ONE NATION
UNDER GOD

Ten Things Every Christian Should Know
About the Founding of America

Dr. David C. Gibbs, Jr.

[2003, 2005]

  1. Christopher Columbus, who opened up the New World to the Old, was motivated by his Christian faith to make his difficult voyage.
    [CHM note: C. C. was possibly of a Jewish background before professing Christianity.]

  2. In 1620, the Pilgrims drafted our nation's first self- governing document, the Mayflower Compact.   ...they came to the New World to glorify God and to advance the Christian faith.

  3. The Puritans, who ..., created Bible- based commonwealths in order to practice a representative government that was modeled on their church covenants.   ... essentially laid the foundation for America's Constitution, which was drafted in 1787 and ratified in 1789.

  4. Various settlements throughout the early colonies provided refuge for religious ... of all types, the most famous being those founded by Roger Williams [Baptistic] in Rhode Island and William Penn in Pennsylvania.
    [CHM: Wm. P.'s father was a Baptist.]

  5. The education of the settlers and founders of America was uniquely Christian and Bible-based.   ... Christian education at all levels.   All America's early universities -- including Harvard, Wil. and Mar., Yale, and Princeton -- were Biblically Christian in their origins.   Rare was the American of 1776 who did not know the Scriptures.

  6. The Great Awakening was a key factor in uniting the separate pre-Revolutionary War colonies....   As evangelists like Geo. Whi. roamed up and down the eastern seaboard preaching the Gospel, a religious revival occurred that drew the thirteen colonies together spiritually.   ....

  7. The colonial pulpits, especially in New England, played a pivotal role in encouraging independence from Britain.   The Minutemen were generally members of local churches, organized by their pastor....   The pastors' sermons, ... just before election day, informed the people about what was happening politically and what they, as faithful Christians, should do about it.

  8. Christianity played a very important role in bringing about American Independence, including shaping the thinking of President George Washington and other early American heroes such as Samuel Adams, ..., and Patrick Henry, its great orator.

  9. The Declaration of Independence was based on Christian ideas and viewpoints.   The liberties it granted to citizens were understood to come directly from the God of the Bible.   [Jehovah- Jesus.]

  10. The Biblical understanding of the sinfulness of man was the guiding principle behind the United States Constitution.   The Bible was quoted more than any other source in the political writings of America's founding era.   In the First Amendment, the founders presented America with a framework for religious liberty, not a weapon to be used by [unbelievers] against any public expression of Christianity.