Were the signers of the Declaration of Independence

Were the signers of the Declaration of Independence Christians? By Shad David Sluiter Available for download at www. gospelhall. org

Extreme Views… Quotes from the Founding Fathers have been used to paint strikingly different views of the faith of the men who gave us the United States of America. • Extreme view #1 - “All founding fathers were devout evangelical Christians hoping to establish a nation of priests devoted to His law. ” • Extreme view #2 - “The founding fathers were anti-religious creating a ‘separation of church and state’ keeping us free FROM religion”. • The truth is that 91% of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were from traditional protestant denominations. • Most of these expressed a preference for Christian morals in the new country. • Some talked about a personal saving faith in Christ.

What does the Declaration of Independence say about God? In Congress, July 4, 1776 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 hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the • Do you think that the writers believed in governed, God? • Where do the human rights that we later see in the U. S. Constitution get their authority?

What does the Declaration of Independence say about God? (sections omitted) We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full • Do you think that the Founding Fathers Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish believed their actions were just in God’s Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent eyes? States may of right do. • To what did the Founding Fathers attribute their success in the Revolution? 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.

The Churches of the Signers Religious Affiliation # of signers 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence. All were from some sort of Christian denomination. 91% come from standard protestant churches. • Do you think it is a fair assessment to say that the Founding Fathers were Christians? Episcopalian/Angl ican 57% Congregationalist 23% Presbyterian 21% Quaker 3% Unitarian or Universalist 3%

The Spectrum of “Christian” Signers The arrow below the range of viewpoints among some of the more famous founding fathers. The two statements roughly show range of thought and amount of agreement each of these men on the person of Jesus Christ. Following slides show quotes from these men for more background. Who is Jesus to you? Christ merely had good morals. Christ the Son of God is my Savior. Thomas Jefferson John Adams Patrick Henry George Washington Benjamin Franklin • Do you think the Founding Fathers variety of opinion reflects the opinions found in modern America? John Hancock Alexander Hamilton John Jay Samuel Adams

Samuel Adams • Governor of Massachusetts • Anti-British tax activist • Adams was a deacon of the Congregational Church. • His parents were Puritans. His wife was daughter of the church pastor. Faith and Christian teachings affected his life profoundly.

Samuel Adams State of the Commonwealth (Massachusetts) address in 1795 Let the glory be given to Him, who alone governs all events, while we express the just feelings of respect and gratitude due to all those, whom He honours as instruments to carry into effect his gracious designs.

Samuel Adams The Rights of the Colonists, 1772. II. The Rights of the Colonists as Christians. The right to freedom being the gift of the Almighty. . . The rights of the colonists as Christians. . . may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutions of The Great Law Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament.

Samuel Adams In his Last Will and Testament Principally, and first of all, I resign my soul to the Almighty Being who gave it, and my body I commit to the dust, relying on the merits of Jesus Christ for the pardon of my sins.

John Adams • Two term vice-president under George Washington. • Second President. • A principal writer of the Declaration of Independence along with Thomas Jefferson. • Product of “Enlightenment” philosophy.

John Adams - Unitarians believe in God the Father, denying the divinity of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. They reject the idea of Hell, believing that all people, even unbelievers, will eventually enter heaven. They believe in the validity of all religions, Jesus’ teaching being one of many pathways to God.

John Adams Near the end of his life in a letter to F. A. Van Der Kemp, December 27, 1816 he comments on his life as a Unitarian Christian. Jesus is benevolence personified, an example for all men. . The Christian religion, in its primitive purity and simplicity, I have entertained for more than sixty years. It is the religion of reason, equity, and love; it is the religion of the head and the heart

John Adams, Second President Letter to Thomas Jefferson on June 28, 1813 The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were. . the general principles of Christianity and the general principles of English and American liberty. . . I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God; and that those principles of liberty are as unalterable as human nature.

Frequently partially quoted is Adam’s line, "This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!" But, here's the complete quotation in an April 19, 1817, letter to Thomas Jefferson: Twenty times in the course of my late reading have I been on the point of breaking out, "This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion at all!!!" But in this exclamation I would have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly. Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean hell.

Benjamin Franklin In his autobiography, calls himself "a thorough Deist. " "I began to be regarded, by pious souls, with horror, either as an apostate or an Atheist. ” A deist believes in God, but rejects revelation (the Bible), organized religion, miracles, and knowing God through Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

Benjamin Franklin Speech to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on June 28, 1787 I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth that God governs in the affairs of men. . . If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground unseen by him, is it probable an empire could arise without his aid? I firmly believe this, and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building not better

Benjamin Franklin Letter to Dr. Stiles, the President of Yale, March 9, 1790 I believe in one God, the Creator of the universe; that he governs it by his Providence; that be ought to be worshipped; that the most acceptable service we can render to him is doing good to his other children; that the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points of all sound religion, and I regard them as you do, in whatever sect I meet with them. As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think his system of morals and his religion, as be left them to us, the best the world ever saw, or is like to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some doubts as to

Alexander Hamilton • • • Chief of staff to General Washington Writer of many of the Federalist Papers Signed the Constitution Episcopalian As First Secretary of the Treasury established the principles of U. S. government financial systems still used today.

Alexander Hamilton April 1802 letter to James A. Bayard, Hamilton proposed The Christian Constitutional Society: Let an association be formed to be denominated "The Christian Constitutional Society, " its object to be first: The support of the Christian religion. second: The support of the United States.

Alexander Hamilton was shot and killed by Aaron Burr in a duel on July 12, 1804. His last dying words reportedly were: I have a tender reliance on the mercy of the Almighty, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a sinner. I look to Him for mercy; pray for me.

Patrick Henry “Give me liberty or give me death” speech on March 23, 1775 became one of the most famous speeches in American history. The first governor of Virginia.

Patrick Henry Though widely sited, the following comments cannot be found in any of the speeches or correspondence that survives today. "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!"

Patrick Henry A letter to his daughter August 20, 1796 Amongst other strange things said of me, I hear it is said by the deists that I am one of the number; and indeed, that some good people think I am no Christian. This thought gives me much more pain than the appellation of Tory; because I think religion of infinitely higher importance than politics; and I find much cause to reproach myself that I have lived so long, and have given no decided and public proofs of my being a Christian. But, indeed, my dear child, this is a character which I prize far above all this world has, or can boast.

Patrick Henry - from his will This is all the inheritance I give to my dear family. The religion of Christ will give them one which will make them rich indeed.

John Jay • One of the authors of the Federalist Papers. • First Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court (1789 -1795). • President of the American Bible Society (1821) • Governor of New York State (1795– 1801)

John Jay Letter to Reverend Uzal Ogden, February 14, 1796 I have long been of opinion that the evidence of the truth of Christianity requires only to be carefully examined to produce conviction in candid minds. .

John Jay April 23, 1811, letter to John Bristed While in France. . . I do not recollect to have had more than two conversations with atheists about their tenents. The first was this: I was at a large party, of which were several of that description. They spoke freely and contemptuously of religion. I took no part in the conversation. In the course of it, one of them asked me if I believed in Christ? I answered that I did, and that I thanked God that I did.

John Jay October 12, 1816 "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. "

Thomas Jefferson • A principal writer of the Declaration of Independence (1776). • First United States Secretary of State (1790– 1793) serving under President George Washington. • Third President of the United States (1801– 1809) • Founder of the University of Virginia • Known for his intelligence, fluency in five languages, builder of Monticello, a 5, 000 acre planation that included slaves. • Influenced greatly by “the Enlightenment” movement of his time.

Thomas Jefferson Letter to William Short April 13, 1820 I am a Materialist. Among the sayings and discourses imputed to [Jesus] by His biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence; and others, again, of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same Being. I separate, therefore, the gold from the dross; restore to Him the former, and leave the latter to the stupidity of some, and roguery of others of His disciples. Of this band of dupes and impostors, Paul was the great. . . corruptor of the doctrines of Jesus.

Thomas Jefferson Letter to John Adams, January 24, 1814 That Christ was God in the flesh was "the fabric of very inferior minds. It is as easy to separate those parts, as to pick out diamonds from dunghills. ”

Thomas Jefferson Letter to Charles Thomson in 1816 I, too, have made a wee-little book from the same materials, which I call the Philosophy of Jesus; it is a paradigma of his doctrines, made by cutting the texts out of the book, and arranging them on the pages of a blank book, in a certain order of time or subject. A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen; it is a document in proof that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.

Thomas Jefferson Concluding paragraph of Jefferson’s edited Bible… Jefferson cut out any references to miracles or claims of Jesus’ identity as the Divine Son of God calling them “dung”. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen cloths with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus, And rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

George Washington • Leader of the Continental Army during the Revolution. • First president of the United States • Free Mason serving as the head of Alexandria Lodge No. 22

George Washington “Daily Sacrifice”a collection of Washington’s papers written in his 20’s. Bless my family, kindred, friends and country, be our God & guide this day and for ever for his sake, who lay down in the Grave and arose again for us, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. . in and for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ offered upon the cross for me; for his sake, ease me of the burden of my sins, and give me grace that by the call of the Gospel I may rise from the slumber of sin into the newness of life. Let me live according to those holy rules which thou hast this day prescribed in thy holy word; make me to know what is acceptable in thy sight, and therein to delight, open the eyes of my understanding, and help me thoroughly to examine myself concerning my knowledge, faith and repentance, increase my faith, and direct me to the true object Jesus Christ the way, the truth and the life, bless O Lord, all the people of this land, from the highest to the lowest, particularly those whom thou has appointed to rule over us in church & state. continue thy goodness to me this night. These weak petitions I humbly implore thee to hear accept and ans. for

George Washington Speech to Delaware Indian Chiefs on May 12, 1779 You do well to wish to learn our arts and our ways of life and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do everything they can to assist you in this wise intention.

George Washington Presidential Years (1789 -1797) and beyond Writes about God in deist terms such as "the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, " "Almighty Being, " "Providence" and "Grand Designer” or "Supreme Architect” a Freemasonary term. Does not mention Jesus Christ in his speeches or writings.

George Washington Step daughter Lewis wrote about Washington… I never witnessed his private devotions. I never inquired about them. I should have thought it the greatest heresy to doubt his firm belief in Christianity. His life, his writings, prove that he was a Christian. He was not one of those who act or pray, "that they may be seen of men" [Matthew 6: 5]. He communed with his God in secret [Matthew

George Washington Thomas Jefferson wrote about Washington (Jefferson's Works, Vol. iv. , p. 572). [Washington] had never, on any occasion, said a word to the public which showed a belief in the Christian religion, and they thought they should so pen their address as to force him at length to disclose publicly whether he was a Christian or not. However, he observed, the old fox was too cunning for them. He answered every article of their address particularly, except that, which he passed over without notice"

John Hancock • Son of a Congregationalist minister. • Inherited large trading company in Boston. • Partner with Samuel Adams in anti-tax activities leading up to the Revolutionary War. • He served as president of the Second Continental Congress. • First and third Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. • His large signature on the Declaration of Independence appeared alone there for some time. Being the president of the congress he was the first to sign. The rest of the names from the other colonies were gradually added until November of the same year.

John Hancock Speech commemorating the Boston Massacre of 1770, on March 5, 1774 "I have the most animating confidence that the present noble struggle for liberty will terminate gloriously for America. And let us play the man for our God, and for the cities of our God; whilst we are using the means in our power, let us humbly commit our righteous cause to the great Lord of the Universe, who loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity. And having secured the approbation of our hearts by a faithful and unwearied discharge of our duty to our country, let us joyfully leave our concerns in the hands of Him who raiseth up and pulleth down the empires and kingdoms of the world as He pleases; and with cheerful submission to His sovereign will, devoutly say, "Although the fig tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail and the field shall yield not meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls, yet we will rejoice in the Lord, we will joy in the God of our salvation. " [Habakkuk 3: 17 -18]"

John Hancock April 15, 1775 proclamation from Concord, four days before the British marched on Lexington and Concord "In circumstances dark as these, it becomes us as men and Christians to reflect that whilst every prudent measure should be taken to ward off the impending judgments. . . all confidence must be withheld from the means we use and reposed only on that God who rules in the armies of heaven and without whose blessing the best human councils are but foolishness and all created power vanity. It is the happiness of his church that when the powers of earth and hell combine against it. . . then the throne of grace is of the easiest access and its appeal thither is graciously invited by that Father of mercies who has assured it that when His children ask bread He will not give them a stone. . That it be, and hereby is, recommended to the good people of this colony. . . as a day of public humiliation, fasting and prayer. . . to confess the sins. . . to implore the forgiveness of all our transgressions. . . and especially that the union of the American colonies in defense of their rights, for which, hitherto, we desire to thank Almighty God, may be preserved and confirmed. . and that America may soon behold a gracious interposition of Heaven. "

Conclusion Although all of the Founding Fathers referred to themselves as “Christian”, the meaning of their words varies from as far as Jefferson’s comment that “I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus” while at the same time saying that Christ’s divinity is “dung” to the clear faith in Christ for salvation that Samuel Adams expressed “relying on the merits of Jesus Christ for the pardon of my sins. ” Who is Jesus to you? Christ merely had good morals. Christ the Son of God is my Savior. Thomas Jefferson John Adams Benjamin Franklin Patrick Henry George Washington John Hancock Alexander Hamilton John Jay Samuel Adams