It is important to learn the true beliefs of the founding fathers

GUEST COLUMN, Larry Phillips, Kismet

People who are more than say 45 to 50 years old were taught in school about our country’s founding – the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, the Bill of Rights and our Constitution. Depending on what part of the country one lived in during those schooling years, we still were taught the basics, if not greater details.

I was taught the basics, but learned greater details in Mr. McNeil’s History class and his Social Science Club discussions my senior year at Liberal High School.

Today, older Americans have lived through the last three or four decades of an onslaught against our founding and its relationship to religion, basically Christianity.

Those who vilify Christianity dare not tell me there’s not a War on God. Keep that lie to yourself, it’s not tolerated in my presence.

Younger people might believe that garbage because they have not even been exposed to the truths of this country’s Founding Fathers and the founding principles that our country rests upon.

For instance: Can you report how many times God – or a reference to God – is mentioned in the Declaration of Independence?

No, it’s not four, as most “progressives” try to tell us, it is actually five. There are two in the first paragraph, one in the middle, and two in the last. 

The third reference to God is the word “creator” found in the second paragraph. “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.” 

It begins, “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.”

I’m drawn to the words by Harold Pease, Ph. D:

“It always amazes me when otherwise intelligent people are unable to find evidence of God in our governing documents.”

He also asks: “Who is responsible for ‘the laws of nature’ but God – certainly not man nor nature itself? From the ‘laws of nature’ sprang an awareness of natural law (sometimes called common sense), understood by early philosophers to be a source of higher law that never changes.”

This natural law was best explained by Cicero, a Roman politician, as early as the 1st Century B.C. – even predating the existence of Christianity, when he wrote: 

“Nor may any other law override it, nor may it be repealed as a whole or in part… Nor is it one thing at Rome and another at Athens, one thing today and another tomorrow, but one eternal and unalterable law, that binds all nations forever.”

Our Founding Fathers were learned men and knew the history of mankind. They studied the ancient philosophers and Biblical teachings. In fact, written history was taught to every child (most were schooled at home) in the 1700s by such men as Benjamin Franklin. Accordingly, 98 percent of all the few books in all the colonies by 1775 were about religion and religious teachings – mainly the Bible.

Here are some reminders for those who were not taught about our nation’s founding, and that it was the Bible that glued the colonies together – from Georgia to Maine.

“That book, sir, is the Rock on which our Republic rests.”

— Andrew Jackson, 7th President

“The first and almost the only book deserving of universal attention is the Bible. I speak as a man of the world … and I say to you, Search the Scriptures.”

— John Quincy Adams, 6th President

“In regard for this Great Book, I have this to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book.”

— Abraham Lincoln, 16th President.

Neither the Bill of Rights, nor the U.S. Constitution explicitly mention God or the divine, but scholars have agreed this was on purpose. And for all you leftist progressives that like to say, “See, they’re a bunch of Christians only,” should study further.

Here is a perspective on not mentioning God in the Constitution from an unidentified scholar found at http://libertyunderfire.org:

“It is equally important to note that the Constitution is careful to provide for the sensibilities of those who are willing to give their personal ‘word of honor’ (i.e., to ‘Affirm’), but wish not to ‘swear’ by any deity. 

“This suggests that the Founders, while generally very religious men, were also open-minded enough to provide for equal representation of not only differing religious beliefs, but also the atheists or agnostics among us. Since such open-minded inclusionary beliefs were far from the norm in their day, it speaks to their strong belief in personal liberty for all, in a way that is not commonly recognized today. In particular, those who see them merely as staunch Christians, completely miss the boat on just how extraordinary they really were, especially in their day.”

Amen to that.

Here is a quote from America’s first really left-wing progressive to be elected President, far left of Teddy Roosevelt.

“The Bible is the one supreme source of revelation of the meaning of life, the nature of God, and the spiritual nature and needs of men. It is the only guide of life which really leads the spirit in the way of peace and salvation. America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture.”

— Woodrow Wilson, 28th President

I disapprove of many of Wilson’s policies, but he believed in “the nature of God.” Today’s progressives are trying their best to destroy “the nature of God.”

Lord, help us to take back our children’s educations so we may ensure they are taught our founding, and that those founding men and their documents produced the most exemplary nation on Earth.

In God I pray.