Part 2 of 4 - Religion in Government Trial

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Continued from Post Jan. 19, 2010 Titled; "Separation of Church and State"


Part 2. Our founders created our form of government based on values they intentionally got primarily from the Bible.

Government of the people, a Republic form of Government:
During the time of our government’s creation, and for centuries prior, the nearly exclusive form of government was monarchy; England, France, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, etc. etc. all ruled by monarchs. Where did the founders come up with the idea of the people ruling themselves by what we call a republic? Exodus 18:21. This gave the foundation of God’s plan for local, county, state, and federal levels of “government of the people”.

Separation of powers, and checks and balances:
George Washington and Alexander Hamilton acknowledged that the principles undergirding the separation of powers was the principle found in Jeremiah 17:9

The right of Private Property:
Common to all men at the time was the idea that the king owned the land and gave permission for the people to live on, and work the land for a fee.
So where did the early Americans get the idea of purchasing property from the Indians?
The founders, using biblical values, understood the concepts of private property.
Exodus 20:15-17
(It must be recognized that there were other settlers than the pilgrims, which did not hold to such views, and great strife with the Indians developed)

Uniform Immigration Laws US Constitution Article 1 section 8:
Based on Leviticus 19:34
President must be US born Article 2 section 1, US Constitution:
Based on Deuteronomy 17:15
Witnesses and Capitol Punishment Article 3 section 3, US Constitution:
Based on Deuteronomy 17:6
Prohibition against Family Attainder Article 3 section 3, US Constitution:
Based on Ezekiel 18:20
Three branches of government:
Based on Isaiah 33:22
Church Tax Exemption:
Based on Ezra 7:24

Racial Equality:
In 1619 the first slave ship sailed up the James River in Virginia, introducing slavery to America.
But when the first slave ship arrived in Massachusetts, the seat of our government’s formation, the ships officers were imprisoned and the slaves were not only freed, but returned to their homeland at the colonies expense.
This based on Acts 17:26a, Revelation 7:9

The sources behind the Declaration of Independence of 1776:
The Holy Bible and John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government
John Quincy Adams:
“The Declaration of Independence (was)…Founded upon one and the same theory of government… expounded in the writings of Locke.”
James Otis, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Rush, Richard Henry Lee, and many others, publicly praised Locke’s work as an important source in the writing of the Declaration.
Although Locke’s book is less than 400 pages long, it refers to the bible more than 1500 times.

The principles used to achieve independence:
“The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were… the general principles of Christianity... 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.” - John Adams

The source of Republican principles:
“The brief exposition of the Constitution of the United States will unfold to young persons the principles of republican government; and … our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible.”
Noah Webster’s schoolbook; ‘The History of the United States’ 1832

Religion and government inseparably tied:
“Why is it that, next to the birth-day of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day? Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birth-day of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birth-day of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer’s mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity?”
Speech by John Quincy Adams - July 4, 1837
Say what? The organized society created by the Declaration of Independence, and even the very cornerstone of government itself, is established inseparable, on the precepts of Christianity? Wow!

University of Houston Study:
assembled 15,000 writings of the founding era to determine the sources where the founders got their ideas for our form of government.
After 10 years of research they isolated 3154 direct quotes and the sources of each quote.
34% of the quotes came directly out of the Bible.
Baron Charles de Montesquieu was quoted second most often with 8.3%
Sir William Blackstone was quoted third most often with 7.9%
John Locke was quoted fourth most often with 2.9%
It is even more impressive when we discover the source of these writer’s ideas;
Charles Finny was a significant revivalist preacher of the early 1800s, who got his start as a lawyer.
As a law student while studying ‘Blackstone’s commentary on the laws’, Blackstone quoted the scriptures so often that Charles Finny was converted to Christianity and became a preacher.

Religion Established by our form of Government:
Court ruling in Runkel v. Winemiller 1799
“By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion; and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed on the same equal footing.”
This court had no problem understanding the 1st amendment to mean only no favoritism of one denomination over another by the government, as was the case in England. And not to imply that religion was to be separated from government.

This is but a mere spoonful of the abundant documented history showing how tied the foundation of our government is with religion. and not any religion but that Christian religion of Jesus Christ.