What did our Founding Fathers Believe

Wow! what a year 2009 was. For the first time in a very long time the sleeping giant called "Grassroots America" woke up.

All of this upheaval of the past year stirred me up, as it did many of you, and it got a string of thought going. Thoughts of who was involved in the beginning and why they even cared enough to start this wonderful mess we call HOME.


During the research to find the answer I found 250 men credited with starting this place we call the "United States of America". Not just the 5 or 6 we hear so much about today. Collectively they are often referred to as our founding fathers. But what is a "founding father" and what did they believe?

The traditional definition of a founding father is 'a person who made a substantial impact on the birth and founding of America as an independent nation'. Men such as Thomas Jefferson, John Witherspoon, Benjamin Rush, and others who had direct influence on one or more of the 4 founding documents of this country. Or men such as Patrick Henry whose life was given in service to the creation of this country.

What drove these men to believe as they did. Some say they were just men wanting to fill their own pockets. Some say they were a bunch of atheists and deists who wanted to break from the established church of the time.

But really who are they and what did they believe?

To really understand something or someone you must look at the totality of information and take it in its context. Especially their own writings. When this is done you will find these men to be of a very strong belief that they were divinely motivated to begin something the world had never seen before.

The amount of both information and disinformation is astounding. There are over 100,000 books, letters, documents, and journals full of words. However, what I wanted was what they said themselves not what others, often with a personal agenda, had to say about them.


One of the 5 or 6 six we here so much of today was Benjamin Franklin. Many will say he was an atheist or at the least a deist. Yet Franklin was adamant about teaching Christ in public schools, started a movement to raise church attendance, and was the one who called for prayer and the establishment of chaplains at the Constitutional Convention. Are these the actions of an atheist or deist?


Another of the 5 or 6 is Thomas Jefferson. But you will find a great deal of his agenda and writings included a demand that the Almighty be included in all aspects of life. Especially the government. In November of 1800, as President of the Senate, he approved the legislation to hold bible studies at the capitol building. He even negotiated treaties with the demand that provisions be made to include Christian missionaries as a part of the agreement. The treaty was ratified by the Senate.


John Witherspoon was an ordained gospel minister, wrote several books on sermons, and two American Bible translations.


Charles Thompson took 25 years to painstakingly translate the Greek Septuagint into English.


John Hancock wrote many state proclamations calling for fasting and prayer.


John Trumble wrote state proclamations calling for the collection of money from state funds to support missionaries to preach the gospel. They were passed.


This could go on and on. But let me leave you with this last one...


Richard Stockton gave his life for this country. He was captured by the British and beaten and starved. When Washington negotiated his release he lived but a very short time due to this foul treatment. 

In his Last Will and Testament he says "I think it proper not only to subscribe to the entire belief on the great and leading doctrines of the Christian religion, such as the being of God; the universal defection and depravity of the human nature; the Divinity of the person and completeness of the redemption purchased by the blessed Savior; ... of divine faith accompanied with an habitual virtuaous life;... but also;... to exhort and charge [my children] that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom."


Who were these men? Men of great passion and strong belief in the Almighty.


I challenge you to check this out for yourself.