National Center for Life and Liberty
Attorney David Gibbs III
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Published by the National Center for Life and Liberty
www.NCLL.org
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INTRODUCTION
America’s government was intended by our founders to rest on the stable
support of a three-legged stool. One of America’s first laws as a new nation,
passed in Congress at the exact time the Bill of Rights was being enacted,
identified these three legs as religion, morality, and knowledge (education).
This law, the Northwest Ordinance of 1789, was adopted to assist in the
formation of new states and territories in the west. It declared that “religion,
morality, and knowledge” were “necessary to good government and the
happiness of mankind.”
In George Washington’s Farewell Address, our nation’s first president
warned citizens of the importance of preserving those same three legs of
the stool when he alerted them to “with caution indulge the supposition
that morality can be maintained without religion…. Promote, then, as
an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of
knowledge.” For two centuries, our laws, our executive officials, and our
courts kept the three legs strong. In the last several decades, however, those
legs have started to wobble. Since then, the stool on which our government
rests has become ever more unstable. It is beginning to look as though that
stool might ultimately collapse if not soon repaired.
Today, in the face of a revisionist history that seeks to hide the truth of
America’s Christian heritage, we need to be reminded that the vast majority
of those who formed our nation’s government were Bible-believing
Christians. We need to be reminded that these men never intended that
religious freedom only be limited to the freedom to believe as one wishes;
rather, they intended that America would be a land where the freedom of
religion meant the freedom to exercise, or live out, what they believed, free
from governmental tyranny. We need to be reminded that they knew their
very lives and the freedom and future of this new nation depended solely
on the benevolent hand of Almighty God.
This month’s free resource from the NCLL, “One Nation Under God,”
provides just a glimpse into the profound influence Christianity had in the
very early years of this nation. Being reminded of these facts will help us
confidently work to restabilize our nation’s three main supports—religion,
morality, and education—no one of which can continue to stand without
the other two.
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One Nation Under God
Fact: Christopher Columbus, who
opened up the New World to the Old, was
motivated by his Christian faith to make
his difficult voyage.
Today, Christopher Columbus (1451–1506)
is a man both praised and vilified, honored
and ridiculed. Was he a visionary explorer
or just an opportunistic exploiter? We
must be careful to avoid both extremes in
Christopher
our assessment. Some today completely
Columbus
denigrate Columbus for all the shameful
deeds of those who followed him. Others
exalt him as if he were a totally noble character. In reality, Columbus was
a flawed man, but he was also a visionary. Most importantly, he had a
very strong commitment to the Christian faith. Any reasonable study of
his life shows that he was a man who loved the Scriptures and found his
motivation in them. Matthew 24:14 was a very important verse to him:
“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a
witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”
Dr. John Eidsmoe, in his book, Columbus and Cortez, gives us one
explanation for the recent revisionist political movement that is attempting
to defame this great seafaring visionary. He says: “[S]ome are determined
to remake America into a secular or pagan society. To do so, they must
move this nation away from its Christian foundations.” If we remove
Christianity and its impact on Columbus, we must then remove the man
entirely, because without his faith and his belief in God’s call upon his life,
it is unlikely he would ever have attempted to sail to the West.
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Mayflower
Compact
Fact: In 1620, the Pilgrims drafted our
nation’s first self-governing document, the
Mayflower Compact, which clearly stated
that they had come to the New World to
glorify God and to advance the Christian
faith.
This compact became a forerunner to the
U.S. Constitution as the first document
providing a system that would govern the new colonists. Written over 100
years before the Declaration of Independence, the Mayflower Compact—a
governing document—explains that they came to this country for the glory
of God, to advance the Christian faith, and that this agreement was made
in the presence of God:
Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the
Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to
plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these
presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one
another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body
politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance
of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and
frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions,
and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and
convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise
all due submission and obedience.
—Mayflower Compact (Modern Version)
Fact: Various settlements throughout the
early colonies provided refuge for religious
dissidents of all faiths.
Wherever the story of freedom is told,
Rhode Island’s founder, Roger Williams
(1603–1683), must be remembered. He was
Roger Williams’
a true pioneer for Christian liberty. Today,
Return
Williams is sometimes represented in
American history textbooks as a liberal who rejected Puritan doctrine, a
virtual unbeliever. That image is totally false. Roger Williams was a man
completely shaped by his faith in Jesus Christ.
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Rhode Island, the legacy of freedom Roger Williams created, was a product
of Puritanism. If Puritanism means being strict about what you believe,
then Roger Williams “out-Puritaned” the Puritans. It was Roger Williams’
own strong biblical views that set him at odds with the Puritan authorities
in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Because his views differed in many ways
from those of the political leaders of Massachusetts, he was banished from
the colony. To avoid deportation back to England, he chose to flee from
Massachusetts to an area outside the political control of the Puritans.
Williams purchased land from the local Indians and immediately began
welcoming settlers of all religious persuasions to Rhode Island, making
it a haven of religious freedom for others who did not conform to the
prevailing views of their colonies.
While some in the Puritan colonies saw Williams as merely a contrarian—
disagreeing just for the sake of disagreeing—God used him to help bring
about a higher level of freedom in the United States. Williams was one
of those rare people for whom conviction and the freedom to exercise
religious conscience was everything. Such people live out their consciences
regardless of the consequences.
Roger Williams did not set out to found a new colony; but like Paul and
Barnabas in the New Testament, he and the Puritans of Massachusetts
had a falling out, one that God used to multiply and expand religious
freedom in America. In the providence of God, Rhode Island became a
settlement dedicated to religious liberty. Its founder was a gifted man with
strong biblical principles and convictions. And its capital is aptly named,
“Providence.”
Harvard in 1776
Fact: The education of America’s settlers
and founders was uniquely Christian
and Bible-based and all America’s early
universities—including Harvard, William
and Mary, Yale, and Princeton—were
biblically Christian in their origins. Rare
was the American of 1776 who did not
know the Scriptures.
The little colonial student in early America marched off to his one-room
schoolhouse and opened his new reading primer, but instead of reading
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about Jane and Spot, our little colonial friend was taught to read using
magnificent truths based on the Word of God. Here is one example:
An Alphabet of Lessons for Youth.
A wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish son is the heaviness
of his mother.
Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure &
trouble therewith.
Come unto Christ, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and he
will give you rest.
When school children learned their ABC’s during the American colonial
era, they also learned sound Bible doctrine. During its first two hundred
years, education in America was thoroughly Christian. Our early founders
agreed with Martin Luther, who had said a century earlier: “[E]very plowboy
should be able to read and interpret the Scripture for himself rather than be
bound to follow the interpretation given to him by his priest, for he himself
is responsible to God for his own soul.”
Virtually every one of the Founders received a thoroughly-Christian
education based on the Bible. In fact, from the very beginning of Christian
settlements in this land, a Christian education was a very important
part of colonial life for the average child, both in his formative years and
later in college, if he attended. A review of biographies of the founders
shows that approximately forty percent of the signers of the Declaration
of Independence (at least twenty-two of fifty-six) were educated in
schools that focused on training for ministry. In fact, eight signers of the
Declaration of Independence graduated from Harvard, which, back then,
required that every student “be plainly instructed that the main end of
his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life,
and to lay up Christ as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and
learning.” The motto adopted by Harvard in 1690, translated from the
Latin, means “truth for Christ and the Church.” Yale University, in its early
years, actually expelled students who persistently denied the authority of
the Scriptures as God’s Word or were found guilty of heresy. Sadly, most
of our institutions of higher learning in America today are saturated with
teachings and philosophies that either utterly denigrate or flat-out deny
the biblical Christianity that was once so prominent at these Ivy League
schools.
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Fact: The Laws of Nature and Nature’s
God are the Basis for the Declaration of
Independence.
In 21st century America, the phrase “the laws
of nature and of nature’s God,” contained in
the Declaration of Independence, is difficult
to understand. As understood by our
Founders, however, the “laws of nature” refer
to God’s unchanging principles established
Declaration of
at Creation, while the “laws of nature’s God”
Independence
refer to the written Word found in the Bible.
In declaring their independence from Great
Britain, our Founders declared their dependence upon Providence (a
favorite word used by the Founders to refer to the God of the Bible). The
authors of the Declaration stated:
WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for
one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected
them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth,
the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and
of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of
Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel
them to the Separation.
We think of “nature” as something physical, such as mountains or trees or
animals. We also think of “nature” as describing the qualities of a person or
thing. However, in the 18th century, when the Declaration of Independence
was written, this phrase, “the laws of nature,” was understood to mean
God’s law, obtained through reason and science, and “the laws of nature’s
God” to refer to His law revealed to mankind in the scriptures of the Old
and New Testaments. America’s Founding Fathers believed that God, as
the author and judge of natural law, formed the basis in creation for our
intuitions of right and wrong. They also believed that God is the primary
context for our ability to reason and to govern ourselves.
In Thomas Jefferson’s climactic closing to the Declaration of Independence,
he appealed “to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of
our intentions.” Only God could validate the moral correctness of their
movement for independence from Great Britain. Only God could grant
them success in their historic endeavor, for this small band of patriots was
challenging the most powerful nation in the world at that time. Jefferson
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reinforced this appeal by ending the Declaration with these words: “And
for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection
of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our
Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”
In 1776, people were very familiar with the term “divine Providence.”
It meant God’s care for His people and His superintending control of
the world. It was divine Providence that would be required to see them
safely through the war. It was their faith in God and their confidence that
independence was morally right and was God’s will for America that gave
these delegates the courage to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their
sacred honor to this cause. They knew that if they were unsuccessful they
would indeed have much to lose.
Conclusion
One month after the tragic 1999 shootings at Columbine High School near
Denver, Colorado, one of the parents whose daughter had been killed went
to Washington, D.C. to testify before Congress. As part of his testimony,
Darrell Scott, father of the slain Rachel Scott, expressed his feelings in
poetry about the current direction of America. Darrell testified:
Your laws ignore our deepest needs
your words are empty air
You’ve stripped away our heritage
you’ve outlawed simple prayer.
Now gunshots fill our classrooms and
precious children die.
You seek for answers everywhere
and ask the question “Why?”
You regulate restrictive laws
through legislative creed
And yet you fail to understand
that God is what we need.
Whole generations of Americans growing up today have absolutely no idea
that the heritage of this country is based on the Bible. Many today have
become convinced that America was founded by a group of separationists
whose primary goal was to create an environment where all public
places like schools, courts, and government buildings were intended to
be “religion-free zones.” Many Americans today live as if they believed
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that the Founding Fathers intended for us to experience both liberty and
licentiousness. Many have been led to believe that our founders would be
comfortable with the moral filth and unrighteousness we now live with
every day in America. Sometimes it seems that any idea may be expressed
in America today except the truth of the Gospel of Jesus.
Sometimes the key to victory in the culture wars lies simply in the
willingness to show up for the battle. As we act, we must remember that
God is in control. Ultimately, He is the one who will decide America’s fate.
We have freedom today in America—but we are losing it, little by little.
And if we continue down the road we are headed, one day it may be lost
forever. God has not given us, or any nation, any guarantees. Our second
president, John Adams, once gave a solemn admonition to us, his posterity,
a word from his heart that must be taken seriously in the 21st century:
“Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present
generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make good use
of it! If you do not, I shall repent it in Heaven that I ever took half the
pains to preserve it!
The National Center for Life and Liberty
PO Box 270548
Flower Mound, TX 75027-0548
Phone: 888.233.NCLL (6255)
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.NCLL.org
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