God & the ConstitutionChristian Influence on our Founding Documents.

State Representative

Stephen Meeks

God & the ConstitutionChristian Influence on our Founding Documents.

1. Constitution Timeline2 Christian Influences3. What the Founding Fathers Thought.4. Is the Constitution a Christian Document.

Oct. 4, 1774 - The first Declaration of Independence the town of Worcester, Ma.

April 1775 – Lexington and Concord – Beginning of Military Conflict.

May 1776 - Virginia declared its independence.  

July 4, 1776 - Declaration of Independence.

November 15, 1777 – Articles of Confederation adopted.

March 1, 1781 – Articles of Confederation Ratified.

Winter of 1786-87, inflation of paper money gets out of hand, riots erupt in Vermont and New Hampshire, and Captain Daniel Shays launches a rebellion of angry farmers in western Massachusetts.

Constitution Timeline

May 14, 1787 - Constitutional Convention Begins

Convention begins meeting at Independence Hall. Every state except Rhode Island will eventually be represented. The first two weeks, only two state delegations are present and they have to keep adjourning daily until they can establish quorum.

May 25, 1787 - Reach Quorum

Convention reaches quorum of seven state delegations.

May 29, 1787 - Virginia Plan

Edmund Randolph proposes the Virginia Plan, which provided for a centralized government with representation based on the population of each state.

Jun 4, 1787 - Small States vs. Large States

The question of how to determine each state's representation in Congress emerges:

VA, MA, PA, and NC favor Virginia Plan. CT, NJ, DE, and MD object. Alexander Hamilton of New York favors the Virginia Plan but is rebuffed by his fellow New York delegates, who side with the small states.

Jun 15, 1787 - New Jersey Plan

William Paterson presents the New Jersey Plan. It calls for equal representation regardless of population.

Southerners also abandon their attempts to get each of their slaves counted as a whole person.

Jun 18, 1787 - Hamilton Proposes Executive

Alexander Hamilton presents his plan of constitution. The plan consists of a lifetime term for the president and a very strong executive branch.

Jul 5, 1787 - Connecticut Compromise

After a three-day recess, a committee chaired by Elbridge Gerry votes in favor of the Compromise, which has been proposed by Roger Sherman. It creates a representational lower house and equal representation upper house.

Jul 16, 1787 - Great Compromise Adopted

The Connecticut Compromise is narrowly adopted.PE, VA, SC, GA vote against it. DE, NC, MD, NJ, CT vote for it. Includes the three-fifths compromise.

Jul 16, 1787 - Congressional Veto Rejected

The convention votes down a resolution backed by James Madison to empower Congress with a veto over state laws.

Jul 26, 1787 - The Presidency

On the motion of George Mason of Virginia, the convention resolves there shall be a national executive consisting of one person, who will be chosen by the national legislature for seven years - no second terms.

This blueprint remains in effect until late August, when John Rutledge introduces a motion to elect the president by joint ballot (from the two houses of Congress). Ultimately it is decided that the choice will be given to the House of Representatives alone, so that future presidents will not become mere puppets of the Senate.

Sep 15, 1787 - Convention Adopts Constitution.

Sep 28, 1787 - Congress submits the Constitution to the states.

Dec 7, 1787 - DE, by unanimous vote, is the first state to ratify.

Mar 24, 1788 - Rhode Island Rejects Constitution

Jul 26, 1788 - New York last state to ratify, by a vote of 30-27.

Apr 1, 1789 - First Congress begins in New York.

Apr 6, 1789 - George Washington is elected president.

Sep 25, 1789 - Bill of Rights Proposed

Feb 2, 1790 - The Supreme Court begins its first session.

Mar 1, 1792 - Bill of Rights Enacted.

Birth of A New Government

The Constitution:The Constitution:

Preamble

Article I – Establish Legislative Branch

Article II – Establish Executive Branch

Article III – Establish Judicial Branch

Article IV – Establish balance between Federal and State

Article V – Amendment Process

Article VI – Makes Constitution Supreme Law of the Land

Article VII – Requirements to Ratification

A Perilous Deadlock.

The question of representation puts the entire effort to create a stronger union was in jeopardy.

Eighty-one-year-old Benjamin Franklin, quiet during most of the deliberations, then addressed the group. According to James Madison's notes, here is what happened next.

In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings?

In the beginning of the Contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection.- Our prayers, Sir, were heard, & they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending providence in our favor.

I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.

I therefore beg leave to move-that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that Service-

Mr. SHARMAN seconded the motion.

Mr. HAMILTON & several others expressed their apprehensions that however proper such a resolution might have been at the beginning of the convention, it might at this late day, I. bring on it some disagreeable animadversions. & 2. lead the public to believe that the embarrassments and dissensions within the Convention, had suggested this measure.

It was answered by Docr. F. Mr. SHERMAN & others, that the past omission of a duty could not justify a further omission-that the rejection of such a proposition would expose the Convention to more unpleasant animadversions than the adoption of it: and that the alarm out of doors that might be excited for the state of things within, would at least be as likely to do good as ill.

Mr. RANDOLPH proposed in order to give a favorable aspect to ye. measure, that a sermon be preached at the request of the convention on 4th of July, the anniversary of Independence; & thenceforward prayers be used in ye. Convention every morning.

Dr. FRANKn. 2ded. this motion

After several unsuccessful attempts for silently postponing the matter by adjourng. the adjournment was at length carried, without any vote on the motion.

As it turns out, after the Convention, and nine days after the first Congress convened with a quorum (April 9, 1789), they implemented Franklin's recommendation. Two chaplains of different denominations were appointed, one to the House and one to the Senate, with a salary of $500 each.

Christian Influences on the ConstitutionChristian Influences on the Constitution

God and the Constitution

Is the Constitution a Christian Document?Is the Constitution a Christian Document? You may notice that some Christians avoid the Constitution, with

its absence of God.

I would prefer to see elected officials take their oaths on the Constitution rather than any sacred book.

If the U.S. was founded on the Christian religion, the Constitution would clearly say so-

Not only does the Constitution not give recognition or acknowledgment to Christianity, but it also includes Article VI, which bans “religious tests

Had an officially Christian nation been the goal of the founders, that concept would appear in the Constitution.

Their point seems to be that we should regard the Constitution as a Christian document, not as a secular 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.

Article 7.

A Link to the DeclarationA Link to the Declaration Acknowledgment of the the Lord.Acknowledgment of the the Lord.

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.

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. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

Declaration of IndependenceDeclaration of Independence

If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return in which Case it shall not be a Law.

Article 1. Section 7. Clause 2.

Sunday's Excepted Clause

Jefferson and Madison were the two men mainly responsible for the Virginia Sabbath Law in 1786. It was Bill No. 84 and said:

"If any person on Sunday shall himself be found labouring at his own or any other trade or calling, or shall employ his apprentices, servants or slaves in labour, or other business, except it be in the ordinary household offices of daily necessity, or other work of necessity or charity, he shall forfeit the sum of ten shillings for every such offence, deeming every apprentice, servant, or slave so employed, and every day he shall be so employed as constituting a distinct offence." (The Papers of Thomas Jefferson 555)

Article VI, paragraph 3:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

Article 19 of the Arkansas Constitution

Section 1Atheists Disqualified from Holding Office or Testifying as WitnessNo person who denies the being of a God shall hold any office in the civil departments of this State, nor be competent to testify as a witness in any Court.

Oaths

Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice?

Address to the Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church in North America, October 9, 1789.

George Washington

Deuteronomy 10:20

Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name.

Oaths: A check on power.Oaths: A check on power.

One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law. . . . There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundations. . . . I verily believe Christianity necessary to the support of civil society.

Justice Joseph Story “Father of American Jurisprudence.” 

In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Isaiah 33:22

For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us.

Separation of Powers

A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power by dividing and distributing it into different depositories . . . has been established."

George Washington in his "Farewell Address"

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint. . . . [T]he infamy of a bad action is to be divided among a number than . . . to fall singly upon one.

Alexander Hamilton

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.

Benjamin Franklin

and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other.

[W]e have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . . Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

President John Adams 

"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself."

Deuteronomy 17:15

Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.

Article 2: Section 1:

No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

Article III, Section 3

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

Deuteronomy 17:6

At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.

Article 1, Section 8

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

Deuteronomy 14:22

Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year.

"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.“

Patrick Henry

Joshua 24:15

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Freedom to Choose.

What did the Founding Father's think?What did the Founding Father's think?

Was God involved in the Constitution?

I have a tender reliance on the mercy of the Almighty, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a sinner. I look to Him for mercy; pray for me.” [July 12, 1804 at his death]

"For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests." [1787 after the Constitutional Convention]

Alexander Hamilton

It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty Hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the Revolution.

James Madison

I beg I may not be understood to infer that our general Convention was Divinely inspired when it formed the new federal Constitution . . . yet I must own [admit] I have so much faith in the general government of the world by Providence that I can hardly conceive a transaction of such momentous importance . . . should be suffered to pass without being in some degree influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent Ruler in Whom all inferior spirits “live and move and have their being” [Acts 17:28].

Benjamin Franklin

I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring of inspiration, but I am as perfectly satisfied that the Union of the States in its form and adoption is as much the work of a Divine Providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament.

Benjamin Rush

Signers of the Constitution on the Bible

Remember...that you are the redeemed of the Lord [Eph 1:7] – that you are Bought with a price [I Cor. 6:20], even the inestibable price of the precious blood of the Son of God...Aquaint yourselves with Him in His word and holy ordinances.

William Samuel Jackson

Our all-gracious Creator, Preserver, and Ruler has been pleased to discover and enforce His laws by a revelation given to us immediately and directly from Himself. This revelation is contained in the Hold Scriptures.

James Wilson

The Holy Scriptures...can alone secure to society order and peace, and to our courts of justice and constitutions of government, purity, stability, and usefulness...Bibles are strong entrenchments. Where they abound, men cannot pursue wicked courses and at the same time enjoy quiet conscience.

James McHenry

Constitution Facts

America is the richest, freest, and most powerful country in the world, with the longest-lived constitution. The second oldest is Belgium's, from 1831, followed by Norway's, from 1841. There are only four other countries that have constitutions written before the twentieth century: Argentina in 1853, Luxembourg in 1868, Switzerland in 1878, and Columbia in 1886.

Historians generally agree that the first constitution to include language creating a governing, political entity was the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut in 1639; it is known that the first constitution that used the word "constitution" was Virginia's Constitution of 1776.

The mean lifespan across the world since 1789 is 17 years. Interpreted as the probability of survival at a certain age, the estimates show that one-half of constitutions are likely to be dead by age 18, and by age 50 only 19 percent will remain. Infant mortality is quite high—a large percentage, approximately 7 percent, do not even make it to their second birthday.

Latin America: 12.4 years.Africa: 10.2 years -with 15 percent perishing in their first year of existence. Western Europe: 32 years Asia: 19 years.

Indeed, the average citizen outside of North America and Western Europe should expect to see her country cycle through six or seven constitutions in her lifetime.

- Thomas Ginsburg, Zachary Elkins, and James Melton Chicago School of Law

Is the Constitution a Christian Document?Is the Constitution a Christian Document? You may notice that some Christians avoid the Constitution, with

its absence of God.

I would prefer to see elected officials take their oaths on the Constitution rather than any sacred book.

If the U.S. was founded on the Christian religion, the Constitution would clearly say so-

Not only does the Constitution not give recognition or acknowledgment to Christianity, but it also includes Article VI, which bans “religious tests

Had an officially Christian nation been the goal of the founders, that concept would appear in the Constitution.

Their point seems to be that we should regard the Constitution as a Christian document, not as a secular document.

The U. S. Constitution's lack of a Christian designation had little to do with a radical secular agenda. Indeed, it had little to do with religion at all. The Constitution was silent on the subject of God and religion because there was a consensus that, despite the framer's personal beliefs, religion was a matter best left to the individual citizens and their respective state governments (and most states in the founding era retained some form of religious establishment). The Constitution, in short, can be fairly characterized as "godless" or secular only insofar as it deferred to the states on all matters regarding religion and devotion to God.

-David Barton, Wallbuilders

Is the Constitution a Christian Document?Is the Constitution a Christian Document?

God & the ConstitutionChristian Influence on our Founding Documents.