The vast majority of our Founding Fathers had a Christian Worldview. They were chosen as delegates and representatives of the people specifically because of their commonly held beliefs. This historical fact becomes obvious to anyone who objectively studies their voluminous words and deeds. The following sample quotes reveal their intent to base the new American Experiment on the general principles of Christianity as revealed in the Bible.

Christian Presidents

The Commander and Chief of the Revolutionary Army, the Father of our Nation and America’s first president (1789-1797), George Washington, prayed the following prayer at Valley Forge during the Revolution’s darkest hour:

“Almighty and eternal Lord God, the great Creator of heaven and earth, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; look down from heaven in pity and compassion upon me Thy servant, who humbly prorate myself before Thee.”[i]

Obviously, he viewed and served Jesus Christ as his Lord. On July 9, 1776, General Washington exhorted his army to do the same:

“The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man, will endeavor so to live, and act, as becomes a Christian Soldier defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his country.”[ii]

The following excerpt from his memorable Farewell Address at the end of his presidency emphasizes his view of the central role of religion and morality to America’s political success:

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports And let us indulge with caution the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion . . . Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle.”[iii]

These quotes alone contradict the blatant lies of today’s Secularists regarding George Washington’s personal beliefs and his actions that made this unique Experiment successful. John Marshall, who served with George Washington at Valley Forge, wrote of him, “Without making ostentatious professions of religion, he was a sincere believer in the Christian faith, and a truly devout man.”[iv]

And the humble Washington obviously agreed with one of the great slogans of the American Revolution. On April 18, 1775, the eve of the Revolutionary War, a British major ordered John Adams, John Hancock, and those with them to disperse in “the name of George the Sovereign King of England.” Adams response: “We recognize no sovereign but God, and no king but Jesus!” became the motto of the war.[v] Within weeks, the Continental Congress raised an army and chose George Washington as Commander in Chief. His military skills and accomplishments, as well as his calm and unswerving sense of duty, won the respect and admiration of his countrymen. In 1782, a movement began to make Washington the monarch of the United States, to crown him the king. The General was firm in his written rejection, as follows:

“With a mixture of surprise and astonishment, I have read with attention the sentiments you have submitted to my perusal. Be assured, sir, no occurrence in the course of the war has given me more painful sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing in the army as you have expressed, and [which] I must view with abhorrence and reprehend with severity. …. Let me conjure you, then, if you have any regard for your country, concern for yourself or posterity, or respect for me, to banish these thoughts from your mind, and never communicate, as from yourself or anyone else, a sentiment of the like nature.”[vi]

In direct contradiction to the lies and propaganda of today’s Secularists, a resolution was passed by Congress and read by the president of the United States on the two-hundredth anniversary of Washington’s birth:

“Washington has come to personify the American Republic. He presided over the convention that framed our Constitution. The weight of his great name was the deciding factor in securing its adoption by the States. These results could never have been secured had it not been recognized that he would be the first President. When we realize what it meant to take13 distracted colonies, impoverished, envious, and hostile, and weld them into an orderly federation under the authority of a central government, we can form some estimate of the influence of this great man. . . .

We have seen many soldiers who have left behind them little but the memory of their conflicts; but . . . the power to establish among a great people a form of self-government which the test of experience has shown will endure was bestowed upon Washington, and Washington alone. . . . His was the directing spirit without which there would have been no independence, no Union, no Constitution, and no Republic. His ways were the ways of truth. He built for eternity. His influence grows. His stature increases with the increasing years. In wisdom of action, in purity of character, he stands alone. We cannot yet estimate him. We can only indicate our reverence for him and thank the Divine Providence which sent him to serve and inspire his fellow men.”[vii] (emphasis added)

James Madison, America’s fourth president (1809-1817) and Father of the Constitution, authored 29 of the 85 Federalist papers and was one of the framers of the Bill of Rights. In a speech to the General Assembly of the State of Virginia in 1778, he stated unequivocally:

“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We’ve staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”[viii]

That is why future presidents Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) and John F Kennedy (1961-1963) could confidently declare, respectively:

“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 and glory that, in occupying an exalted 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.”[ix]

“The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.”[x]

America’s sixth president (1825-1829), John Quincy Adams, mirrored the comments of his father, John Adams, quoted in the previous article, proving also that America’s Christian underpinning was understood and honored by later generations:

“It is no slight testimonial, both to the merit and worth of Christianity, that in all ages since its promulgation the great mass of those who have risen to eminence by their profound wisdom and integrity have recognized and reverenced Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of the living God.”[xi]

“From the day of the Declaration…they (the American people) were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of The Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledge as the rules of their conduct.”[xii] (July 4, 1821)

“Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the World, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day. Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the Progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer’s mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfillment of the prophecies announced directly from Heaven at the birth of the Savior and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets 600 years before.”[xiii] (July 4, 1837, Newburyport, Massachusetts)

Christian Justices

John Jay, who served in the Continental Congress and as a diplomat, was appointed as the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1789-1795) by President Washington. He was later elected Governor of New York and spent his retirement years promoting the American Bible Society. In a June 29, 1826 letter to the Committee of the Corporation of the City of New York, he wrote:

“I express my earnest hope that the peace, happiness, and prosperity enjoyed by our beloved country may induce those who direct our national councils to recommend a general and public return of praise and thanksgiving to Him from whose goodness these blessings transcend. The most effectual means of securing the continuance of our civil and religious liberties is always to remember with reverence and gratitude the source from which they flow.”[xiv]

John Marshall who fought in the Revolution under Washington also endured the terrible winter at Valley Forge. He became the fourth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1801-1835). No one had a greater impact on U.S. Constitutional Law than did he. Sworn in on February 4, 1801, he served on the bench 34 years and helped write over 1,000 decisions. Chief Justice John Marshall wrote to Jasper Adams, May 9, 1833:

“The American population is entirely Christian, and with us, Christianity and Religion are Identified. It would be strange, indeed, if with such a people, our institutions did not presuppose Christianity, and did not often refer to it, and exhibit relations with it. Legislation on the subject is admitted to require great delicacy, because freedom of conscience and respect for our religion both claim our most serious regard.”[xv]

Joseph Story served as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1811-1845, and founded the Harvard Law School.

Chief Justice John Marshall welcomed the young scholar, and their working relationship was one of the most productive in the history of the Court. … “From his teaching came a dozen volumes of legal commentary on public and private law. Through his multiple roles as judge, teacher, and publicist, Story was the most commanding legal figure of his age.”[xvi]

The following quotes from this renowned Associate Justice leave no doubt of the vital importance Christianity played in both the private and civil life of America.

“I verily believe Christianity necessary to the support of civil society. One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law. . . There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as laying its foundations.”[xvii]

“Christianity becomes not merely an auxiliary, but a guide, to the law of nature; establishing its conclusions, removing its doubts, and evaluating its precepts.”[xviii]

“My own private judgment has long been (and every day’s experience more and more confirms me in it) that government cannot long exist without an alliance with Religion to some extent, and that Christianity is indispensable to the true interests and solid foundation of all governments. . . . I know not, indeed, how any deep sense of moral obligation or accountableness can be expected to prevail in the community without a firm foundation of the great Christian truths.”[xix]

Other Christian Patriots

The prolific writings of our Founding Fathers bring to light their Christian Worldview. Historians and biographers who have studied the lives of those great men have produced additional volumes that shed light on their clear intentions and their Christian beliefs. One of today’s experts on the Founder’s lives and our Christian heritage is David Barton. He condenses a few of their innumerable accomplishments:

“In addition to their many overt declarations (like those above), their works also confirm their strong Christian faith. For example, among the signers of the Declaration, the Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon was responsible for two American translations of the Bible including America’s first family Bible; Charles Thomson was responsible for Thomson’s Bible, the first translation of the Greek Septuagint into English; Benjamin Rush not only produced the first stereotyped (mass-produced) Bible in America but he also founded America’s first Bible Society and the Sunday School movement in America; Francis Hopkinson, a church music director, produced the first purely American hymn book, setting the Book of Psalms to music; and many others were also responsible for similar Christian works.”

This same type of Christian involvement was apparent among the thirty-nine signers of the Constitution. For example, John Langdon and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney founded the American Bible Society; Rufus King was a founder of the New York Bible and Common Prayer Book Society; James McHenry founded the Maryland Bible Society; and Alexander Hamilton formed the Christian Constitutional Society to elect people to office who would support the Christian religion and the Constitution of the United States.”[xx]

What caused these men, who intentionally depended on God’s grace and intervention to forge the Holy Experiment called America, to form a Christian Worldview? The Biblical parenting, training and schooling their parents supplied is the unavoidable answer. The next chapter will focus on the facts and fruit of their world-class education.

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[i] Errant Skeptics Research Institute, “Quotes by Our Presidents”, http://www.errantskeptics.org/Quotes_by_Presidents.htm#George%20Washington, retrieved July 2, 2007.

[ii] Josiah Benjamin Richards, God of Our Fathers, (Reading, PA: Reading Books, 1994), 206.

[iii] William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues, (NY, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1993), 794.

[iv] John Marshall, The Life of George Washington, Commander in Chief of American Forces, and First President of the United States, (Philadelphia: James Crissy, 1832), Vol. II, 445.

[v] EadsHome Ministries, “John Adams”, http://www.eadshome.com/JohnAdams.htm, retrieved July 2, 2007.

[vi] Henry Cabot Lodge, George Washington, (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1889), Vol. I, 329.

[vii] Handbook of the George Washington Appreciation Course for Teachers and Students (Washington, D.C.: U.S. George Washington Bicentennial Commission, 1932), pp. vii­viii.

[viii] EadsHome Ministries, “Founding Fathers Quotes”, http://www.eadshome.com/QuotesoftheFounders.htm, retrieved July 2, 2007.

[ix] USAHeritage.org, “Presidents”, http://usaheritage.org/home.html, retrieved July 2, 2007.

[x] The Library of Congress American Memory, “Presidential Inaugurations”, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/pihtml/pi051.html, retrieved July 2, 2007.

[xi] Christian History Institute, “Letters to His Son by John Quincy Adams”, http://chi.gospelcom.net/lives_events/pastwords/chl090.shtml, retrieved July 2, 2007.

[xii] Chuck Baldwin Live, “Quotes From the Founding Fathers”, http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/founding.html, retrieved July 3, 2007.

[xiii] Tucson Community Church, “Real American History”, http://www.thecoolchurch.com/ushistory.html, retrieved July 2, 2007.

[xiv] Richards, God of Our Fathers, 180.

[xv] Charles F. Hobson, ed. The Papers of John Marshall, Volume 12: Correspondence, Papers, and Selected Judicial Opinions January 1831-July 1835, With Addendum June 1783-January 1829. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 278.

[xvi] Answers.com, “Joseph Story”, http://www.answers.com/topic/joseph-story?cat=entertainment, retrieved July 2, 2007.

[xvii] Joseph Story, Life and Letters of Joseph Story, William W. Story, editor (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1851), Vol. II, 8, 92.

[xviii] Joseph Story, “The Value and Importance of Legal Studies,” a lecture delivered August 25, 1829, cited in James McClellan, Joseph Story and the American Constitution (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma, 1971), 66.

 [xix] Errant Skeptics, “Quotes by Founding Fathers”, http://www.errantskeptics.org/FoundingFtrs.htm#Joseph%20Storey, July 3, 2007.

[xx] David Barton, The Practical Benefits of Christianity, http://www.worldviewweekend.com/secure/institute/book/chapters/tpboc.html, retrieved July 3, 2007.