Education
There are reasons for America’s greatness. This nation did not rise accidentally out of the wilderness into the industrial, political, and military giant that it became. Ignorance of our history and foundation as a nation will certainly cripple us as we try to go forward. The protection of our future may very well depend on our understanding of the past.
Woodrow Wilson (the 28th President of the United States) said, “A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today… We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about.”
Americans have historically been a people of faith. We have recognized our Creator from our earliest days. This faith in God and God’s Word has influenced our constitution, our laws and has shaped our national conscience for over 230 years.
We were formed without apology as a “Christian Nation” by those who did not want a state religion or state church, but did want a nation guided by the truths of Christianity. It is truly amazing how our forefathers recognized and loved God, and implored Him to bless, guide, and protect this nation.
Consider the beliefs of our forefathers in their own words. These beliefs formed the foundation for the most amazing and freest nation this world has ever known. We cannot, as Americans, afford to forget.
“It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.” – George Washington, 1752
“This is the Book. I have read the Bible through many times, and now make it a practice to read it through once every year… It is a book of all others for lawyers, as well as divines; and I pity the man who cannot find in it a rich supply of thought and of rules for conduct. It fits man for life – it prepares him for death.” – Daniel Webster, 1843
“The Bible is the Chief moral cause of all that is good, and the best corrector of all that is evil, in human society; the best book for regulating the temporal concerns of men, and the only book that can serve as an infallible guide to future felicity… It is extremely important to our nation, in a political as well as religious view, that all possible authority and influence should be given to the Scriptures, for these furnish the best principles of civil liberty, and the most effectual support of republican government. The principles of genuine liberty, and of wise laws and administrations, are to be drawn from the Bible and sustained by its authority. The man, therefore, who weakens or destroys the divine authority of that Book may be accessory to all the public disorders which society is doomed to suffer….” – Noah Webster, 1833
“The first and almost the only Book deserving of universal attention is the Bible. I speak as a man of the world to men of the world; and I say to you, Search the Scriptures! The Bible is the book of all others, to be read at all ages, and in all conditions of human life; not to be read once or twice or thrice through, and then laid aside, but to be read in small portions of one or two chapters every day. In what light soever we regard the Bible, it is an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue.” – John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States
“I believe the Bible is the best gift God has given to man. All the good Saviour gave to the world was communicated through this Book. But for this Book we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man’s welfare…are to be found portrayed in it.” – Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States
“I have examined all religions my busy life would allow; and the result is that the Bible is the best Book in the world. It contains more philosophy than all the libraries I have seen.” – John Adams, 2nd President of the United States
“I yield Thee humble and hearty thanks, that Thou hast preserved me from the dangers of the night past and brought me to the light of this day. Let my heart therefore Gracious God be so affected with the glory and majesty of it, that I may not do mine own works but wait on Thee, and since Thou are a God of pure eyes, and will be sanctified in all who draw nearer to Thee, who dost not regard the sacrifice of fools, nor hear sinners who tread in Thy courts, pardon I beseech Thee, my sins, remove them from Thy presence, as far as the east is from the west, and accept me for the merits of Thy Son Jesus Christ.” – George Washington, 1st President of the United States
“I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seem insufficient for that day.” – Abraham Lincoln
“It is my conviction that our government rests on religion; that religion is the source from which we derive our reverence for truth and justice, for equality and liberty, and for the rights of mankind. If the bonds of our religious convictions become loosened the guaranties which have been erected for the protection of life and liberty and all the vast body of rights that lies between, are gone. America was born in a revival of religion.” – Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States
“If thou wouldst rule well, thou must rule for God, and to do that, thou must be ruled by Him. Those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.” – William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania
“First, the doctrines of Jesus are simple and tend to the happiness of man. Second, there is only one God, and He is all perfect. Third, there is a future state of rewards and punishment. Four, to love God with all the heart and thy neighbor as thyself is the sum of all. Had there never been a commentator there never would have been an infidel. I have little doubt that the whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our Creator, and, I hope, to the pure doctrines of Jesus also. If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. Among the most inestimable of our blessings is that…of liberty to worship our Creator in the way we think most agreeable in His will; a liberty deemed in other countries incompatible with good government and yet proved by our experience to be its best support.” – Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States
“Christianity is the only true and perfect religion, and that in proportion as mankind adopts its principles and obeys its precepts, they will be wise and happy.” – Benjamin Rush, 1798
“No nation has ever yet existed or been governed without religion. Nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has ever been given to man and I as chief Magistrate of this nation am bound to give it the sanction of my example.” – Thomas Jefferson
“Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all the blessings, which flow from them, must fall with them.” – Jedediah Morse, 1799
“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 this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.” – Patrick Henry
