WallBuilders - David Barton

	WallBuilders - David Barton --- a response ---
	a full-length sequel to this clip has been produced by Adullam Films, The Hidden Faith of the Founding Fathers	The Myth Of Separation America's Godly Heritage Wallbuilders {and other publications} by David Burton
	"It is the fable of Jesus Christ, as old in the New Testament, and the wild and visionary doctrine raised thereon, against which I contend." ---Thomas Paine

Cause To Doubt:

Why may we imagine the founding fathers of the United States to have been deists, theists, Freemasons, atheist, but not Christians?

If Christian faith & practice is merely an ingredient (like wheat flour, as example, from which may be added in to help form various things -- even explosives), any person or nation may be taken as Christian just to have near themselves a portion by way of the ideas, philosophy, and the imagery of Christian.

However, to every soul knowing fellowship in Jesus/Yeshua of Nazareth, a selective apportioning of Him would blare and confirm a pretend; a mockery, falsehood and deception. Jesus has said, "I am the Way, the Truth, the Life". [John 14:6] Thankfully, He will not succumb to be part of the way to Life. With Jesus as The Way for you:

Would you rebel against the present or oppressing government,
to bring deadly force upon men made in the image of God,
even for the sake of personal liberties?

Just the thought to do thus would be neither probable, requisite or needful in Christ; it remains blatantly contrary to Christ and the New Testament even to regard rebellion as good.
[Romans chapter 13]

So then we must ask, what may have possibly motivated these men to document a plan for themselves and to take up arms more than 200 years ago? History captured the answer, recording how selected ideas and philosophy from the Bible were grafted-in, along with many other themes, while the dominant locus of these founding fathers for the establishment of a new order was then a new secular order¹.

The paradox, that the foundation and existence of the United States (as with many other nations) proves rabidly contrary to Christ: This is surely to find offense with David Barton, and possibly among thousands more who hold or nurse extended bets placed with an American system imagined to be congenial with the New Testament.

Deposit all personal aspiration with Jesus Christ, becoming His slave in order to know liberty to truly do His will.
OR
Cling to personal liberties that bring market, wage, debt, self-interest and many other forms of enslavement.

The first choice is made by those who will live, the second by those who die as slaves without hope.

Constantine's Ghost:

Did immigrants to America try to build an order of government around their Christian faith? Despite the alchemy of mixing faith with State, yes, some of these did.

"To the glory of His divine Majesty, in propagating of the Christian religion to such people as yet live in ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God."
-- April 10, 1606, from the Charter for the Virginia Colony.

"Considering with ourselves the holy will of God and our own necessity, that we should not live without wholesome laws and civil government among us, of which we are altogether destitute, do, in the name of Christ and in the sight of God, combine ourselves together to erect and set up among us such government as shall be, to our best discerning, agreeable to the will of God"
-- August 4, 1639 - The governing body of New Hampshire.

Taking up the church-in-state error popularized by Roman Emperor Constantine (~1300 years prior), a confusion of government with the Government of Christ was promoted, as from the Great Law of Pennsylvania (1689): Whereas the glory of Almighty God and the good of mankind is the reason and the end of government ... therefore government itself is a venerable ordinance of God...

Government is truly ordained by God [Romans 13], though not as an instrument for faith, of His Church, or with His Salvation for man. Approaching time for the Declaration of Independence, it becomes clear that many of the colonists are seeking to govern themselves while also having our God on board.

"We hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people; are, and of a right ought to be, a sovereign and self-governing association, under control of no other power than that of our God and the general government of Congress."
-- May 20, 1775 - North Carolina, Mecklenburg County Resolutions

As the Declaration was being signed, Samuel Adams said: "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." On the same day, Benjamin Franklin suggested that the national motto be: "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God."²

Will the God of Abraham, or His Christ, partner with a self-governing association? This folly among the American colonists remains as cause for why the power of God, (raising the dead to life, the blind to sight, the sinner to full repentance,...) reliably demonstrated in various places today, is seldom documented in the United States.

Foundation of a Government:

Some of the nation's founding men did ascribe to certain principles commonly associated with Christianity. Yet, because their loyalties and agenda remained divided within themselves, they could not tender or conceive the life of Jesus Christ. Many other things were added to follow, and Christian faith never would congeal as a foundation of the United States. Only a pure foundation in the Rock that is Christ may ever stand.

Thomas Paine, a theist, published his pamphlet Common Sense in January of 1776, which helped turned the tide of public opinion in favor of declaring independence. Paine argued against all forms of monarchy, and quoted Scripture to denounce the concept of monarchy. His later work, Age of Reason, is a treatise on the implausibility of the Bible and the irrationality of Christianity. Paine believed in one God, but rejected all religions, saying: "My own mind is my own church." His pamphlet, An Essay on the Origin of Free Masonry, proposed that Masonry's embodiment of the sun worship of ancient Druidism was a legitimate alternative to Christianity.

John Adams was a Unitarian; open to the teachings of Jesus Christ and others, but not as Christ being the only Way to Life. He exposes his own understanding for the purpose of religion in this quote from a letter to Jefferson:

Twenty times in the course of my late reading have I been on the point of breaking out, "This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion at all!!!" But in this exclamation, I would have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly. Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean hell.

In A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, John Adams wrote:

The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses."

George Washington was a Freemason. In 1791, Washington chose Washington, D.C., and commissioned Pierre Charles L'Enfant to create a plan for the physical layout of the Capitol city. Masonic ceremonies were conducted for Washington's inauguration and the laying of the cornerstone of the Capitol building. On 14 December, Alexander Hamilton submitted proposals for establishing a National Bank, which Washington pushed through. On the American dollar bill was to be printed the Great Seal of the United States. "It is unmistakably Freemasonic: an all seeing eye in a triangle above a thirteen-stepped, four-sided pyramid, beneath which a scroll proclaims the advent of a new secular order, one of Freemasonry's long-standing dreams."³ Plans for the geometry of Washington, D.C., were modified by Washington and Jefferson so as to produce specifically octagonal patterns incorporation the particular cross used as a device by Masonic Templars. The city was laid out in the form of Masonic Symbols such as the Compass, the Rule and the Pentagram. Sitting on top of the White House is an inverted 5-pointed star, or Pentagram. It faces North, with the point down in true occult fashion. Every key Federal building, from the White House to the Capitol Building, has had a cornerstone laid in a Masonic ritual and had specific Masonic paraphernalia placed in each one.

Benjamin Franklin, a Quaker, describes himself from his autobiography as "a thorough Deist." Grand Master Freemason & Rosicrucian Grand Master, Ben was at the heart of operations to take control of America by replacing the visible control of the British Empire with the invisible control of secret brotherhood.

Thomas Jefferson, a Deist, wrote the Declaration of Independence, which opens with a statement of rights deriving, not from the God of Holy Scripture, but from Nature's God and Natural Law.
In The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus (Jefferson's paradigma of His doctrines, cut-and-paste texts from the New Testament), Jefferson describes his views of Jesus Christ, the Christian religion, and of his own faith. In a Syllabus which he appended to his "Bible", he compared the teachings of Jesus to those of the earlier Greek and Roman philosophers, and to the religion of the Jews of Jesus' time. The following excerpt is from a letter Jefferson wrote about his Syllabus:

"But while this syllabus is meant to place the character of Jesus in its true and high light, as no impostor Himself, but a great Reformer of the Hebrew code of religion, it is not to be understood that I am with Him in all His doctrines. I am a Materialist; he takes the side of Spiritualism; he preaches the efficacy of repentance towards forgiveness of sin; I require counterpoise of good works to redeem it, etc., etc. It is the innocence of His character, the purity and sublimity of His moral precepts, the eloquence of His inculcations, the beauty of the apologues in which He conveys them, that I so much admire; sometimes, indeed, needing indulgence to eastern hyperbolism. My eulogies, too, may be founded on a postulate which all may not be ready to grant. Among the sayings and discourses imputed to Him by His biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence; and others, again, of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same Being. I separate, therefore, the gold from the dross; restore to Him the former, and leave the latter to the stupidity of some, and roguery of others of His disciples. Of this band of dupes and impostors, Paul was the great Coryphaeus, and first corruptor of the doctrines of Jesus. These palpable interpolations and falsifications of His doctrines, led me to try to sift them apart. I found the work obvious and easy, and that His past composed the most beautiful morsel of morality which has been given to us by man. The syllabus is therefore of His doctrines, not all of mine. I read them as I do those of other ancient and modern moralists, with a mixture of approbation and dissent..."

Jefferson simply cut out everything supernatural, divine or miraculous; and so, his Bible ends with, "Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus, And rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

Samuel Adams organized the Boston Tea Party, was a mason, a delegate to the Continental Congress, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. In his 1772 work, The Rights of the Colonists, Adams wrote: "The right to freedom being the gift of the Almighty... The rights of the colonists as Christians... may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutions of The Great Law Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament." Clearly, Adams would look to the New Testament with aim to borrow, while the power to do would come from men.

Ethan Allen was an American Officer in the Revolutionary War. With uncertain identification, he has written, "I have generally been dominated a Deist, the reality of which I never disputed, being conscious I am no Christian, except mere infant baptism makes me one; and as to being a Deist, I know not strictly speaking, whether I am one or not."⁴

Patrick Henry is best known for his "give me liberty or give me death" speech on March 23, 1775. One of his most famous quotes, cannot be verified, although it's used by many Christian ministers: "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!" This quote is not found anywhere in Patrick's recorded writings or speeches. A letter to his daughter dated August 20, 1796, illustrates the general trouble of a somewhat concealed testimony, and the confusion drawn:

"Amongst other strange things said of me, I hear it is said by the deists that I am one of the number; and indeed, that some good people think I am no Christian. This thought gives me much more pain than the appellation of Tory; because I think religion of infinitely higher importance than politics; and I find much cause to reproach myself that I have lived so long, and have given no decided and public proofs of my being a Christian. But, indeed, my dear child, this is a character which I prize far above all this world has, or can boast."

James Madison may have found the State more fruitful than Christianity, writing in his Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments, in 1785: "Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise... During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution. ... Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not."

Religious affiliation of U.S. founding fathers reveals little about their genuine belief or practices in faith. To swear to Christ and also to the defense of religious liberty is to assume uncertainty. Concurrently, these men do not appear to have taken up Christ together, but rather to have taken upon themselves the hammering-out of a political, moral and social ideal.

Faith in Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, is not an idea that may be appended to your life nor grafted to your mind. Of these men who thought it so, they died in their sins, leaving behind a new nation to wander afield, far from the Way of Christ.

"My earlier views of the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures, have become clearer and stronger with advancing years and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them."
-- Abraham Lincoln, to Judge J.S. Wakefield

Quote Me On This:

David Barton has issued a statement, conceding that the following quotations attributed to prominent historical figures are either false or at best unconfirmed. WallBuilders' observations about these quotes are noted in parenthesis.

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!
-- Patrick Henry (unconfirmed)

It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.
-- George Washington (unconfirmed)

We have staked the whole future of American civilization, nor upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves ... according to the Ten Commandments of God.
-- James Madison (false/unconfirmed)

Religion... [is] the basis and foundation of government.
-- James Madison (inaccurate)

Whosoever shall introduce into the public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world.
-- Benjamin Franklin (unconfirmed)

The principles of all genuine liberty, and of wise laws and administrations are to be drawn from the Bible and sustained by its authority. The man therefore who weakens or destroys the divine authority of that book may be assessory to all the public disorders which society is doomed to suffer.
-- Noah Webster (unconfirmed)

There are two powers only which are sufficient to control men, and secure the rights of individuals and a peaceable administration; these are the combined force of religion and law, and the force or fear of the bayonet.
-- Noah Webster (unconfirmed)

The only assurance of our nation's safety is to lay our foundation in morality and religion.
-- Abe Lincoln (unconfirmed)

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.
-- Abe Lincoln (unconfirmed)

I have always said and always will say that the studious perusal of the Sacred Volume will make us better citizens.
-- Thomas Jefferson (unconfirmed)

America is great because she is good. and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.
-- Alexis de Toqueville, Democracy in America (not in the book; perhaps in other more obscure writings; unconfirmed)

www.wallbuilders.com/

Whom The Bible Cannot Reach:

The notion that the Bible is addressed to everybody has wrought confusion within and without the church. The effort to apply the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount to the unregenerate nations of the world is one example of this. Courts of law and the military powers of the earth are urged to follow the teachings of Christ, an obviously impossible thing for them to do. To quote the words of Christ as guides for policemen, judges, politicians and generals, is to misunderstand those words completely and to reveal a total lack of understanding of the purposes of divine revelation. The gracious words of Christ are for the sons and daughters of grace, not for the Gentile nations whose chosen symbols are the lion, the eagle, the dragon and the bear. Not only does God address His words of truth to those who are able to receive them, He actually conceals their meaning from those who are not. The preacher uses stories to make truth clear; our Lord often used them to obscure it. The parables of Christ were the exact opposite of the modern pulpit illustration, which is meant to give light; the parables were dark sayings, and Christ asserted that He sometimes used them so that His disciples could understand and others could not. As the pillar of fire gave light to Israel but was cloud and darkness to the Egyptians, so our Lord's words shine in the hearts of His people but leave the self-confident unbeliever in the obscurity of moral night.
[Matthew 13:10-17.]
--Mike D'Andria

America's Cultural Preservationists:

The United States was launched out of intercontinental conflict as a democratic republic. Individualism tends to weaken democratic functions by reducing majority consensus into millions of self-interested parts. During the twentieth century, socialism began to grow within the cultural and political mixture of "America". Advancing dependence upon government (vested by a socialism that banks more than half of all Americans) begs a stable government, while individualism & self-interest is uncooperative toward that stability. History of ancient Rome suggests the outcome of these things.

Comfortable today, or by wanting for more, a number of Americans would seek to preserve the America they desire, and even to imagine their desire as being sacred, justified, efficacious or Christian. But the Christ of Christian America was a fool's counterfeit in their reach for morality and social order; their desire being much about themselves and not genuinely about Him.

from Epistle of Marcus Aurelius To The Senate:

The Emperor Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Germanicus, Parthicus, Sarmaticus, to the People of Rome, and to the sacred Senate greeting: I explained to you my grand design, and what advantages I gained on the confines of Germany, with much labor and suffering, in consequence of the circumstance that I was surrounded by the enemy; I myself being shut up in Carnuntum by seventy-four cohorts, nine miles off. And the enemy being at hand, the scouts pointed out to us, and our general Pompeianus showed us that there was close on us a mass of a mixed multitude of nine-hundred seventy-seven thousand men, which indeed we saw; and I was shut up by this vast host, having with me only a battalion composed of the first, tenth, double and marine legions. Having then examined my own position, and my host, with respect to the vast mass of barbarians and of the enemy, I quickly betook myself to prayer to the gods of my country. But being disregarded by them, I summoned those who among us go by the name of Christians. And having made inquiry, I discovered a great number and vast host of them, and raged against them, which was by no means becoming; for afterwards I learned their power. Wherefore they began the battle, not by preparing weapons, nor arms, nor bugles; for such preparation is hateful to them, on account of the God they bear about in their conscience. Therefore it is probable that those whom we suppose to be atheists, have God as their ruling power entrenched in their conscience. For having cast themselves on the ground, they prayed not only for me, but also for the whole army as it stood, that they might be delivered from the present thirst and famine. For during five days we had got no water, because there was none; for we were in the heart of Germany, and in the enemy's territory. And simultaneously with their casting themselves on the ground, and praying to God (a God of whom I am ignorant), water poured from heaven, upon us most refreshingly cool, but upon the enemies of Rome a withering hail. And immediately we recognized the presence of God following on the prayer -- a God unconquerable and indestructible. Founding upon this, then, let us pardon such as are Christians, lest they pray for and obtain such a weapon against ourselves. And I counsel that no such person be accused on the ground of his being a Christian. But if any one be found laying to the charge of a Christian that he is a Christian, I desire that it be made manifest that he who is accused as a Christian, and acknowledges that he is one, is accused of nothing else than only this, that he is a Christian; but that he who arraigns him be burned alive. And I further desire, that he who is entrusted with the government of the province shall not compel the Christian, who confesses and certifies such a matter, to retract; neither shall he commit him. And I desire that these things be confirmed by a decree of the Senate. And I command this my edict to be published in the Forum of Trajan, in order that it may be read. The prefect Vitrasius Pollio will see that it be transmitted to all the provinces round about, and that no one who wishes to make use of or to possess it be hindered from obtaining a copy from the document I now publish.

endnotes & additional references:
¹ "Novus Ordo Seclorum", [Latin] as printed on the US Dollar Bill, translates as "New Secular Order"; contrast with, "In God We Trust".
² "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." Possibly a distortion of Acts 5:26-29. The rebellion against England's governence was not directly associated with persecution of Christian faith.
³ Michael Baigent & Richard Leigh (1991); Temple and the Lodge. Arcade Publishing. p.261
⁴ Ethan Allen (1784). preface to Reason the Only Oracle of Man.

http://www.constitutionmythbusters.org/375-years-later-constitution-vs-constitution/

http://wordpress.jameswatkins.com/articles-2/heavy/foundingfathers/
A Nation founded upon Christian Values?!