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See clips below from these daily pieces...
Our Biblical Foundations
Below are some cuts from American Minute
illustrating the error of the view that America was founded as a secular
nation (Latest on Top)
POINTS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Welfare system;
Justice Joseph Story
i 2007 i
November 28, 2007
Following the hated Stamp Act of 1765, the British committed the Boston Massacre
in 1770, firing into a crowd, killing five.
Colonists responded with the Boston Tea Party in 1773. The British then blocked
Boston Harbor in 1774 to starve the city into submission.
The President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress was James Warren, husband
of Revolutionary War author Mercy Otis Warren. James Warren proposed
Sam Adams form Committees of Correspondence to inform the nation of injustices
committed in Boston.
President James Warren, who died NOVEMBER 28, 1808, approved the Massachusetts
Resolution:
"In Provincial Congress, Watertown, June 16, 1775- As it has pleased Almighty
God in his Providence to suffer the calamities of an unnatural war to take place
among us...the most effectual way to escape those desolating judgments...will be
that we repent." The Resolution continued: "Among the
prevailing sins of this day, which threaten the destruction of this land, we
have reason to lament the frequent prophanation of the Lord's Day, or Christian
Sabbath... It be recommended by this Congress, to the people...that
they...pay a religious regard to that day, and to the public Worship of God
thereon."
November 3, 2007
In a Radio Address, NOVEMBER 3, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge stated:
"I therefore urge upon all the voters of our country, without reference to
party, that they assemble...at their respective voting places in the exercise of
the high office of American citizenship, that they approach the ballot box in
the spirit that they would approach a sacrament, and there, disregarding all
appeals to passion and prejudice, dedicate themselves truly and wholly to the
welfare of their country."
Calvin Coolidge continued: "When an election is so held, it...sustains the
belief that the voice of the people is the voice of God."
Commenting on political candidates, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in Democracy in
America, 1835:
"If a political character attacks a sect, this may not prevent even the
partisans of that very sect from supporting him; but if he attacks all the sects
together, every one abandons him and he remains alone...
Moreover, all the sects of the United States are comprised within the great
unity of Christianity."
October 13, 2007
Margaret Thatcher was born OCTOBER 13, 1925.
She was the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. While traveling
through New York City in 1996, Margaret Thatcher had an interview with Joseph A.
Cannon, which was printed in Human Events.
She stated: "The Decalogue-Ten Commandments-are addressed to each and
every person. This is the origin of our common humanity and of the sanctity of
the individual. Each one has a duty to try to carry out those
commandments. You don't get that in any other political creed...It is personal
liberty with personal responsibility."
Margaret Thatcher continued: "Responsibility to your parents, to
your children, to your God. This really binds us together in a way that nothing
else does. If you accept freedom, you've got to have principles about the
responsibility. You can't do this without a biblical foundation."
Margaret Thatcher concluded regarding America: "Your Founding
Fathers came over with that. They came over with the doctrines of the New
Testament as well as the Old. They looked after one another, not only as a
matter of necessity, but as a matter of duty to their God. There is no other
country in the world which started that way."
September 10
The Son of one of the Boston Tea Party "Indians," he graduated from Harvard and
eventually became Massachusetts Speaker of the House.
At age 32, he was appointed the youngest Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court,
where he served 34 years and helped establish the illegality of the slave trade
in the Amistad case.
His name was Joseph Story, and he died SEPTEMBER 10, 1845.
A founder of Harvard Law School, Justice Joseph Story stated in Vidal v.
Girard's Executors, 1844:
"Where can the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly or so
perfectly as from the New Testament?"
Appointed to the Supreme Court by James Madison-the person who introduced the
First Amendment, Justice Joseph Story commented on it in his Familiar Exposition
of the Constitution of the United States, 1840: "At the time of the adoption...of the Amendment...the general, if not the
universal, sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive
encouragement from the State."
Justice Story continued: "The real object of the First Amendment was not to countenance, much less to
advance Mohammedanism, or Judaism, or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity,
but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects."
[NOTE: An excellent book on Story is Joseph Story, by James McClellan.]
August 29
"Beloved Cherokees," wrote President Washington on AUGUST 29, 1796,
"The wise men of the United States meet once a year, to consider what will be
for the good of their people...I have thought that a meeting of your wise
men...would be alike useful to you...
I now send my best wishes to the Cherokees and pray the Great Spirit to preserve
them."
On May 12, 1779, Washington addressed the Delaware Indian Chiefs at the Middle
Brook military encampment:
"Brothers: I am glad you have brought three of the Children of your principal
Chiefs to be educated with us...Congress...will look upon them as their own
Children."
Washington continued: "This is a great mark of your confidence and of your desire to preserve the
friendship between the Two Nations...and to become One people with your Brethren
of the United States...
You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the
religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than
you are."
Washington concluded: "Congress will do everything they can to assist
you in this wise intention; and to tie the knot of friendship and union so fast,
that nothing shall ever be able to loose it...
I pray God He may make your Nation wise and strong."
August 27
AUGUST 27, 1776, British General Howe trapped 8,000 American troops on Brooklyn
Heights.
Desperate, Washington ferried his army all night across the East River.
Morning came yet half his troops were still in danger. A fog allowed the entire
army to be evacuated. Never again did the British have such a chance to trap the
American army.
Major Ben Tallmadge, Washington's Chief of Intelligence, wrote:
"As the dawn of the next day approached, those of us who remained in the
trenches became very anxious for our own safety, and when the dawn appeared
there were several regiments still on duty.
At this time a very dense fog began to rise off the river, and it seemed to
settle in a peculiar manner over both encampments. I recollect this peculiar
providential occurrence perfectly well, and so very dense was the atmosphere
that I could scarcely discern a man at six yards distance...
We tarried until the sun had risen, but the fog remained as dense as ever."
Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull had written to General George Washington,
July 13, 1775: "May the God of the armies of Israel shower down the blessings of his Divine
Providence...in the day of battle and danger."
August 16
Charles Finney died AUGUST 16, 1875. An attorney, he saw so many Scripture
references in Blackstone's Law Commentaries that he bought a Bible and came to
faith.
Finney's 1835 Revival Lectures inspired George Williams to found the YMCA-Young
Men's Christian Association-in 1844, and inspired William Booth to found The
Salvation Army in 1865.
Finney formed the Benevolent Empire - a network of volunteer organizations to
aid with social problems - which by 1834 had a budget which rivaled the Federal
Government.
Concerning the Kingdom of God, Finney wrote:
"Every member must work or quit. No honorary members."
While president of Oberlin College, 1851-1866, it served as a station on the
Underground Railroad secretly bringing slaves to freedom, and it granted the
first degree in the U.S. to a black woman, Mary Jane Patterson.
Charles Finney wrote:
"The time has come for Christians to vote for honest men, and take consistent
ground in politics or the Lord will curse them...Politics are a part of a
religion in such a country as this, and Christians must do their duty to their
country as a part of their duty to God."
Charles Finney concluded:
"God will bless or curse this nation according to the course Christians take in
politics."
[COMMENT: The fact that Finney's Benevolent Empire
had a budget almost as large as the Fed. tells us that free-enterprise welfare
is quite capable of handling the welfare problem -- IF we have a Christian
nation. E. Fox]
August 3
"There are but 155 years left...at which time...the world will come to
an end," wrote Christopher Columbus in his book Libro de Las Profecias,
composed in 1502 between his 3rd and 4th voyages. "The sign which
convinces me that our Lord is hastening the end of the world is the preaching of
the Gospel recently in so many lands." Though his predictions were off,
Columbus revealed his motivation for setting sail on his first voyage AUGUST 3,
1492, with the Nina, Pinta and the Santa Maria:
"I spent seven years in your royal Court arguing the case with so many persons
of such authority and learned in all the arts, and in the end they concluded
that all was idle nonsense...yet the outcome will be the fulfillment of what our
Redeemer Jesus Christ said...that...all that was written by him and by the
prophets to be fulfilled."
Columbus continued:
"The Holy Scriptures testify...that this world will come to an end...St.
Augustine says that the end of this world will occur in the seventh millennium
following the Creation."
Columbus ended:
"I have already said that for the execution of the enterprise of the
Indies, neither reason, nor mathematics, nor world maps were profitable to me;
rather the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled."
August 2, 2007
Navy torpedo boat PT 109 was rammed AUGUST 2, 1943, by a Japanese destroyer and
sunk. The commander sustained permanent back injuries yet helped survivors
swim miles to shore, which unfortunately was behind enemy lines in the Solomon
Islands. After a daring rescue, he was awarded the Medal of heroism.
Though one of his brothers was killed in the war, he went on to become a
Congressman, Senator, and the 35th U.S. President. His name was John F.
Kennedy, who stated in his Inaugural Address:
"Let us go forth to lead the land we
love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's
work must truly be our own."
In the White House Rose Garden,
November 21, 1961, John F. Kennedy said:
"When we all - regardless of our particular religious convictions - draw our
guidance and inspiration, and really, in a sense, moral direction, from the same
general area, the Bible, the Old and the New Testaments, we have every reason to
believe that our various religious denominations should live together in the
closest harmony."
Kennedy concluded:
"The basic presumption of the moral law, the existence of God, man's
relationship to Him - there is generally consensus on those questions."
January 3
Frederick the Great of Prussia called these ten days "the most brilliant in the
world's history."
After winning the Battle of Trenton, Christmas night, George Washington's small
force met General Cornwallis' 8,000 man British army. The night before the
battle, Washington left his campfires burning and silently marched his army
around the back of the British camp at Princeton, New Jersey. At daybreak,
JANUARY 3, 1777, Washington attacked, capturing three regiments of British
troops.
Enthusiasm swept America. Yale President Ezra Stiles stated in an Election
Address before the Governor and General Assembly of Connecticut:
"In our lowest and most dangerous state, in 1776 and 1777, we sustained
ourselves against the British Army of 60.000 troops, commanded by...the ablest
generals Britain could procure throughout Europe, with a naval force of 22,000
seamen in above 80 men-of-war. Who but a Washington, inspired by Heaven,
could have conceived the surprise move upon the enemy at Princeton - or that
Christmas eve when Washington and his army crossed the Delaware?" Ezra
Stiles concluded: "The United States are under peculiar obligations to become a
holy people unto the Lord our God."
2006
September 30
Seven times he preached in the Colonies, to
crowds up to 25,000, spreading the Great Awakening Revival which helped unite
the colonies prior to the Revolution.
Ben Franklin wrote in his Autobiography:
"He preached one evening from the top of the Court-house steps...Streets were
filled with his hearers...I had the curiosity to learn how far he could be heard
by retiring backwards down the street...and found his voice distinct till I came
near Front-street."
Who was Franklin describing but George Whitefield,
who died this day, September 30, 1770.
Franklin wrote: "Multitudes of all denominations attended his sermons...It was
wonderful to see."
Printing his sermons, Franklin financed the largest building in Philadelphia
for his meetings, which later became the first building of the University of
Pennsylvania.
Franklin wrote to Whitefield: "I sometimes wish you and I were jointly employed
by the Crown to settle a colony on the Ohio...a strong body of religious and
industrious people!...
Might it not greatly facilitate the introduction of pure religion among the
heathen, if we could, by such a colony, show them a better sample of Christians
than they commonly see in our Indian traders?"
[COMMENT: Franklin at one point said he had been a deist, but get it up as
inadequate. Though it is not clear what he thought of Jesus, his
admiration of Whitfield tells us that there was much more to his religious life
than deism. E. Fox.]
September 18
A member of the Continental Congress, he led
military expeditions in the Revolutionary War, paying for them at his own
expense.
He built ships to raid the British, signed the Constitution, and was the first
President pro tem of the Senate.
His name was John Langdon, and he died
September 18, 1819.
As Governor of New Hampshire, Langdon was visited by President James Monroe in
1817, as the newspaper reported:
"While at Portsmouth, the President spent that part of the Sabbath which was
not devoted to public divine service, with that eminent patriot and Christian,
John Langdon.
His tarry...was probably longer than the time devoted to any individual in New
England."
A founder and first President of the New Hampshire Bible Society, whose goal
was to place a Bible in every New Hampshire home, Governor Langdon wrote in a
Proclamation, October 21, 1785:
"It therefore becomes our indispensable Duty, not only to acknowledge, in
general with the rest of Mankind, our dependence on the Supreme Ruler of the
Universe, but as a People peculiarly favoured, to testify our Gratitude to the
Author of all our Mercies, in the most solemn and public manner."
COMMENT: This kind of Christian
character was not uncommon among our early American leadership. E. Fox
September 7
The Journals of the Continental Congress record:
"Wednesday, September 7, 1774, 9 o'clock a.m.
Agreeable to the resolve of yesterday, the meeting was opened with prayers by
the Rev. Mr. Duche'.
Voted, That the thanks of Congress be given to Mr. Duche'...for performing
divine Service, and for the excellent prayer, which he composed and delivered on
the occasion."
Rev. Duche' prayed:
"O God of Wisdom...direct the counsel of this Honorable Assembly...that the
scene of blood may be speedily closed...that Truth and Justice, Religion and
Piety, prevail..."
John Adams wrote:
"Reverend Duche'...read the 35th Psalm...After this...unexpectedly to every
body, struck out into an extemporary prayer, which filled the bosom of every man
present. I must confess, I never heard a better prayer."
The Library of Congress printed on an historical placard of Carpenter's Hall,
Philadelphia:
"Washington was kneeling there and Henry, Randolph, Rutledge, Lee, and Jay and
by their side there stood, bowed in reverence the Puritan Patriots of New
England...'It was enough' says Mr. Adams, 'to melt a heart of stone. I saw the
tears gush into the eyes of the old, grave, Pacific Quakers of Philadelphia.'"
[COMMENT: The churches need to take back the welfare system -- look at what Finney et al were able to accomplish below. E. Fox]
August 16
Charles Finney died August 16, 1875. An attorney,
he saw so many Scripture references in Blackstone's Law Commentaries that he
bought a Bible and came to faith.
His Revival Lectures, 1835, inspired George Williams to found the YMCA-Young
Men's Christian Association, 1844, and William Booth to found The Salvation
Army, 1865.
Finney formed the Benevolent Empire - a network of volunteer
organizations to aid with social problems - which by 1834 had a budget which
rivaled the Federal Government.
Concerning the Kingdom of God, Finney wrote "Every member must work or quit. No
honorary members."
While president of Oberlin College, 1851-66, it was a station on the
Underground Railroad secretly bringing slaves to freedom, and granted the first
degree in the U.S. to a black woman, Mary Jane Patterson.
Charles Finney wrote:
"The time has come for Christians to vote for honest men, and take consistent
ground in politics or the Lord will curse them...
Politics are a part of a religion in such a country as this, and Christians
must do their duty to their country as a part of their duty to God...
God will bless or curse this nation according to the course Christians
take in politics."
May 12
May 12, 1502, Columbus had just begun his last
voyage. Seven months later, he wrote:
"The tempest arose and wearied me so that I knew not where to turn, my old
wound opened up, and for 9 days I was lost without hope of life; eyes never
beheld the sea so angry and covered with foam.
The wind not only prevented our progress, but offered no opportunity to run
behind any headland for shelter; hence we were forced to keep out in this bloody
ocean, seething like a pot on a hot fire.
The people were so worn out that they longed for death."
His son, Ferdinand, wrote on December 13 a waterspout passed between the ships;
"the which had they not dissolved by reciting the Gospel according to St. John,
it would have swamped whatever it struck...for it draws water up to the clouds
in a column thicker than a waterbutt, twisting it about like a whirlwind."
Columbus' biographer, Samuel Eliot Morrison described:
"It was the Admiral who exorcised the waterspout. From his Bible he read of
that famous tempest off Capernaum, concluding, 'Fear not, it is I!
Then clasping the Bible in his left hand, with drawn sword he traced a cross in
the sky and a circle around his whole fleet."
May 4, 2006
Selling a million copies
a year for over 100 years, McGuffey's Readers were the mainstay of public
education in America. Generations of school children read them, making
them some of the most influential books of all time.
They were written by
William McGuffey, who died May 4, 1873.
A professor at the University of Virginia and president of Ohio University, he
began one of nation's first teachers' associations.
In the foreword of McGuffey's Reader, 1836, he wrote:
"The Christian religion is the religion of our country.
From it are derived our prevalent notions of the character of God, the great
moral governor of the universe. On its doctrines are founded the
peculiarities of our free institutions."
In McGuffey's 5th Eclectic Reader, 1879, is a lesson by
William Ellery Channing, Religion The Only Basis of Society:
"How powerless conscience would become without the
belief of a God... Erase all thought and fear of God from a community, and
selfishness and sensuality would absorb the whole man. Appetite, knowing
no restraint...would trample in scorn on the restraints of human laws...
Man would become...what the theory of atheism declares him to be-a companion
for brutes."
Note: The above is a testimony to the power of the Biblical foundations of America. But the Christian religion was already on the slide during the 1800's, because Christians did not know how to deal with secularism, the Enlightenment, science, or Darwinism. Then we gave our children over to government-controlled education -- the second worst disaster of Christians in the last 500 years (the first being our belief that reason and revelation were opposed...). But at some level, we still believed the Gospel. God will restore our Christian civilization if we again become intelligently obedient to Him, part of which means recovery of our intellectual credibility.
February
16
"From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of
Tripoli" begins the Marine anthem, which recalls when the Muslim Barbary Pirates
of North Africa committed terrorist acts on American ships, selling crews into
slavery.
Tripoli demanded tribute and a treaty was attempted, but it was not honored as
the Koran discouraged peace with "infidels":
"Infidels are those who declare 'God is Christ, the son of Mary'"-Surah 5:17;
"Infidels are those that say 'God is one of three in a Trinity'"-Surah 5:73;
"Infidels are your sworn enemies"-Sura 4:101;
"Make war on the infidels"-Sura 9:123;
"When you meet the infidel in the battlefield strike off their heads"-Surah
47:4;
"Muhammad is Allah's apostle, those who follow him are ruthless to the
infidels"-Surah 48:29;
"Take neither Jews nor Christians for your friends"-Surah 5:51.
President Thomas Jefferson finally sent
in the Marines, and in what Admiral
Horatio Nelson described as the "most bold and daring act of the age," Lieut.
Stephen Decatur sailed his ship, the Intrepid, into the pirate harbor on the
night of February 16, 1804, burned a captured ship and escaped unharmed amidst
fierce enemy fire.
The Marines then captured Tripoli and forced the Pasha to make peace on U.S.
terms.
Note: that's quite a tribute, coming from the British admiral who defeated
Napoleon's navy... and at a time when the Brits and the Americans were not
exactly on friendly terms.
2005
January 17
Mel Gibson's movie "The Patriot" depicted the Battle of Cowpens, January 17,
1781, where American General Daniel Morgan had a line of militia fire into
British General Cornwallis' and Colonel Tarleton's dragoons, regulars,
Highlanders and loyalists.
When the Americans retreated, the British pursued, only to be surprised by
American Continentals waiting over the hill.
In the confusion, the Americans killed 110 British and captured 830.
Cornwallis regrouped and chased the Americans, arriving at the Catawba River
just two hours after the Americans had crossed, but a storm made the river
impassable.
He nearly overtook them again as they were getting out of the Yadkin River, but
a torrential rain flooded the river.
This happened a third time at the Dan River.
British Commander Henry Clinton wrote: "Here the royal army was again stopped
by a sudden rise of the waters, which had only just fallen (almost miraculously)
to let the enemy over."
In March of 1781, General Washington wrote to William Gordon:
"We have, as you very justly observe, abundant reasons to thank
Providence for its many favorable interpositions
in our behalf. It has at times been my only dependence, for all other resources
seemed to have failed us."
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