Sunday — June 26, 2022
A Shining City
The Founders wrote the Constitution, not the Apostles.
What influenced the Founders?
1. Charles Montesquieu = 8.3%
2. William Blackstone = 7.9%
3. John Locke 2.9%
Two Treatises of Government
1500 + Scripture references
4. The Bible 34%
They wrote the Bill of Rights;
not the Ten Commandments.
Daniel St. Thomas Jenifer
Signer of the Constitution
In the name of God, Amen. I, Daniel of Saint Thomas Jenifer . . . of dispossing mind and memory, commend my soul to my blessed Redeemer. . .
William Cushing
First Associate Justice Appointed
by George Washington to the Supreme Court
Sensible of my mortality, but being of sound mind, after recommending my soul to Almighty God through the merits of my Redeemer and my body to the earth . . .
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Signer of the Constitution
To the eternal, immutable, and only true God be all honor and glory, now and forever, Amen!. . .
Roger Sherman
Signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution
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.
John Langdon
Signer of the Constitution
In the name of God, Amen. I, John Langdon, . . . considering the uncertainty of life and that it is appointed unto all men once to die [Hebrews 9:27], do make, ordain and publish this my last will and testament in manner following, that is to say-First: I commend my soul to the infinite mercies of God in Christ Jesus, the beloved Son of the Father, who died and rose again that He might be the Lord of the dead and of the living . . . professing to believe and hope in the joyful Scripture doctrine of a resurrection to eternal life . . .
Freedom of Religion.
NOT Control by Religion
Letter from the Danbury Baptists:
October 7, 1801
1. Religion is personal between the individual and God
2. People should not be discrimainated against…
3. Government = criminals.
4. The Constitution was to vague in the matter of government infringement in religion.
5. Jeffferson could not legislate.
6. Fed can’t usurp State Rights
President Jefferson’s Reply:
January 1, 1802
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.
John Adams
Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Second President of the United States
[I]t 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.
[W]e have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . . Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If “Thou shalt not covet,” and “Thou shalt not steal,” were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society, before it can be civilized or made free.
They created a Democracy,
not a Theocracy
Democracy Republic Oligarchy
People Law Elite
Christianity is not a political party
