Our Forefathers

Every one of us, as parents, are concerned about our children, and the Lord has given the responsibility of leadership, training, discipline, education, not to the State, but to the parents.

Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. - Psalm 127:3

If you go back and look at our early American history, it was evident that our schools were to educate our children. Parents were given the responsibility to train their children, when a town reached a certain size, the parents came together and they formed a central location where they could bring their children together and teach them. They were to teach them the Biblical principles and the Christian religion was the basis for education.

In 1864, Benjamin Morris said, "the State must rest upon the basis of religion, and it must preserve this basis or itself must fall. But the support which religion gives to the State will obviously cease the moment religion loses its hold upon the popular mind. The very fact that the State must have religion as a support for its own authority demands that some means for teaching religion should be disregarded in its schools. The State itself, has a more vital interest in discontinued influence of religion over its citizens than in their culture in any other respect."

If a State was going to remain strong, then education must be a priority, but if education was to be a priority, education must be built upon the dictates of the Word of God, the Christian religion. Anytime that you’re reading our quotes from founding fathers in the 1700’s, 1800’s up until the early 1900’s, when they used the word, religion, they’re referring to Christianity. They’re referring to the Christian religion. In their understanding in order to have a strong society, you must have strong education, but in order to have strong education, you must build that education upon Christian principles and the Word of God. Benjamin Rush once said, "the only foundation for a useful education in a republic, is to believe in religion (Christianity). Without this, there could be no virtue, and without virtue, there could be no liberty. And liberty is the only object and life of all republican governments. Without religion, I believe that learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind."

Black Robed Regiment

The black-robed regiment of the Revolutionary Period were men of God who spoke out concerning the issues of the day. The name was given to a name of pastors, especially in colonial America that were very instrumental in America winning their independence. The reason why they were called Black-Robed regiment is because every Sunday they would mount their pulpits wearing their long black clerical robes, that’s how preachers would preach in that day. They would get in their pulpits wearing these long black robes, and  they would preach the Word of God without fear or favor. These men of God would get in their pulpits and they would basically tell people what or who they should and should not vote for, because they understood that in order to have a great government, then you must have great citizens. The way that you have great citizens is by having great people that are rooted in the foundation of the Word of God. Week after week after week, they expounded upon the principles of the proper role of government, the proper role of individuals, all underneath the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ.

John Calvin

John Calvin was one of the great reformers after Martin Luther lit the fire that burned that brazen trail of the Reformation. John Calvin's teachings have greatly influenced the foundation of the United States of America. John Calvin, like Martin Luther, believed in the Creator Redeemer distinction in God. God has broken the life of humans into two spheres, if you will, there is the Creator sphere and that deals with the fact that God created this earth. God created the universe. God created nations, God created men to populate this world, and the nations, and as such, He has also created the laws by which the universe would govern itself, and He has also created laws by which man should govern itself in how we should relate to one another. And they are prescribed to us primarily within the Old Testament. It is given to us throughout the New Testament reiterated by the Lord Jesus Christ. And the state’s role, or the government’s role, is to make sure that there is peace, there is safety, there is protection, there is the propagation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ around the world. That is the proper role of government. They should only be concerned with governing ourselves according to the Word of God.

Martin Luther

The theological and philosophical influence that our founding fathers had when they came to this nation actually goes back to Europe. Martin Luther cast a long shadow upon the United States of America. Even though America was founded a couple of centuries after Martin Luther, Martin Luther’s ideology and his philosophy and his theology greatly influenced the United States of America. He was the one who was granted the favor of beginning the reformation. Martin Luther nailed his thesis to the church in Germany, and whenever he nailed that thesis to the church in Germany, it was in total opposition to the Roman Catholic Church.The fires were lit, and it burned a brazen trail that has become known as the Protestant Reformation. It radically transformed the continent of Europe and radically transformed the British Isles, and that philosophy came over to the United States of America, and it radically transformed this continent, and it is all traced back to a man by the name of Martin Luther.

First Prayer in Congress

The United States of America definitely has Christian foundations. George Washington, father of our country said, the federal government can never be in danger of degenerating into a monarchy, an oligarchy, an aristocracy or any other despotic or oppressive form so long as there shall remain any virtue in the body of the people. And so we see clearly, that our founding fathers came here to the United States of America, and they had a deep appreciation, indeed an abiding knowledge, that their freedom came from God Almighty. And as John Adams said, our Constitution is made for a moral and religious people.

God is the one who gives liberty to us. God is the one who grants freedom to nations. Whenever we understand that, and we pass that knowledge on to another generation, then they tend to hold on to that liberty and that freedom, and they don’t give it up. But the converse is also true, whenever a nation or a people fail to acknowledge and give proper recognition of where our freedoms and liberty come from then they fail to pass that on to another generation. It is only a matter of time before that generation will slip down into oppression and bondage. They will lose their freedoms.