Answer By Brother R. Michel Lankford
The idea dates back to the very roots and foundation of our Republic itself. From where did our founding fathers get their ideas? This same question was asked by researchers at the University of Houston. These researchers rightly concluded that they could assess the overall belief systems of the founding fathers in general by collecting a large enough sample of their writings. These researchers assembled 15,000 samples of the writings of the founding fathers of the United States. Here is a summary of what they found by statistic after the 10 year study.
8.3% of the writings of the founding fathers were quotes of Baron Charles de Montesquieu.
7.9% of the writings of the founding fathers were quotes from Sir William Blackstone
2.9% of the writings of the founding fathers were quotes from John Locke.
A whopping 34%, (more than 1/3 of the writings of the founding fathers) came as DIRECT QUOTES from the Holy Bible.
Example: Several of the founding fathers, (including John Jay, The first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court), were presidents of the American Bible Tract Society.
Example: In the very beginnings of our country, one of the premier law books that was used was “Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Law.” In the beginning, this was often used by courts to decide on the meanings of keywords and to establish reliable and consistent procedures. The interesting thing about this book, is that with each law that is discussed, the Bible verses that give the law its authority were given and cited. In other words, almost every law discussed was given its authority based on a biblical reference. This was a professional textbook for students to become lawyers in this country for decades. In some cases, there was so much Bible quoted in the legal textbooks, that some law students even became ministers while studying and preparing for the law.
Example: The Aitken Bible Authorized By Congress in 1792: September 12, 1782, Congress authorizes the first printing of the Bible in North America by Philadelphia publisher, Robert Aitken. This Bible has been called the “Bible of the Revolution.” But why would Congress “authorize” the publishing of a Bible? After the boycotts of British goods began during the Revolution, there was a shortage of Bibles in the American colonies because Bibles were previously imported from Britain. As early as 1777, Congress discussed importing Bibles from Scotland or Holland, but these plans were never completed.
On January 21, 1781, Robert Aitken addressed a letter to Congress requesting them to review and authorize a printing of the Bible he was currently working on. Aitken stated that he knew Congress would “not neglect spiritual security, while they are virtuously contending for temporal blessings.” He also said the Bible would be used in schools and requests that Congress review it for accuracy. He asks them to appoint and authorize him to print as many as were necessary to meet the needs of the American people. Congress obliged Aitken’s request by appointing a committee for the review, consisting of James Duane, Thomas McKean and the Rev. John Witherspoon. The committee referred the Aitken Bible to Congress’ two congressional chaplains, the Rev. William White of Christ Church, Philadelphia, and the Rev. George Duffield of the Third Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia.
On September 12, Congress took up the recommendation based on the chaplains’ review and passed the following resolution, which was printed in the front of the Aitken Bible:
“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 authorize him to publish this Recommendation in the manner he shall think proper.”
Journal of the U.S Congress September 12,1782
Today we are always told that the founding fathers were atheists or deists, or non-religious. This is a lie that is most often repeated in schools and colleges, but it’s just not true. The massive amount of paper evidence just doesn’t support it.
Example: The idea of having three branches for governments was partly drawn from Isaiah 33:22.
Example: The idea for the separation of powers was taken in part from Jeremiah 17:9
Example: In his farewell address, Pres. George Washington declared:”
“Of all the dispensation and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would any man claim the tribute of patriotism who seeks to subvert these two pillars.”
President George Washington
-In other words, according to George Washington, you couldn’t even rightly claim the title of patriot, unless you first supported religion and morality, and you never labored to subvert them.
Example: The Supreme Court: Church of the holy Trinity vs. the United States –
“No purpose of action against religion can be imputed to any legislation, either state or national, because this is a religious nation. This is a Christian nation.”During this case and the Supreme Court decision, the Supreme Court cited no less than 87 legal precedents as proof to declare that we were intended to be a Christian nation. In the document they said they could give many more examples, but that 87 precedents should be enough to prove that they had the legal basis to make the declaration that we were a Christian nation.
The Supreme Court: Church of the holy Trinity vs. the United States
Example: the Supreme Court once believed that the Bible SHOULD be taught in schools: I take the example of Vidal vs Girard “Why not may the Bible, and especially the New Testament be taught as divine Revelation in the schools; its general principles expounded, and it’s glorious principles of morality inculcated?… Where can the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly and so perfectly as from the New Testament?“Keep in mind, this was once a ruling of the US Supreme Court.
Example: What the founding fathers and the Supreme Court wanted was that we would be a Christian nation based on godly principles, but that no church denomination would be able to dominate and become the national church, as they had done in other countries, so as to not oppress believers of other denominations.
I cite Runkle vs. Winemiller ““By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion; and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed on the same equal footing.”
They didn’t want a national church of the United States, like the Church of England, or the Roman Catholic Church, or the Russian Orthodox Church. They wanted Christians to be free to exercise their faith according to their convictions, without the government being able to oppress people who didn’t belong to a national church, as the government had done in England and other nationalities. Don’t forget that at the time that these principles were cited by the courts, the Roman Catholic inquisitions were still happening. The founding fathers wanted godly and Christian principles, but they didn’t want inquisitions coming here. That was the point.
We must also remember that while many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were devout members of churches, they were also brilliant. They were students of history as well as religion. They feared the idea that ANY group of collective individuals could become too powerful and destroy liberty.
So, the fine line was that you had to give people of goodwill and good intentions enough power to be able to accomplish good, but not so much power that if they became corrupted they would destroy the liberties of other people. They knew what had destroyed Roman and Greek republics in the past, and they did not want that happening to the United States. Therefore they wanted to safeguard against any collective group becoming a source of tyranny.
The Founding Fathers were trying to guard against tyranny of ALL TYPES. They wanted to guard against the tyranny of government becoming so powerful that they would destroy the liberty of people. They wanted to safeguard against any church or religious group collectively becoming too powerful so that if they become corrupted they couldn’t become tyrants and destroy liberties of other churches. They also wanted to safeguard against the tyranny of the mob and public opinion. That’s why we are a REPUBLIC, and NOT an all-out democracy. Because they feared the tyranny of the mob, such as what had happened during the Roman Imperial times.
Example: At one point according to the courts, an attack on Christianity and Jesus Christ was considered the SAME as a direct attack on the United States. I cite People vs Ruggles.”Whatever strikes at Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government.
- What people ignore now is that the founding fathers understood that the SOURCE of genuine and lasting liberty was Almighty God and his Son Jesus Christ.
- Anything that attacked God and Jesus Christ was an assault on liberty itself, and therefore believed to be an attack on the United States. They also understood that wherever the Spirit of the Lord is allowed to move freely, there is liberty, (2 Corinthians 3:17).
- They also understood that to be free you had to live and practice the standards of Messiah, (John 8:31-32). If we wanted to stay free we had to live by God’s precepts, (Psalm 119:45).
Example: They understood that without strong internal morality in a transformed human nature, there was no external law powerful enough to protect you, or to protect liberty.”
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” –
John Adams 1798
The founding fathers knew that. The founding fathers believed that. The founding fathers wrote stuff like that in 34% of their writings. Today the God haters and atheists of our country want to rewrite history, so that we forget our godly foundation, but that doesn’t change the facts. The God haters and atheists of this country did not start attacking God and religion until 1947, and they didn’t start becoming a part of national culture until well after 1967. Before then, it was almost All-Pro Bible and pro-Christian, because people believed and understood that YHWH Almighty God, and the example of Messiah is the source and the foundation of true and lasting liberty.
Horace Greeley said it best: “It is impossible to enslave, mentally or socially, a bible-reading people. The principles of the bible are the groundwork of human freedom.”-Horace Greeley