"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often, that this
great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not
on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ."
Patrick Henry
"We've stakes the whole future of American civilization not on the power
of government; far from it. We have stakes the future of all our
political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern
ourselves according to the commandments of God. The future and success of
America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which
this Constitution is founded."
James Madison
"The great vital 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."
U.S. House Judiciary Committee - 1854
"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."
United States Supreme Court - 1892
"I am a most unworthy
sinner, but I have cried out to the Lord
for grace and mercy, and have been covered completely. I have found the
sweetest consolation since I made it my whole purpose to enjoy His
marvelous presence. For the execution of the journey to the Indies, I did
not make use of intelligence, mathematics or maps. It is simply the
fulfillment of what Isaiah had prophesied."
Christopher Columbus
"A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college
education."
Theodore Roosevelt
"I heard a fine example today, namely that His Excellency General
Washington rode around among his army yesterday and admonished each and
every one to fear God, to put away the wickedness that has set in and
become so general, and to practice the Christian virtues. From all
appearances, this gentleman does not belong to the so-called world of
society, for he respects God's Word, believes in the atonement through
Christ, and bears himself in humility and gentleness. Therefore, the Lord
God has also singularly, yea, marvelously, preserved him from harm in the
midst of countless perils, ambuscades, fatigues, etc., and has hitherto
graciously held him in His hand as a chosen vessel."
Henry Muhlenberg, Lutheran Pastor noting the faith of George Washington -
1777
"Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament be read and
taught as a divine revelation in the school? Where can the purest
principles of morality be learned so clearly or so perfectly as from the
New Testament?"
U.S. Supreme Court - 1844
"The great vital 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."
U.S. House Judiciary Committee - 1854
"Every thinking man, when he thinks, realizes that the teachings of the
Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic and social life
that it would be literally - I do not mean figuratively, but literally -
impossible for us to figure what that loss would be if these teachings
were removed. We would lose all the standards by which we now judge both
public and private morals; all the standards towards which we, with more
or less resolution, strive to raise ourselves."
Theodore Roosevelt
"Everyone appointed to public office must say: 'I do profess faith in
God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy
Ghost, one God & blessed forevermore. And I do acknowledge the Holy
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be given by divine
inspiration.'"
The Delaware Constitution of 1776
I, _______ being now chosen to be Governor within this Jurisdiction,
for the year ensuing, and until a new be chosen, do swear by the great and
dreadful name of the everliving God, to promote the public good and peace
of the same, according to the best of my skill; as also will maintain all
lawful prieveleges of this Commonwealth; as also that all wholesome laws
that are or shall be made by lawful authority here established, be duly
executed; and will further the execution of justice according to the rule
of God's Word; so help me God, in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Oath of Office for the Governor of Connecticut - 1638
"Let therefore, the King and Queen, our Sovereigns, and their most
happy realms; together with all Christian regions, let us all give thanks
to our Lord Jesus Christ the Savior, who hath bestowed on us so great a
triumph. Let Christ exult on earth, as He exults in Heaven, foreseeing as
He does, that so many souls of people heretofore lost, are now about to be
saved. Let us also rejoice, both by reason of the exultation of our faith,
and by reason of the increase of our temporal things, of which things not
only Spain but all Christendom will be partakers."
Christopher Columbus - May 3, 1493
Early in 1862, Chaplain James Marks pondered how to help the soldiers of the 63rd Pennsylvania Regiment. Bitterness after the defeat at Bull Run gripped the army. Homesickness and boredom were rife, and cold wet weather depressed generals and privates alike. Marks made up his mind to lift the soldiers out of their unhappiness and bring their thoughts to a higher spiritual plane. Purchasing a tent to hold worshipers, he began a revival season that lasted until spring. Hundreds of men soon were born again.
At the bottom of the original Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress ordered copies of the Declaration first be sent not to town clerks or newspapers but to parish ministers, who were "required to read the same to their respective congregations, as soon as divine service is ended, in the afternoon, on the first Lord's day after they have received it."
Following every victory during the Civil War, Stonewall Jackson ordered
his Chaplains to hold thanksgiving services. He was known to ride through
the camps distributing tracts to his soldiers, and he often took part in
his troops' spiritual meetings. Wrote Henry Douglas in his book, I Rode
with Stonewall, "And when I had reached the place of prayer, lo, the camp
was there. Bowed heads, bent knees, hats off, silence! Stonewall Jackson
was kneeling to the Lord of Hosts, in prayer for his people!" Sundays were
generally a day of rest. "Deacon Jackson," as his men sometimes called
him, hated doing battle on Sunday.
"But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand which
preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us;
and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all
these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our
own."
Abraham Lincoln
"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have
been preserved, the many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in
numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have
forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which
preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and
strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness
of our hearts, that all these blessing 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."
Abraham Lincoln
"What gave New England so distinctive and influential a part in the
development of the American nation beyond all doubt was their Christian
faith. In the history of most lands the number of true Christinas has
generally been a mere fraction of the total population; in New England it
is not so. Of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower it is probable that 98
belonged to the congregation of John Robinson which had been in exile in
Holland since 1608. The reinforcements to the Plymouth plantation came
largely from the same source. Then in 1628 there began from England
itself one of the largest transplantation of Christians from one land to
another, which has ever occurred. Over a period of twelve years, in about
198 ships, men and their families arrived in Massachusetts Bay. They
included gentlemen, merchants, farmers, craftsmen and ministers of the
gospel. The one thing which the vast majority possessed in common was a
fervent commitment to the Word of God and to the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ."
Excerpt from "Spiritual Characteristics of the First Christian Society in
America" by Iain Murry
"America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify
that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the
revelations of Holy Scriptures. Ladies and gentlement, I have a very
simple thing to ask of you. That I, as with every man and woman in this
audience from this night on will realized that part of the destiny of
America lies in our daily perusal of this great book of revelations. That
if we would see America free and pure we will make our own spirits free
and pure by this baptism of the Holy Scripture."
Woodrow Wilson - 1911 - Pre-Presidential Campaign Speech