they were able to outline our country’s position with one voice.

 9) The Impact of the Great Awakening
A Remarkable Incident

A remarkable incident at the beginning of the Revolutionary War testifies to the great evangelist’s hold on the imagination of ordinary Americans. In the fall of 1775, a New England force, commanded by Benedict Arnold (1741-1801), was recruited to invade Canada and capture Quebec. Arriving in Newburyport, Massachusetts, where Whitefield was buried in 1770, the officers descended into the church crypt, opened Whitefield’s coffin, removed his clerical collar and wristbands, cut them in pieces, and passed them out to the troops. The distribution of these Great Awakening amulets showed in its eerie way that men facing stress and anxiety wanted links to a preacher of a living God, not the latest London edition of Locke.21 One need look no farther for the reason evangelicalism demolished deism in eighteenth-century America.22

Anytime your relationship with Christ becomes defined more by a routine and an institution as opposed to a personal rapport with your King, your perspective on yourself and the world around you suffers. You see yourself exclusively in terms of your circumstances and the Purpose, Peace and Power that flows from an intentional focus on God and His Truth is overshadowed by the thought of who you are as opposed to Whose you are (Is 43:1; Matt 10:30-31; Phil 2:13; Rev 20:15).

From 1735-1743, preachers like George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards were able to profoundly impact the colonies by proclaiming the Gospel in a way that emphasized the personal aspect of an authentic relationship with Christ. As opposed to sacraments and religious gestures, ministers like Whitefield and Edwards directed their listeners to the Gospels where it could be readily seen that it was a personal decision to believe in the empty tomb that secured one’s salvation.

The basic themes of the Great Awakening included:

  • All people are born sinners (Rom 3:23)
  • Sin without salvation will send a person to hell (Eph 2:8-9)
  • All people can be saved if they confess their sins to God, seek forgiveness and accept God’s grace (Rom 10:9-10)
  • All people can have a direct and emotional connection with God (Gal 3:28)
  • Religion shouldn’t be formal and institutionalized, but rather casual and personal (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6)18

While the essential doctrines being espoused may not have directly impacted the colonies’ collective dispostion towards Independence, between 1700 and 1740, an estimated 75-80 percent of Americans were actively attending churches which were, “…being built at a headlong pace.”19 This was a result of the Great Awakening and it was this ever growing constituency of believers that provided the material and philosophical support for the Revolution because of the way they were now rethinking the manner in which their rights were, in fact, guaranteed by God and not dispensed by a monarch.

This change in their perspective was due in a large part to the way in which Revolutionary War era ministers were endorsing America’s resistance to the crown as a biblically sanctioned cause. And  because you had such a large majority of colonists now attending worship services, the result was a unified group of patriots that were linking arms across those borders previously defined by state sanctioned churches and vivid denominational differences.

Dr. James Hutson from the Library of Congress explains…

The plain fact is that, had American clergymen of all denominations not assured their pious countrymen, from the beginning of the conflict with Britain, that the resistance movement was right in God’s sight and had His blessing, it could not have been sustained and independence would not been achieved. Here is the fundamental, the indispensable, contribution of religion and its spokesmen to the coming of the American Revolution.20

 10) Jefferson’s Approval of Federal Resources for Christian Worship Services

While serving as President, he made a point of attending church every Sunday and he made available Federal Buildings and the Marine Band for worship services. Dr. James Hutson, in his book “Religion and the Founding of the American Republic,” states…

It is no exaggeration to say that, on Sundays in Washington during Thomas Jefferson’s presidency, the state became the church.23

Today’s interpretation of the “separation of church and state” does not square at all with Jefferson’s allocation of state resources for expressly Christian worship services. In order for his adminstrative acts to not conflict with his letter to the Danbury Baptists, it is logically mandated to rethink the notion that the First Amendment refers to the elimination of all reference to Scripture as a basis for our laws and political philosophy.

The issue was not the Authority of the Word of God. Rather, the issue of the separation of church and state was whether or not the government could impose a uniform approach to the Throne of God. It was the way that different states and their sanctioned churches could tax their constituents and take from those monies a portion to support a specific denomination, or the manner in which certain states required you to be a member of a particular church in order to run for public office. This was the sort of politically mandated spirituality that permeated 18th century America. The “separation of church and state” had nothing to do with whether or not you could legally kill your child before it was born or if it was legally feasible to redefine the institution of marriage.

 11) The Resolve of the First Continental Congress to Begin with Prayer

The first meeting of the Continental Congress happened on September 5, 1774. Among the first things that was decided was that each session should be opened up in prayer by Rev. Jacob Duche‘. While his intial presentation was typical of what might be expected from a man of the cloth, he then began to pray in a manner that was obviously unscripted.

Silas Deane, the Connecticut delegate, recorded that…

He read the lessons of the day, which were accidentallly extremely applicable, and they prayed without book about ten minutes so pertinently, with suchfervency, purity and sublimity of style and sentiment, and with such an apparent sensibility of the scenes and business before, that even Quakers shed tears.24

The starting point for the First Continental Congress was not a casual, “remove your hat” kind of prayer. It was an intentional and passionate appeal for wisdom that resonated with everyone, regardless of their orthodoxy.

 12) The Comments of Benjamin Franklin

June 28, 1787 was a Thursday. The Revolutionary War had been won and representatives of each state from the newly formed “United States of America” were now meeting to create a Constitution.

Progress had been very slow. Several weeks of unproductive deliberation inspired Dr. Benjamin Franklin to stand up and make a suggestion. His words are recorded by James Madison and can be read in the minutes of the Federal Convention as they’re preserved in “Elliot’s Debates, Volume 5, p253.”

Mr. President, the small progress we have made after four or five weeks’ close attendance and continual reasonings with each other – our different sentiments on almost every question, several of the last producing as many noes as ayes–is, methinks, a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the human understanding. We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been running about in search of it. We have gone back to ancient history for models of government, and examined the different forms of those republics which, having been formed with the seeds of their own dissolution, now no longer exist. And we have viewed modern states all round Europe, but find none of their constitutions suitable to our circumstances.

In this situation of this assembly, groping, as it were, in the dark, to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings?

In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were beard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor. To that kind Providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance?

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 men. 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; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed, in this 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 by-word down to future ages. And, what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments by human wisdom, and leave it to chance, war. and conquest.25

Franklin’s suggestion authenticates the way in which the Continental Congress collectively sought the Wisdom of God during the War of Independence and it also shows the disposition of one of its elder statesmen as far as the Reality and Necessity of God’s Assistance in establishing an enduring and effective government.

For more reading on this, click here.

 13) The Reaction of the House of Burgesses to the Boston Tea Party

Remember the “Boston Tea Party?”

Today it would’ve been around $1,000,000.00 worth of tea. It took the colonists 3 full hours to empty the British ship of its 342 chests of tea into the harbor.26

America had repeatedly asked for representation in Parliament in order to facilitate a more comprehensive approach to taxes only to be taxed with even greater indifference and aggression. The colonies decided the best way to respond was to simply eliminate one of the major things that was being taxed. Perhaps then King George would be willing to pay more attention to the petition of his subjects.

The ”Boston Tea Party” did succeed in getting King George’s attention. But instead of a more productive dialogue, Boston harbor was closed, free elections of town officials were ended, colonists were required to quarter British soldiers on demand and Massachusetts was placed under martial law.

When Virginia learned of the crown’s tyrannical disposition, rather than taking to the streets and staging demonstrations, instead the House of Burgesses proclaimed a day of fasting and prayer to avert “the heavy calamity which threatens destruction to our civil rights.”27

This was the Fast that was written in part by Thomas Jefferson referenced earlier. The thing to be noticing is that you have a collective resolve to respond to current events by seeking out the Assistance and the Power of God.

The first part of the Proclamation reads as follows:

This House being deeply impressed with Apprehension of the great Dangers to be derived to British America, from the hostile Invasion of the City of Boston, in our Sister Colony of Massachusetts Bay, whose Commerce and Harbour are on the 1st Day of June next to be stopped by an armed Force, deem it highly necessary that the said first Day of June be set apart by the Members of this House as a Day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer, devoutly to implore the divine Interposition for averting the heavy Calamity, which threatens Destruction to our civil Rights, and the Evils of civil War; to give us one Heart and one Mind firmly to oppose, by all just and proper Means, every Injury to American Rights, and that the Minds of his Majesty and his Parliament may be inspired from above with Wisdom, Moderation, and Justice, to remove from the loyal People of America all Cause of Danger from a continued Pursuit of Measures pregnant with their Ruin.

Ordered, therefore, that the Members of this House do attend in their Places at the Hour of ten in the Forenoon, on the said 1st Day of June next, in Order to proceed with the Speaker and the Mace to the Church in this City for the Purposes aforesaid; and that the Reverend Mr. Price be appointed to read Prayers, and the Reverend Mr. Gwatkin to preach a Sermon suitable to the Occasion.

Ordered, that this Order be forthwith printed and published. By the House of Burgesses.28

This was the way in which both the populace and those that represented them positioned both their resolve and their perpsective. This was not secular statesmanship nor was it reckless rebellion. It was a determined effort to qualify every word and every action according to the Wisdom and Provision of God.

 14) The Black Robe Regiment

Peter Oliver was a lawyer and by the time of the Revolution had risen to the position of chief justice of the Superior Court in Massachusetts. He was incredibily wealthy and served in a variety of community and church positions and was fiercely loyal to the crown.

His perspective on the Revolutionary War was that of a Tory. Unlike the way in which most historians present John Adams and other such Patriots as noble statesmen, Oliver saw them as deluded troublemakers.

Not long after Cornwallis’ surrender, Oliver published a book entitled, “Origin and Progress of the American Rebellion: A Tory View.” What makes his perspective valuable is that he has nothing to gain by glamorizing or exaggerating any one aspect of the American effort to win their independence, in that he views all of it as a form of sedition.

At one point, he sets aside an entire section of his text to describe the “Black Regiment.”

He begins by saying…

It may not be amiss, now, to reconnoitre Mr. Qtis’s black Regiment, the dissenting Clergy, who took so active a Part in the Rebellion.29

He elaborates on the “dissenting clergy” as flawed ministers, who according to Oliver, were ordained only because of a grave mistake having been made by the Governors of the Church of England. He identifies several men of the cloth including Jonas Clark, Dr. Charles Chaucy and others as being, not only members of the Regiment, but also extremely influential. He references two annual conferences that hosted pastors from all of the state and it was there that the “Black Regiment” was able to exert a substantial amount of influence in the name of rebellion and evil.

In this Town was an annual Convention of the Clergy of the Province, the Day after the Election of his Majestys Charter Council; and at those Meetings were settled the religious Affairs of the Province; & as the Boston Clergy were esteemed by the others as an Order of Deities, so they were greatly influenced by them. There was also another annual Meeting of the Clergy at Cambridge, on the Commencement for graduating the Scholars of Harvard College*, at these two Conventions, if much Good was effectuated, so there was much Evil. And some of the Boston Clergy, as they were capable of the Latter, so they missed no Opportunities of accomplishing their Purposes. Among those who were most distinguished of the Boston Clergy were Dr. Charles Chauncy, Dr. Jonathan Mayhew & Dr. Samuel Cooper?* & they distinguished theirselves in encouraging Seditions & Riots, untill those lesser Offences were absorbed in Rebellion.30

You see Oliver’s “concern” reiterated on multiple occasions and in different ways.

The bottom line is that the mindset of the Patriot looking to separate from England was more than just a political preference, it was something justified and endorsed by the Word of God and it was the clergy that reinforced that message in the context of the sermons they preached and the example they set.

You can read more by clicking here.

 14) Holland’s Observation of the Continental Army
The Commander in Chief directs that divine Service be performed every Sunday at 11 o’clock in those Brigades to which there are Chaplains—those which have none to attend the places of worship nearest to them—It is expected that Officers of all Ranks will by their attendance set an Example to their men.33

Not every Englishman disagreed with America’s quest for freedom. Even William Pitt, England’s Prime Minister who served from 1766 – 1778 was an outspoken critic of the monarchy’s perspective on the colonies. He said, “The spirit which now resists your taxation in America, is the same which formerly opposed loans, benevolences, and ship-money, in England… the same spirit which established the great, fundamental, essential maxim of your liberties, that no subject of England shall be taxed but by his own consent.”31

It was because of this subtle support of the colonies that King George had to turn to paid mercenaries in order to adequately staff the army he would send to the Americas. But even foreign powers were hesitant to war against the Patriots in New England.

When George appealed to Holland for assistance, John Derk van der Capellen, one of their more prominent nobles, expressed his opinion to his fellow countrymen by saying:

In what an odious light must this unnatural civil war appear to all Europe, a war in which even savages . . . refuse to engage; more odious, still, would it appear for a people to take a part therein who were themselves once slaves, bore that hateful name, but at last had spirit to fight themselves free. But, above all, it must appear superlatively detestable to me, who think the Americans worthy of every man’s esteem and look upon them as a brave people, defending in a becoming, manly and religious manner those rights which, as men, they derive from God, not from the legislature of Great Britain.32

Capellen was saying that it didn’t reflect well on the English to be fighting a war against the Americans who, not only were correct in the way they saw their rights as being entitlements guaranteed by God and not dispensed by a king, but also as a people resolved to resist in a “religious manner.”

Throughout the war, not only was General Washington adamant in encouraging a perpetual state of reverence and gratitude to God (see sidebar), but Congress also frequently admonished their populace to fast and repent.34

The fact that the United States was so determined to be consistent in the way they conducted themselves before God as they fought against King George played a large part in how other nations viewed the Revolutionary War.

 15) The Rationale of John Locke

In his Second Treatise of Government, John Locke dismantled the flawed philosophy supporting the idea that monarchs could justify their authority over their subjects by claiming to be Divinely superior to any human court or governing body.35

He said…

For Men being all the Workmanship of one Omnipotent, and infinitely wise Maker; All the Servants of one Sovereign Master, sent into the world by his order and about his business, they are his Property, whose Workmanship they are, made to last during His, not one another’s Pleasure.36

By saying that all men were the “…workmanship of one omnipotent and infinitely wise maker,” he was stripping away the manufactured rank and title that some had asserted as a way to elevate themselves over their peers. Rather, we were to perceive ourselves as equals having been created by God for His Purpose and not our own.

Locke had a profound impact on those tasked with crafting the “Declaration of Independence.” You can see both his verbiage and his thinking represented in the opening lines penned by Thomas Jefferson when he said:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.37

While many throughout history would sort men according to distinguished sounding titles and family crests, we built our argument on the platform that says our rights are not a king’s to dispense, but they are God’s to guarantee.

The fact that you and I are created in the image of God is what was used to ensure our Declaration resonated as a legitimate cause and not just a mere complaint. And it’s because we bear His Likeness that this isn’t just another day and you’re not just another face in the crowd. Your life is more than your situation and you are more than your mistakes.

That’s the Reality of God and the beauty of grace.

We are not just existing, we are seen…

…and you weren’t merely “sorted…”

You were created.

 16) Washington’s Farewell Address

The war was over. Our Independence had been won and George Washington was getting ready to retire from public service after having, not only commanded the Continental Army, but also having served as our nation’s first president for two consecutive terms.

As he was getting ready to retire, he wrote a circular to be distributed to all the states that would serve as his farewell address on June 8, 1783.

He concluded his letter by saying the following:

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 incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination & obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large and particularly for their brethren who have served in the field—and finally 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 & pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion & without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation.38

Washington was quoting from Micah 6:8. But he was doing more than simply extending a stately nod to the majesty of Scripture. He was emphasizing that the success of the states and the prospect of being a, “…happy Nation” was bound up in the extent to which its citizens labored to obey Scripture and imitate Christ (Eph 5:1).

Modeling yourself after Christ is not merely being “nice.” To imitate Him is to be the best version of yourself in whatever it is that you do (2 Cor 9:8).

Think about it.

When your focus is on Christ, you’re doing the right thing at the right time in the right way for all the right reasons.

If you want to be successful and prosperous, according to Joshua 1:8, then both your schedule and your strength are going to be coming from Him.

That’s the secret to success. It’s not so much a “plan” as much as it is a Person – your relationship with Him and your commitment to follow His Instructions.

Make a point of involving your King in the details of your life. When you do, you’re following in the footsteps of some truly amazing individuals including George Washington who would certify your approach as something that would produce both a happy individual…

…as well as a happy Nation!

 18) Letter Read to Parliment by Sir Richard Sutton

In the book “Principles and Acts of the Revolution,” there is what is documented as “An authentic account of Friday’s debate on the second reading of the bill for regulating the civil government of Massachusetts Bay.” This is the “minutes” of a Parlimentary session that happened in London on April 26, 1774.

At one point, Sir Richard Sutton rose to read a letter from a crown appointed governor that described the disposition of the colonists…

Sir Richard Sutton read a copy of a letter, relative to the government of America, to the board of trade, shewing that, at the most quiet times, the dispositions to oppose the laws of this country were strongly ingrafted in them, and that all their actions conveyed a spirt and wish for independence. If you ask an American who is his master? he will tell you that he has none, nor any governor but Jesus Christ.39

 19) The Writings of Samuel Adams
John Locke: The Law and the Light of Nature

John Locke refers to the “Law of Nature” in his Second Treatise of Government. He defines that Law in his Questions Concerning the Law of Nature:

This law of nature can, therefore, be so described [as a law] because it is the command of the divine will, knowable by the light of nature, indicating what is and what is not consonant with a rational nature, and by that every fact commanding or prohibiting.42

Locke saw the Law of Nature as the system of Absolutes put in place by God Himself that define the difference between right and wrong and establishes the inherent dignity and worth of every person.

The “Light of Nature” is the means by which humanity is able to discern the “Law of Nature.”

Again, in his Questions Concerning the Law of Nature, he says

But, when we say that something is known by the light of nature, we would signify nothing but the kind of truth whose knowledge man can, by the right use of those faculties with which he is provided by nature, attain by himself and without the help of another.43

In other words, it is something intuitive that does not have to be taught and because man is made in the Image of God, it is therefore an innate faculty that God Himself has placed in the mind of every human being.44

On November 20, 1772, the town of Boston adopted a piece written by Samuel Adams, the cousin of John Adams, entitled, “The Rights of the Colonists, a List of Violations of Rights and a Letter of Correspondence.”

The purpose of the document was, in part, “to State the Rights of the Colonists and of this Province in particular, as Men, as Christians, and as Subjects.”40

He begins by articulating the “Natural Rights of the Colonists as Men” which are:

  • a Right to Life
  • a Right to Liberty
  • a Right to Property

…along with the Right to Support and Defend those same Rights.

It’s in this section where Adams echoes the sentiments of John Locke by stating:

“Just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty” in matters spiritual and temporal, is a thing that all men are clearly entitled to, by the eternal and immutable laws of God and nature, as well as by the law of Nations and all well grounded municipal laws, which must have their foundation in the former.41

He then goes on to list the “Rights of the Colonists as Christians.” He begins by saying:

These may be best understood by reading – and carefully studying the institutes of the great Lawgiver and head of the Christian Church: which are to be found closely written and promulgated in the New Testament.45

The Republic of Cicero

Cicero was a Roman statesman who vainly tried to uphold Republican principles during the last chapter of Rome’s history before the civil wars that resulted in it becoming a dictatorship.

He is remembered today as one of Rome’s greatest orators and the writings he authored which detailed his politicial philosophy are considered to be foundational to those arguments that favored consensual government.

This is an excerpt from one of his most famous writings entitled, “De Republica.”

True law is right reason in agreement with nature , it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions. And it does not lay its commands or prohibitions upon good men in vain, though neither have any effect on the wicked.

It is a sin to try to alter this law, nor is it allowable to attempt to repeal any part of it, and it is impossible to abolish it entirely.

We cannot be freed from its obligations by senate or people, and we need not look outside ourselves for an expounder or interpreter of it. And there will not be different laws at Rome and at Athens, or different laws now and in the future, but one eternal and unchangeable law will be valid for all nations and all times, and there will be one master and ruler, that is, God, over us all, for he is the author of this law, its promulgator, and its enforcing judge.

Whoever is disobedient is fleeing from himself and denying his human nature, and by reason of this very fact he will suffer the worst penalties, even if he escapes what is commonly considered punishment. . . .47

He makes the point that an individual is to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. This was the gist of the Toleration Act in 1689 as well as several other legislative actions put in place by the English government – all of which amounted to a reiteration of what it says in the Word of God as far as your worship needs to be “in spirit and truth (Jn 4:24)” and not according to the dictates of a state sanctioned collection of mandates.

Finally, he enumerates the “Rights of the Colonists as Subjects.” He says:

All persons born in the British American Colonies are by the laws of God and nature, and by the Common law of England, exclusive of all charters from the Crown, well Entitled, and by the Acts of the British Parliament are declared to be entitled to all the natural, essential, inherent and inseparable Rights Liberties and Privileges of Subjects born in Great Britain, or with the Realm.46

What he’s saying here is that Colonists have the same rights as Englishmen which are fundamentally based on the laws of God and nature.

Every collection of entitlements, then, according to Adams, has as its foundation the immutable laws of God.

Even the Law of Nature, an expression that often surfaces in the writings of 18th century political thinkers, has as its basis, a biblical scaffolding referenced by John Locke (see “John Locke: The Law and the Light of Nature” sidebar) as well as Cicero (see the “Republic of Cicero” sidebar).

In 1947, the “First Natural Law Institute” was convened at the College of Law at the University of Notre Dame. At this meeting, you had several distinguished individuals that included Clarence E. Manion, Dean of the College of Law.

At one point Manion was elaborating on “Coke’s Common Law,” referring to Edward Coke, a seventeen century jurist whose writings pertaining to British Common law went on to serve as the foundation for the system of checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution of the United States.

Coke authored some commentary on the famous “Calvin’s Case” which included a definition of the Law of Nature:

The Law of nature was before any judicial or municipal law (and) is immutable. The law of nature is that which God at the time of creation of the nature of man infused into his heart for his preservation and direction; and this is the eternal law, the moral law, called also the law of nature. And by this law, written with the finger of God in the heart of man, were the people of God a long time governed before the law was written by Moses, who was the first reporter or writer of law in the world. * * * God and nature is one to all and therefore the law of God and nature is one to all. * * * This law of nature which indeed is the eternal law of the creator, infused into the heart of the creature at the time of his creation, was two thousand years before any laws written and before any judicial or municipal laws. And certain it is that before judicial or municipal laws were made, kings did decide cases according to natural equity and were not tied to any rule or formality of law.48

Dean Manion went on to show how Coke’s commentary explained how the Christian doctrine had such a profound impact on the way in which the law was perceived and ultimately crafted by America’s founding fathers.

This is a fair digest of the fundamental principle upon which all our pre-Revolutionary legal education was based. The theistic element of this fundamental law was certain to be enthusiastically received and developed in and through the American Colonies, because religion of one kind or another had been the motivation for the establishment of each and every one of these colonies. Theology was the subject which the colonists discussed most passionately and it would have been very difficult for the Seventeenth or Eighteenth Century American mind to comprehend a strictly secular system of duties and obligations.49

 20) The Words of Patrick Henry

March 23, 1775.

Richmond, Virginia.

The House of Burgesses were meeting in Saint John’s Church to discuss the recent actions of the First Continental Congress. The “Intolerable Acts” were passed by Parliament in early 1774 in response to the “Boston Tea Party.” Among other changes, the “Intolerable Acts” included the closing of the Boston Port and rescinding the Massachusetts Charter. Congress had met in September of that same in year to craft a response which called for a boycott of all British imports, an end to the exportation of any and all goods to Britain as well as the raising of a militia.50

It was now several months later. Despite the consensus shared by most Americans that the crown was not going to address any of the grievances that had been repeatedly voiced by the colonies, many hesitated endorsing a war and were yet hoping for a diplomatic solution.

It was in this moment that Patrick Henry rose to speak to the delegates gathered at Saint John’s Church. What followed was a speech made without notes and no transcript was made of the address he was about to deliver which would include the famous phrase, “Give me liberty, or give me death!”51

His desire was to present an argument that could change the minds of those who were determined to believe that diplomacy could sway a tyrant who saw negotiations, not as a way to arrive at a just compromise, but as a scheme to perpetuate a sinister agenda.

He began by acknowledging the reality of differing opinions, but then went on to emphasize the importance of giving all viewpoints an equal hearing, especially given the magnitude of the subject being discussed.

At one point, he said…

It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country.”52

A common flaw in the way Truth is pursued by some is the way in which a person’s bias inclines them to resist any information that has the capacity to undermine the perspective they are most comfortable with. Instead of a conviction characterized by a wise and balanced overview of the issue in question, preferences are substituted for principles and an emotionally charged opinion is submitted as an objective bottom line.

Ecclesiastes 7:16-18 says:

16 Don’t be excessively righteous, and don’t be overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself? 17 Don’t be excessively wicked, and don’t be foolish. Why should you die before your time? 18 It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them. (Ecc 7:16-18)

Regardless of the topic being discussed, it’s imperative to be balanced in the way you consider the criteria you allow to influence your thinking. It’s more than just a healthy way to ensure a good decision, it’s part of the daily debt you own to God out of respect for Who He is and what He expects (Ps 32:8-10; Prov 12:22-23; 29:1; Jas 1:5-8).

 21) James Madison, March 14, 1781

James Madison is often identified as someone who advocated a contemporary interpretation of the separation of church and state because of the way his “Memorial and Remonstrance,” written in 1785, argued against the use of state collected fees to finance the teaching of the Christian religion.

But to evaluate Madison’s stance on Christianity, let alone his perspective on its influence on government and society, solely on the basis of his “Memorial and Remonstrance” is both shortsighted and academically irresponsible given some of his acts as President and other official documents that he contributed to.

While President, James Madison approved the waiving of taxes and fees that would’ve normally be imposed on materials that were to be used for the printing of the Bible in 1812.53

In 1781, Madison worked alongside James Duane and Jesse Root to craft a Congressional Proclamation that would call for a national day of humiliation, fasting and prayer. A portion of read as follows:

The United States in Congress assembled, therefore do earnestly recommend, that Thursday the third of May next, beay be observed as a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer, that we may, with united hearts, confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and by sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease his righteous sidpleasure, and through the merits of our blessed Savior, obtain pardon and forgiveness54

Madison wasn’t concerned so much about Christianity’s influence on Government as much as he was Government’s interference with Christianity.

To read a more detailed breakdown of Madison’s Remonstrance, click here.

 22) Hiring Chaplains Immediately After Ratifying the Constitution and the First Amendment

While the First Amendment can be applied to all faiths, the Founders’ primary focus was on the dilemma created by the way in which certain groups wanted to interpret the Bible and not if it was appropriate to ignore the Bible.

You see this proven in the first week of the First Session of the First Congress in 1789. In the very week that Congress approved the Establishment Clause, it enacted legislation providing for paid Christian chaplains for both the House and the Senate.55

In Lynch vs Donnelly, Chief Justice Warren Berger elaborated on that by saying the legislative actions of the Congress that authored and approved the First Amendment demonstrate that the Separation of Church and State applied to the way in which government could mandate things like church membership and not the removal of the church as the foundation upon which we base our rights, morals and direction.

The Court’s interpretation of the Establishment Clause has comported with what history reveals was the contemporaneous understanding of its guarantees. A significant example of the contemporaneous understanding of that Clause is found in the events of the first week of the First Session of the First Congress in 1789. In the very week that Congress approved the Establishment Clause as part of the Bill of Rights for submission to the states, it enacted legislation providing for paid Chaplains for the House and Senate.56

In the same opinion, Berger says this about the complete separation of church and state:

No significant segment of our society and no institution within it can exist in a vacuum or in total or absolute isolation from all the other parts, much less from government. “It has never been thought either possible or desirable to enforce a regime of total separation . . . .” Nor does the Constitution require complete separation of church and state; it affirmatively mandates accommodation, not merely tolerance, of all religions, and forbids hostility toward any. Anything less would require the “callous indifference” we have said was never intended by the Establishment Clause. Indeed, we have observed, such hostility would bring us into “war with our national tradition as embodied in the First Amendment’s guaranty of the free exercise of religion.”57

Later he says this:

There is an unbroken history of official acknowledgment by all three branches of government of the role of religion in American life from at least 1789. Seldom in our opinions was this more affirmatively expressed than in Justice Douglas’ opinion for the Court validating a program allowing release of public school students from classes to attend off-campus religious exercises. Rejecting a claim that the program violated the Establishment Clause, the Court asserted pointedly: “We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.” Zorach v. Clauson. Our history is replete with official references to the value and invocation of Divine guidance in deliberations and pronouncements of the Founding Fathers and contemporary leaders….

Other examples of reference to our religious heritage are found in the statutorily prescribed national motto “In God We Trust,” which Congress and the President mandated for our currency, and in the language “One nation under God,” as part of the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag. That pledge is recited by many thousands of public school children — and adults — every year.

Art galleries supported by public revenues display religious paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries, predominantly inspired by one religious faith. The National Gallery in Washington, maintained with Government support, for example, has long exhibited masterpieces with religious messages, notably the Last Supper, and paintings depicting the Birth of Christ, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection, among many others with explicit Christian themes and messages. The very chamber in which oral arguments on this case were heard is decorated with a notable and permanent — not seasonal — symbol of religion: Moses with the Ten Commandments. Congress has long provided chapels in the Capitol for religious worship and meditation.

There are countless other illustrations of the Government’s acknowledgment of our religious heritage and governmental sponsorship of graphic manifestations of that heritage. Congress has directed the President to proclaim a National Day of Prayer each year “on which [day] the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals.” Our Presidents have repeatedly issued such Proclamations. One cannot look at even this brief resume without finding that our history is pervaded by expressions of religious beliefs such as are found in Zorach. Equally pervasive is the evidence of accommodation of all faiths and all forms of religious expression, and hostility toward none. Through this accommodation, as Justice Douglas observed, governmental action has “[followed] the best of our traditions” and “[respected] the religious nature of our people.”58

Those who want to silence the Influence of Christianity on the way our Founders designed our government and processed the decision to separate from England have to ignore the way in which the Christian doctrine permeated the culture during that time. It wasn’t a political “angle,” nor was it a popular tagline. It was a Reality that inspired the first settlers of the New World, it was a tension that pitted a biblically based platform against a government controlled liturgy and it was a perspective that saw the individual as someone who had been created in the image of God as opposed to a subject who existed to obey a monarch.

It was the Bible that give the needed Substance to our fight for Independence and the “separation of church and state” wasn’t a campaign to encourage a humanistic approach to Democracy or a relative perspective on Morality, but to ensure that the power of government would never be allowed to overule the Authority of Scripture.

 23) Benjamin Rush on the Adoption of the Constitution (p543)

Benjamin Rush was a physician, signer of the Declaration of Independence, the “father of public schools” and a principle promoter of the American Sunday School Union. He also served as the Surgeon General of the Continental Army, he helped write the Pennsylvania Constitution and was the Treasurer of the US Mint.

In 1787, he voted to adopt the Federal Constitution at the Pennsylvania State Convention.

In the aftermath of the Revolution, because you now had a government that was being directed by the people, a more informed and educated populace made the concept of Public Education that much more of a priority.

Benjamin Rush was among those who proposed the creation of a more formal and unified system of publicly funded schools and it was through the work of these forward thinking individuals that the modern institution of Public Education is as accessible and advanced as it is today.

In 1786 he wrote an essay entitled, “Thoughts Upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic.” It was in this piece that he emphasized the importance of Christianity and how its Substance promotes “the happiness of society and the well being of civil government.”

I proceed in the next place, to enquire, what mode of education we shall adopt so as to secure to the state all the advantages that are to be derived from the proper instruction of youth; and here I beg leave to remark, that the only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.

Such is my veneration for every religion that reveals the attributes of the Deity, or a future state of rewards and punishments, that I had rather see the opinions of Confucius or Mahomed inculcated upon our youth, than see them grow up wholly devoid of a system of religious principles. But the religion I mean to recommend is this place, is that of the New Testament.

It is foreign to my purpose to hint at the arguments which establish the truth of the Christian revelation. My only business is to declare, that all its doctrines and precepts are calculated to promote the happiness of society, and the safety and well being of civil govern|ment. A Christian cannot fail of being a republican. The history of the creation of man, and of the relation of our species to each other by birth, which is recorded in the Old Testament, is the best refutation that can be given to the divine right of kings, and the strongest argument that can be used in favor of the original and natural equality of all mankind. A Christian, I say again, cannot fail of being a republican, for every precept of the Gospel inculcates those degrees of hu|mility, self-denial, and brotherly kindness, which are directly opposed to the pride of monarchy and the pageantry of a court. A Christian cannot fail of being useful to the republic, for his religion teacheth him, that no man “liveth to himself.” And lastly, a Christian cannot fail of being wholly inoffensive, for his religion teacheth him, in all things to do to others what he would wish, in like circumstances, they should do to him.59

 24) Congressional Endorsement of the Bible Printed by Robert Aiken

According to the Library of Congress

The war with Britain cut off the supply of Bibles to the United States with the result that on Sept. 11, 1777, Congress instructed its Committee of Commerce to import 20,000 Bibles from “Scotland, Holland or elsewhere.” On January 21, 1781, Philadelphia printer Robert Aitken (1734-1802) petitioned Congress to officially sanction a publication of the Old and New Testament which he was preparing at his own expense. Congress “highly approve the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aitken, as subservient to the interest of religion . . . in this country, and . . . they recommend this edition of the bible to the inhabitants of the United States.” This resolution was a result of Aitken’s successful accomplishment of his project.

In the Journals of Congress, dated September 12, 1782, you see a report submitted by James Duane on behalf of Rev Dr. White and Rev Mr. Duffied – chaplains of the United States Congress. They had been tasked with inspecting Robert Aitken’s work and this was their response:

Gentlemen, Agreeably to your desire, we have paid attention to Mr. Robert Aitken’s impression of the holy scriptures, of the old and new testament. Having selected and examined a variety of passages throughout the work, we are of opinion, that it is executed with great accuracy as to the sense, and with as few grammatical and typographical errors as could be expected in an undertaking of such magnitude. Being ourselves witnesses of the demand for this invaluable book, we rejoice in the present prospect of a supply, hoping that it will prove as advantageous as it is honorable to the gentleman, who has exerted himself to furnish it at the evident risk of private fortune. We are, gentlemen, your very respectful and humble servants,60

The result was a complete copy of the Holy Bible. In the front section of the Bible, you saw this endorsement from Congress:

Whereupon, Resolved, That the United States in Congress assembled, highly approve the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aitken, as subservient to the interest of religion as well as an instance of the progress of arts in this country, and being satisfied from the above report, of his care and accuracy in the execution of the work, they recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States, and hereby authorise him to publish this recommendation in the manner he shall think proper.61

You can see a copy of the text by clicking here.

 25) British Press Reports the Activity of the American Army After the Surrender of Lord Cornwallis

“The Annual Register” is a publication that presents an annual overview of all the political and cultural highlights of that particular year.62

Created in 1758 and still in circulation today, it’s regarded as a primary source text for historical research.63

1781 was a landmark volume because of the significance of the events that occurred that year including Britain’s surrender to the United States. Part of what made Cornwallis’ defeat stand out was the way in which General Washington conducted both himself and his troops in the aftermath.

Two days after the capitulation took place, divine service was preformed in all the different brigades and divisions of the American army, in order to return thanks to the Almighty for the great event; and it was recommended by General Washington, to all the troops that were not upon duty, in his general orders, that they would assist at divine service “with a serious deportment, and with that sensibility of heart, which the recollection of the surprising and particular interposition of Providence in their favor claimed.”64

In his General Orders, Washington, in addition to recommending that all troops not on duty attend a worship service, he also ordered that all prisoners be pardoned and released:

In order to diffuse the general Joy through every Breast the General orders that those men belonging to the Army who may now be in confinement shall be pardoned released and join their respective corps.65

The British Army had burned and destroyed countless properties that were not military targets, including churches.66 In addition, clergy had been targeted and there were instances of brutality on the battlefield that were not due so much to the horrors of war as they were the cruelty of certain British officers.67

Washington would not have been faulted for being less accommodating when Lord Cornwallis surrendered. Even in the context of the way prisoners of war were treated, the British were indifferent to the wellbeing of the Continental soldiers they held in custody and, while estimates vary, between eight and eleven thousand American prisoners died in prison due to neglect.68

And yet…

Washington personified a biblical approach to one’s enemy.

1) “Declaration of Independence”, America’s Founding Documents, https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript, accessed June 27, 2022

2) Ibid

3) “H. Rept. 33-124 – Chaplains in Congress and in the Army and Navy. March 27, 1854. Ordered to be printed, Committee on the Judiciary. March 27, 1854”, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/SERIALSET-00743_00_00-004-0124-0000/pdf/SERIALSET-00743_00_00-004-0124-0000.pdf, accessed April 1, 2023

4) Ibid (you can also see this report referenced on the online copy of the Congressional Record of the Proceedings and Debates of the 87th Congress in Volume 108 – Part 13 that covers the activity from August 20, 1962 to August 30, 1962. It’s on page 17597 and can be accessed by heading out to https://www.google.com/books/edition/Congressional_Record/dKHcR9moGwkC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=1854

5) “Treaty of Paris (1783)”, “Milestone Documents”, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/treaty-of-paris, accessed April 1, 2023

6) “National Park Service”, “The Liberty Bell”, https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/historyculture/stories-libertybell.htm, accessed April 1, 2023

7) “Liberty Bell Tolls to Announce Declaration of Independence”, “History”, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/liberty-bell-tolls-to-announce-declaration-of-independence, accessed April 1, 2023

8) “Ben Carson: What You Don’t Know About The Liberty Bell”, Time Magazine, Dr. Ben Carson, August 24, 2016, https://time.com/4464934/ben-carson-liberty-bell-history/, accessed April 2, 2023

9) “General Orders, 2 May 1778, George Washington, “Founders Online”, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-15-02-0016, accessed March 7, 2023

10) “The Writings of George Washington, Volume V”, Jared Sparks, Russell, Odiorne and Metcalf & Hilliard, Gray and Company, Boston, 1834, https://books.google.com/books?id=UatV3YPhGVAC&pg=PA276&lpg=PA276&dq, accessed April 2, 2023

11) “Jefferson, Thomas and Religion”, “Encyclopedia Virginia EMA, Virginia Humanities”, https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/jefferson-thomas-and-religion/, accessed April 4, 2023

12) “Thomas Jefferson to Thomas B. Parker, 15 May 1819”, “National Archives Founders Online”, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-14-02-0292, accessed April 4, 2023

13) “The Complete Works of Thomas Jefferson, the Third US President”, Thomas Jefferson, edited by Henry Augustine Washington, DigiCat, 2022, https://books.google.com/books?id=MS-cEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT2921&lpg=PT2921&dq=%22Religion,+as+well+as+reason,+confirms+the+soundness+of+those+principles+on+which+our+government+has+been+founded+and+its+rights+asserted.%22&source=bl&ots=jvCeLSmjCd&sig=ACfU3U1-4FsCJ2Gwx8s2xkAUHIojqOIvSA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwii0PWm2JD-AhXgmWoFHYOFCs0Q6AF6BAgnEAM#v=onepage&q=%22Religion%2C%20as%20well%20as%20reason%2C%20confirms%20the%20soundness%20of%20those%20principles%20on%20which%20our%20government%20has%20been%20founded%20and%20its%20rights%20asserted.%22&f=false, accessed April 4, 2023

14) “Resolution of the House of Burgesses Designating a Day of Fasting and Prayer, 24 May 1774”, “National Archives, Founders Online”, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-01-02-0082, accessed April 4, 2023

15) “Thomas Jefferson and John Walker to the Inhabitants of the Parish of St. Anne, [before 23 July 1774]”, “National Archives, Founders Online”, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-01-02-0087, accessed April 4, 2023

16) “John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 28 June 1813”, “Founders Online”, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-06-02-0208, accessed February 13, 2023

17) Ibid

18) “Great Awakening”, https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/great-awakening, accessed April 5, 2023

19) “Religion and the Founding of the American Republic”, https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel02.html, accessed April 5, 2023

20) “Religion and the Founding of the American Republic”, Dr. James H. Hutson, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 1998, p40

21) “Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People”, Jon Butler, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MS, London, England, 1990, p188

22) “Religion and the Founding of the American Republic”, Dr. James H. Hutson, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 1998, p35

23) Ibid, p91

24) “Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year 1886”, https://books.google.com/books?id=81UOAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=quakers%20shed%20tears&f=false, accessed March 30, 2023

25) “A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875”, “The Library of Congress”, https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?hlaw:1:./temp/~ammem_21kM::#N0277-01, accessed April 10, 2023

26) “Boston Tea Party”, “History”, https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/boston-tea-party, accessed February 10, 2023

27) “The Fighting Parson of the American Revolution: A Biography of General Peter Muhlenberg” Edward Hocker, Lawrence Knorr, Sunbury Press, Inc. Mechanicsburg, PA, 1936, 2019, p38, Kindle

28) “Resolution of the House of Burgesses Designating a Day of Fasting and Prayer, 24 May 1774”, “National Archives, Founders Online”, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-01-02-0082, accessed May 13, 2023

29) “Origin and Progress of the American Rebellion: A Tory View”, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/stream/originandprogres011156mbp/originandprogres011156mbp_djvu.txt, accessed April 12, 2023

30) “Origin and Progress of the American Rebellion: A Tory View”, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/stream/originandprogres011156mbp/originandprogres011156mbp_djvu.txt, accessed April 12, 2023

31) “William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham”, Wikiquote, https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Pitt,_1st_Earl_of_Chatham, accessed March 13, 2023

32) “Full Text of ‘The Spirit of Seventy-Six Two Volumes in One”, “Internet Archive”, https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.234145/2015.234145.The-Spirit_djvu.txt, accessed March 13, 2023

33) “General Orders, 2 May 1778, George Washington, “Founders Online”, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-15-02-0016, accessed March 9, 2023

34) To view a list of all sixteen proclamations encouraging a day of fasting and prayer issued by Congress during the Revolutionary War featuring images of the text as preserved in the Library of Congress, head out to http://www.americandevotionalseries.com/the-revolutionary-war/march-20-1781/

35) “Divine Right of Kings”, Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/divine-right-of-kings, accessed January 22, 2023

36) “The Project Gutenberg eBook of Second Treatise of Government, by John Locke”, Gutenberg.org, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7370/7370-h/7370-h.htm, accessed January 22, 2023

37) (n.d.). Declaration of Independence: A Transcription. National Archives. Retrieved January 14, 2023, from https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

38) “From George Washington to the States, 8 June 1783”, “Founders Online”, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-11404, accessed February 10, 2023

39) “Principles and Acts of the Revolution in America”, Hezekiah Niles, Baltimore, MD, 1822, https://books.google.com/books?id=YpjJdFJRY9MC&pg=PA194&lpg=PA194&dq=An+authentic+account+of+Fridays+debate+on+the+second+reading+of+the+bill+for+regulating+the+civil+government+of+Massachusetts+Bay&source=bl&ots=N95tXiET_K&sig=ACfU3U0kS-93dWTCHDTAusZ0GWY0ouhhnA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjm5qHUm-L_AhXXk2oFHbtNBx0Q6AF6BAgPEAM#v=onepage&q=An%20authentic%20account%20of%20Fridays%20debate%20on%20the%20second%20reading%20of%20the%20bill%20for%20regulating%20the%20civil%20government%20of%20Massachusetts%20Bay&f=false “, accessed June 26, 2023

40) “The Writings of Samuel Adams, Volume II, 1770-1773,” collected and edited by Harry Alonso Cushing, Public Domain, p278, Kindle

41) Ibid

42) “Questions Concerning the Law of Nature”, John Locke, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 1990, p101

43) Ibid, p119

44) In the opening comments of his “Questions Concerning the Law of Nature,” Locke says: “Since God shows himself everywhere present to us and, as it were, forces himself upon men’s eyes, as much now in the constant course of nature as in the once frequent testimony of miracles, I believe there will be no one, who recognizes that whether some rational account of our life is necessary or that there exists something deserving the name of either virtue or vice, who will not conclude for himself that God exists. Once it has been granted that some divine power presides over the world – something it would be impious to doubt, for He has commanded the heavens to turn in their perpetual revolution, the earth to abide in its place, the stars to shine, has fixed limits to the unruly sea itself, has prescribed for every kind of plant the manner and season of its germination and growth; and all creatures in their obedience to His will have their own proper laws governing their birth and their life…” It’s obvious that Locke sees God as the Great Creator of all life including the heart and mind of mankind. (Ibid p95)

45) “The Writings of Samuel Adams, Volume II, 1770-1773,” collected and edited by Harry Alonso Cushing, Public Domain, p280, Kindle

46) Ibid, p281

47) “Cicero, On the Republic – Book 3”, Attalus, http://www.attalus.org/cicero/republic3.html, accessed May 16, 2023

48) “Calvin’s Case 7 Coke Report 1a, 77 ER 377”, “United Settlement”, https://www.uniset.ca/naty/maternity/77ER377.htm, accessed May 16, 2023

49) “Natural Law Proceedings Vol. 1 | The Natural Law Philosophy of Founding Fathers”, “University of Notre Dame, The Law School”, Clarence E. Manion, https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=5&article=1001&context=naturallaw_proceedings&type=additional, accessed May 16, 2023

50) “First Continental Congress”, “Washington Library”, https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/first-continental-congress/, accessed May 21, 2023

51) “Patrick Henry”, https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/patrick-henry, accessed May 21, 2023

52) “Patrick Henry – Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death”, “Yale Law School – Lillian Goldman Law Library”, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/patrick.asp, accessed May 21, 2023

53) “The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America From the Organization of the Government in 1789 to March 3, 1845…Volume VI”, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, MA, 1853, https://books.google.com/books?id=Opt0L-PDdPAC&pg=PA116&lpg=PA116&dq=%22that+the+duties+arising+and+due+to+the+United+States+upon+certain+stereotype+plates%22&source=bl&ots=p2xVUkIfub&sig=ACfU3U3N9AeyAcd_E0QqZfiXJlHQXbKGTA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjq8oSY0__9AhV6mWoFHduzBy0Q6AF6BAgDEAM#v=onepage&q=%22that%20the%20duties%20arising%20and%20due%20to%20the%20United%20States%20upon%20certain%20stereotype%20plates%22&f=false, accessed June 26, 2023

54) “Journals of the Continental Congress – Tuesday March 20, 1781, p284-286, https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(jc01973)):, accessed June 26, 2023

55) “The Public and General Statutes Passed by the Congress of the United States of America from 1789 – 1827”, https://books.google.com/books?id=1GZZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA411&lpg=PA411&dq=%22That+there+shall+be+allowed+to+each+Chaplain+of+Congress,+at+the+rate+of+five+hundred+dollars+per+annum%22&source=bl&ots=sIYC6Raqr8&sig=ACfU3U24sHHzsUISOw0yUC1rip34FLBwIA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2ypCbyIH-AhVZlWoFHfZgArcQ6AF6BAgIEAM#v=onepage&q=%22That%20there%20shall%20be%20allowed%20to%20each%20Chaplain%20of%20Congress%2C%20at%20the%20rate%20of%20five%20hundred%20dollars%20per%20annum%22&f=false, accessed March 29, 2023

56) “Lynch v. Donnelly”, “UMKC School of Law”, http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/lynch.html, accessed March 28, 2023

57) Ibid

58) Ibid

59) “Of the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic”, Benjamin Rush, “Evans Early American Imprint Collection”, https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N25938.0001.001/1:5.2?rgn=div2;view=fulltext, accessed June 29, 2023

60) “Journals of the American Congress – Thursday, September 12, 1782”, “A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875”, https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?hlaw:1:./temp/~ammem_TJtd::, accessed June 29, 2023

61) Ibid

62) “The Annual Register”, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Annual_Register, accessed June 4, 2023

63) “Annual Register”, Proquest, https://about.proquest.com/en/products-services/ann_reg/, accessed June 4, 2023

64) “The New Annual Register or General Repository of History, Politics, and Literature, for the Year 1781”, G. Robinson, London, England, 1782, p169 (https://books.google.com/books?id=txALAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=deportment&f=false)

65) “George Washington Papers, Subseries 3G, Varick Transcripts, Letterbook 6 | General Orders”, https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/mss/mgw/mgw3g/006/006.pdf, accessed June 4, 2023

66) Referring to the Presbyterian clergy that assisted the Continental Army both spiritually and tactically, “It is not strange that their course was regarded as specially obnoxious by the British troops. Their houses were plundered, their churches often burned and their books and manuscripts committed to the flames…The church edifices were often taken possession of by an insolent soldiery and turned into hospitals or prisons, or perverted to still baser uses as stables or riding schools. The church at Newton had its steeple sawed off, and was used as a prison or guard-horse till it was torn down and its siding used for the soldiers’ huts. The church at Crumpond was burned to save its being occupied by the enemy…More than fifty places of worship through the land were utterly destroyed by the enemy during the period of the war. The larger number of these were burned, others were leveled to the ground, while others still were so defaced or injured as to be utterly unfit for use. This was the case in several of the principal cities – at Philadelphia and Charleston as well as New York. ” (“Presbyterians and the Revolution” Rev W.P. Breed, D.D., Presbyterian Board of Publication, Philadelphia, PA, 1876, p103-106 [https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/public/gdcmassbookdig/presbyteriansrev01bree/presbyteriansrev01bree.pdf])

British forces raided the town of Elizabeth on January 25, 1780 and burned the church, the home of Reverend James Caldwell, the courthouse and the Presbyterian School. (“Revolutionary War New Jersey”, https://www.revolutionarywarnewjersey.com/new_jersey_revolutionary_war_sites/towns/caldwell_nj_revolutionary_war_sites.htm, accessed June 4, 2023)

Saint Philip’s Church in Brunswick County, North Carolina was burned to the ground when the British invaded in 1776. Construction lasted 14 years, but it took only one day for it to be destroyed. Before it’s demise, it was considered to be one of the finest religious structures in North Carolina. (St. Philip’s Church, Brunswick Town”, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Philip%27s_Church,_Brunswick_Town, accessed June 4, 2023)

Biggins Church in Charleston, South Carolina was confiscated by the British Army and used as a depot. As they retreated, they burned the church. (“Biggin Church Ruins”, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biggin_Church_Ruins, accessed June 4, 2023)

67) “Banastre Tarelton”, National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/people/banastre-tarleton.htm, accessed June 4, 2023

68) “Prisoners of War”, “George Washington’s Mount Vernon”, https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/prisoners-of-war/, accessed June 4, 2023

 

 

The God Delusion vs the God Conclusion | Part I

There are three kinds of “data.”

Facts

“Facts” are accurate statements. Think of them as headlines.

For example:

  • Headline #1: Jesus Rises From the Grave
  • Headline #2: Pharisees Accuse Christ Followers of Stealing Corpse of Christ

Both of these statements are accurate. While we know Christ did, in fact, rise, the Pharisees also paid the guards that were guarding the tomb a large sum of money to back up the story that the disciples had stolen the body (Matt 28:11-15).

What’s significant is that for someone who’s just glossing over the headlines, the verbiage, albeit very brief, can still shape conclusions for those who don’t take the time to consider the full account. That leads us to the second category:

Information

“Information” is the “facts” in the context of a limited perspective.

A journalist could build a compelling yet misleading article by strategically citing the chief priests, the guards who had been bribed and any one of a number of like minded people.

Can you see the article in your mind’s eye (click here to read “Pharisees Doubt the Resurrection of Christ – an Example of Fake News” to see an example)?

By steering clear of any testimony that differs from the accounts of the judiciously selected individuals compiled by the hypothetical journalist, you’ve got an article that’s legitimately accurate (facts) and informative (limited perspective). But because the perspective of the article is limited, while there’s nothing directly stated, there is nevertheless an implication that says Christ is dead and unless the reader is inspired to seek out a more comprehensive perspective, assuming he’s even aware that one is available, he’s waking around sporting a very cynical outlook on the first Easter morning.

Information.

Limited perspective.

Finally, the last category of “data” is…

Truth

Truth is an accurate statement that’s been elaborated on in the context of a full perspective. This is the well you want to be drawing your conclusions from. Here is where the right questions are being asked and full disclosure is the norm.

In the absence of “truth,” you risk formulating convictions that are fundamentally flawed. This is why you want to ensure that you’re aggressively and intentionally seeking out the “truth,” and not just the “facts.”

You don’t even want to be content with “additional information.” The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

The Treaty of Tripoli

If you’re familiar with the words of the “Marines Hymn,” then you’re familiar with the phrase, “…the shores of Tripoli.” That phrase refers to the “War with the Barbary Pirates” where Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon lead an exceptionally daring assault as part of the Battle of Dema. Prior to that war President John Adams issued a statement in an effort to assure the radical Muslims that comprised the Barbary Pirates that our country should not be perceived by them as a religious target in that we were not a Christian theocracy. He said:

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen (Muslims); and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan (Mohammedan) nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries (Treaty of Tripoli).

Most of those who try to take Adams words to mean that he was declaring that the United States was not based on Christian principles are required to leave out some context that is both obvious and crucial. But that is nevertheless the methodology that is often used by the person who has something to hide more so than they have something to say. Thomas Essel, despite being among those who seemingly do not see God as central to our nation’s founding, wrote a great piece in 2016 entitled, “Secularists, Please Stop Quoting the Treaty of Tripoli” that elaborates on how citing that statement is irresponsible both academically and practically.

Consider this quote from John Adams:

“This would be the best of all worlds if there were no religion in it!”

On the surface, you have, what appears to be, a very valid piece of evidence that says our nation’s second President and a founding father was an atheist. Or, at least, a very cynical individual when it came to religion. John Adams did say it. It’s part of a letter he wrote to Thomas Jefferson. When you consider the statement in its proper context, you arrive at a much different conclusion:

“Twenty times in the course of my late readings, I have been on the point of breaking out, ‘This would be the best of all worlds if there were no religion in it!’ But in this exclamation I should have been as fanatical as [Adams’ former pastor Lemuel] Bryant or [his former teacher Joseph] Cleverly. Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company — I mean hell.”

In other words, Adams is exasperated when he ponders the way in which organized religion has resulted in so much tension. He says, tongue in cheek, that the world would be better without any “religion” in it. But then he’s very quick to say that the world would be, literally, hell on earth.

Hardly the musings of a man who views religion with a contemptuous sneer.

Yet, this is the way in which atheists and progressives sometimes frame their “facts” and “information” when it comes to the religious disposition of America’s founding fathers (see also “The Treaty of Tripoli” on sidebar).

Richard Dawkins categorizes John Adams as a cynical deist, to the point of him being used by Dawkins as evidence of a collective disdain for religion shared by virtually all the founding fathers.

He quotes Adams as saying:

As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?”1

But he fails to reference another statement made by Adams:

The Christian religion is, above all the Religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern Times, the Religion of Wisdom, Virtue, Equity, and humanity, let the Blackguard [Thomas] Paine say what he will; it is Resignation to God, it is Goodness itself to Man.2

Facts. Information. Truth. You want to know the truth, you want to be aware of the facts, but more than anything else, you want to understand the truth.

A Toddler and a 285 lb Bench Press
As a quick aside, don’t allow yourself to think that being obedient to God’s commands is a laborious drudgery. It’s not. When you’ve got the Holy Spirit living in and through you, you’re not flying solo when you’re confronted with a temptation to make compromises (1 Cor 10:13). When the lights aren’t on (aka, the Holy Spirit is not living in you), you’re approaching temptation the same way a toddler approaches a 285 pound bench press. It’s not going to end well. But when it’s God’s Strength and His Truth that is allowed to animate your actions and your outlook, you now have more than you need to successfully negotiate the challenge that lies before you. Bear in mind, it’s a choice. You can run the red light and plow head on into traffic if you want and God grants you the freedom to make those decisions (Josh 24:2, 15; Rom 8:12-13). As someone who doesn’t have a relationship with Christ, you don’t have the Spirit of God living in you (Rom 8:9), you’re on your own and you’re that overwhelmed toddler. But when it’s God’s Spirit being deployed in the context of those situations, it’s one victory after another.

The Book of Proverbs

Scripture admonishes us to do as much. Proverbs 4:7 says:

Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. (Prove 4:7)

And wisdom begins with a reverence for God. That’s the top button.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (Prov 9:10)

Understand that wisdom, from a biblical standpoint, is more than just knowledge. It’s the “ability to judge correctly and to follow the best course of action, based on knowledge and understanding.”3

While this “ability” is based in part on one’s discipline in the context of academic pursuits, it derives it’s true accuracy and application from an intentional pursuit of God’s Power and Perspective.

In short, it’s a Divine Perspective properly applied (1 Cor 2:16; Col 1:29; Jas 1:5-8).

Here, then, is where you see the real distinction between having access to the directions and actually following the directions –  the difference between Facts, Information and Truth.  Anytime you buy something that requires some assembly, you can gloss over the instructions, believing that your intuition can more than make up for a careful study of the manufacturer’s counsel. More often than not, however, those instructions prove invaluable in being able to put your new resource together correctly. And however prudent it may be to follow the instructions in the assembly of your nephew’s new swing set, it’s absolutely crucial that you follow God’s Instructions when it comes to the whole of life (Jn 14:21; Rom 8:11).

When you’re listening to people like Richard Dawkins, or people who think like him, use the same technique. Recognize the difference between Facts, Information and Truth. Don’t let a carefully crafted platform based on an intentionally watered down perspective replace the full perspective and the truly accurate convictions that flow from that approach.

1. “The God Delusion”, Richard Dawkins, Bantam Press, Great Britain, 2006, p65
2. John Adams, The Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L.H. Butterfield (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1962), 3:233-34
3. Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986, Nashville, TN

A Biblical Approach to Politics | Part I

Despite the fact that Donald Trump was defeated in the 2020 Election, his opponents continue to attack his character, minimize his accomplishments and question the sanity / morality of anyone who would support him.

To some extent, you can’t help but wonder why? If he’s no longer in office, than there’s no reason to be concerned that his policies will make their way into the public sphere given the fact that he’s no longer in a position of authority.

But there’s more to Trump than just him being a political figure. He represents a different approach to politics that makes some very uneasy because of the way it reveals the lack of ethics and efficiency typical of big government and the Liberal perspective in general.

Ultimately, Trump’s platform translates to a result that’s very difficult to argue with, given the way it serves our country’s best interests. But that doesn’t change the fact that those who dislike him are especially passionate in their disdain and an intelligent conversation can be a real challenge because of the way they’re conditioned to perceive Trump as evil along with anyone who would come to his defense.

And it’s not just Liberals.

You’ve got Conservative Christians who either refuse to vote or assert a different name on the ballot because they’re so convinced Trump represents the kind of immorality that they simply can’t support.

So, why Trump? Why would anyone support Donald J. Trump?

 Executive Summary

We’re going to break this down into several sections because there’s more to this than just an affinity for a particular political party.

 I) God & Politics

To say that God doesn’t care about Politics is to ignore the fact that He’s the One Who facilitates all governments to begin with. And while that’s obviously a nonsensical disposition, you also have the false premise that says that God doesn’t care about the laws of a nation and how they either promote what strengthens an individual or tears them down (Prov 28:2-3, 28; 29:2, 4). He does care and He expects His people to be engaged (1 Chron 12:32; 1 Tim 2:2).

 II) Your Best Option

The candidate that represents the most qualified to lead is the one who champions the approach that is most consistent with the foundation laid by the ones who defeated the most powerful empire in the world and established a system of government that, up to that point, was completely unheard of in the way it established the individual as the one who had the right to choose how they wanted to be governed and the extent to which they wanted to succeed (Ps 33:12).

 III) Who is Your Source?

Over the course of the last several decades, Journalism has become more of thermostat than a thermometer and you need to be wise in the way you process information coming from those who are vying for a position in your inbox.

 IV) Trees and Policies

Christ said you’ll know a tree by it’s fruit (Lk 6:44). However Trump is made to appear in the headlines, it is his policies that need to be evaluated in order to determine the substance of his platform and not just the commentary crafted by those who have a problem with his personality or his past.

I) God and Politics

A) God Cares

Some will insist that God doesn’t care about Politics. Because it doesn’t directly impact a person’s soul and the fact that it can be a very divisive issue to the point where a conversation about Christ becomes difficult due to the way in which political topics can poison a dialogue, the tendency is to avoid it altogether and believe that God is basically indifferent to who gets elected and what goes on in the halls of government. That’s absurd. First of all, it’s God Who establishes kings and those who are in positions of authority (Dan 2:21; Rom 13:1-2; 1 Pet 2:13). So, to say that He’s not concerned is to ignore the fact that He’s the One Who facilitates governments to begin with.

B) God’s Side

Some Christian communicators cite the answer given to Joshua by an imposing figure standing near Jericho just prior to the Israelites marching around the city as evidence that God does not take sides…

13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

14 “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord[a] have for his servant?”

15 The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. (Josh 5:13-15)

God’s Sovereignty & Man’s Responsibility

If God is Sovereign, what’s the point of voting? If He’s the One Who, “…removes kings and establishes kings” (Dan 2:21), what part, if any, does the Electoral College play in legitimately “selecting” a President if God’s already made His Choice? The world is not a runaway train travelling out of control with nothing other than the forces of chance acting upon it. God is in control and you see that it in Isaiah:

I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’ (Is 46:10)

You, yourself, are designed with a Purpose and a Plan that was put in place before you were born…

Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Ps 139:16)

However difficult it may be to reconcile the idea that we are free to choose or that we have a legitimate role to play in a process that God has already completed, it really isn’t that hard when you consider the fact that God is All-Knowing (1 Jn 3:20) and therefore He doesn’t have to guess how we’re going to choose. That’s how our free will and God’s Sovereignty work together. It’s not that God forces us to function in a certain way as much as He knows our thoughts before we’re even aware of them ourselves (Ps 139:1-4) and from that perspective, He is therefore able to Plan while simultaneously empowering us with a legitimate freedom of choice. That’s why it’s important to pray and to engage the world around us because He’s working through our obedience and our point of view to accomplish His Purposes. The fact that we’re saved is a result of God having preordained it (Rom 8:29-30) doesn’t change the fact that He used the choice of another human being to obey their King and communicate the words that needed to be said in order for us to be redeemed (Rom 10:14-15). Dr. John MacArthur does a great job of summarizing that idea in a two minute audio recording that you can listen to by clicking here. The fact that God is in charge is a good thing, given the alternative of a pointless chaos with no rules or processes that can be known and understood. And while the fact that God is in control can seem problematic given the pain He allows the world to choose, it’s His Sovereignty that justifies hope and confidence in the future as well as the trust we can place in His command to pray and to work knowing that it’s His Purposes being accomplished in and through us (Rom 8:26-28; Phil 2:12-13).

Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you. (Saint Augustine)

The fact that the man replied by saying that he was neither on the side of the Israelites nor the Canaanites was not indicative of God being neutral and detached from the situation. The fact that it was God working through the Israelites that resulted in the successful siege of Jericho demonstrates that God was obviously invested in seeing the city destroyed. The point that was being made is that we don’t need to be asking whether or not God is on our side as much as we need to ensure that we are on God’s side and operating according to His Instructions and overall Purpose.

C) Why Bother?

But even if you’re on God’s side, do we need to be concerned about voting or even paying attention to the news if God’s Purpose is going to be accomplished regardless of our involvement?

You could ask the same question about salvation, given the fact that those who are born again were predestined to be saved (Rom 8:29), yet we are to witness and Paul makes the Divinely inspired observation that you can’t expect someone to hear and understand the gospel unless someone preaches to them (Rom 10:14-15).

The fact is, God has set things up in such a way where His Sovereignty exists alongside our responsibility – both are true simultaneously (see “God’s Sovereignty & Man’s Responsibility” on sidebar). Emphasizing one over the other invariably leads to disobedience and we are commanded to pray for those who are in positions of authority (1 Tim 2:1-3).

The fact that our prayers are referenced as an act that makes a difference reinforces the idea that our involvement is both mandated and effective.

II) Your Best Option

A) The Template That Works

The key to political success is to model our approach according to the template used by our Founding Fathers who were able to defeat the world’s most powerful empire and to establish a system of government that, at the time, was completely unheard of. It’s that template that has allowed our country to flourish and it’s more than just political theory as much as it’s an ideological paradigm that serves as our legislative foundation.

Those ideals go beyond human preferences or sensible philosophical options and it’s because they’re rooted in a transcendent Absolute that they can be asserted as functional bottom lines. The best qualified candidates for political office are those that possess the talent and the mindset that best facilitate those bottom lines – not just because they’re consistent with a successful history, but because of the way they’re based on Something that transcends human opinion and therefore avoids all of the corruption that characterizes the human condition.

You can see that transcendent Absolute clearly defined in the Declaration of Independence. When we submitted that document to King George, we were saying that it’s because that God has created all men to be equal (Gal 3:28) that the individual has the right to choose how they want to be governed and the extent to which they want to succeed. It’s because it was a Divine Truth that we could logically point to as that which substantiated our claim, we weren’t just filing a complaint, we were making a point. Yes, there were other brilliant political philosophers, such as John Locke, that had contributed to the collective mindset represented by the Second Continental Congress, but ultimately it was a collection of references to God that was cited as the basis for our reasoning and not the names of several respected thinkers.

This is why a candidate’s platform is so important. However noble or approachable they may appear, if their goal is to implement a worldview that runs contrary to our spiritual foundation, they invoke a doctrine that inevitably positions man as his own moral authority and the state as its own religion.

B) There’s Only Two Religions

While that may sound overly simplistic, the fact is there are only two religions in the world: Either God is God or man is God.

Every religion save Christianity provides a way in which you can merit the favor of your preferred deity. With Islam you’ve got Jihad, as a Buddhist you’ve got Nirvana. Jehovah’s Witnesses strive to be among the 144,000 referenced in Revelation 7:4, Hindus pursue Moksha (MOKE-shah) in order to be liberated from the cycle of death and rebirth. Mormons believe that they themselves can attain the status of gods in the afterlife through their works here on earth (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345–354). In each scenario, while you have a supernatural element, you have the ability as a human being to tip the scales in your favor through some kind of action or mindset.

Christianity, on the other hand, says that you are a spiritual corpse (Eph 2:1). You are dead in your sin and you have no option available to you that can offset your default status as a sinner that is permanently and irretrievably separated from God (Ps 14:3; Is 64:6). That’s what makes Christianity distinct from every other religious school of thought – you are utterly destitute apart from some kind of miracle that can somehow transform you in the eyes of God from being sinful to sinless. And that miracle is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Divine Guidance

I am not to be understood to infer that our General Convention was divinely inspired when it formed the new Federal Constitution; yet I must own that I have so much faith in the general government of the world by Providence, that I can hardly conceive a transaction of so much importance to the welfare of millions now in existence, and to exist in the posterity of a great nation, should be suffered  to pass with being in some degree influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent and beneficent  Ruler in whom all inferior spirits live, and move, and have their being. 1(Benjamin Franklin) For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system which without the finger of God never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests.2 (Alexander Hamilton on the ratification of the Constitution) It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty Hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the Revolution.3 (James Madison) I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring of inspiration, but I am as perfectly satisfied that the Union of the States in its form and adoption is as much the work of a Divine Providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament were the effects of a Divine power.4 (Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence)

1. Benjamin F. Morris, The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision Press, 2007),  pp. 303-304, Benjamin Franklin’s reflections on the ratification of the Constitution 2. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison and Other Men of Their Time, The Federalist and Other Contemporary Papers on the Constitution of the United States, E.H. Scott, editor (New York: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1894), p. 646, Alexander Hamilton to Mr. Childs, Wednesday, October 17, 1787. 3. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, & James Madison, The Federalist (Philadelphia: Benjamin Warner, 1818), p. 194, James Madison, Federalist #37. 4. Benjamin Rush, Letters of Benjamin Rush, L. H. Butterfield, editor (Princeton, New Jersey: American Philosophical Society, 1951), Vol. I, p. 475, to Elias Boudinot on July 9, 1788.

When you pull back the curtain and see how Christianity is the only authentic religion in that it’s based solely on the grace of God rather than a human being attempting to be a god, you can understand why it resonates as a stronger option in the mind of the person who recognizes the frailty of his human condition and the veiled attempt on the part of other creeds to position man as his own deity.

C) The General Principles of Christianity

You can also see why from a purely logical point of view that only the Absolute Power and Perspective represented by the Word of God would suffice in providing the philosophical strength the Founders needed in order to refute a monarchy and create a republic. John Adams said it best:

The general Principles, on which the Fathers Atchieved Independence, were the only Principles in which, that beautiful Assembly of young Gentlemen could Unite, and these Principles only could be intended by them in their Address, or by me in my Answer. And what were these general Principles? I answer, the general Principles of Christianity, in which all those Sects were United: And the general Principles of English and American Liberty, in which all those young Men United, and which had United all Parties in America, in Majorities Sufficient to assert and maintain her Independence.1

This is why the best option, when reviewing different candidates for office, is going to be the one whose policies are most consistent with Scripture. However you may personally disagree with that premise, the verbiage of the Declaration as well as the documented comments of the early patriots demonstrates conclusively that the novel political ideas they dared to assert were not based on human preferences as much as they were Divine Guidance (see “Divine Guidance” on sidebar). And while they celebrated the Goodness of God’s Providence in the context of our nation’s initial declaration and the creation of the new Constitution, they were just as vocal in declaring that our future welfare was a certainty only if it was based on the same Resource. Samuel Adams had this to say:

May every citizen in the army and in the country have a proper sense of the Deity upon his mind and an impression of that declaration recorded in the Bible: “Him that honoreth Me I will honor, but he that despiseth Me shall be lightly esteemed” [1 Samuel 2:30]. 2

John Adams mirrors his cousin, Samuel Adams:

…We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition, Revenge or Galantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. (John Adams)3

George Washington leaves no doubt as to his perspective on religious piety and political prosperity:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? 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 of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.4

Christianity or Deism?

Regardless of the volumes of correspondence and documentation that demonstrates the Founders had  a decidedly Christian approach to themselves and the world around them, there is a determined effort on the part of some historians to either eliminate a Biblical influence on the minds of those who crafted our country’s governments entirely, or dilute it with the claim that many of our forefathers were Deists. Deism rejects the Resurrection of Christ. So, from that standpoint, Deism is nothing more than a human philosophy because if Christ is not revered as God Incarnate, then you’re not accepting God’s Word as Absolute Truth and you’re positioning human reason over Divine Revelation. By reducing the Founders’ regard for the Son of God to a noble teacher, the resulting perspective on the Founders’ view of Christianity is far less “spiritual” and substantially more “rational.” The Bible becomes less of an Absolute and more of  a code of ethics than it is anything else and has no real bearing on practical matters and it provides a logical justification for establishing man as his own bottom line. And while “spiritual” verbiage may be utilized from time to time, in the end, God is a literary appliance that’s added for effect as opposed to a transcendent Truth that inspires, evaluates and strengthens the heart of man and the destiny of a nation. There is a problem, however, in concluding that the faith of our Founders was either casual or unorthodox. Contemporary historians and sociologists will often introduce certain assumptions in order to arrive at the situation that best matches their philosophical preferences. For example, the Encyclopedia Britannica refers to George Washington as a Christian Deist. A Christian Deist, by definition, doesn’t believe in the Divinity of Jesus Christ. And while Britannica goes on to say that Washington’s family and personal clergy should be given precedence over the,”…opposite views of later writers or the cloudy memories of a few Revolutionary veterans who avowed Washington’s orthodoxy decades after his death,”8 Washington’s adopted daughter, who lived with the General for 20 years, testified in a letter to Jared Sparks, who published an eleven volume work that cataloged the writings of Washington entitled, The Writings of George Washington,” that Washington was very involved in his local church, his character was Christlike and when he died, it was evident from her standpoint that both Martha and he were confident that he was being welcomed into the arms of His Savior. This is not consistent with the idea that Washington was a Deist. It becomes even more questionable when you look at his prayer journal and see how the idea that he believed Jesus to be Anyone other than the Son of God can be immediately dismissed:

Oh, eternal and everlasting God, direct my thoughts, words and work. Wash away my sins in the immaculate blood of the Lamb and purge my heart by Thy Holy Spirit. Daily, frame me more and more in the likeness of Thy son, Jesus Christ, that living in Thy fear, and dying in Thy favor, I may in thy appointed time obtain the resurrection of the justified unto eternal life. Bless, O Lord, the whole race of mankind and let the world be filled with the knowledge of Thee and Thy son, Jesus Christ. (Washington’s Prayers)

While a human being is incapable of fully knowing another person’s faith and their redeemed status in the sight of God, assuming a secular approach to Christ simply because it matches your preferred perspective on the extent to which the Founders invoked and depended on the Savior revealed in Scripture is both academically and practically irresponsible. You see that intellectual recklessness in the example above with George Washington. While Deism was a part of the religious landscape in the 18th century, to assume that it was the preferred creed of the Founders requires an intentional dismissal of the comments and the behavior they exhibited which positioned Christ as Risen and the Bible as Absolute.

“In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them.” Washington’s words capture the spiritual and political direction that needs to be central to the platform of anyone who aspires to public office because it’s that foundation alone that guarantees a successful administration.

D) They Weren’t Really Christians…

Some will want to insist that a Christian worldview is a needless and ignorant basis for the selection of our national leaders. They will assert the 18th popularity of Deism as a means to minimize the way in which Scripture served both as a Resource and as a Guide in the formulation of our government (see “Christianity or Deism” on sidebar).

In other instances, they’ll take statements made by those like John Adams out of context and attempt to turn them into comments that prove he didn’t perceive Christianity as the fundamental foundation for our country’s government that it is (see “The God Delusion vs The God Conclusion | Part One – FIT“).

The fact is, when you consider the spiritual fabric of our nation’s initial colonization and the way in which Christianity was such a prominent cultural fixture during the time of the Revolution, any effort to try and dismiss or qualify the fact that our country is based on Christian principles borders on the absurd. Perhaps one of the more compelling proofs of our country’s collective regard for the application of Scripture to the cause of liberty comes from the battlefield (read the story of Major General Peter Muhlenberg by clicking here).

The “Black Robe Regiment” was the name the British troops gave the clergy who supported the Revolution from behind their pulpits with their Bibles and in combat with their rifles. Historians have commented that:

There is not a right asserted in the Declaration of Independence which had not been discussed by the New England clergy before 1763.5

British soldiers went as far as saying blaming Christianity for the Revolution:

The influence of the Reformed political tradition in the Founding era is manifested in a variety of ways, but particularly noteworthy is the almost unanimous support Calvinist clergy offered to American patriots. This was noticed by the other side, as suggested by the Loyalist Peter Oliver, who railed against the “black Regiment, the dissenting Clergy, who took so active a part in the Rebellion.” King George himself reportedly referred to the War for Independence as “a Presbyterian Rebellion.” From the English perspective, British Major Harry Rooke was largely correct when he confiscated a presumably Calvinist book from an American prisoner and remarked that “[i]t is your G-d Damned Religion of this Country that ruins the Country; Damn your religion.”6

E) Slave Owners

While it is not difficult to believe that the Founders based their approach to government on Christian principles, given their verbiage both public and private, it is nevertheless challenging to reconcile their perspective with the fact that many owned slaves.

While Slavery is by no means an American institution, the fact that it’s contrary to Scripture (Ex 21:16) and an inhumane practice in general, makes it easy to question the mindset of those delegates from the South that comprised the Second Continental Congress. How do you process a document written and agreed upon by men, many of whom maintained a mindset that allowed for the enslavement of human beings? 

First of all, from a purely practical standpoint, we don’t evaluate the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence according to the character flaws of the men who wrote them. Rather, we evaluate them according to the substance of the documents themselves.

Secondly, many of those that owned slaves were the same ones who sacrificed their homes, their fortunes and, in some cases, their lives, to ensure a system of government that possessed the necessary tenants that would ultimately translate to the end of the slave trade.

Third, to align yourself with the Revolution, whether as a statesman or a soldier, you were committing treason against the crown. The punishment for that included:

  • That the offender be drawn to the gallows, and not be carried or walk: though usually (by connivance length ripened by humanity into law) a sledge or hurdle is allowed, to preserve the offender from the extreme torment of being dragged on the ground or pavement
  • That he be hanged by the neck and then cut down alive
  • That his entrails be taken out and burned, while he is yet alive
  • That his head be cut off
  • That his body be divided in four parts
  • That his head and quarters be at the king’s disposal7

This was the fate that loomed over the progress of the Revolution. Those that fought and served to win America’s independence did so risking everything. However flawed they were in the way they processed the sin of slavery doesn’t change the substance of their work. It’s that work that we honor, not just because of the sacrifices that were made which made it possible, but also because of how the biblically based freedoms those efforts established would go on to secure the liberties that timeframe denied to others.

The Signers of the Declaration: What Did They Lose?

There’s a popular essay that is sometimes published during the fourth of July timeframe that details the sacrifices made by those who signed the Declaration of Independence. It’s inspiring to see what they risked and sobering to see what some actually lost. What’s both frustrating and disconcerting is the way some “fact checkers” seize upon some details of the essay and advance the impression that it’s more of a romantic exaggeration than it is anything else. Anytime you exaggerate, you risk sacrificing the credibility of whatever point you’re trying to make. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were all remarkable men and displayed incredible courage by fixing their signatures to a document they knew could bring about their deaths. You don’t need to embellish the truth. By the same token, you don’t need to point out discrepancies in a way that trivializes the very sacrifices that afford you the right to be critical. For example, in an article published by USAToday entitled, “Fact check: Decades-old essay about Declaration of Independence signatories is partly false,” they make their point with examples from the essay such as this one:

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months. John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.​​​​​​​

They go on to say that this represents and exaggeration because:

Lewis’ home was destroyed, and his wife was captured by the British. And Hart’s story is also largely described accurately, according to the NPS’ record.

But the caveat for both is that these tragedies did not occur because they signed the Declaration. The occurrences were unrelated side effects of the war itself.

The same is true for the alleged 12 unnamed men whose homes were ransacked and burned and eight men named (many incorrectly) as having their homes vandalized or looted.

To say that the essay is wrong because, “But the caveat for both is that these tragedies did not occur because they signed the Declaration. The occurrences were unrelated side effects of the war itself.” is to introduce a standard of scrutiny that’s deployed for the sake of distracting from the truth rather than pointing people to it. The point being made is that Francis Lewis lost his home and his wife in the War for Independence. Whether or not the British knew his name and had targeted him specifically doesn’t change the fact that Lewis’ signature was on the document that had precipitated the war to begin with. So, from that perspective there’s nothing being said that’s inappropriate or dishonest. But this is nevertheless the approach that’s often taken by people who want to distract from the truth of what’s being said in order to make the message they would imply appear more credible.

Historian Stephen E. Ambrose sums it beautifully in an article featured in “Smithsonian Magazine:”

Slavery and discrimination cloud our minds in the most extraordinary ways, including a blanket judgment today against American slave owners in the 18th and 19th centuries. That the masters should be judged as lacking in the scope of their minds and hearts is fair, indeed must be insisted upon, but that doesn’t mean we should judge the whole of them only by this part.8

F) Sin

Some of the most accomplished characters in Scripture were guilty of some truly despicable sins: David and his affair with Bathsheba and his subsequent murder of Uriah (1 Sam 11) and Paul, one of the more prolific writers of the New Testament, condoned the murder of Stephen and was an accessory to the persecution and imprisonment of perhaps hundreds of Christians (Acts 22:17-20).

While it’s tempting to place yourself in a category distinct from that kind of wrongdoing and be able to feel as though you appear more righteous in the sight of your Heavenly Father, you have to remember that all sin requires an attitude that is as heinous as it is universal. In order to sin in any capacity, you have to walk up to God as He’s sitting on His Throne and tell Him to get out of your chair.

Granted, some sins are unintentional (Num 15:27-31), but the vast majority of them are deliberate and all of it requires grace including everything from speeding (Rom 13:1-7) to overeating (Prov 23:20-21; 1 Cor 6:19-20). The fact of the matter is anytime you’re looking at a believer, you’re looking at two worlds that are operating side by side simultaneously. While the power of sin has been destroyed (Rom 6:6), our capacity to sin remains (Rom 7:14-25). And the thing is, in the words of Paul, “…there is nothing good in me.” (Rom 7:18) Whatever good I’m able to do, it’s more because of God working in and through me (Ezr 1:5; 1 Cor 12:6; Phil 2:13) than it is me functioning according to a morally pure mindset.

This is why we can embrace the accomplishments of certain individuals despite them having significant sin in their lives. We can applaud the Activity of God in and through an individual without endorsing the depravity of that same person. You don’t overlook wrongdoing (1 Cor 5:13), but you never want to become so preoccupied with the sin in others that you forget the way in which God uses both brand new gloves and filthy mitts to catch fly balls.

We give God the credit because it’s Him doing the work and the fact that He uses sinners like you and me is a testament to His Grace and not our goodness. And the same thing applies to unbelievers as well. However distant that person may be from God doesn’t change the fact that God can, and often does, use people who don’t honor Him to do His Work.

King Cyrus didn’t know or acknowledge God. For an orthodox Jew, that must’ve been a hard pill to swallow given the fact that Cyrus was not only a Gentile, but he was an idolater. Yet, God referred to him as “my shepherd” and it was through Cyrus’ administration that the Hebrews were able to rebuild their capital city (Ezr 1:2-4; Is 44:28; 45:5).

The example of Cyrus demonstrates that a leader can be a heathen and still be worthy of your support because of the way their platform promotes and protects the work of God. So the question isn’t, “How can I support someone who doesn’t acknowledge God?” The question is, “Whose platform is most aligned with that which promotes and protects our nation’s spiritual wellbeing?” Or, another question which better accommodates the whole of Scripture as opposed to those passages that restrict God’s usage of individuals to those that honor Him would be, “Would you have voted for King Cyrus?”

III) Conclusion (Part I)

God cares about Politics. He facilitates governments and He uses our involvement and prayers to accomplish His Purposes. Our nation is founded on Christian Principles that come from the Word of God. Our Founders were not masquerading as pious human beings when they cited Divine Absolutes as the basis for their declaration to King George. Anything less than the Substance of Scripture would’ve reduced our cause to nothing more than a complaint and it’s those same Truths that guarantee our continued success and serve as the basis for the way in which we choose our elected officials.

The thing is, God does care about Politics because it’s not just “politics.” It’s either His Purposes or man’s rebellion being played out in the context of legislation and foreign policy. God cares about Politics.

To read “A Biblical Approach to Politics | Part II,” click here


1. “John Adams to Thomas Jefferson 28 June 1813”, “Founders Online”, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-06-02-0208#:~:text=The%20general%20Principles%2C%20on%20which,by%20me%20in%20my%20Answer, accessed February 2, 2022
2. “The Writings of Samuel Adams”, Harry Alonzo Cushing, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, London, 1908, p189
3. “From John Adams to Massachusetts Militia, 11 October 1798”, “Founders Online”, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3102, accessed February 2, 2022
4. “Transcript of President George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796)”, ourdocuments.gov, https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=15&page=transcript, accessed January 31, 2022
5. Alice M. Baldwin, The New England Clergy and the American Revolution (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1958), p. 170
6. Douglass Adair and John A. Schutz, eds., Peter Oliver’s Origin and Progress of the American Rebellion (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1961), p. 41; Paul Johnson, A History of the American People (New York: HarperCollins, 1997), p. 173; John Leach, “A Journal Kept by John Leach, During His Confinement by the British, In Boston Gaol, in 1775,” The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol.19 (1865), p. 256
7. Blackstone, Wm., Knight. Chase, George, ed. Chase’s Blackstone Commentaries on the Laws of England in Four Books. New York: Baker, Voorhis & Co., 1936, p891
8. “Founding Fathers and Slaveholders”, Stephen E. Ambrose, “Smithsonian Magazine”, November 2002, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/founding-fathers-and-slaveholders-72262393/, accessed February 2, 2022

Excellent Reading: “Did America Have a Christian Founding” Mark David Hall

Donald Trump

There’s so much more to the dialog pertaining to President Trump than just who he is as a person.

It comes down to idealogies and however you want to criticize or applaud the man, what you’re inevitably evaluating is a political philosophy and not just a personality.

Below you’ll see several links to a number of different resources that don’t try to minimize his faults or overlook his mistakes. Rather, they look at the tactics used to undermine his administration in order to demonize the foundation represented by our national motto.

It’s a challenging conversation but a necessary debate. What’s at stake is more than the political currency of a single politician. Rather, it’s the substance of what makes us who we are as a country and guarantees both your safety and our prosperity.

Welcome!

 

type title description
video Why I’m Voting for Donald Trump Regardless of how determined you may be in your resolve to dislike Trump, this video details that reasons why the Republican political philosophy translates to better results because it’s based on something more substantial than personal preferences.
website Trump’s Lies In 2017, the New York Times published a full, front page article entitled, “Trump’s Lies..” It listed 100 lies the President supposedly told. This website goes through every “lie” and shows that it’s NYT that is either exaggerating or flat out lying and not President Trump.
article What Just Happened? To understand the outcome of the election, you have to be able to pass a simple vocabulary test. To prepare, let’s walk through a couple of terms…
article Thank You, President Trump! An article printed originally in the Boston Herald that listed President Trump’s accomplishments during his term as President in 2016.
article A Biblical Approach to Politics | Part I To say that God doesn’t care about Politics is to ignore the fact that He’s the One Who facilitates all governments to begin with. And while that’s obviously a nonsensical disposition, you also have the false premise that says that God doesn’t care about the laws of a nation and how they either promote what strengthens an individual or tears them down (Prov 28:2-3, 28; 29:2, 4). He does care and He expects His people to be engaged (1 Chron 12:32; 1 Tim 2:2).
article A Biblical Approach to Politics | Part II The Bible says to “test the spirits” and we need to apply that to what it is we allow into our inbox by popping the hood, keeping your balance and kicking the tires.
article A Biblical Approach to Politics | Part III Current events are often presented using a series of tactics you’ll be confronted with when you’re listening to someone who doesn’t have something to say as much as they have something to hide.
article A Biblical Approach to Politics | Part IV A look at the last three of the five tactics referenced in Part III and then looking at the importance of evaluating a tree according to its fruit more so than its appearance. Here we go!
article The Progressive Pentagon – A Practical Guide to Fake News There are five tactics you can be listening for when you’re being told by someone that they have a point, when in fact they’ve got something to hide. I call it the “Perspective Pentagon” because, taken together, they serve as the way in which the Left both defends it’s stance and attacks it’s opponents.

It’s bogus, but it’s brilliant.

How Did This Happen?

I’m writing this believing that some will have a hard time understanding how Trump won the election…

You’re scratching your head, wondering how Trump was able to win the election given his felonies, his lack of morality, and all his obvious flaws.

There are people out there that have likened him to Hitler, his supporters have been branded as Nazi’s. The MAGA movement is racist, ignorant, rebellious, vulgar, cruel, hateful…

So, how did this happen?

To understand the outcome of the election, you have to be able to pass a simple vocabulary test. To prepare, let’s walk through a couple of terms…

Rule of Law – the best way to process this is to imagine a corrupt lawyer. It’s not about what’s right or fair, it’s what can be manipulated into something that has the appearance of “justice.”

Threat to Democracy – it is a “threat,” but not to Democracy in the context of a representative government. Rather, it’s a threat to those who occupy a position of authority who are determined to serve themselves as opposed to serving others.

Division – Liberals can’t “disagree” intelligently because their ideas don’t work. So, they position themselves as victims of an intolerant society and in so doing can insulate themselves from any real evaluation. Reason being is that you can’t criticize someone who’s in pain without immediately being labeled “cruel and hateful.” This is how they’re able to push their agenda without it having any real practical or logical merit.

With that as their backdrop, any kind of resistance can be labeled as something sinister and even immoral. “Division” is a part of that strategy in that it categorizes anyone who would point out the nonsensical aspects of their platform as being “divisive.”

Felony – this depends on the person being charged. If it’s a Democrat, a felony is the legal term used by those who are engaged in a witch hunt because a Democrat is never guilty as much as they’re just being harassed.

If it’s a Republican, they don’t even have to be guilty, the crime doesn’t have to be specified and the jury doesn’t need to be unanimous. It’s a word that’s been emptied of all its legitimacy in order to use it as a label to undermine the integrity of whoever is speaking so whatever they’re saying is dismissed as flawed because of it coming from a supposedly criminal perspective.

Constitutional – it depends on the context. On one hand, it’s a legal outcome that is in line with a Liberal’s preferences. Otherwise, it’s a flawed ruling based on an antiquated standard authored by a collection of slave owners.

Insurrection – an appropriate response to a questionable decision infiltrated by any one of a number of FBI informants and corrupted law enforcement officials that intentionally instigate and encourage unlawful behavior. The result being a scripted collection of snapshots and sound bites that can be used to characterize the entire effort as criminal.

Truth – irrelevant term used by an individual who wants to infringe on the right of another to think for themselves. It’s the self-absorbed idea that there is an Absolute that can be used as a benchmark to gauge the accuracy and / or the morality of a particular subject.

This is why when you try to point out the fallacies of a Liberal’s argument by citing evidence or common sense, they will simply change the definition of what constitutes evidence or bend the rules of logical thinking because “truth” doesn’t exist as a bottom line that persists independently of a person’s feelings. A Liberal maintains themselves as their own absolute so, at any given moment, they can create an entirely new system of morals and standards to match their preferred assessment of the situation so, while they may be “different” or “damaged” or unfairly dismissed, they’re never wrong.

Now, with those definitions, we can proceed with an answer to your question, as far as how Donald Trump won the election…

Donald Trump’s victory was not the result of a sinister plot or an uneducated group of voters. It was because enough people were able to see through the “vocabulary” of a political philosophy that translates to policies that, more often than not, make a bad situation worse.

Thank You, President Trump

Much of this is a reprint of an article written by Howie Carr and featured in the Boston Herald. I added some things of my own at the bottom of the list.

Christ said you will know a tree by its fruit. Whether it’s Trump or someone who thinks like him, I look forward to an administration that has this kind of record…

  1. Thank you for the tax cuts for the middle class.
  2. Thank you for destroying genocidal ISIS, which your predecessor called “the junior varsity.”
  3. Thanks for shutting off the endless flow of illegal immigrants at the southern border, and the unending supply of MS-13 gangbangers, among other criminals, as well as the welfare-dependent illiterate indigents who were so destabilizing American society before you became president.
  4. Thank you for calling out the endless hypocrisy of the media — what you so aptly described as “Very Fake News.”
  5. Thank you for promoting economic policies that led to the lowest unemployment rates ever for blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans and women, among others.
  6. Thank you for doing more to promote peace in the Middle East than all of your predecessors combined.
  7. Thank you for calling out and exposing the feckless RINOs of your own party like Willard Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Kelly Ayotte, et al.
  8. Thanks for finally standing up to Red China and its predatory trade practices.
  9. Thanks for calling out Fox News Channel for its duplicitous descent into terminal wokeness. T
  10. Thank you for Operation Warp Speed, an amazing achievement for which you will never receive the appropriate credit.
  11. Thanks for pardoning all the persecuted victims of the Russian collusion hoax, among them Gen. Michael Flynn and Roger Stone.
  12. Thank you for eliminating Obamacare’s “individual mandate,” which fined individuals for not buying health insurance they didn’t want or couldn’t afford.
  13. Thank you for taking more questions from (almost always hostile) reporters than all of the last three or four presidents combined.
  14. Thanks for getting the U.S. out of such foreign policy disasters as the Iran nuclear deal, the Paris Climate Accords and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, as well as ending the fiasco for American workers that was NAFTA.
  15. Thanks for such a booming economy that seven million people got off the food-stamp rolls.
  16. Thanks for all those tweets that drove the Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) crazy.
  17. Thank you for not turning the IRS into an instrument of persecution against your political foes, the way your predecessor did.
  18. Thanks for not surveilling reporters a la the Obama administration.
  19. Thanks for ending state oppression against people of faith like the Little Sisters of the Poor.
  20. Thank you for trying to defund “sanctuary cities” where illegals run amok.
  21. Thanks for the three new justices on the Supreme Court — think how much worse Hillary’s picks would have been, and maybe someday they’ll grow the spines they so obviously lacked last month in Texas v. Pennsylvania.
  22. Thank you for defanging North Korea and Little Rocket Man.
  23. Thanks for opening up more of our North Atlantic waters for New England commercial fishermen and lobstermen.
  24. Thanks for defending both the First and Second Amendments, and for railing against Section 230, which the billionaire fascists of Silicon Valley are abusing to shut down free speech.
  25. Thank you for appointing U.S. attorneys who actually wanted to put real criminals in prison, without fear or favor.
  26. Thank you for the travel ban, which has largely halted the flow of terrorists like the Tsarnaevs, who had been welcomed into the U.S. and put on welfare by previous administrations, Democrat and Republican alike.
  27. Thanks for the balance in my 401(k).
  28. Thanks for the lowest gasoline prices in decades.
  29. Thanks for the largest number of Americans with gainful employment since the government started keeping records.
  30. Thank you for ordering the elimination of two of the most bloodthirsty terrorists on earth, al-Baghdadi and Gen. Soleimani.
  31. Thank you for being bold enough to acknowledge Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
  32. Thank you for enacting legislation that prevented violations of religious freedom in the context of Heath Care.
  33. Thank you for eliminating support of global abortion funding (known as the Mexico City Policy).

Thank you, Mr President.