VI. A theonomy is compatible with what our American forefathers envisioned.

The Christian heritage of the USA:

* In 1776, 11 of the 13 colonies required that one had to be a Christian to be eligible to run for political office.

* In 1777, the Continental Congress voted to spend $300,000 to purchase Bibles for distribution in the nation.

* Our Declaration of Independence declares, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights... (We appeal) to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions..."

* 94% of the writings of the founding fathers contained quotations from Scriptures

* The state constitutions of all 50 states mention God.

* The National Anthem written by Francis Scott Key (who was also director of the American Bible Society) says: "This be our motto - 'In God Is Our Trust'."

* Our national motto, "In God We Trust," is inscribed on our coins and currency.

* Our Pledge of Allegiance declares that we are "...one nation, under God..."

* The famous "Liberty Bell" has part of Leviticus 25:10 inscribed on it: "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."

* Part of the Scripture Proverbs 14:34 is inscribed above the L.A. city hall door: "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” 

* An image of Moses carrying the tablets of God's Law faces the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

* The U.S. Congress begins every session with prayer.

* The entering President takes his courtroom oath of office with his right hand on the Holy Bible, and concludes his vow "So help me God."

Quotes from the American forefathers

* First President, George Washington, said, "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible." 

* In his inaugural address in 1789, he said, "The propitious smiles of heaven can never be expected on a             nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which heaven itself has ordained."

* John Adams, first Vice President, Second President, and influential in drafting the Constitution, wrote in 1798: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

* In 1776, Adams said,  "Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand.  The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People in a greater Measure than they have it now, they may change their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty." 

* Adams said in 1813, "The general principles, on which the Fathers achieved independence, were the only Principles in which that beautiful Assembly of young Gentlemen could Unite... And what were these Principles?  I answer, the general Principles of Christianity." 

* James Madison, known as the "Chief Architect of the Constitution", and the fourth President of the United States, said, "We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it.  We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern outselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

* Our sixth President, John Quincy Adams, in 1837, said:  "Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the Foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth?  That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity?"

* At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin said, "I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in the Assembly every morning."

* Franklin also said, "God governs in the affairs of men.  And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?"

* The Christian writings and pronouncements of our 16th President Abraham Lincoln would fill an entire book.  He said this when he assumed leadership over a nation on the brink of civil war:  "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown.  But we have forgotten God.  We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.  Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.  It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness." - 1863

Documents of the First Settlers of the Original Colonies

* FIRST CHARTER OF VIRGINIA (1606): "We, greatly commending, and graciously accepting of, their Desires for the Furtherance of so noble a Work, which may, by the Providence of Almighty God, herafter tend to the Glory of His Divine Majesty, in propagating of Christian Religion to such people, as yet live in Darkness and miserable ignorance of the true Knowledge and Worship of God, and may in time bring the Infidels and Savages, living in those Parts, to human Civility..."

* MAYFLOWER COMPACT (1620): "In the name of God, Amen. ... Haveing undertaken for the glorie of God, and advancements of the Christian faith, and honour of our king and countrie, a voyage to plant the first colonie in the Northerne parts of Virginia..."

* FIRST CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS (1629): "...our said People... may be soe religiously, paceablie, and civilly governed, as their good Life and orderlie Conversacon, maie wynn and incite the Natives of Country, to the Knowledge and Obedience of the onlie true God and Savior of Mankinde, and the Christian fayth, which is our Royal intencon, and the Adventurers free Profession, is the principall Ende of this Plantacion..."

* THE CHARTER OF MARYLAND (1632): "...being animated with a laudable, and pious Zeal for the extending of the Christian Religioin, and also the Territories of our Empire..."

* FUNDAMENTAL ORDERS OF CONNECTICUT (1639): "...we ...enter into Combination together, to mayntayne and presearve the liberty and purity of the gospell of our Lord Jesus which we now professe, as also the disciplyne of the Churches, which according to the truth of the said gospell is now practised among us..."

* NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERATION (1643): "Whereas we all came into these parts of America with one and the same end and aim, namely, to advance the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and the enjoy the liberties of the Gospel in purity with peace..."

* PENNSYLVANIA CHARTER OF PRIVELEGES (1701): "...all persons who also profess to believe in Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World, shall be capable  (notwithstanding their other Persuasions and Practices in Point of conscience and Religion) to serve this government in any capacity, both legislatively and executely..."

Early State Constitutions

* DELAWARE (1776): "I, ______, do profess faith in God the Father in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be given by divine inspiration." (oath REQUIRED of ALL officers in the state)

* PENNSYLVANIA (1776): "I do believe in one God, the creator and governor of the universe, and rewarder of the good and punisher of the wicked.  And I do acknowledge the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be given by divine inspiration." (MUST DECLARE to serve in State Legislature)

* NEW JERSEY (1776) - ALL members of Legislature were REQUIRED to have "a belief in the faith of any Protestant sect."

* MISSISSIPPI (1832): "No person who denies the being of a God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this state."

* MARYLAND (1867): "...nor shall any person, otherwise competent, be deemed incompetent as a witness or juror on account of his religious belief: provided, he believes in the existence of God, and that under his dispensation, such person will be held morally accountable for his acts, and be rewarded or punished therefor, either in this world or the world to come.  That no religious test ought ever to be required as a qualification for any office or profit or trust in this state other than a declaration of belief in the existence of God."

* MASSACHUSETTS (1780): "It is the right as well as the duty of all men in society publicly, and at stated seasons, to worship the Supreme Being... the legislature shall, from time to time, authorize and require, the several towns... to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the institution of the public worship of God and for the support andmaintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion, and morality..."

* NEW HAMPSHIRE (1792) - ALL Senators and Representatives were REQUIRED to be of the "Protestant religion."

* NORTH CAROLINA (1776): "That no person who shall deny the being of God... nor the divine authority either of the Old or New Testaments, or who shall hold religious principles incompatible with the freedom and safety of the State, shall be capable of holding any office or place of trust or profit in the civil department within this state."

* CONNECTICUT, SOUTH CAROLINA, & GEORGIA - ALL Legislators were REQUIRED to be Protestants.

Court Decisions

1. United States Supreme Court:

* 1844: Christianity is part of our common law in "this qualified sense, that its divine origin and truth are admitted, and therefore it is not to be maliciously and openly reviled and blasphemed against, to the annoyance of believers or the injury of the public."

* 1892: (citing other cases) "Christianity, general Christianity is, and always has been part of the common law of Pennsylvania" ... "The people of this state (New York), in common with the people of this country, profess the general doctrines of Christianity, as the rule of their faith and practice... Nor are we bound, by any expressions in the Constitution as some have strangely supposed, either not to punish at all, or to punish indiscriminately, the like attacks on the religion of Mohamet or of the Grand Lama; and for this plain reason, that the case assumes that we are a Christian people, and the morality of the country is deeply ingrafted upon Christianity, and not upon the doctrines or worship of those imposters." ...

"This is a Christian nation."

* 1930: "We are a Christian nation."

2. Court of Appeals

* 1908: "Our nation and the States composing it are Christian."

3. New York Supreme Court

* 1811: "Christianity, in its enlarged sense, as a religion revealed and taught in the Bible, is not unknown to our law."

4. Pennsylvania Supreme Court

* 1822: (concerning blasphemy law) "that whosever shall wilfully, premeditatedly, and despitefully blaspheme and speak loosely and profanely of Almighty God, Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or the Scriptures of Truth, and is legally convicted thereof, shall forfeit and pay the sum of ten pounds."

* 1855: "We are a Christian people."

5. Virginia Supreme Court

* 1922: "We are a Christian people, and the morality of the country is deeply ingrafted upon Christianity."

6. Kentucky Supreme Court

* 1869: "The Bible and the constitution harmonize in aim and in spirit; and religion and politics should go hand in hand together..."

6. Ohio Supreme Court

* 1855: "...it is a Christian country, and that its constitution and laws are made by a Christian people."

7. North Carolina Supreme Court

            * 1860: "Ours is a Christian country."

Quotes from Supreme Court Justices

1. First Chief Justice, Honorable John Jay, 1816: "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty... of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."

2. Justice David Brewer, 1892, writing for majority in case of the Church of the Holy Trinity vs. the U.S.: "This is a religious people.  This is historically true.  From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation... We find everywhere a clear recognition of the same truth... These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation."

3. Earl Warren, in 1954 speech: "I believe no one can read the history of our country without realizing that the Good Book and the spirit of the Savior have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses... Whether we look to the first Charter of Virginia... or to the Charter of New England... or to the Charter of Massachusetts Bay... or to the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut... the same objective is present... a Christian land governed by knowledge our forefathers had of the Bible and their belief in it; freedom of belief, of expression, of assembly, of petition, the dignity of the individual, the sanctity of the home, equal justice under law, and the reservation of powers to the people... I like to believe we are living today in the Spirit of Christian religion.  I also like to believe that as long as we do, no great harm can come to our country."
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