This series continues with Week 2 tomorrow, Sunday, October 3rd at 4:30pm! Just to recap, this series will explore the influence and impact of the founding spiritual principles of our nation. An overview of the complete series is on our Special Events page.
We would love to have you join us! You do not need to regularly attend our church, nor are there any collections taken. Sundays at 4:30pm, Monday through Friday at 7:30pm. Each meeting of the series lasts approximately 45 minutes to an hour.
Here is a brief summary of what is expected to be covered this second week.
Week 2
In this meeting we will try to compare two revolutions very close in time and very far apart in character – the Colonists’ War for Independence and the French Revolution. Did you know that when the Continental Congress met for the first time, in September 1774, they had a prayer meeting and a Bible reading – in Congress!? The Philadelphia clergyman who was summoned to lead Congress in prayer read to the representatives the 85th Psalm and then ended his supplication with these words: “All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and our Savior, Amen.”
The Bible and the Founding Fathers
Many students in US schools were taught the stirring words of Patrick Henry, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Not so many know the following statement from that eloquent man: “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here” (Patrick Henry, 1776).
The Declaration of Independence
We are often told that Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were “deists,” and the implication is that few of the Founders were really Christians However, the reality is that, according to estimates, 52 of the 56 signers of the declaration and 50 to 52 of the 55 signers of the Constitution were orthodox Trinitarian Christians (that is, they believed that the Lord Jesus was God manifest in flesh).
On his return to England, along with the defeated British army, Sir George Beckwith, then an officer and later the Governor of Bermuda, was quoted by the London newspapers as saying, “Washington did not really outfight the British, he simply outspied us!” Beckwith had just paid the greatest compliment that one spymaster can make to another. This meeting will consider two men – one American and one British – who gave their lives to provide information to their armies.
Perhaps some of the most remarkable (and unusual) Americans of all time, the Circuit Riders were men who spent their days in the saddle, riding to out-of-the-way places to bring the Bible and the Gospel message to remote areas in the expanding United States. At least one of those riders worked and preached here in Michigan!
Francis Scott Key, who wrote our national anthem, was a devout Christian; he taught a Bible class of young men in Sunday school for many years, and took an active part in numerous religious affairs. Here are some of the rarely-sung words from our national anthem: “Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, and this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust’”