American Minute

[nChrist]

ONE NATION UNDER GOD

compiled by Frederick C. Kubicek

# 6 We must never forget that the first written constitution in America, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, recognized in 1639 that:

"The Word of God requires that to maintain the peace and union of such people, there should be an orderly and decent Government established according to God."

#7 We must never forget that the New England Confederation of May 19, 1643 recognized that the common bond between its signers was not the philosophy of secular humanism, but the desire to

"...advance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and to enjoy the liberties of the Gospel in purity with peace."

#8 We must never forget that in the Charter of Carolina of 1663, King Charles II recognized that the primary reason for Sir William Berkeley’s desire to establish a colony in the Americas was also faith related when he said:

“Being excited with a laudable and pious zeal for the propagation of the Christian faith…(they) have humbly besought leave of us … to transport and make an ample colony … unto a certain country… in the parts of America not yet cultivated or planted, and inhabited by some …people, who have no knowledge of Almighty God.” (parenthesis added)

# 9 Wed must never forget that the Fundamental Constitutions of the Carolinas provided in 1663 that:

“No man shall be permitted to be a freeman of Carolina, or to have any estate of habitation within it that doth not acknowledge a God, and God is publicly and solemnly to be worshiped.”

# 10 We must never forget that the Colonial Legislature of New York Colony enacted a law in1665 which stated that:

“Whereas, The public worship of God is much discredited for want of … able ministers to instruct the people in true religion, it is ordered that a church shall be built in each parish capable of holding two hundred persons; that ministers of every church shall preach every Sunday….”

# 11 We must never forget that the Charter of Pennsylvania in 1681 stated that part of its goal was:

“To reduce (civilize) the savage natives by gentle and just manners to the Love of Civil societe and Christian religion.” (parenthesis added)

# 12 We must never forget that the Rhode Island Charter of 1683 began with these words:

"We submit our persons, lives and estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, to all those perfect and most absolute laws of His given to us in His Holy Word."

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[nChrist]

ONE NATION UNDER GOD

compiled by Frederick C. Kubicek

# 12a We must never forget that the Pennsylvania Charter of Privileges of 1701 required the following affirmation from all prospective Colonial officers:

"... all Persons who also profess to believe in Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, shall be capable ... to serve this government in any capacity..."

#13 We must never forget that on July 2, 1776, when the vote to declare independence was taken, Samuel Adams declared the sentiment of the day, not in terms of humanistic rhetoric, but by saying:

"We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom alone men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and ... from the rising to the setting sun, may His kingdom come."

#14 We must never forget the John Quincy Adam's speech commemorating the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1837 clearly acknowledged our Christian heritage when he said:

"... the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission. ...(I)t laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity ..."

#15 We must never forget that one of the rallying cries of the American Revolution was:

"No King but King Jesus."

# 16 (from the Boston, Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence)

We must never forget that General Washington issued the following general order to the Continental Army the day after he took command on July 4, 1775:

"The General most earnestly requires and expects a due observance of those articles ... which forbid profane cursing, swearing, and drunkenness. And in like manner, he requires and expects of all officers and soldiers not engaged in actual duty, a punctual attendance of Divine services to implore the blessing of heaven upon the means used for our safety and defense."

#17 We must never forget that on July 9, 1776 General George Washington issued this general order to troops directing:

“…every officer and man… to live and act as becomes a Christian Soldier defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his country…

# 18 We must never forget that the pledge taken by the Minutemen Militia included these words:

"Let us be ... altogether solicitous that no disorderly behavior, nothing unbecoming our characters as Americans ... and Christians, be justly chargeable against us."

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[nChrist]

ONE NATION UNDER GOD

compiled by Frederick C. Kubicek

#19 We must never forget that the families of our founding fathers generally shared their faith and trust in God, as is evidenced by a letter Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John Adams on June 20, 1776 which contained this paragraph:

"I feel no anxiety at the large armament designed against us. The remarkable interposition's of heaven in our favor cannot be to gratefully acknowledged. He who fed the Israelites in the wilderness, who clothes the lilies of the field and who feeds the young ravens when they cry, will not forsake a people engaged in so righteous a cause, if we remember His loving kindness."

#20 We must never forget that concerning the Revolutionary War itself, President John Quincy Adams noted in 1821 that:

"The highest and greatest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."

#21 We must never forget that even in the midst of the Revolutionary War, the Commander and Chief's priorities never faltered. Washington felt that:

"To the distinguished character of a Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of a Christian."

#22 We must never forget that after graduating from Princeton in 1771, James Madison, the `Father of the Constitution', spent 6 months of post-graduate study under the private tutelage of Princeton's president, John Witherspoon.

Witherspoon was one of the most prominent of the colonial ministers who took part in the Great Awakening revival which swept America between 1725 and 1760. Whitherspoon spent this time instructing Madison in the principles of civil government as set forth in the Bible.

#23 We must never forget that in 1695, John Locke expressed the following sentiment which, along with the knowledge gained from Witherspoon, formed the basis of Madison's philosophy of government:

"As men we have God for our King, and are under the law of reason. As Christians we have Jesus the Messiah for our King, and are under the law revealed by Him in the Gospel."

#24 We must never forget that even in his zeal for liberty Patrick Henry remembered the source of true freedom when he said:

"It cannot be emphasized to strongly or to often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ!"

#25 We must never forget that even the elder statesman, Benjamin Franklin, who is hailed by today's humanists as being merely a deist, acknowledged the need for God's Divine guidance during the Continental Convention when, on June 28, 1787, he addressed George Washington, the Convention's President, as follows:

"How has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly appealing to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understanding. In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain when we were sensible to danger, we had daily prayers in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard and they were graciously answered... 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 aide? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings that, 'except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.' ... I firmly believe this ... I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth, prayers imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessing on our deliberation be held in this Assembly every morning." voluntary daily prayers were instituted thereafter)

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[nChrist]

ONE NATION UNDER GOD

compiled by Frederick C. Kubicek

#26 We must never forget that James Madison, who in addition to being the Father of the Constitution, and would become our 4th President, stated in no uncertain terms on June 20, 1785 that:

Religion (is) the basis and Foundation of Government

# 27 We must never forget that shortly after Constitutional Convention in 1787, Alexander Hamilton recognized the solidifying force behind the Constitution when he stated that:

“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.”

# 28 We must never forget that on October 12, 1816 John Jay, America’s 1st Supreme Court Justice set forth in clear and concise terms his belief that America’s leaders must be first and foremost, Christian:

Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.

# 29 We must never forget that America’s leaders outside of government also understood these concepts. In1799 Jedediah Morse, the Father of American Geography acknowledged that:

To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys… Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all the blessings which flow from them, must fall with them.

# 30 We must never forget that in 1828, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story acknowledged that:

"...at the time of the adoption of the Constitution and of the First Amendment to it,... the general if not the universal sentiment in America was that Christianity ought to receive encouragement by the state so far as was not incompatible with the private rights of conscience and the freedom of religious worship. Any attempt to level all religions (that is, to make Christianity simply one of many religions) and to make it a matter of state policy to hold all in utter indifference, would have created universal disapprobation if not universal indignation..." (parenthesis added)

#31 We must never forget that the volume of evidence which points towards the Biblical underpinnings of our constitution is so overwhelming that even purely secular historians such as H.G. Wells were forced to admit that the Constitution is:

"indubitably Christian."

#32 We must never forget that this country was organized not by evolutionistic humanists, but by men who said such things as:

"No people can be found to acknowledge and adore the invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States... We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a Nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right Heaven itself ordained." (Inaugural Address of George Washington, April 30, 1789)

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[nChrist]

ONE NATION UNDER GOD

compiled by Frederick C. Kubicek

#33 We must never forget that Washington's first official act after being sworn in as the first President of the United States was to join with all the members of the House and Senate in a two hour worship service.

#34 We must never forget that America's first Thanksgiving Proclamation, given by George Washington on October 3, 1789, declared that:

"It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits and humbly to implore His protection and favor."

We must never forget that the constitutions of the original states, as late as 1876, contained statements such as those of:

Delaware's, which recognized "the duty of all men frequently to assemble together for the public worship of the Author of the Universe." And included in, its oath of office the following words, "...I do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God blessed forever more."

#35 Maryland's, which said "...the legislature may ... lay a general and equal tax for the support of the Christian religion" and required a "... declaration of belief in the Christian religion" from all of its state officers.

#36 Massachusetts', which directed local political bodies to "... make suitable provisions, at their own expense, for the institution of public worship of God..."

#37 North Carolina's, which stated that "...no person who shall deny the being of God, or the divine authority of the Old and New Testament... shall be capable of holding office or place of trust ... within this state."

#38 As did those of states which were to be added later, for example, see:

Mississippi’s, which said that “No person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments shall hold any office in the civil department of the state.”

# 39 We must never forget that in 1892, in the case of Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, the Supreme Court acknowledged that:

"Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian... This is a religious people. This is historically true. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation... We find everywhere a clear recognition of the same truth... These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation."

#40 We must never forget that even though the Warren Court did much to distort this truth, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren made the following observation when he was Governor of California:

"I believe no one can read the history of our country without realizing that the Good Book and the spirit of the Saviour have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses... Whether we look to the First Charter of Virginia... or to the Charter of New England... or to the Charter of Massachusetts Bay... the same objective is present; a Christian land governed by Christian perspectives."

#41 We must never forget that as to the Supreme Court’s distortion of various constitutional issues which have dealt with Christianity’s place in government, Thomas Jefferson warned us of this problem when he cautioned William Jarvis in a letter to Jarvis on September 28, 1820. Therein Jefferson said:

You seem... to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the deposition of an oligarchy.

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[nChrist]

ONE NATION UNDER GOD

compiled by Frederick C. Kubicek

#42 We must never forget that the phrase "separation of Church and State" is not found in the Constitution of the United States, but rather that it is found in the 'Constitution' of the former Soviet Union.

We must never forget that while those who would attempt to rewrite America’s religious history have depended upon both the Supreme Court’s judicial activism, and its misinterpretation of Jefferson’s words to the Danbury Baptist Association, they have totally ignored Jefferson’s clear guideline for interpretation of the Constitution as set forth in his June 12, 1823 letter to U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Johnson:

“On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”

# 43 We must never forget that as pointed out by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, for the first 179 years of our Constitution, the Supreme Court did not engage in the type of ‘judicial legislation’ which we have seen take place these past 40 years:

It is impossible to build sound constitutional doctrine upon a mistaken understanding of Constitutional history… The establishment clause had been expressly freighted with Jefferson’s misleading metaphor for nearly forty years…

There is simply no historical foundation for the proposition that the framers intended to build a wall of separation (between the Church and state) … The recent court decisions are in no way based on either the language or intent of the framers…

# 44 We must never forget that as our 3rd President, Thomas Jefferson extended three times a 1787 Act of Congress in which special lands were designated:

“For the sole use of Christian Indians and the Moravian Brethren missionaries for civilizing the Indians and promoting Christianity.”

#45 December 3, 1803 with the Kaskaskia Indians, 1806 with the Wyandotte Indians and 1807 with the Cherokee Indians. Yet his ‘infamous’ letter to the Danbury Baptist Association of Danbury Connecticut which contained the phrase ‘…a wall of separation between Church and State’ was dated January 1, 1802 more than 12 months BEFORE he extended the treaties. Obviously, Jefferson himself did not believe that setting aside government land for Christian purposes was a violation of the establishment clause.

We must never forget that James Kent, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New York held in the 1811 case of People v. Ruggles:

“…Whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government… (such offenses are) punishable at common law… The people of this state, in common with the people of this country, profess the general doctrines of Christianity, as the rule of their faith and practice, and to scandalize the author of these doctrines is not only … impious, but … is a gross violation of decency and good order.…We are a Christian people, and the morality of the country is deeply engrafted upon Christianity, and not upon the doctrines or worship of those (other religions)…

Though the constitution has discarded religious establishments, it does not forbid judicial cognizance of those offenses against religion and morality which have no reference to any such establishment.

The (Constitutional) declaration… never meant to withdraw religion… from all consideration and notice of the law. To construe it as breaking down the common law barriers against licentious, wanton, and impious attacks upon Christianity itself would be an enormous perversion of its meaning… Christianity in its enlarged sense, as a religion revealed and taught in the Bible, is part and parcel of the law of the land.… judgment affirmed”

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[nChrist]

ONE NATION UNDER GOD

compiled by Frederick C. Kubicek

# 46 (Editor’s note: Defendant tried and convicted for publicly saying “Jesus Christ was a bas- - - -, and his mother must be a w----“ He was sentenced to 3 months in jail & fined $500 which was a significant sum in 1811.

We must never forget that the authors of the First Amendment never intended for it to be interpreted so as to deny Christians access to either the government or America's schools. As noted by Associate Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story in 1851:

"The real object of the First Amendment was not to countenance, much less advance Mohammedanism, or Judaism or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity; but ... to prevent any national ecclesiastical establishment which should give to a hierarchy the exclusive patronage of the national government."

#47 We must never forget the report of Senator Baker, of Senate Judiciary Committee, on January 19, 1853 which stated that:

“They (The Founding Fathers) did not intend to spread over all the public authorities and the whole public action of the nation the dead and revolting spectacle of atheistic apathy. Not so had the battles of the Revolution been fought and the deliberations of the Revolutionary Congress been conducted.

We are a Christian people… not because the law demands it, not to gain exclusive benefits or to avoid legal disabilities, but from choice and education; and in a land thus universally Christian, what is to be expected, what desired, but that we shall pay due regard to Christianity.” (parenthesis and emphasis added)

# 48 We must never forget the March 27, 1854 report of Representative Meacham of the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary which stated that:

“At the adoption of the Constitution … every State… provided as regularly for the support of the Church as for the support of the Government…

Down to the Revolution, every colony did sustain religion in some form. It was deemed peculiarly proper that the religion of liberty should be upheld by free people.

Had the people, during the Revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle.

The object was not to substitute Judaism or Mohammedanism, or infidelity, but to prevent rivalry among the (Christian) sects to the exclusion of others.

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.There is a great and very prevalent error on this subject in the opinion that those who organized the Government did not legislate on religion.”

# 49 (emphasis by underlining added)

We must never forget the May 1854 Resolution of the U.S. House of Representatives which stated that:

The great and conservative element in our system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and divine truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

# 50 (emphasis by underlining added)

We must never forget the March 3, 1863 Resolution of the U.S. Senate, which said:

Resolved, That devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and nations, and sincerely believing that no people… can prosper without His favor …encouraged in this day of trouble by the assurance of His Word, to seek Him for succor according to His appointed way, through Jesus Christ, the Senate of the United States does hereby request the President of the United States … to designate … a day for national prayer… (emphasis by underlining added)

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[nChrist]

ONE NATION UNDER GOD

compiled by Frederick C. Kubicek

# 51 We must never forget Abraham Lincoln's observation that:

"It is the duty of nations ... to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed, whose God is the Lord."

#52 We must never forget the remarks made by our 34th President, Dwight David Eisenhower, while signing into law the Resolution of Congress which added the phrase “Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance on June 14, 1954:

“In this way we are affirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource in peace and war.”

# 53 We must never forget that even Thomas Jefferson, who is considered by many to be merely a deist, made this observation:

"Can the liberties of a nation be sure when we remove their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and that His justice cannot sleep forever."

# 54 We must never forget the Presidential proclamation appointing a National Fast Day, issued by Abraham Lincoln on March 30, 1863:

"We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserves us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; as we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace; too proud to pray to the God that made us. It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended power to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness." (emphasis added)

# 55 We must never forget that after the Civil War, Robert E. Lee echoed the thoughts of his former adversary with these words:

"... Knowing that intercessory prayer is our mightiest weapon and the supreme call for all Christians today...(l)et us pray for our nation... for those who have never known Jesus Christ ... for our nation's leaders... Let prayer be our passion. Let prayer be our practice."

# 56 We must never forget that George Washington, when discussing the importance of morality and Christianity to our country's future, said that no man had the right to:

"...claim the name of Patriotism who seeks to undermine those pillars."

# 57 We must never forget that other noted colonials, such as Abigail Adams (wife of John Adams) held to the same beliefs. In a letter to her friend Mercy Warren, dated Nov 5, 1775 Mrs. Adams stated that:

A patriot without religion in my estimation is as great a paradox as an honest man without the fear of God. … Can he be a patriot who, by an openly vicious conduct, is undermining the very bonds of society? … The Scriptures tell us “righteousness exalteth a nation”

# 58 We must never forget that our forefathers had no difficulty realizing that atheistic humanism could never serve as the foundation for a system of moral values which requires absolutes. Daniel Webster noted that:

"...our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious sentiment. Moral habits they believed, cannot safely be trusted on any foundation other than religious principle, nor any government be secure which is not supported by moral habits... Let the religious element in man's nature be neglected, let him be influenced by no higher motives than low self interest, and subjected to no stronger restraint than the limits of civil authority and he becomes the creature of selfish passion and blind fanaticism... On the other hand, the cultivation of the religious sentiment represses licentiousness... inspires respect for law and order, and gives strength to the whole social fabric at the same time that it conducts the human soul upward to the Author of its being."

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[nChrist]

ONE NATION UNDER GOD

compiled by Frederick C. Kubicek

# 59 We must never forget that in the 1800’s the great French political commentator, Alexis de Tocqueville observed that:

“The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other.”

# 60 We must never forget that the association between Christianity and morals and citizenship was understood well into the 20th Century. Grover Cleveland, America’s 22nd and 24th President proclaimed that:

“All must admit that the reception of the teachings of Christ result in the purest patriotism, in the most scrupulous fidelity to public trust, and in the best type of citizenship.”

# 61 We must never forget that William McKinlkey, America’s 25th President maintained that:

“The more profoundly we study this wonderful book (Bible), and the more closely we observe its divine precepts, the better citizens we will become and the higher will be our destiny as a nation.” (parenthesis added).

# 62 We must never forget that publicly, and without criticism America’s leaders have throughout our history addressed moral decline by calling us back to our Christian heritage. In 1943, former President Herbert Hover, Mrs. Calvin Coolidge, Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Mrs. William H. Taft, Mrs. Benjamin Harrison, Mrs. Grover Cleveland issued the following joint statement:

“Menaced by collectivist trends, we must seek revival of our strength in the spiritual foundations which are the bedrock of our republic. Democracy is the outgrowth of the religious conviction of the sacredness of human life. On the religious side, its highest embodiment is the Bible, on the political side, the Constitution.”

# 63 We must never forget that despite the fact that skeptics maintain that while there may have been a few Christians who influenced America’s beginnings, men like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson did not rely upon the teaching of Jesus Christ for their moral underpinnings, the facts show otherwise. For instance, in a letter dated March 9, 1790, Benjamin Franklin wrote to Ezra Stiles wherein he expressed his belief that:

“As to Jesus of Nazareth, … I think the system of morals and His religion, as he left them to us, is the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see.

# 64 We must never forget that Thomas Jefferson held the opinion that:

Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern, which have come under my observation, none appear to me so pure as that of Jesus.”

# 65 We must never forget that examples of America’s total dependence upon Christianity for its’ moral values, and our government’s dependency upon both can be found throughout our history. For example, while touring America in 1851, de Tocqueville noted that:

While I was in America, a witness… declared that he did not believe in God… The judge refused to admit his evidence, on the ground that the witness had destroyed beforehand all confidence of the court in what he was about to say. The newspapers related the fact without any further comment. New York Spectator of August 23rd, 1831, relates the fact in the following terms: …he (the judge) knew of no case in a Christian country where a witness had been permitted to testify without such belief. (parenthesis added)

# 66 We must never forget that de Tocqueville clearly understood that the source of America's strength was Christianity, for he acknowledged that:

 "I sought for the key to the greatness of America

... Not until I went into the Churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."

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[nChrist]

ONE NATION UNDER GOD

compiled by Frederick C. Kubicek

# 67 We must never forget that even modern international statesman, such as Charles Malik, have also noted the same thing:

"The good (in the United States) would never have come into being without the blessing and the power of Jesus Christ... I know how embarrassing this matter is to politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen, and cynics; but whatever these honored men think, the irrefutable truth is that the soul of America is at its best and highest - Christian."

# 68 We must never forget that even though our children’s history books have failed to point out these facts, the vast majority of America’s President’s have attempted to both live their lives and govern this country from a Christian perspective. Note the following statements by:

William Henry Harrison  9th President – Inaugural Address March 4, 1841 (died after one month in office):

“I deem the present occasion sufficiently important and solemn to justify me in expressing to my fellow citizens a profound reverence for the Christian religion, and a thorough conviction that sound morals, religious liberty, and a just sense of religious responsibility are essentially connected with all true and lasting happiness.”

# 69 Franklin Pierce 14th President – Inaugural Address March 4, 1853:

“It must be felt that there is no national security but in the nation’s humble, acknowledged dependence upon God and His overruling providence.”

# 70 James Buchanan 15th President – February 29, 1844 – Letter to brother:

“I am a believer, but not with that degree of firmness of faith calculated to exercise a controlling influence on my conduct, I ought constantly to pray, “Help Thou my unbelief,” I trust that the Almighty Father, through the merits and atonement of His Son, will yet vouchsafe to me a clearer and stronger faith than I possess.”

# 71 Andrew Johnson 17th President:

“I do believe in Almighty God! And I believe also in the Bible.”

# 72 Rutherford B. Hayes 19th President –  Inaugural Address March 5, 1877:

“Acknowledged that he was “… Looking for the guidance of that Divine Hand by which the destinies of nations and individuals are shaped.”

#73  also

“I am a firm believer in the Divine teachings, perfect example, and atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I believe also in the Holy Scriptures as the revealed Word of God to the world for its enlightenment and salvation.”

# 74 James A. Garfield 20th President (assassinated after 4 months in office)  – letter to a friend upon the death of this friend’s son in 1876:

“In the hope of the Gospel, which is so precious in this hour of affliction, I am affectionately your brother in Christ.”

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[nChrist]

ONE NATION UNDER GOD

compiled by Frederick C. Kubicek

# 75 Stephen Grover Cleveland 22nd & 24th President – Inaugural Address March 4, 1885:

“And let us not trust in human effort alone, but humbly acknowledge the power and goodness of Almighty God who presides over the destiny of nations, and who has at all times been revealed in our country’s history.”

# 76 William McKinley 25th President

“The Christian religion is no longer the badge of weaklings and enthusiasts, but of distinction, enforcing respect.”

# 77 Theodore Roosevelt 26th President, stated in 1909 that:

“After a week on perplexing problems … it does so rest my soul to come into the house of the Lord and to sing and mean it, “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty” … (my) great joy that, in occupying an exhalted position in the nation, I am enabled, to preach the practical moralities of the Bible to my fellow-countrymen and to hold up Christ as the hope and Savior of the world.” (parenthesis added) 

# 78 Warren G. Harding 29th President March 4, 1921 Inaugural Address

“I have always believed in the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, whereby they have become the expression to man of the Word and Will of God.”

# 79 We must never forget Noah Webster's observation that:

"The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scripture ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evils which men suffer from - vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war - proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible."

# 80 We must never forget that as to the Bible itself, John Locke, whom we saw earlier had a profound impact upon our founding fathers felt that:

“The Bible is one of the greatest blessings bestowed by God on the children of men. It has God for its author; salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture for its matter. It is all pure, all sincere; nothing to much; nothing wanting.”

# 81 We must never forget that John Adams, our 2nd President, expressed his feeling about the potential impact of the Bible upon government in the following manner:

“Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited!  Every member would be obliged in conscience to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love and reverence toward Almighty God … What a utopia, what a paradise would this be region be…”

# 82 We must never forget that during the Revolutionary War the Continental Congress, recognized that:

"... the use of the Bible is so universal and its importance so great..." that it directed the Committee of Commerce in 1777 to "... import 20,000 copies of the Bible."

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[nChrist]

ONE NATION UNDER GOD

compiled by Frederick C. Kubicek

# 83 We must never forget that John Quincy Adams said that:

"The first and almost the only book deserving of universal attention is the Bible."

# 84 We must never forget that Abraham Lincoln realized that:

"All the good from the Savior of the world is communicated through this book (Bible); but for the Book we would not know right from wrong. All the things desirable to men are contained in it."

# 85 We must never forget that Andrew Jackson was of the opinion that:

"(T)he Scriptures (form) ... the rock on which our Republic rests."

# 86 We must never forget that Horace Greely even went so far as to publicly state that:

"It is impossible to enslave mentally or socially, a Bible reading people. The principles of the Bible are the groundwork of human freedom."

# 87 We must never forget that in 1875 four term Senator Francis Marion Cockrell from Missouri stated that:

“The Bible is supreme over all other books. Beside it there is none other. Its Divine truths meet the wants of a world-wide humanity.”

# 88 We must never forget that many early American industrialists, such as Samuel Colgate held to the belief that:

“The only spiritual light in the world comes through Jesus Christ and the inspired Book; redemption and forgiveness of sin alone through Christ. Without His presence and the teachings of the Bible we would be enshrouded in moral darkness and despair.  The condition of those nations without Christ, contrasted with those where Christ is accepted, reveals so marked a difference that no arguments are needed.”

# 89 We must never forget that Woodrow Wilson viewed the Bible as:

"... the one supreme source of revelation of the meaning of life, the nature of God and spiritual nature, and the needs of men."

# 90 We must never forget that concerning the future stability of this country, and that stability's relationship to the Bible, Calvin Coolidge spoke in words which are as clear as they can be when he said that:

"The foundation of our society and our government rests so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country."

# 91 We must never forget that the Founding Fathers considered the Bible as so foundational that a review of 15,000 documents dating from this period revealed that 34% of all direct quotes contained in these writings were from the Bible, and 60% of the remaining quotes were themselves derived by their authors from Scripture. As such, an astounding 74% of all quotes found in these documents were taken directly or indirectly from the Bible!

# 92 We must never forget that the Bible was considered such an integral part of our educational heritage that Noah Webster was merely expressing a commonly accepted fact when he said:

"... education is useless without the Bible."

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[nChrist]

ONE NATION UNDER GOD

compiled by Frederick C. Kubicek

# 93 We must never forget that Fisher Ames, the Founding Father who was the author of the First Amendment, # 90, expressed his belief that the Bible was to play a paramount role in public education when he said: 

"... we have a dangerous trend beginning to take place in our education. We're starting to put more and more textbooks into our schools. ... We've become accustomed of late to putting little books in the hands of children containing fables with moral lessons. We are spending less time in the classroom on the Bible, which should be the principle text in our schools. The Bible states these great moral lessons better than any other manmade book."

# 94 We must never forget that when he was President, Thomas Jefferson also served as Superintendent of Schools for Washington, D.C., and that as Superintendent he declared that the Bible was to be the primary text used for teaching reading to public school students.

# 95 We must never forget that Congress also recognized the importance of religion in American educational life when, in 1787 and again in 1789, under the terms of the Northwest Ordinance, it set aside FEDERAL land for schools using the following rationale:

"Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of learning shall forever be encouraged." (emphasis added)

# 96 Note also, that this was at a time when the vast majority of all schools in the United States were Church run. Furthermore, no portion of the Northwest territories could apply for statehood if its proposed constitution prohibit the teaching of religion and morality in its public schools. Remember also that the Congress which passed the Northwest Ordinance was the very same Congress which passed the First Amendment.

We must never forget that the preamble to one of the earliest public education laws in the colonies stated in 1647 that the purpose of education was primarily spiritual when it acknowledged that:

"... it being one chief project of ... Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of ye Scriptures ... (people must be certain) ... that learning may not be buried in ye grave." (parenthesis added)

# 97 We must never forget that some of our colonial ancestor's concepts concerning education were formed by reading the works of such men as John Locke, who made the following statement:

"There ought very early to be imprinted on his (a child's) mind a true notion of God, as the independent Supreme Being, Author and Maker of all things, from whom we receive all our good, and who loves and gives us all things... (T)he Lord's prayer, the creeds, and Ten Commandments, tis necessary he should learn perfectly by heart." (parenthesis added)

# 98 We must never forget that the philosophy of education shared by our founding fathers was best summed up by Samuel Adams on October 4, 1790, when he said:

"Let divines and philosophers, statesmen, and patriots unite their endeavors to renovate the age, by impressing the minds of men with the importance of educating their little boys and girls, of inculcating in the minds of youth the fear and love of the Deity and universal philanthropy... In short, of leading them in the study and practice of the exalted virtues of the Christian system."

# 99 We must never forget that this educational system (mostly Church sponsored) was apparently quite successful, for John Adams noted in 1765 that:

"(A) native of America who cannot read or write is as rare as a comet or an earthquake."

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[nChrist]

ONE NATION UNDER GOD

compiled by Frederick C. Kubicek

# 100 We must never forget that Gouverneur Morris, who was the Founding Father who served as head of the Committee of Style which prepared the final draft of the Constitution, and who addressed the Constitutional Convention more than any other delegate, 173 times, maintained that:

“Religion is the only solid basis of good morals; therefore education should teach the precepts of religion, and the duties of man toward God.”

# 101 We must never forget that in 1844, some 53 years AFTER the 1st Amendment was added to the Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court could find no prohibition in the Constitution against teaching either the Bible, or proclaiming its’ Divine origin. In so doing the majority opinion asked these rhetorical questions:

“Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament, without note or comment, be read and taught as a divine revelation in the (school) – its general precepts expounded, its evidences explained and its glorious principles of morality inculcated?…

Where can the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly or so perfectly as from the New Testament?”

#102 We must never forget that in 1848 it was noted by the French historian Alexis de Tocqueville that:

“In the United States the sovereign authority is religious,… there is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America, and there can be no greater proof of its utility and of its conformity to human nature than that its influence is powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.” (emphasis by underlining added)

# 103 We must never forget that the New England Primer, America's first textbook, taught the ABC's to our children using these examples:

 "A In Adam's fall we sinned all

B Heaven to find, the Bible mind

C Christ crucify'd for sinners dy'd"

# 104 We must never forget that in giving credit for his discoveries to God, Matthew Fontaine Maury, the American scientist known as the Pathfinder of the Seas, author of Physical Geography of the Sea, founder of the science of oceanography and discoverer of oceanic currents, he stated in 1855 that:

“As for the general system of circulation which I have been so long endeavoring to describe; the Bible tells it all in a single sentence: The wind goeth toward the South and returneth again in His circuits.”  (editor’s note: Psalm 8 is engraved on his tombstone at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD)

# 105 We must never forget that McGuffey's readers, which were used to teach 120 million Americans to read, contained this statement:

"The Ten Commandments and the teachings of Jesus Christ are not only basic, but plenary..." #106

We must never forget that George Washington Carver, in his testimony before the Ways & Means Committee of the United States Senate in 1921 had this exchange with one of the Senators on the committee:

“Dr. Carver, how did you learn all of these things?”

Carver answered, “From an old book.”

“What book?”, asked the senator

Carver replied, “The Bible.”

“Does the Bible tell about peanuts?”

Carver answered, “No sir, But it tells about the God who made the peanut. I asked Him to show me what to do with the peanut, and He did.”

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[nChrist]

ONE NATION UNDER GOD

compiled by Frederick C. Kubicek

# 107 We must also never forget that while not advocating the Bible as a replacement for true science books, Dr. Carver pointed out the source of true knowledge when he said:

“Without God to draw aside the curtain, I would be helpless.”

# 108 (Editor’s note: For more detailed information on the Christian foundations of modern science, please read the on-line book ‘Evolution: Guilty As Charged.’ It can be found at: http://www.unlimitedglory.org/evcontents.htm )

We must never forget the observation made by Mr.Charles Malik, a former President of the United Nations General Assembly, which came from a conversation he had with the then U.S. Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance. In response to a question as to what was wrong with the United States, Mr. Malik stated that,

"You have taken Jesus Christ our of your universities."

# 109 We must never forget the admonition of the founders of such great universities as Harvard, which directed its students to

"...know God and Jesus Christ ... as the only foundation for all sound knowledge and learning."

# 110 We must never forget that our system of education has failed to live up to the purpose for which institutions of higher education such as Columbia University were created; that is,

"To teach and encourage students to know God in Jesus Christ and to love and serve Him... with a perfect and willing mind."

# 111 We must never forget that major universities such as Yale were once described as

"... a little temple (where) prayer and praise seem to be the delight of the greater part of the students." (parenthesis added)

# 112 We must never forget that Jonathan Dickson, first President of Princeton University stated that:

"Cursed be all learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ."

# 113 We must never forget the fact that of the first one hundred nineteen colleges and universities founded in the United States, one hundred and four of them were created for the purpose of teaching their students about the Creator and his creations.

# 114 Regrettably however we must also never forget that in spite of all the facts which you have just read, and in spite of the fact that as late as 1973, the United States Supreme court, tacitly approved the displaying of the Ten Commandments

# 115 , as of November 17, 1980, those same 10 commandments can no longer be posted in our public schools because a slim majority of United States Supreme Court has decided that they are:

"...plainly religious (and that by being present all the time in the classroom a child may be improperly) ... induced to read, meditate upon (and) perhaps to venerate and to obey the commandments."

# 116 Under no circumstances should the foregoing information be misconstrued. Of the 102 passengers aboard the Mayflower, only half were true Pilgrims seeking religious freedom. The others were recruited by the financial backers of that venture. Furthermore, it would be wrong for us to assume that every enterprise which professed higher motives always maintained those motives (ie. Jamestown). Likewise, it would be incorrect to make the overall generalization that every person living in the colonies in 1776 was a Christian. In fact, of the 3 1/4 million people living here at that time, about 2 million claimed to be believers in Jesus Christ.

The founding fathers of our country were not perfect. Nor were they all strongly committed Christians. In point of fact, they were sinners like the rest of us, but they were the first to admit that fact. As such, as opposed to thinking that they were getting better and better, they knew that they needed to look someplace else other than within themselves to find the answers to the questions which were facing them. They did exactly that. They looked to the Bible - found the teachings of Jesus Christ - and then formed a government based upon those principles. Without a doubt, it can be said that they recognized the principles set forth in Ro.13:1, John 19:11, Dan.2:21, Dan. 4:17, and II Chron.20:6; namely, God is sovereign over the affairs of men.

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