Quotations Illustrating America’s Christian Roots

The Sabbath Fellowship (Church of God 7^th Day) ran a series of one-minute messages on two local radio stations using the quotations below. The messages ran a total of seventy times over a seven-day period. The intention was to make the point that contrary to what is frequently said or implied, the church should be influential in all aspects of public life. That point is made by quoting the Founding Fathers and other prominent sources.

If you care to support another series like this one please contact Pastor Ralph Orton at pastor@sabbathfellowshipofgrantspass.org or call 541-479-2440. The following is the template used for each message.

This is pastor Ralph Orton for The Sabbath Fellowship of Grants Pass. America is a great country. But, why has God caused us to be so blessed? It’s simple; we were founded by Christians for Christians on Christian principles. We hear about separation of church and state as if God doesn’t belong in the public forum. But, let’s hear what great men from our past had to say about Church and State!

(One or more quotes went here.)

Always remember, the first amendment provides for: Freedom of religion not freedom from religion!!

This is pastor Ralph Orton. Want to learn more? Call me at 479-2440. Or visit on the web at Sabbath Fellowship of Grants Pass.org

The quotations in Blue were used in the Radio Series, Our Christian Heritage.

1. "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord" Psalm 33:12
2. "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports . . . And let us indulge with caution the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion . . . Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle." President George Washington
3. In 1774, Hezekiah Niles, a British governor, wrote to England about events in America in Principles and Acts of the Revolution in America, "If you ask an American, who is his master? He will tell you he has none, nor any governor but Jesus Christ." This comment became known in the colonies and the rallying cry became "No King but King Jesus."
4. The Declaration of Independence concludes with these words: "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."
5. It has been said that God isn’t mentioned in the United States Constitution. This is not true. This quote is the introduction to the signatures at the bottom of the document. Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the states present the seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven and of the independence of the United States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names,
6. Men must be governed by God or they will be governed by tyrants. William Penn
7. James Madison, (4th president and known as the "chief architect" of the constitution) "We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government; upon the capacity of each and all us to of govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."
8. "Except the Lord build the house, They labor in vain who build it." "I firmly believe this."Benjamin Franklin, 1787, Constitutional Convention
9. "The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His Apostles.... This is genuine Christianity and to this we owe our free constitutions of government."Noah Webster
10. "The reason that Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart."President Thomas Jefferson
11. "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers. And it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest, of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." First Chief Justice of Supreme Court John Jay
12. "I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- God Governs in the Affairs of Men, And if a Sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, Is it possible that an empire can rise without His aid?"Benjamin Franklin
13. "The highest story of the American Revolution is this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."President John Adams
14. "I hold the precepts of Jesus as delivered by Himself, to be the most pure, benevolent and sublime which have ever been preached to man..."President Thomas Jefferson
15. "The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were.... the general principles of Christianity."President John Quincy Adams
16. "Every thinking man, when he thinks, realizes that the teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally-I do not mean figuratively, but literally- impossible for us to figure what that loss would be if these teachings were removed. We would lose all the standards by which we now judge both public and private morals; all the standards towards which we, with more or less resolution, strive to raise ourselves." President Theodore Roosevelt
17. "Without God there is not virtue because there is no prompting of the conscience; without God there is a coarsening of the society; without God democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under." President Ronald Reagan
18. "History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration to ultimate national disaster" General Douglas MacArthur
19. "The secret of my success? It is simple. It is found in the Bible, 'In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths." George Washington Carver.
20. Patrick Henry -  "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 this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here."
21. "A general dissolution of Principles and Manners will more surely overthrow the Liberties of America than the whole Force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader . . . If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security." Samuel Adams, 1779
22. The morality of the country is deeply ingrafted upon Christianity, and not upon the doctrines or worship of other religions. In people whose manners are refined, and whose morals have been elevated and inspired with a more enlarged benevolence, it is by means of the Christian religion. United States Supreme Court, 1811
23. Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament be read and taught as a divine revelation in the school? Where can the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly or so perfectly as from the New Testament? United States Supreme Court, 1844
24. The happiness of a people and the good order and preservation of civil government essentially depend upon piety, religion and morality. United States Supreme Court, 1892
25. Religion must be considered as the foundation on which the whole structure rests. In this age there can be no substitute for Christianity; the great conservative element on which we must rely for the purity and permanence of free institutions. House Judiciary Committee, 1854
26. "The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws...." Noah Webster
27. "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 Scriptures. Ladies and gentlemen, I have a very simple thing to ask of you. I as of every man and woman in this audience that from this night on they will realize that part of the destiny of America lies in their daily perusal of this great book of revelations. That if they would see America free and pure they will make their own spirits free and pure by this baptism of the Holy Scripture." Woodrow Wilson, 1911, pre-Presidential campaign speech
28. "The fundamental basis of this nation's law was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teaching we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul. I don't think we emphasize that enough these days. If we don't have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in the right for anybody except the state." President Harry S. Truman.
29. "Before any man can be considered as a member of civil society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe. And to the same Divine Author of every good and perfect gift [James 1:17] we are indebted for all those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land."James Madison
30. "Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is divine.... Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other."James Wilson, a signer of the Constitution and an original Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court
31. "The Bible is the Rock on which this Republic rests." President Andrew Jackson
32. "I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from the Savior (Jesus) of the world is communicated to us through this book. Abraham Lincoln
33. "The only assurance of our nation's safety is to lay our foundation in morality and religion."Abraham Lincoln.
34. Whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government, because it tends to corrupt the morals of the people, and to destroy good order. Supreme Court of New York, 1811
35. Christianity has reference to the principles of right and wrong; It is the foundation of those morals and manners upon which our society is formed; it is their basis. Remove this and they would fall. Morality has grown upon the basis of Christianity. Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1846
36. Religion, morality, and knowledge are necessary to good government, the preservation of liberty, and the happiness of mankind . United States Supreme Court, 1892.
37. In 1952 the U. S. Supreme Court in Zorach v. Clauson made this extraordinary statement. “We find no constitutional requirement making it necessary for government to be hostile to religion and to throw its weight against the efforts to widen the scope of religious influence.”
38. John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States (1825-1829), wrote to his son, ''The Law given from Sinai [the Ten Commandments] was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code.''
39. Charles Carroll of Carrollton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, to James McHenry on Nov. 4, 1800, "Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure ... are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments."
40. Alexander Hamilton - "The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the Divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.
41. Andrew Jackson - "Go to the Scriptures... the joyful promises it contains will be a balsam to all your troubles."
42. Theodore Roosevelt - "In this actual world, a churchless community, a community where men have abandoned and scoffed at or ignored their religious needs, is a community on a rapid down-grade."
43. Theodore Roosevelt - "To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society."
44. President Thomas Jefferson said, "Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we remove their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath?"
45. "The legislative powers of government reach to actions only, not to opinions." – Thomas Jefferson, "Separation of church and state" letter, Jan. 1, 1802
46. "I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." – Thomas Jefferson, to Benjamin Rush, Sept. 23, 1800
47. 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. From Democracy in America, by Alexis de Tocqueville 1835
48. “The churches of America do not exist by the grace of the state; the churches of America are not mere citizens of the state. The churches of America exist apart; they have their own vantage point, their own authority. Religion is its own realm; it makes its own claims. We establish no religion in this country, nor will we ever. We command no worship. We mandate no belief. But we poison our society when we remove its theological underpinnings. We court corruption when we leave it bereft of belief." President Ronald Reagan
49. Later, at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Samuel Adams commented: "We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His Kingdom come."
50. "Everyone appointed to public office must say, "I do profess faith in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost. In God who is blessed forevermore I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures and the Old and New Testaments which are given by divine inspiration." Delaware Constitution of 1776
51. "The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws...." Noah Webster Do this one.
52. "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 Scriptures. Ladies and gentlemen, I have a very simple thing to ask of you. I as of every man and woman in this audience that from this night on they will realize that part of the destiny of America lies in their daily perusal of this great book of revelations. That if they would see America free and pure they will make their own spirits free and pure by this baptism of the Holy Scripture." Woodrow Wilson, 1911, pre-Presidential campaign speech
53. "Before any man can be considered as a member of civil society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe. And to the same Divine Author of every good and perfect gift [James 1:17] we are indebted for all those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land."James Madison
54. ..." Lastly, our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely be trusted on any other foundation than religious principle, nor any government be secure which is not supported by moral habits." Daniel Webster, 22 December 1820 at Plymouth, Mass.
55. In 1950, the Florida Supreme Court declared: "A people unschooled about the sovereignty of God, the Ten Commandments, and the ethics of Jesus, could never have evolved the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. There is not one solitary fundamental principle of our democratic policy that did not stem directly from the basis moral concepts as embodied in the Decalogue…."
56. The Journal of the U.S. House of Representatives, March 27, 1854, recorded the 33rd Congress' unanimous vote to print Congressman James Meacham's report, Congressman Meacham concluded: "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.
57. Reagan told the Alabama Legislature, March 15, 1982: "The First Amendment was not written to protect the people of this country from religious values; it was written to protect religious values from government tyranny."