Rebuttal of a Slander of the Founders

By: Margo Diann Nissley-Abshier, N.D.

August 25, 2011 (Thursday) 5:05pm
Re: Video documentary, “The Faith of the Founders”

Dear M.

As I watched the video you gave me on the Founders, I took notes and here are rebuttals of its content:

I have never seen someone try to quote a burned non-existent document like that of Thompson before.  With the hundreds of thousands of pages of founding documents in the library of Congress, the 100 volumes of Washington’s writings, and the 30 some volumes of Adams’ writings, etc. we are told to ignore those and only believe what this Pinto guy in the video wants us to believe.  

Some of the many documents we do have are the letters between Adams and Jefferson.  Do you know the miracle behind why we have those documents?  Dr. Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration, had a dream in which he was told that Adams must forgive Jefferson for his horrible lies and slander about John, because they must correspond.  It was God’s will they do so, so their letters would document the history of the era, creating volumes of testimony.  And also in the dream, Dr. Rush saw that both Adams and Jefferson would die on July 4, 1826, on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration.  And, it all came to pass as Rush saw in his divine dream.  That letter from Benjamin Rush to John Adams was written on October 17, 1809.

Also an early premise of this video is that Christians should not be “entangled in the politics of this world.”  That is straight out of the pit of hell.  Did not Jesus preach that the Kingdom of God should come to earth, and Father God’s name should be honored and hallowed and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven?  The major theme of Jesus was the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of heaven.  It was Godly social order on earth that was Jesus’s main theme of teaching.  Jesus told us to be salt and light in this world or we would become worthless.  He also told us to occupy until His return.

So, is the basic premise of the video is that Christians should let the Devil and his people control everything?  John Jay, signer of the Declaration, the Treaty of Paris, President of the Continental Congress, author of the Federalist papers, founder, and first Supreme Court Chief Justice said: “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.” October 12, 1816.

Most of the Founders were devout Christians and not “anti-Christ” like they are portrayed in this video.  This video is what is demonic, not our true history.  Most of these men did not deny the gospel of Christ, they lived it.  And, to besmirch them will not be taken lightly before the throne of God.  This man Pinto, I will pray for his mortal soul.  How evil he is.  Any history book written prior to 1920 supports with original documentation, the lives of the Founders.  Books written since then do not quote original sources but only others who lie about our history.  These are the true historical revisionists.  All you need to do is look over the New England Primer, used to teach reading in the colonies and used up until about 1910, to know the deep influence of Christianity upon the whole nation.  Joseph Stalin said of America: “America is like a healthy body and it’s resistance is three fold; its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life.  If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within.”  That is exactly what Fabian Socialists and Communists have been doing since the 1920’s.  They made it their first main objective to slander the founding fathers, and that’s when the lies began in history books starting in the 1920’s.  It has been a deliberate effort on their part to make this country look evil from its founding, because it was so good and godly.  Not everyone, of course, but the Founders were mostly pastors and highly educated people who God gifted this nation with, in order to fulfill His will.  The socialists and communists have been tearing at the fabric of this nation from within with their lies and slander.  They have put people on the high courts to force on the American people, obscenity and perversion.  And, this video is a prime example of what these people do, to tear apart the Church and the nation.  The Heretic Hunters are tares among the wheat and they are doing their best to destroy Christianity because it has stood in their way for two centuries in this nation and they are frantic to start their One World Order.

I was born and raised in Pennsylvania.  My church, as a child, was built and dedicated in 1772 and Peter Muhlenberg’s (a far more important figure in the Revolution than Paine) father dedicated my church.  Other churches in the area; like Donegal Presbyterian were also pre Revolutionary churches very much Christian and very much involved in the Revolution.  Even though many history books used in school, when I was a child, were already somewhat tainted by the communist lies, we were taught more of the truth in our schools (than most other states) and by our grandparents, and we visited Philadelphia frequently and knew much of the history as part of our culture.  When I hear the Gaither group videos, I think of the Founders and Pennsylvania.  Faith was so much a part of our history, and it was a far more profound public faith, based on discipline and the scriptures than today, and rich in allegiance to God than has been seen in this nation since about 1900.  Just walking in graveyards, you could read the tomb stones and God and Jesus are honored everywhere you walk.  You cannot live upon the land the Founders trod and not see and know the truth as portrayed in the early text books, and the original documents, written from about 1620 and up to the end of the 1800s.

First of all, it was Samuel Adams, not Thomas Paine, who was considered by most to be the father of the American revolution.  Paine’s Common Sense was one of thousands of pamphlets and small books that contributed to the beliefs among Americans, that separation from England was necessary to keep the freedoms established in this country, and that those rights and freedoms were God given rights.  Most pamphlets were copies of sermons.  From the time of the Puritans and Pilgrims, it was considered the job of the clergy to correlate the scriptures with how they governed themselves and the events of daily life.  When there was a tornado, they preached on tornadoes in the Bible.  When a bridge was dedicated they preached on bridges from the Bible.  When the stamp act was imposed, ministers all over the colonies used scriptures to prove this was not a Biblical tax.  Paine’s Common Sense was one of thousands of pamphlets and books that effected the reasons given in the Declaration for the separation from England, but it was not by any means as influential as this video pretends it was.

After writing and publishing the Age of Reason, Paine found himself a social outcast and was shunned by most of the nation. The stories on the video of the many attempts to convert Paine shows the very devout nature of the nation as a whole.  Even though people and society shunned him, they were willing to attempt to convert him.  I make no excuses for Paine, he was an evil man.  But, this video lies when it makes him out to be as important as it does.  He was very much a minor figure in the Revolution.  And, saying Washington had Paine paid is ridiculous.  There was so little money during the war, there certainly wasn’t any room for Paine, when the troops were not paid.  Washington himself served his nation without salary in the Revolutionary War.

Paine was not the first to refer to this nation as the United States of America – that was George Whitefield, the primary preacher of the First Great Awakening – who said he was sent by God to evangelize the independent colonies into one nation, based on their mutual faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to unite the colonies into one independent nation to spread the gospel throughout the world.

As John Adams said: On June 28, 1813, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams wrote:

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 general Principles? I answer, the general Principles of Christianity, in which all these Sects were United: And the general Principles of English and American Liberty, in which all those young Men United, and which had United all Parties in America, in Majorities sufficient to assert and maintain her Independence. Now 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 and our terrestrial, mundane System.

When Adams was asked who he thought was behind Independence, he said it was the Rev. Samuel Cooper, the Rev. Jonathan Mayhew, the Rev. George Whitefield, and the Rev. Charles Chauncy. This was in a letter to Hezekiah Niles on February 13, 1818.  He did not mention Paine.  I doubt the quote on the tombstone of Paine is anything John Adams ever said.

On December 15, 1777, John Adams wrote Abigail that the direct and open and frequent intervention of God was evident to most Americans.  He said:
“I have had many opportunities in the course of this journey to observe how deeply rooted our righteous cause is in the minds of the people… One evening, as I sat in my room, I overheard a company of the common sort of people in another room conversing upon serious subjects… At length I heard these words, “It appears to me the eternal Son of God is operating powerfully against the British nation for their treating lightly serious things.”

As president Adams made a March 23, 1798 proclamation which started:
“As the felicity of prosperity of nations ultimately and effectually depend on the protection and blessing of Almighty God; and the national acknowledgements of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe Him, but a duty whose natural influence is favorable to the promotion of that morality and piety, without which social happiness cannot exist, nor the blessings of a free government be enjoyed; and as this duty, at all times incumbent, is so especially in seasons of difficulty and of danger, when existing or threatening calamities, the just judgments of God against prevalent iniquity are a loud call to repentance and reformation…”

And he went on and called for humility in recognition that our blessings were from God and not of our making, and called for a day of humiliation, repentance, fasting and prayer on May 6, 1798.

These are not the words of a deist or an unbelieving “rationalist.”  Neither are the words of Washington, throughout his life.

Secondly, the ideas for the Declaration of Independence were attributed by the signers, to two sources:
John Locke’s Treatises on Government – 2 volumes
John Locke was a leading theologian of the era.
and Politico, The Sermons of the Reverend John Wise – his sermons from  1687 through 1717 were republished by the first US General, Artemas Ward in 1772 and almost every principle in the Declaration was the subject of one of his sermons.  Even Calvin Coolidge, in 1926, gave a speech at Independence Hall to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Declaration.  President Coolidge cited Wise’s sermons, showing that they were word for word cited in the Declaration, for example:
Taxation without representation is tyranny
Governments should rule based on the consent of the governed.

Rev. Wise used scriptures, to illustrate these principles of righteous Godly governance, and these were published all over the colonies, as pamphlets, in newspapers, and in this book.  And, these principles were already being used in the colonies, as much as they weren’t interfered with by the crown.

From researching 15,000 founding political documents, Dr. Lutz of the University of Houston’s analysis found 3154 direct quotes:
34% came directly from the Bible
8.3% came from Montesque – a Christian who said “society must… repose on principles that do not change.  The Christian religion which ordains that men should love each other, would without doubt, have every nation blest with the best civil, the best political laws; because these, next to this religion, are the greatest good that man can give and receive.”
7.9% came from Blackstone’s legal commentaries that led Charles Finney to get saved, which then led to the Second Great Awakening.
2.9% came from John Locke – who wrote on society, government and many apologist treatises on the validity of the scriptures.

The Illuminate was not mentioned once, nor was there any direct way of communicating in 1776.  It took months to traverse the ocean with persons or letters.  Responses took more time in communicating back.  To pretend that the Illuminati started our Revolution is preposterous.  To say that when strides are made in the Kingdom of God, that there are counterfeit strides made in Satan’s kingdom would be a more correct analogy.  So, why, with all this evidence, would you choose to believe people who lie about the source of the Declaration and attribute it to Thomas Paine when he was not a member of the Continental Congress nor a signer of the Declaration of Independence?  Why won’t you believe the truth of the words of the Founders themselves and why instead do you believe this liar who slanders the truth and our Founders?

As for Thomas Jefferson, most of his correspondence he burned.  Out of respect for Dr. Rush, he did not burn Adam’s letters, knowing that was the will of God for our nation for them to be preserved.  There was probably a reason he did that.  Did he change his mind about some things?  Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin were the least religious of the founding fathers.  They could both be considered scoundrels, actually.  They were immoral and ran up a lot of debt that they never paid back.  They were just nasty people.

There were 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence and there were 56 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, 6 of those were signers of the Declaration.  So, why discuss only 5 Founders of 106?  I think the main reason is that the liberal, socialist, communist historical revisionists from the 1920’s on chose the men who were most like themselves to elevate and chose to ignore the most noble believers of the Founders.  Those 5 men would have gotten no where without the other 101 men plus all the other saints who prayed and fought for our nation and the freedoms and liberty that God gave man through Christ and in His Word.  For generations children in this nation studied all 106 Founders and knew them well.  Those books are still available.  People find old history books in family estates all the time and are amazed at the difference between the truth and what is taught today.

James Wilson was one of the few who signed both documents and he was a Supreme Court justice and was very instrumental in the formulation of both documents, and was a law professor.  He wrote: All laws, however, may be arranged in two different classes. 1) Divine. 2) Human… But, it should always be remembered that this law, natural or revealed, made for men or for nations, flows from the same Divine source: it is the law of God…Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is Divine.”

But, back to Thomas Jefferson.  He was not that religious, but here are some things he said:

On March 23, 1801, Thomas Jefferson wrote from Washington, D.C. to Moses Robinson:

The Christian Religion, when divested of the rags in which they [the clergy] have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind.

Thomas Jefferson, on April 21, 1803, wrote to Dr. Benjamin Rush, (also a signer of the Declaration of Independence):

My views… are the result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from the anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian in the only sense in which he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines in preference to all others.

On March 4, 1805, in his Second Inaugural Address, President Thomas Jefferson declared:

I shall now enter on the duties to which my fellow-citizens have again called me, and shall proceed in the spirit of those principles which they have approved…  I shall need, therefore, all the indulgence I have heretofore experienced.

I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessities and comforts of life, who has covered our infancy with His Providence and our riper years with His wisdom and power, and to whose goodness I ask you to join with me in supplications that He will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils and prosper their measures, that whatever they do shall result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship and approbation of all nations.

In matters of religion I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the General Government. I have therefore undertaken, on no occasion, to prescribe the religious exercise suited to it; but have left them, as the Constitution found them, under the direction and discipline of state and church authorities by the several religious societies.

More Jefferson quotes:
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. (Lives of the Presidents of the United States, Abbott and Conwell, p. 142)

Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern, which have come under my observation, none appear to me so pure as that of Jesus. (Thomas Jefferson’s writings Vol. 8, p. 377)

The doctrines which flowed from the lips of Jesus himself are within the comprehension of a child; but thousands of volumes have not yet explained the Platonisms engrafted on them. (Thomas Jefferson’s writing’s Volume 14, p.149)

Had the doctrines of Jesus been preached always as pure as they came from his lips, the whole civilized world would now have been Christians. (Tyronne Edwards, D.D. The New Dictionary of Thoughts, a Cyclopedia of Quotations, p. 91)

I have always said, I always will say, that the studious perusal of the sacred volume will make better citizens, better fathers, and better husbands. Tyronne Edwards, D.D. The New Dictionary of Thoughts, a Cyclopedia of Quotations, p. 46)

1. The doctrines of Jesus are simple and tend to the happiness of man.
2. There is only one God, and He is all perfect.
3. There is a future state of rewards and punishment.
4. To love God with all the heart and thy neighbor as thyself is the sum of all. These are the great points on which to reform the religion of the Jews. (The Life of Jefferson, by Shmucher)

Are these statements congruent with the last quote they attribute to Jefferson in the video?  I think not.  I also doubt he would have written that quote from the video to Adams.  

Jefferson always attended church at the Capitol building on Sundays when he was president, and paid the Marine Corp band out of the general treasuries, to play at the services.  In judging the man, we also need to look at his public statements and actions and compare those to his private writings.  To show one side only, is to show bias and unfairness.

But, I don’t know anyone who holds up Jefferson or Franklin as an example of a Christian founder.  I do not defend Jefferson as a Christian.  But, I also doubt many of the supposed quotes in this video, because, I doubt Jefferson would say many of those blasphemous things on paper, knowing from the prophecy of Benjamin Rush, that it would be made very public one day.  He had great hatred for church corruption which I think drove a lot of his comments.  To say that Jefferson “was involved in helping the French Revolution” that is just nonsense.  He was an ambassador to France.  He wasn’t “involved” in the murderous revolution, period.  And, to blame him for Hitler and Stalin, really shows the bias of this video.  The French Revolution is so different than the American, that it took a Frenchman, Alexis De Tocqueville, to prove the difference.  His book was called Democracy in America.  In reality, the Founders gave us a republic, not a democracy, for just the reason that they found mob rule to be anathema.

As De Tocqueville wrote:
Upon my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this new state of things. In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America I found they were intimately united and that they reigned in common over the same country.

Religion in America… must be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of it. Indeed, it is in this same point of view that the inhabitants of the United States themselves look upon religious belief. I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion-for who can search the human heart?-But I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or a party, but it belongs to the whole nation and to every rank of society.

The sects that exist in the United States are innumerable. They all differ in respect to the worship which is due to the Creator; but they all agree in respect to the duties which are due from man to man. Each sect adores the Deity in its own peculiar manner, but all sects preach the same moral law in the name of God…  Moreover, all the sects of the United States are comprised within the great unity of Christianity, and Christian morality is everywhere the same.

In the United States the sovereign authority is religious… there is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America, and there can be no greater proof of its utility and of its conformity to human nature than that its influence is powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.

In the United States, if a political character attacks a sect [denomination], this may not prevent even the partisans of that very sect, from supporting him; but if he attacks all the sects together [Christianity], every one abandons him and he remains alone.  (this is exactly what happened to Thomas Paine)

I do not question that the great austerity of manners that is observable in the United States arises, in the first instance, from religious faith… its influence over the mind of woman is supreme, and women are the protectors of morals. There is certainly no country in the world where the tie of marriage is more respected than in America or where conjugal happiness is more highly or worthily appreciated…

In the United States the influence of religion is not confined to the manners, but it extends to the intelligence of the people…  Christianity, therefore reigns without obstacle, by universal consent; the consequence is, as I have before observed, that every principle of the moral world is fixed and determinate…

I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors…; in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.

The safeguard of morality is religion, and morality is the best security of law as well as the surest pledge of freedom.

The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other.

Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts-the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims.

They brought with them… a form of Christianity, which I cannot better describe, than by styling it a democratic and republican religion… From the earliest settlement of the emigrants, politics and religion contracted an alliance which has never been dissolved.

The Christian nations of our age seem to me to present a most alarming spectacle; the impulse which is bearing them along is so strong that it cannot be stopped, but it is not yet so rapid that it cannot be guided: their fate is in their hands; yet a little while and it may be no longer.

Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that he found in America:

An ostensible respect for Christian morality and virtue. [and that] almost all education is entrusted to the clergy.

In August of 1831, while traveling through Chester County in New York, Alexis de Tocqueville had the opportunity to observe a court case. He wrote:

While I was in America, a witness, who happened to be called at the assizes of the county of Chester (state of New York), declared that he did not believe in the existence of God or in the immortality of the soul. The judge refused to admit his evidence, on the ground that the witness had destroyed beforehand all confidence of the court in what he was about to say. The newspapers related the fact without any further comment. The New York Spectator of August 23rd, 1831, relates the fact in the following terms:

“The court of common pleas of Chester county (New York), a few days since rejected a witness who declared his disbelief in the existence of God. The presiding judge remarked, that he had not before been aware that there was a man living who did not believe in the existence of God; that this belief constituted the sanction of all testimony in a court of justice: and that he knew of no case in a Christian country, where a witness had been permitted to testify without such belief.”

About Franklin:

First of all, to say the founding documents were the Declaration, the Constitution and the Treaty of Paris, and only Franklin signed them all, is nuts.  The founding documents include:
The Declaration of the Cause and Necessity of Taking up Arms 7/6/1775
The Virginia Declaration of Rights 6/12/76
The Declaration of Independence 7/4/1776
The Articles of Confederation 11/15/1777
The Virginia Plan 5/29/1787
The New Jersey Plan 6/15/1787
Hamilton’s Plan of Union 6/18/1787
The Constitution of the United States
The Amendments to the Constitution
and The Northwest Ordinance

I understand the free masons, but discussing them in the context of our more modern free masons, is a bit different than it was understood in the early years of this nation.  With about 98% of the nation made up of professing Christians, these guys bringing the Masonic Lodge to America, never stood a chance to get it going in this culture, at that time, if they hadn’t “Christianized” it a bit.  George Whitefield was a good friend to Franklin who came to hear him and often they talked privately to each other for hours.  Whitefield tried to lead him to Christ, but Franklin resisted.  But, later in life Franklin said and wrote the following:

Continental Congress June 28, 1787, Thursday, found the Constitutional Convention embroiled in a bitter debate over how each state was to be represented in the new government. The hostile feelings created by the smaller states being pitted against the larger states, was so bitter that some delegates actually left the Convention. Benjamin Franklin, being the President (Governor) of Pennsylvania, hosted the rest of the 55 delegates attending the Convention. Being the senior member of the convention, at 81 years of age, he commanded the respect of all present, and, as recorded in James Madison’s detailed records, he arose to address the Congress in this moment of crisis:

Mr. President, the small progress we have made after 4 or five weeks close attendance & continual reasonings with each other; our different sentiments on almost every question, several of the last producing as many noes as ayes, is methinks a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the Human Understanding. We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been running about in search of it. We have gone back to ancient history for models of government, and examined the different forms of those Republics, which, having been formed with the seeds of their own dissolution, now no longer exist. And we have viewed Modern States all round Europe, but find none of their Constitutions suitable to our circumstances. In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understanding? In the beginning of the Contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine protection. -Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance? 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. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that “except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.” I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest. I therefore beg leave to move-that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.

Jonathan Dayton, delegate from New Jersey, reported the reaction of Congress to Dr. Franklin’s rebuke:

The Doctor sat down; and never did I behold a countenance at once so dignified and delighted as was that of Washington at the close of the address; nor were the members of the convention generally less affected. The words of the venerable Franklin fell upon our ears with a weight and authority, even greater than we may suppose an oracle to have had in a Roman senate!

On March 9, 1790, Benjamin Franklin wrote to Ezra Stiles, President of Yale University:

Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by His Providence. That He ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render to Him is in 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 in 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 the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, is the best the World ever saw, or is likely to see.

Benjamin Franklin wrote in his Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion:

It is that particular wise and good God, who is the Author and Owner of our system, that I propose for the Object of my praise and adoration. For I conceive that He has in Himself some of those passions He has planted in us, and that, since He has given us reason whereby we are capable of observing His wisdom in the Creation, He is not above caring for us, being pleas’d with our praise, and offended when we slight Him, or neglect His Glory. I conceive for many reasons that He is a good Being, and as I should be happy to have so wise, good and powerful a Being my Friend, let me consider in what Manner I shall make myself most acceptable to Him.

Being mindful that before I address the Deity my soul ought to be calm and serene, free from passion and perturbation, or otherwise elevated with rational joy and pleasure, I ought to use a countenance that expresses a filial respect, mixed with a kind of smiling that signifies inward joy and satisfaction and admiration.

0 Creator, 0 Father, I believe that Thou are Good, and Thou art pleased with the pleasure of Thy children. Praised be Thy Name forever. By Thy Power hast thou made the glorious Sun, with his attending worlds; from the energy of Thy mighty Will they first received their prodigious motion, and by Thy Wisdom hast Thou prescribed the wondrous laws by which they move. Praised be Thy Name forever. By Thy Wisdom hast thou formed all things, Thou hast created man, bestowing life and reason, and placed him in dignity superior to Thy other earthly Creatures. Praised be Thy Name forever. Thy Wisdom, Thy Power, and Thy GOODNESS are every where clearly seen; in the air and in the water, in the heavens and on the earth.

Now, does that sound like Franklin put his faith in Jesus Christ for his salvation?  Not really.  But, does it sound like most of the stuff on the video?  Not really.

About John Adams:

I have already included quotes by Adams above.  And, as we discussed, he was a Unitarian for a short time, until John Quincy Adams, his son, set him straight again.  To say that John Adams didn’t mean Christianity, but a mix of paganism and Christianity, is a fictitious invention of these horrible people in the video.  Yes, the Founders discussed all the other forms of government that had come before them, including the ideas of Aristotle and Plato.  Plato invented the concept of a Republic, that was eventually chosen by the Founders.  A Republic is based on the rule of law not men, and layering government to control its power.  The reference to nature’s laws are best understood in the context of the law texts they all studied; the works of John Locke, a devout theologian, and Blackstone’s commentaries on the law, which relied heavily on Biblical law as the source of all law, and both quoted scriptures copiously.  It is a reference to Romans 1:18 to 31 and Romans 2: 13-15.  The principle has been lost to later generations, but was fundamental to how the Founders came to their conclusions.  It was not rooted in paganism as the video asserts.  As Romans points out; God has put His law in each man’s heart, so that even those who were never exposed to Moses, often obey the law without knowing it.  That was the concept understood by the Founders as “natural law” and the “Law of Nature’s God” ( a reference again to Romans where it says that God makes Himself plain to even the pagans, by what He has created).  

I disagree with the video that “religion” did not mean the gospel to the Founders.  That is another modern construct upon a language that differed from our own.  One should have a copy of Noah Webster’s Dictionary from 1828, if one is going to seriously study the words of the Founders.  But, it is obvious to me that the diabolical people on the video, don’t care to understand.  They choose to take minor points or innocuous statements and then “translate” them to mean something they never said or meant.

John Adams showed his revulsion toward Thomas Paine in his diary, July 26, 1796 “The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient of modern times, the religion of Wisdom, Virtue, Equity, and Humanity.  Let the Blackguard Paine say what he will; it is Resignation to God, it is Goodness itself to Man.”

On March 6, 1799 Adams called for a national fasting day and he said: “call to mind our numerous offenses against the most high God, confess them before Him with the sincerest penitence, implore his pardoning mercy, through the Great Mediator and Redeemer, for our past transgressions, and that through the grace of His Holy Spirit, we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience to his righteous requisitions in time to come; that He would interpose to arrest the progress of that impiety and licentiousness in principle and practice so offensive to Himself and so ruinous to mankind; that He would make us deeply sensible that “righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people.” Prov 14:34

On June 21, 1776 John Adams wrote:
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.

On October 11, 1798, President John Adams stated in his address to the military:

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

On September 7, 1774 John wrote Abigail:
“The Rev. Mr. Duche’ [came to the Continental Congress] and read several prayers, and read the collect for the 7th of Sept. which was the 35th Psalm.  You must remember, this was the next morning after we heard the horrible rumor of the cannonade of Boston.

I never saw a greater effect upon an audience.  It seemed as if heaven had ordained the Psalm to be read on that morning.  After this, Mr. Duche’ unexpectedly to everybody, struck out into an extemporary prayer, which filled the bosom of every man present.  I must confess, I never heard a better prayer, or one so well pronounced.

Episcopalian as he is, Dr. Cooper himself (Adams’ pastor) never prayed with such fervor, such ardor, such earnestness and pathos, and in language so elegant and sublime, for America, for the Congress, for the province of Massachusetts Bay, and especially the town of Boston.  It has had an excellent effect upon everybody here.  I must beg you to read that Psalm.”

Doesn’t this account above remind you of Franklin’s call to prayer at the Constitutional Convention?  The miracles those men saw God perform in the birthing of this nation, inspired them all.  How evil to besmirch their character and their faith!  How could any true believer do that to them?  No man has ever been perfect and the Founders were no exception.  But, slanderers are of their father the devil.

Several of the supposed quotes in this video on Adams are totally contrary to several documents, so I distrust what is in the video.  For example, in his diary on February 22, 1756 Adams said: “Suppose a nation in some distant regions should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts these exhibited!  Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality and industry; to justice, kindness and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love and reverence toward Almighty God… What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be.”

There was a time in John Adams’ life when he did attend a Unitarian church for which his son John Quincy Adams wrote him and set the record straight for his dad to get back to the basics of the Bible.

But, the kind of blaspheme attributed to Adams in the video, I have seen no other evidence of it.  Even in David McCullough’s primarily secular and exhaustive biography of Adams, which I have read from cover to cover, I have seen no other source quote such things and therefore I disbelieve them.  I have never seen anyone say that Adams blasphemed God or the Bible.  Never.  I have quoted Adams so frequently throughout this dissertation, and nothing Adams is known to have said, even in his private letters, hints at what the video says of him.

As to the Treaty of Tripoli, the Founders were clearly making a distinction between our nation that kept government out of the affairs of the church through the first amendment, and governments based on state religions, like Italy, Spain, France and England.  There were many wars based on religious differences and the Muslims in particular were always looking for an excuse to destroy anyone who wasn’t Muslim.  The Founders were trying to make a distinction between European nations that based their national policy on religious principles that demanded strict adherence of their citizens, without regard for their rights of conscience.  This was an overriding principle, in America, that no man had a right to force another to comply with religious tests and that people had a right to believe what they chose to believe, without interference or violence forcing compliance.  This is the premise of the statement of the Treaty of Tripoli.  They were saying “we won’t have any “holy wars” with you guys like the European church/states have had in the Crusades, etc.”  Just finish the sentence in the treaty that they quote in the video and the meaning is clear.

“As the government of the United states of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion as it has in itself no character of enmity (hatred) against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims and as the said States have never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”

As is illustrated below, the federal government was not based on the Christian religion, but all religious expressions were left to the states, the counties, individual churches, and the people.  The federal government was forbidden from interference in religious activities in the first amendment of the Constitution.  As to whether the Founders believed that we were a nation based on the general principles of Christianity, all one needs to do is look to the Congressional record for January 19, 1853 in the Senate Judiciary Committee:

“They intended, by the first amendment, to prohibit “an establishment of religion” such as the English Church presented or anything like it.  But, they had no fear or jealousy of religion itself, nor did they wish to see us an irreligious people… They did not intend to spread over all the public authorities and the whole public action of the nation, the dead and revolting spectacle of atheistic apathy.  Not so had the battles of the Revolution been fought and the deliberations of the Revolutionary Congress been conducted…  We are a Christian people… not because the law demands it, not to gain exclusive benefits or to avoid legal disabilities, but from choice and education; and in a land thus universally Christian, what is to be expected, what desired but that we shall pay due regard to Christianity.”

The House Judiciary committee came to a similar conclusion on March 27, 1854:

What is an establishment of religion?  It must have a creed defining what a man must believe; it must have rites and ordinances which believers must observe; it must have ministers of defined qualifications; to teach the doctrines and administer the rites; it must have tests for the submissive and penalties for the non-conformist.  There never was an established religion without all these…

At the adoption of the Constitution… every state… provided as regularly for the support of the Church as for the support of the government… It was deemed peculiarly proper that the religion of liberty should be upheld by a free people.

Had the people, during the Revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle.

At the time of the adoption of the Constitution and the amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged, not any one sect (denomination)…The object was not to substitute Judaism or Mohammedanism, or infidelity, but to prevent rivalry among the Christian sects to the exclusion of others.

It (Christianity) must be considered as the foundation on which the whole structure rests… In this age there can be no substitute for Christianity: that in its general principles, is the great conservative element on which we must rely for the purity and permanence of free institutions.  That was the religion of the Founders of the republic, and they expected it to remain the religion of there descendants.”

May of 1854, the House passed a resolution which declared:
“The great vital and conservative element in our system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and divine truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

The US Supreme Court, February 29, 1892 rendered a decision following a ten year deliberation, in the case Church of the Holy Trinity v. the United States:

” Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind.  It is impossible that it should be otherwise and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian.

No purpose of action against religion can be imputed to any legislation, state or national, because 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.”

This decision then cites Columbus, the Mayflower compact, William Penn and his charters, the “presence of the Divine in human affairs” in the Declaration of Independence; it lists court decisions, etc.  Then it continues:

“It is also said, and truly, that the Christian religion is a part of the common law.”

“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.

It is an out and out lie that the revolution was not seen as a Christian revolution, as I pointed out above; it was the scripturally based Treatise of Locke on government and the sermons of the Reverend John Wise that formed the basic tenets of the Declaration of Independence.  Again we hear about Thompson’s burned accounts.  This is pure nonsense to say that the Founders voted God out of the Constitution.  I guess there are heretic hunters in every generation, but this one is clearly wrong.  Every word spoken on the floor of the Constitutional Convention was recorded for posterity, and they spoke often of God and spoke often of incorporating certain principles in the Constitution because of the scriptures supporting those concepts.  In fact, the Founders were very clear, that the Constitution was a miracle of God in an of itself.  Nothing like it had ever been created or even since, nothing has matched its ability to provide stability to a nation.  They did not mention God specifically because they were trying to prevent the religious tyranny of European nations.  They did sign everything “in the year of their Lord” and specifically excluded the Christian Sabbath of Sunday from legal processes in the Constitution.

On George Washington:

Dr. Peter A Lillback has written the definitive work, almost 1200 pages, on the faith and Christian life of George Washington.  The Book is entitled George Washington’s Sacred Fire.  Much of my commentary is based on his scholarship.

But, here are other Washington quotes:
In the Church of Virginia on May 10, 1789, Washington stated:

If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed by the Convention, where I had the honor to preside, might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical Society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it; I beg you will be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against… every species of religious persecution.

George Washington issued a National Day of Thanksgiving Proclamation on October 3, 1789:

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor… that we then may all unite unto him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country… And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions… and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord, to promote the knowledge and practice of the true religion and virtue, and the increase of science.

On October 9, 1789, President George Washington wrote to the Synod of the Dutch Reformed Churches in North America:

While just government protects all in their religious rights, true religion affords to government its surest support.

On January 1, 1795, President George Washington issued another National Thanksgiving Proclamation:

It is in an especial manner our duty as a people, with devout reverence and affectionate gratitude, to acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God, and to implore Him to continue and confirm the blessings we experienced.

George Washington articulated his understanding of what will keep America great:

It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.

It is impossible to account for the creation of the universe, without the agency of a Supreme Being. It is impossible to govern the universe without the aid of a Supreme Being. It is impossible to reason without arriving at a Supreme Being. Religion is as necessary to reason, as reason is to religion. The one cannot exist without the other. A reasoning being would lose his reason, in attempting to account for the great phenomena of nature, had he not a Supreme Being to refer to.

President George Washington, in his Farewell Speech on September 19, 1796, said:

The name of AMERICAN, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same Religion, Manners, Habits, and political Principles…

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports.

In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity.

Let it simply be asked where is the security for prosperity, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in the Courts of Justice?

And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

Tis substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.

Who that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?

Religion and Morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it?… Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its virtue?

quotes from:

George Washington, Founding Father, General in Command of the Continental Army, President of the Constitutional Convention, First President of the United States, Father of the Nation

On July 9, 1776, the Continental Congress authorized the Continental Army to provide chaplains for their troops. On that same day, Washington issued the general order to his troops, stating:

The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man, will endeavor so to live, and act, as becomes a Christian Soldier defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his country.

On May 2, 1778, General George Washington issued these orders to his troops at Valley Forge:

While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest Glory to laud the more distinguished Character of Christian. The signal instances of Providential goodness which we have experienced and which have now almost crowned our labors with complete success demand from us in a peculiar manner the warmest returns of gratitude and piety to the Supreme Author of all good.

On August 20, 1778, General George Washington wrote to his friend, Brigadier-General Thomas Nelson in Virginia:

The hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all this (the course of the war) that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more wicked that has not gratitude to acknowledge his obligations; but it will be time enough for me to turn Preacher when my present appointment ceases.

On May 12, 1779, General George Washington was visited at his military encampment by some chiefs of the Delaware Indian tribe. They had brought three youths to be trained in the American schools. Washington assured them, commenting:

Congress will look upon them as their own Children… You do well to wish to learn our arts and 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.

On June 8, 1783, at the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, General George Washington sent a farewell circular letter from his headquarters in Newburgh, New York, to all thirteen Governors of the newly freed states. He stated:

I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection… that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.

Washington’s Prayer for the United States of America appears on a plaque in St. Paul’s Chapel in New York City as well as at Pohick Church, Fairfax County, Virginia, where Washington was a vestryman from 1762 to 1784:

Almighty God; We make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy Holy protection; and Thou wilt incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government; and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field.

And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the Characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A week prior to the Inauguration, April 23, 1789, the schedule of events for that special day was published in the newspaper, Daily Advertiser:

On the morning of the day on which our illustrious President will be invested with his office, the bells will ring at nine o’clock, when the people may go up and in a solemn manner commit the new Government, with its important train of consequences, to the holy protection and blessings of the Most High. An early hour is prudently fixed for this peculiar act of devotion, and it is designed wholly for prayer.

In his Inaugural Speech to Both Houses of Congress, April 30, 1789, George Washington proclaimed:

…in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States…

We ought to be no less persuaded that 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; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered as deeply, perhaps finally, staked of the experiment…

Nelly Custis’ testimony about George Washington’s faith:

Clearly, Nelly was someone who knew the private and public life of her “father” very well. Therefore, Jared Sparks, in searching for information on Washington’s religious habits, dispatched a letter to Nelly, asking if she knew for sure whether George Washington indeed was a Christian. Within a week, she had replied to Sparks, and Sparks included her letter in Volume XII of Washington’s writings in the lengthy section on Washington’s religious habits. Of that specific letter, Jared Sparks explained:

I shall here insert a letter on this subject, written to me by a lady who lived twenty years in Washington’s family and who was his adopted daughter, and the granddaughter of Mrs. Washington. The testimony it affords, and the hints it contains respecting the domestic habits of Washington, are “interesting and valuable.”

Woodlawn, 26 February, 1833.

Sir,

I received your favor of the 20th instant last evening, and hasten to give you the information, which you desire.

Truro [Episcopal] Parish is the one in which Mount Vernon, Pohick Church [the church where George Washington served as a vestryman], and Woodlawn [the home of Nelly and Lawrence Lewis] are situated. Fairfax Parish is now Alexandria. Before the Federal District was ceded to Congress, Alexandria was in Fairfax County. General Washington had a pew in Pohick Church, and one in Christ Church at Alexandria. He was very instrumental in establishing Pohick Church, and I believe subscribed [supported and contributed to] largely. His pew was near the pulpit. I have a perfect recollection of being there, before his election to the presidency, with him and my grandmother. It was a beautiful church, and had a large, respectable, and wealthy congregation, who were regular attendants.

He attended the church at Alexandria when the weather and roads permitted a ride of ten miles [a one-way journey of 2-3 hours by horse or carriage]. In New York and Philadelphia he never omitted attendance at church in the morning, unless detained by indisposition [sickness]. The afternoon was spent in his own room at home; the evening with his family, and without company. Sometimes an old and intimate friend called to see us for an hour or two; but visiting and visitors were prohibited for that day [Sunday]. No one in church attended to the services with more reverential respect. My grandmother, who was eminently pious, never deviated from her early habits. She always knelt. The General, as was then the custom, stood during the devotional parts of the service. On communion Sundays, he left the church with me, after the blessing, and returned home, and we sent the carriage back for my grandmother.

It was his custom to retire to his library at nine or ten o’clock where he remained an hour before he went to his chamber. He always rose before the sun and remained in his library until called to breakfast. 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 6:6].

My mother [Eleanor Calvert-Lewis] resided two years at Mount Vernon after her marriage [in 1774] with John Parke Custis, the only son of Mrs. Washington. I have heard her say that General Washington always received the sacrament with my grandmother before the revolution. When my aunt, Miss Custis [Martha’s daughter] died suddenly at Mount Vernon, before they could realize the event [before they understood she was dead], he [General Washington] knelt by her and prayed most fervently, most affectingly, for her recovery. Of this I was assured by Judge [Bushrod] Washington’s mother and other witnesses.

He was a silent, thoughtful man. He spoke little generally; never of himself. I never heard him relate a single act of his life during the war. I have often seen him perfectly abstracted, his lips moving, but no sound was perceptible. I have sometimes made him laugh most heartily from sympathy with my joyous and extravagant spirits. I was, probably, one of the last persons on earth to whom he would have addressed serious conversation, particularly when he knew that I had the most perfect model of female excellence [Martha Washington] ever with me as my monitress, who acted the part of a tender and devoted parent, loving me as only a mother can love, and never extenuating [tolerating] or approving in me what she disapproved of others. She never omitted her private devotions, or her public duties; and she and her husband were so perfectly united and happy that he must have been a Christian. She had no doubts, no fears for him. After forty years of devoted affection and uninterrupted happiness, she resigned him without a murmur into the arms of his Savior and his God, with the assured hope of his eternal felicity [happiness in Heaven]. Is it necessary that any one should certify, “General Washington avowed himself to me a believer in Christianity?” As well may we question his patriotism, his heroic, disinterested devotion to his country. His mottos were, “Deeds, not Words”; and, “For God and my Country.”

With sentiments of esteem,
I am, Nelly Custis-Lewis

George Washington’s adopted daughter, having spent twenty years of her life in his presence, declared that one might as well question Washington’s patriotism as question his Christianity. Certainly, no one questions his patriotism; so is it not rather ridiculous to question his Christianity?

I know that Washington was involved in Free Masonry for a time in his life.  It was a different Free Masonry then than it is today or even 50 years later.  Washington was asked to pose in his Masonic garb, after the Revolution, for a portrait, and he emphatically declined, saying he had no loyalty or any further involvement with the society and their practices.

It is just another out and out lie that Washington refused to take communion.  He did refuse to take communion in churches with whom he had differences in theological doctrine.  He would attend and worship at houses of worship, that did not violate his faith, but he did not always participate in communion.  In those days, communion was usually held as a separate event after the end of worship services.  Anglican churches that retained loyalty to the King (as opposed to Episcopalians that cut ties with Britain after the war) Washington refused to commune there completely.  He did take communion in Presbyterian Churches, and also the German Reformed Church in Germantown Philadelphia, and a few New York City churches.  He did take communion the day of his Inauguration, April 30, 1789 in New York City.  There were a few years of his life where he did not take communion, during his presidency in Philadelphia.  He did not partake in communion at Christ’s Church in Philadelphia.  The Bishops at Christ’s Church in Philadelphia were involved in the fight between Anglican and Episcopalian influences and he had difficulty in dealing with many Anglicans and even some supposed Episcopalians, so he just chose to avoid them.  There were also the factions of the Low Church versus High Church varieties in the Episcopal Church, of which Washington sided with the Low Church variety.  When Abercrombe, a High Church advocate, rebuked Washington from the pulpit, instead of confronting him privately about communion, Washington was even more alienated from this group of Bishops.  This is not how the scriptures admonish us to deal with those with whom we disagree.  To base an evaluation of George Washington on the testimony of two or three Bishops with whom Washington did not agree theologically, is indeed a biased and unfair analysis, when the record is so strong by all the other evidence that Washington was a Christian and took part in communion frequently during his life.  When he served as president in New York City, he often took communion at St. Paul’s Church.  But, other than the years in Philadelphia, there is no record of George Washington refusing communion as a habit.  It was the custom in his church in Virginia, to have communion 3 or 4 times a year, and his church in Virginia taught that one only needed to take communion when one felt led to do so.  Some churches, of that day, had communion on a weekly basis.  That may have also been a factor in this falsehood about George Washington.

It is also a lie that Washington did not kneel in prayer before God.  The testimony of the 97 year old Mrs. Hamilton was that she and Washington knelt next to each other and received communion together at the altar rail on the day of his Inauguration at St. Paul’s in New York City.  He was also known to kneel and take communion on the ground in open air Presbyterian services.  The man was so humble, that when a nasty guy attacked him one day and even struck Washington, the next day, Washington, who was not at all to blame, told the man that they were Christian brothers and he sought his hand of friendship and forgiveness.  I don’t think I could be so magnanimous with someone who punched me in the face the day before.  From every account Washington was a very humble man, and I believe that, not this arrogant liar and slanderer on the video.

It is also a lie to say that George Washington never gave a public confession of being a Christian.  As can be seen from the quotes above, he very often did.  But, Washington refused to give either Abercrombe or any of the other Bishops at Christ’s Church, the satisfaction of agreeing to their view of the gospel, which he rejected.  He was offended at their proud and arrogant High Church opinions and avoided them.  His problem was with these Bishops in this church only, who wanted to use him to promote a view of Christianity that Washington thought was terribly out of step with the Bible.  He had approached several ministers of other faiths to join in communion at their churches and made confession of his faith in order to do so.  He had no problem with that, and the video agrees that he did repeat the statement these Bishops asked him to repeat.  But, somehow they then turned around and called Washington an “old fox” and a Deist for doing what they asked.  It was these particular vicious men, who called him a Deist, with whom Washington had difficulties.  And, being a quiet man, he used avoidance rather than confrontation in dealing with them.

It is also a lie to say that Gouverneur Morris and Washington shared beliefs that the Bible was a myth.  Morris said in a speech on September 4, 1816: ” The reflection and experience of many years have led me to consider the holy writing not only as the most authentic and instructive in themselves, but as the clue to all other history.  They tell us what man is, and they alone tell us why he is what he is: a contradictory creature that seeing and approving of what is good, pursues and performs what is evil.  All of private and of public life is there displayed …From the same pure fountain of wisdom we learn that vice destroys freedom; that arbitrary power is founded on public immorality.”  Now, that doesn’t sound anything like a man who didn’t believe the Bible, to me.

It is another outright lie that Washington did not believe the Bible or the Christian religion.  Why did Washington spend an hour with God every morning and every evening, a time in which he spent time in the Word and in prayer?  Why did he take the time to write his own personal book of prayers for his own use?  Why did he encourage others in their pursuit of Christ?  It is all lies, based on a few clergy in Philadelphia who were groping for power within the Episcopalian church and Washington was not about to let them use him for their nefarious purposes.  So, they slandered him to others like Green, who just related heresay and was not a witness himself of what they told him.

I can hardly believe how this evil man “translates” innocuous things Washington said, to mean things he never said.  “What I believe he meant was he didn’t believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ.”  Well, glory be, where did you get that from what you just quoted?  Boy, does this guy have an agenda!?!

This issue of Washington becoming a Catholic on his death bed is indeed weird.  I can see why Washington didn’t want any effigy burning of the pope, when many patriots from Maryland were Catholics.  He was trying to unite the soldiers on their common faith, not split them up to fight against each other instead of the British.  I don’t know if the story is true or not, and frankly, I don’t care.  There are true believers in every religion, so what if this story is true.  Neither Nelly Custis nor Martha ever said anything to indicate this is a true story.  Lillback’s exhaustive work never mentions it.  This bizarre video is full of innuendo and lies, so it shouldn’t be surprising that this story would also be untrue.  I don’t care what the Catholic church supposedly said about this issue either.  That doesn’t provide me with enough proof.  Martha and Nelly Custis reported things were quiet there when George died, just family, Dr. Craik, some close friends.  His last words were, “Tis well.”

This whole Catholic thing, from this video, sounds like toleration of Rome should be forbidden and we should continue to kill Catholics?  What an insane concept.  I don’t know how anyone can take this video seriously.  And, the whole video is all wrapped up in some kind of perverse conspiracy theory, ignoring the evidence of people’s words and spinning stories out of whole cloth.  This is one disgusting video.

Comparing Pelosi and Obama’s lies about their faith, is an obscene comparison to Barton, who provides copious research for the Founders and cites the original sources for everything.  Throughout this video they set up straw men arguments that nobody is claiming, and then knock them down.  It is a tactic used by communist brainwashers all over the world.  David Barton and other historians of the founding era agree on conclusions.  The picture of John Adams with a short piece of quote is not from Barton.  They create things to say that this is the sort of thing Barton does.  No, there are well documented quotes in Barton’s work, and they are long, and they are agreed with by contemporaries of the Founders, and the historians of later decades.  Quoting what they say the Founders said and making fun of it is a cheap shot.  Taken in their totality, what the Founders said SHOULD be considered and not put down by this sham of a show with very little evidence for the way they use innuendo, and a few people here and there who slandered the Founders.  All the evidence includes what the Founders said for themselves and their actions that backed up what they said.  These cheap shots are disgusting.

I do not believe the lie that Barton only read a part of the letter from Adams back to Benjamin Rush, and the assertion that Adams was mocking the Holy Spirit.  First of all, it doesn’t sound at all like Adams was mocking the Holy Spirit in the part Barton read, he was praising him.  Not from any other source, not even secular historians, have I ever seen anyone attribute blasphemy to Adams.  John Adams cared too much for and had too much respect for Benjamin Rush, who was a devout believer, to take a chance on damaging their friendship.  He respected the dream Rush had about he and Jefferson and believed it whole heartedly.  If Adams had been such a blasphemer, as this video purports, he would have ignored it and would not have forgiven Jefferson and started writing him.  John Adams swallowed his pride to be obedient to God in this matter.  Abigail was against it.  She never had anything to do with Jefferson again, after he slandered John during their election for president, except for one letter she sent to Jefferson as president telling him how awful his policy was.  Jefferson answered her almost immediately, and it is an important letter to history.  I think, in a way, it was a back handed apology, but Abigail still wouldn’t forgive him, but he never ever really apologized to the Adams.  You have to understand, how close the Adams were to Jefferson in France, to know the dynamic.  John Quincy and Jefferson had so much fun together, they were inseparable.  Jefferson spent more time with the Adams than he did at his own home.  Abigail took the slander during the election so personally because she had loved Jefferson like a son and felt totally betrayed by him and could not understand how he could possibly do such dirty tricks to the Adams when they had been so close.  See, when you have studied these people, you get to know them.

When you read Adams’ letters to Abigail and his children, you do not get this sense that he was mocking the Christian religion at all, but had great respect for it.  Consistency is important in a person’s life and we see that in both Washington and Adams.  

The God of nature and natures laws, again, this is not a pagan reference, it is a reference to Locke and Blackstone and Romans 1:18 to 31 and Romans 2:13-15.  The principle has been lost to later generations, but was fundamental to how the Founders came to their conclusions.  It was not rooted in paganism as the video asserts.  How in the world could anyone assume that this also meant that they rejected the supernatural, as this video claims?  This term had nothing to do with the supernatural.  It had to do with the Biblical concept that God puts his laws in everyone’s heart and that even some pagans obey what is good and right, without the benefit of the law of Moses.

I admit John Adams attended a Unitarian church for a short time in his life, but my understanding has been that John Quincy Adams straightened out his dad’s weak understanding with scripture.

To say that Free Masonry has not changed in over 200 years, in the United States, is simply wrong.  In the early years in this nation, the Christian influence was so strong that no one would have had anything to do with the Masonic order, had it not been wrapped in the sheep’s clothing of Christian trappings.  All you have to do is study the New England Primer to see what everyone who learned to read, had to learn in first grade, and you can see that doctrinally, every person in America at that time, knew more about the Bible than most pastors know today.  And, that was at the end of first grade.  There is much evidence that Free Masonry, in this nation, changed dramatically around the Civil War and had suffered some really large downturns in acceptance in its history in this nation after the civil war, when Masons killed a man for blowing the whistle on the organization.  It is a cancer today, but back then, during the founding era, people’s understanding of if was very different, in this nation, anyway.  I can’t speak as to how it was perceived in the 1700’s in European nations.

The whole issue of the Black Regiment is not even discussed in video.  The term refers to the fact that most of the leaders of most regiments were pastors leading their parishioner, who they taught to fight.  The whole American army was run by officers who were clergy, and Bible believing clergy at that.  

I find this whole video repulsive and dark and evil.  Heretic hunters are a horrible lot who never give people the benefit of the doubt, judge them harshly for misspoken words, or very minor offenses, and ignore the evidence that contradicts their slander.

I have spent almost 17 hours preparing this documented truth for you, M. I don’t know if you will appreciate it or not, but it is an extreme offering of love from me and the Holy Spirit who drove me to take all these hours from my life, in order to help set you free from the bile of the slanderous Heretic Hunters.  Please, don’t ever ask me to watch one of these horrible videos again.  They are poisonous to the soul.

Sincerely,

Dr. Margo Nissley-Abshier
Naturopathic Physician

Scriptures to heal the mind and restore the soul.

Leviticus 19:16  “‘Do not go about spreading slander among your people. “‘Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the LORD.
17  “‘Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt.
18  “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

15:1  A psalm of David. LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?
2  He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart
3  and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman,
4  who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the LORD,

Psalm 41:6  Whenever one comes to see me, he speaks falsely, while his heart gathers slander; then he goes out and spreads it abroad.

Psalm 54:4  Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.
5  Let evil recoil on those who slander me; in your faithfulness destroy them.

Psalm 119:23  Though rulers sit together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees.  – A MUCH BETTER USE OF TIME!

Proverbs 10:17  He who heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray.
18  He who conceals his hatred has lying lips, and whoever spreads slander is a fool.
19  When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.
20  The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is of little value.
21  The lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of judgment.

• I think George Washington took this one to heart.

Proverbs 30:10  “Do not slander a servant to his master, or he will curse you, and you will pay for it.

Romans 14: 3  The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him.
4  Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

Phillipians 4:8  Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.