Founding Fathers and our Declaration of Independence

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Gen George Patton said "we should grab the enemy by the nose and kick him in the ass".

 

Everyone needs to grab his/her Senators and Representatives by the nose and kick him/her hard in the ass..

Go to www.WallBuilders.com and learn more about the founding fathers and the people that fought to make this a great country and what their intent was.  I learned much from Wall Builders:

The wall of separation phrase was used by Thomas Jefferson in a letter of response to a letter from the Danbury Baptist Leaders. This entire reading is freely emailable and historic.

Letter from the Danbury Baptists: The address of the Danbury Baptist Association in the State of Connecticut, assembled October 7, 1801. To Thomas Jefferson, Esq., President of the United States of America Sir, Among the many millions in America and Europe who rejoice in your election to office, we embrace the first opportunity which we have enjoyed in our collective capacity, since your inauguration , to express our great satisfaction in your appointment to the Chief Magistracy in the Unite States. And though the mode of expression may be less courtly and pompous than what many others clothe their addresses with, we beg you, sir, to believe, that none is more sincere. Our sentiments are uniformly on the side of religious liberty: that Religion is at all times and places a matter between God and individuals, that no man ought to suffer in name, person, or effects on account of his religious opinions, [and] that the legitimate power of civil government extends no further than to punish the man who works ill to his neighbor. But sir, our constitution of government is not specific. Our ancient charter, together with the laws made coincident therewith, were adapted as the basis of our government at the time of our revolution. And such has been our laws and usages, and such still are, [so] that Religion is considered as the first object of Legislation, and therefore what religious privileges we enjoy (as a minor part of the State) we enjoy as favors granted, and not as inalienable rights. And these favors we receive at the expense of such degrading acknowledgments, as are inconsistent with the rights of freemen. It is not to be wondered at therefore, if those who seek after power and gain, under the pretense of government and Religion, should reproach their fellow men, [or] should reproach their Chief Magistrate, as an enemy of religion, law, and good order, because he will not, dares not, assume the prerogative of Jehovah and make laws to govern the Kingdom of Christ. Sir, we are sensible that the President of the United States is not the National Legislator and also sensible that the national government cannot destroy the laws of each State, but our hopes are strong that the sentiment of our beloved President, which have had such genial effect already, like the radiant beams of the sun, will shine and prevail through all these States--and all the world--until hierarchy and tyranny be destroyed from the earth. Sir, when we reflect on your past services, and see a glow of philanthropy and goodwill shining forth in a course of more than thirty years, we have reason to believe that America's God has raised you up to fill the Chair of State out of that goodwill which he bears to the millions which you preside over. May God strengthen you for the arduous task which providence and the voice of the people have called you--to sustain and support you and your Administration against all the predetermined opposition of those who wish to rise to wealth and importance on the poverty and subjection of the people. And may the Lord preserve you safe from every evil and bring you at last to his Heavenly Kingdom through Jesus Christ our Glorious Mediator. Signed in behalf of the Association, Neh,h Dodge } Eph'm Robbins } The Committee Stephen S. Nelson } *A cite for this letter could read: Letter of Oct. 7, 1801 from Danbury (CT) Baptist Assoc. to Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Wash. D.C. President Jefferson's Reply: Messrs. Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, and Stephen s. Nelson A Committee of the Danbury Baptist Association, in the State of Connecticut. Washington, January 1, 1802 Gentlemen,--The affectionate sentiment of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist Association, give me the highest satisfaction. My duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, and in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing. Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature would "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties. I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common Father and Creator of man, and tender you for yourselves and your religious association, assurances of my high respect and esteem. Th Jefferson Jan. 1. 1802 * A cite for this letter could read: Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert E. Bergh, ed. (Washington, D. C.: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States, 1904), Vol. XVI, pp. 281-282.

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The majority of military officers during the Revolutionary War were ministers who recruited volunteers from their churches. The British called them the Black Regiments because they also wore black pulpit robes.

Many of the first federal Congress were ministers of churches who had served in the Continental Army as Officers.

When the British marched on Williamsburg, VA, men in local congregations armed and grouped and counterattacked from both sides of the roads.  These church folk fought the British back to their ships and retook Williamsburg.  They later sent a bill to the King for the damages done by the British Army.

Many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were, in fact, ministers with congregations.

A signer of the Bill of Rights was Dr. (Reverend) Muhlenberg who became the first Speaker of the House.  His brother, Reverend John Peter Muhlenberg is memorialized in the capitol rotunda, who was a Major General in the Continental Army under George Washington and a framer of the Bill of Rights. He recruited 300 men from his congregation to fight using Ecclesiates 3--"a time to fight" when he took off his pulpit robe and revealed his Continental Army Uniform. 

The Capitol building was also used as a church, holding regular church services where Congress attended, and it is recorded in the Congressional writings mandated by law.

The King James Version of the Bible was declared the Bible to be used by all colonists because it deleted narratives concerning individual God-given rights, Godly governance and laws, and other issues, which later became named in the Bill of Rights.  After the Revolutionary War, Congress printed Bibles with the narratives restored for use in the Public Schools.  This new version restored the narratives and was the work of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. 

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In 1892 Congress declared the United States of America to be a Christian Nation.

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Bethany Bay, thank you very much.  It is so refreshing when we can actually read how those who were thinking citizens not far removed from the years of the American Revolution understood the form of our Constitutionalism and Republicanism.  Also, how both so closely reflected the form of God's Heavenly Kingdom's governance.

It is only right that we be reminded  how persons of that era so cherished true individualism and true individual liberties and freedoms.  They were a people who were not in the least bit confused as to what our founders had created and expected to be passed on to their posterity. 

It would be very difficult to not notice how the members of that genuinely concerned group of Chrisitans opened their cordial letter to President Jefferson with a recognition of how our nation and our President impacts not just some united states within America but Europe as well.  People of those times knew what it meant to have a global view of humanity.

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Thomas Jefferson was reassuring the Danbury Baptist leaders that nothing would be changing since he was now President and that the original intent of the federal congress would be preserved under his administration and future administrations.  That no "Church of England" would be forced on them, was to reassure them that their freedom of worship was secure.  Did you know that while the Constitution was being written, Thomas Jefferson was at his post in France?

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I ... recommend my Soul to that Almighty Being who gave it, and my body I commit to the dust, relying upon the merits of Jesus Christ for a pardon of all my sins.

Will of Samuel Adams

On the mercy of my Redeemer I rely for salvation and on His merits; not on the works I have done in obedience to His precepts.

From an autographed letter in our possession written by Charles Carroll to Charles W. Wharton, Esq., on September 27, 1825, from Doughoragen, Maryland.

I John Hancock, . . . being advanced in years and being of perfect mind and memory-thanks be given to God-therefore calling to mind the mortality of my body and knowing it is appointed for all men once to die [Hebrews 9:27], do make and ordain this my last will and testament…Principally and first of all, I give and recommend my soul into the hands of God that gave it: and my body I recommend to the earth . . . nothing doubting but at the general resurrection I shall receive the same again by the mercy and power of God . . .

Will of John Hancock

With an awful reverence to the great Almighty God, Creator of all mankind, I, John Morton . . . being sick and weak in body but of sound mind and memory-thanks be given to Almighty God for the same, for all His mercies and favors-and considering the certainty of death and the uncertainty of the times thereof, do, for the settling of such temporal estate as it hath pleased God to bless me with in this life . . .

Will of John Morton

I desire to bless and praise the name of God most high for appointing me my birth in a land of Gospel Light where the glorious tidings of a Savior and of pardon and salvation through Him have been continually sounding in mine ears.

Robert Treat Paine, The Papers of Robert Treat Paine, Stephen Riley and Edward Hanson, editors (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1992), Vol. I, p. 48, March/April, 1749.

[W]hen I consider that this instrument contemplates my departure from this life and all earthly enjoyments and my entrance on another state of existence, I am constrained to express my adoration of the Supreme Being, the Author of my existence, in full belief of his providential goodness and his forgiving mercy revealed to the world through Jesus Christ, through whom I hope for never ending happiness in a future state, acknowledging with grateful remembrance the happiness I have enjoyed in my passage through a long life . . .

Will of Robert Treat Paine

My only hope of salvation is in the infinite, transcendent love of God manifested to the world by the death of His Son upon the cross. Nothing but His blood will wash away my sins. I rely exclusively upon it. Come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly!

I believe that there is one only living and true God, existing in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. . . . that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are a revelation from God. . . . that God did send His own Son to become man, die in the room and stead of sinners, and thus to lay a foundation for the offer of pardon and salvation to all mankind so as all may be saved who are willing to accept the Gospel offer.

Lewis Henry Boutell, The Life of Roger Sherman (Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Company,

Richard Stockton
Signer of the Declaration of Independence

I think it proper here not only to subscribe to the entire belief of the great and leading doctrines of the Christian religion, such as the Being of God, the universal defection and depravity of human nature, the divinity of the person and the completeness of the redemption purchased by the blessed Savior, the necessity of the operations of the Divine Spirit, of Divine Faith, accompanied with an habitual virtuous life, and the universality of the divine Providence, but also . . . that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom; that the way of life held up in the Christian system is calculated for the most complete happiness that can be enjoyed in this mortal state; that all occasions of vice and immorality is injurious either immediately or consequentially, even in this life; that as Almighty God hath not been pleased in the Holy Scriptures to prescribe any precise mode in which He is to be publicly worshipped, all contention about it generally arises from want of knowledge or want of virtue.

John Witherspoon
Signer of the Declaration of Independence

[I entreat] you in the most earnest manner to believe in Jesus Christ, for there is no salvation in any other [Acts 4:12]. . . . [I]f you are not reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, if you are not clothed with the spotless robe of His righteousness, you must forever perish.

John Witherspoon, The Works of John Witherspoon (Edinburgh: J. Ogle, 1815), Vol. V, pp

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All I can say is, Mighty Powerful language.  Those were truly the good old days.  Real men, real individualism, real rights, real liberties, and real freedoms.  More, real love for the REAL God of the universe. 

Honestly, I am now inclined to have my will redrafted so it includes such language.

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Here's the famous so-called atheist Thomas Paine:

Thomas Paine on "The Study of God"
Delivered in Paris on January 16, 1797, in a
Discourse to the Society of Theophilanthropists

It has been the error of the schools to teach astronomy, and all the other sciences and subjects of natural philosophy, as accomplishments only; whereas they should be taught theologically, or with reference to the Being who is the author of them: for all the principles of science are of Divine origin. Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles. He can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author.

When we examine an extraordinary piece of machinery, an astonishing pile of architecture, a well executed statue or a highly finished painting where life and action are imitated, and habit only prevents our mistaking a surface of light and shade for cubical solidity, our ideas are naturally led to think of the extensive genius and talents of the artist. When we study the elements of geometry, we think of Euclid. When we speak of gravitation, we think of Newton. How then is it, that when we study the works of God in the creation, we stop short, and do not think of God? It is from the error of the schools in having taught those subjects as accomplishments only, and thereby separated the study of them from the Being who is the author of them. . . .

The evil that has resulted from the error of the schools in teaching natural philosophy as an accomplishment only has been that of generating in the pupils a species of atheism. Instead of looking through the works of the creation to the Creator himself, they stop short, and employ the knowledge they acquire to create doubts of His existence. They labor with studied ingenuity to ascribe everything they behold to innate properties of matter; and jump over all the rest, by saying that matter is eternal.

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Exodus 18:21 is the basis of the concept of Republicanism used in framing the Constitution.  Furthermore, 34% of the quotes used by the Founding Fathers for governing concepts included in the Constitution came from the Bible.  The balance of the quotes used are much smaller percentages from other sources making the Bible the principle source.

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Finally, some one posted something that is real and truthful about the founding of this country.

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