History Forgotten
Did you know that 52 of the 55 signers of the Declaration of Independence were
orthodox, deeply committed Christians? The other three all believed in the Bible
as the divine truth, the God of scripture, and His personal intervention.
It is the same Congress that formed the American Bible Society. Immediately
after creating the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress voted
to purchase and import 20,000 copies of scripture for the people of this nation.
Patrick Henry, who is called the firebrand of the American Revolution, is still
remembered for his words, "Give me liberty or give me death." But in
current textbooks the context of these words is deleted. Here is what he
actually said:
"An appeal to arms and the God of hosts is all that is left us. But we
shall not fight our battle alone. There is a just God that presides over the
destinies of nations. The battle sir, is not to the strong alone.
Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and
slavery? Forbid it Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as
for me, give me liberty, or give me death."
These sentences have been erased from our textbooks. Was Patrick Henry a
Christian? The following year, 1776, he wrote this: "It cannot be
emphasized too strongly or too often that this great Nation was founded not by
religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. For that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom
of worship here."
Consider these words that Thomas Jefferson wrote on the front of his well-worn
Bible: '"I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines
of Jesus. I have little doubt that our whole country will soon be rallied to the
unity of our Creator." He was also the chairman of the American Bible
Society, which he considered his highest and most important role.
On July 4, 1821, President Adams said, "The highest glory of the American
Revolution was this -- it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of
civil government with the principles of Christianity."
Calvin Coolidge, our 30th President of the United States reaffirmed this truth
when he wrote, "The foundations of our society and our government rest 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."
In 1782, the United States Congress voted this resolution: "The Congress of
the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all
schools."
William Holmes McGuffey is the author of the McGuffey Reader, which was used for
over 100 years in our public schools with over 125 million copies sold until it
was stopped in 1963. President Lincoln called him the "Schoolmaster of the
Nation."
Listen to these words of Mr. McGuffey: "The Christian religion is the
religion of our country. From it are derived our notions on the character of
God, on the great moral Governor of the universe. On its doctrines are founded
the peculiarities of our free institutions. From no source has the author drawn
more conspicuously than from the sacred Scriptures. From all these extracts from
the Bible,
I make no apology."
Of the first 108 universities founded in America, 106 were distinctly Christian,
including the first, Harvard University, chartered in 1636. In the original
Harvard Student Handbook, rule number 1 was that students seeking entrance must
know Latin and Greek so that they could study the scriptures: "Let every
student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main
end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal
life, John 17:3; and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation for
our children to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments."
James Madison, the primary author of the Constitution of the United States, said
this:
"We have staked the whole future of our new nation not upon the power of
government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political
constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves
according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments."
Today, we are asking God to bless America.
But, how can He bless a Nation that has departed so far from Him? Prior to
September 11, He was not welcome in much of America. Most of what you read in
this article has been erased from our textbooks.
Revisionists have rewritten history to remove the truth about our country's
Christian roots.