by Steve Hale
Much ado has been made in the current era about the founding of our nation. Historical revisionists claim that our nation was not founded on biblical principles, but was a conglomeration of thought of deists, agnostics, and fundamentalists.
The University of Houston asked the same thing, and engaged in a ten year study of the constitution. In that study, they wanted to find out where the ideas that comprise the U.S. constitution originated.
In that study, the scholars examined 15,000 documents of the Founders, and narrowed these down to 3,154 that had a direct impact on the constitution. What they found was startling.
The three men most often quoted by the Founders were:
1. Montesquieu; 2. Blackstone; 3. Locke
However, four times more than Montesquieu, twelve times more than Blackstone, and sixteen times more than Locke, the Founders quoted from the Bible! In fact, 34% of all quotes found in the constitution originated from the Bible. Another 60% of the principles given the Founders in the constitution originated from the Bible. Without the Bible then, we would not have 94% of the constitution!
This is the very Bible which now cannot be read in the Public Schools. In Abington vs. Schempf, June 17, 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the reading of the Bible in our Public Schools. What's next? Will they outlaw the reading of the Constitution, since almost all of it originated from the Bible?
52 of the 55 Founders of the Constitution claimed to be Christian! As these men sweated in the sweltering May heat of 1787 in the Old State House in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin, now 81 years old, addressed the assembly. Before the convention and its chair, General George Washington, he said: "...I have lived a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I "see of this truth -- that God governs the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground unseen by Him, is it possible that an empire could arise without his aid?"
Franklin moved that prayers be held at the beginning of each day's deliberations. But, the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed prayers at Public Schools m
Engel vs. Vitale, June 25, 1962! Would they have stopped the Founders from praying about their work?