AMERICA'S CHRISTIAN HISTORY

Acknowledgement:

The content of this blog is my condensed paraphrase of the brilliant booklet, “America, A Christian Nation?” by Stephen McDowell, president of Provident Foundation’s Biblical Worldview University. Reading this booklet is an excellent way to begin your exploration into the vast documentation of America’s Christian foundation. The larger story of our history can be found in “America’s Providential History” by Dr. Mark A. Beliles and Stephen K. McDowell, all available at www.providencefoundation.com.

THESE DAYS IT'S INEVITABLE for a strong response and argument to follow any public reference to America as a Christian nation. The reasons some people object to calling America Christian may include their own unbelief, their fear that such a designation will endanger their first amendment rights, or the fear of offending people of different faiths. Some may academically believe that to be called a Christian nation, all citizens of the country must be uniformly orthodox in their beliefs demonstrated by their exemplary lives of pious virtue.

THE AMERICAN CHRISTIAN HISTORY MUSEUM SEEKS TO CALM THE DEBATE and educate all citizens of the historic facts of America’s Christian foundation.

The facts show:

• Christianity was the unofficial religion of early America.

• Our early settlers came with a missionary zeal to spread Christianity.

• The Bible was the foundation for the laws our founders wrote.

• The subsequent culture the above factors produced solidified America as a Christian nation.

THE MISSIONARY ZEAL OF OUR SETTLERS

1. The first colonial grant to Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584 authorized him to enact statutes for government in the colonies provided “they be not against the true Christian faith.”

2. The first charter of Virginia granted by King James I in 1606 includes the purpose statement to propagate the “Christian Religion to such People as yet live in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true Knowledge and Worship of God, and in time bring the Infidels and Savages, living in those parts, to human Civility, and to a settled and quiet Government.”

3. The Mayflower Compact 1620, written and signed by the Pilgrims before stepping onto land, established for the first time Christian self government with “just and equal laws” for “the general good” and for “the Glory of God and the Advancement of the Christian faith.”

4. The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut in 1639 began with the inhabitants covenanting together under God “to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus which we now profess.” It gave the government “power to administer justice according to the Laws here established, and for want thereof according to the rule of the word of God.”

5. The Charter of Rhode Island 1663 mentioned their intentions of godly edifying one another in the holy Christian faith and their desire to convert the poor ignorant Indian natives.

6. The Salem Covenant 1629 covenanted themselves with the Lord and one another in the presence of the God to walk together in all His ways. According as he is pleased to reveal Himself unto us in His blessed word of truth.

7. Frame of Government of Pennsylvania 1682 began by stating when God made the world He chose man to rule it and equipped him to do so.

8. The Pennsylvania Charter of Privileges 1701 lists belief in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the World, as a requirement to serve this Government in any capacity.

THE LAWS OUR FOUNDERS CREATED

The writings of America’s founders and the political authors who shaped their thinking clearly had a Christian worldview which believed God and the Bible were the source of all law. By far the most quoted source for their ideas was the Bible.

1. “Laws Divine, Morall, and Martiall, ect.” written in Virginia 1609-1612 required citizens to serve God, attend church, not speak against God or blaspheme His name, not to speak or act in any way defiant of God’s word “upon pain of death.”

2. Book of Laws 1671 states that good laws are judged by how much they are derived from the “ancient Platform of God’s Law.”

3. Massachusetts Body of Liberties 1641 defers to “the word of God” for the final authority in defining when a man’s life or property can be taken.

4. The Blue Laws of Connecticut spelled out “that the Supreme Power of making laws, and of repealing them, belong to God only, and that by him, this power is given to Jesus Christ, as Mediator, Math. 28:19, Joh. 5:22. And that the Laws for holinesse, and Righteousness, are already made, and given us in the scriptures.”

5. The Frame of Government of Pennsylvania recognized the Lord’s Day (the Sabbath), Biblical standards for marriage and Biblical qualifications for civil officials “all…shall be such as possess faith in Jesus Christ.” All offenses against God were to be discouraged and punished, and many were listed.

6. After Independence the State Constitutions acknowledged God as the Supreme Power and provided for the protection of God-given inalienable rights of man. Most required elected officials to take a Christian oath of office, thus subordinating themselves to the highest authority of God.

7. The Declaration of Independence 1776: “the laws of nature and nature’s god”; “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights”; appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions”; with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence.”

8. The Constitution of Maryland 1776 states it is the duty of every man to worship God and all persons professing the Christian religion are entitled to protection of their religious liberty. The oath of office included a declaration of belief in the Christian religion.

9. The Constitutions of South Carolina 1776, Massachusetts 1780, New Hampshire 1784, and Tennessee 1789 unabashedly acknowledged their foundation in the Christian religion.

10. The U.S. Constitution requires a Christian oath, acknowledges the Christian Sabbath, and is dated in the year of our Lord.

11. Numerous and significant court rulings like Church of the Holy trinity v. United States 1892; Updegraph v. The Commonwealth 1824; The People v. Ruggles 1811; Vidal v. Girard’s Executors 1844; Runkel v. Winemiller 1799; City of Charleston v. Benjamin 1846; and Lindenmuller v. The People 1860 all affirm that America and its laws are Christian.

THE CHRISTIAN CULTURE OF AMERICA

The history and nature of America’s societal institutions (family church, state) reflect Biblical values and the Christian environment in which they developed.

1. Education

• Schools were created to teach people to read the Bible.

• All early colleges were founded by Christian denominations for religious purposes.

• The most influential textbooks used for three centuries were thoroughly Christian.

2. Economics

• From its beginning America embraced a Christian view of economics believing personal, religious and civil liberty made economic liberty possible. Freedom to work, invent and benefit from the fruit of that labor, encouraged many advances leading to economic prosperity.

3. Charity

• Private citizens developed volunteer organizations to meet the social needs of the poor, distribute Bibles, provide education, give medical assistance, etc. In 1830 Alexis DeTocqueville observed that what was attempted to be done by governments in Europe was done by private citizens in America with much better results.

4. Morality

• In 1838 the Legislature of New York declared our Government depends for its being on the virtue of the people—a virtue founded in the morality of the Christian religion, the prevailing faith of the people.

5. Religion

• 1853 the U.S. Senate adopted a report stating we are a Christian people because most of our population belong to one of the denominations which compose the Christian world.

• Most of the leaders in early America were Christians who had a living Biblical faith and a desire to share it with others.

• All but 2-3 signers of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were orthodox Christians.

6. Congress

• During times of calamity or crisis, churches and civil authorities would both declare days of fasting and prayer. When God responded with deliverance they would then proclaim days of thanksgiving and prayer. These days were not rare, but a regular part of early American life.

• Congress authorized a chaplain to open each session in prayer since 1774, a practice which continues today.

• Congress authorized the importation of 20,000 Bibles during the Revolution saying “the use of the Bible is so universal and its importance is great.”

• Congress officially approved the printing and distribution of “the Bible of the Revolution” (the Aitken Bible) in 1782.

• On special occasions the members of Congress would attend church together.

• Congress approved the use of the Capitol Building for church services.

• The Christian Sabbath has been observed and recognized by law from America’s beginning.

OUR INSPIRATION AND RESPONSIBILITY

• America’s founders believed the Bible’s teaching that obedience to the law of God produces freedom, prosperity, and advancement, as well as a desire to spread liberty and aid others. They saw Christianity as the only support for a free, self-governed, and happy society with power to transform men from within to sustain such a free society.

• The influence of Christianity in America has diminished in the past century through unbelief, corruption of doctrine and neglect of institutions.

• Daniel Webster, the great Christian statesman of the Nineteenth Century, gave us this warning:

“If we and our posterity shall be true to the Christian religion, if we and they shall live always in the fear of God and shall respect His Commandments, … we may have the highest hopes of the future fortunes of our country; … But if we and our posterity neglect religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity.”

• We must understand our history and commit ourselves to the task of reestablishing Christian principles as the foundation of our nation if we hope to remain free and prosperous.

Your servant,

Michael D. Moore, director