IntroductionIs America Under Judgment from God?  Despite the rewriters of history, the prevaricators, and those who want to say that America was created as a secular nation, the fact remains that in the Mayflower Compact, frequently referred to as America’s founding Document, we see that this nation was founded for the proclamation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, we seem to have come to the point in this nation where almost anything is permitted, and almost anything is tolerated, EXCEPT the proclamation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ! For more than sixty years there has been a systematic attack to eradicate the proclamation and acknowledgment of the Lord Jesus Christ from American public life.  Prayer has been removed from the public schools and there is a continuing ongoing concerted effort to remove public prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ from public life in America. Indeed, the present president even prohibited Franklin Graham from speaking and praying at the National Day of Prayer because he was going to pray “in the name of Jesus”. Bible reading in the public schools was prohibited by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1962, and in 1973 in the famous case of Roe v. Wade the United States Supreme Court without any constitutional authority or, any legislative enactment, permitted mothers to kill their unborn children for any reason! Since 1973 estimates vary as to the number of children who have been killed by their own mothers acting in concert with their physicians, but the estimates of 50 million to 75 million babies exterminated, even at its lowest range, is more than all of the American young men who have died in all of the wars ever fought by this nation to preserve our freedoms! As the decisions of the United States Supreme Court have grown more and more strange, repeatedly striking down laws prohibiting sodomy, and permitting same sex marriage, and declaring that laws that define marriage as an act ordained by God between one man and one woman are unconstitutional, our nation has repeatedly grown more and more like the Northern Kingdom of Israel 700 years before the birth of Christ. These are not matters of politics! While one may not agree with The Bible, God’s Holy Word clearly sets forth the prohibition against such actions. God’s Holy Law given to Moses on Mt. Sinai can be found in the 20th chapter of Exodus. It is not too difficult to understand. God spoke to Moses and said:  “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them, or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For “in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. “You shall not murder. “You shall not commit adultery. “You shall not steal. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; or his male servant; or his female servant; or his ox; or his donkey; or anything that is your neighbor’s.” Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and as they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. [1] The fact that this nation has gone after other gods, bowed down to other gods (who are not gods), taken God’s name in vain, and decimated the Sabbath day is well documented and needs no real explanation. Everyday reveals some new act or acts of children who have failed to honor their father and mother; of heinous and grievous murders that are taking place; of sexual immorality and adultery; of multiple robberies and thefts; and, the multiple instances in which people have perjured themselves, and are baring false witness under oath in the midst of national investigations for example, such as regarding the atrocities that took place in Benghazi where our ambassador was tragically and brutally killed and mutilated, (as well as other brave Americans who sought to protect him); and, as for covetousness, we have made a national industry out of trying to get people to want things that they do not need and to covet all manner of things. None of these things that are set forth in God’s Ten Commandments are mysterious, nor are they difficult to understand. The repeated breaking of God’s Holy Law without any real consequences in this nation, and in some cases even encouraged by governmental action, is simply a matter of the will. Other passages of scripture from God’s Holy Word detail other sins and the consequences of such sin. For example, in Paul’s initial epistle to the church at Corinth we see these words:“… do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. [2]These admonitions are plainly set forth in God’s Holy Word and are not difficult to understand. Virtually no explanation is needed. In fact, these are what some have referred to as being “the plain things of scripture”. Christians have been recreated in Christ Jesus to be holy! Therefore, we are to flee these things. However, what we see, is that these matters are rampant in America today. Israel did not survive such actions! No other nation has survived such abominations! The prophecy of judgment on America has already been given and adopted by our national leaders. Is there any hope for America? Is the same fate that fell on Israel due to fall on America? The answer for America is based on whether America, or more specifically, God’s people will wake up and remember for what we were created, what we were, and the great privilege of eternal life that God has given unto us; whether America, and specifically God’s people, will repent from our personal and national sin in the Lord Jesus Christ; and whether America, and God’s people, will return unto Him. This is the same remedy that the Lord God spoke to King Solomon when he appeared to Solomon in the night before the dedication of the first temple and told him that He (the Lord God) had heard Solomon’s prayer. God spoke to Solomon and said:  “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” [3] This promise given by the Lord God is as applicable today for His temple as it was in Solomon’s time. The significant difference is that Christians are specifically declared by God’s word to be God’s dwelling place, or temple today.I.                    RememberA.      Your Personal RemembranceEach individual Christian should remember and meditate on the fact that he or she, indeed everyone who is not a Christian, was dead in their trespasses and sin and by nature a child of wrath. God who is rich in mercy with his great love where with He loved us has given us a new nature and made us alive in Christ. His word describes this process in the second chapter of Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus. Indeed, Paul points out that “God chose us solely as a result of His sovereign grace. By grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God lest any man should boast.” God himself has chosen us to make us alive in Christ Jesus for the purpose of being holy! We should remember that. We were dead in trespasses and sins and just naturally were children of wrath but now in Christ Jesus we have been made alive. This great gift is for the purpose that we are enabled to live as we ought to live in order “to fulfill the righteousness of the law of God.” We have not been made alive in order to live in some kind of “carefree disregard” for the law of God as some seem to mean when they make statements such as “we are free in Christ” or “we are under grace and not law”. We are free in Christ! That freedom, however, is to live in the manner in which God has called us to live! We are under grace and not law as the means of salvation! 1 Corinthians 6:9 and following shows us clearly that Christians are not to live like children of wrath. Indeed, even as the apostle Paul says, that some of the ones to whom he is writing “had lived like that”, but they had been washed and cleansed, and therefore they were not to live that way anymore. •        The Church at RomeIndeed, in Paul’s great letter to the church at Rome in the eighth chapter he warns the Christians that they are no longer “debtors to the flesh to live after the flesh, for if they live after the flesh they shall die.” Paul is telling them that they have been given this great privilege in Christ Jesus. You too have been given this great privilege in Christ Jesus if you have heard the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ and surrendered your will, in repentance to God, and placed your trust in Jesus alone for your salvation. Therefore, that which Paul wrote to the church at Rome he is also writing to every Christian alive today. The admonition, that is the solemn warning, is that a person cannot simply say that they are a Christian. Paul says that those who “live after the spirit are the [children] of God. Therefore, in effect, Paul is saying if you claim to be a Christian but are living like hell, your claim will not protect you, Hell is where you will be going!•        The Church at EphesusPaul writes substantially the same thing to the church at Ephesus, which you can read in the fourth chapter of Paul’s epistle to the church at Ephesus wherein he says “I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minds, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of Christ through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart”.  As Paul sets this forth you can see that this is the condition of every non-Christian. Therefore, Paul’s admonition is in effect, because you are in Christ do not live like the other Gentiles live. Their minds are empty, confused, and their thoughts are full of futility. Their understanding is darkened and they are alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to hardness of their heart. So Paul says “Don’t live like them!” Earlier in the second chapter of his letter to the church at Ephesus, he calls those Christians to remember what they had been. In the eleventh verse of the second chapter Paul says this:“Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, who are called the un-circumcisioned by that which is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands, remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.” •        The Church at Colosse Finally, we should therefore remember the gift of eternal life which the Lord God has given us through our Lord Jesus Christ. Again the Apostle Paul writing to the church at Colosse says in the third chapter: “If you then have been risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sits on the right hand of the father. Set your affection on things above and not on the things of the earth.” [4] Jesus says that He has given us life and he has given it abundantly. Insofar as you can, see to it that you receive it abundantly. Seek the Lord’s face and seek to “live as becomes the gospel of Jesus Christ.”B.      National Remembrance The Mayflower Compact written by the Pilgrims in 1620 declares in pertinent part “…having undertaken for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith…do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together….” supports the fact that our nation was actually founded for the propagation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first colonial grant made to Sir Walter Riley in 1584 authorized him to enact statutes for the government of the proposed colony that “they be not against the true Christian faith….” additionally, the first charter of Virginia, granted by King James I in 1606… commenced the grant in these words “… in propagating of [the] Christian religion to such people as yet live in darkness….” [5] Despite revisionist Historians, it is clear that the founding fathers simply were not atheist—not even one of them.  Benjamin Franklin, who was probably widely acknowledged to be the least religious said the following to the French: “[B]ad examples of youth are more rare in America, which must be comfortable consideration to parents. To this may be truly added, that serious religion, under its various denominations, is not only tolerated, but respected and practiced. Atheism is unknown there; infidelity [a disbelief in the scriptures and in Christianity] rare and secret; so that persons may live to a great age in that country, without having their piety shocked by meeting with either an Atheist or an infidel.” [6]Clearly we have fallen a long way from Franklin’s statement to the French. The relationship of the Declaration of Independence to the formation of the Constitution was set forth by Samuel Adams where he pointed out:“Before the formation of this Constitution….[t]his Declaration of Independence was received and ratified by all the states in the Union and has never been disannulled.” [7] When it is recognized that the United States Supreme Court in the case of Abington School District v. Schempp  [8] ruled that the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States prohibited Bible reading in the public schools, the comment of Benjamin Rush, one of the founding fathers, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, takes on even more importance as he said regarding the use of the Bible in public schools in America the following: “The great enemy of the salvation of man, in my opinion, never invented a more effectual means of extirpating [extinguishing] Christianity from the world than by persuading mankind that it was improper to read the Bible at schools. [9]  [T]he Bible, when not read in schools, is seldom read in any subsequent period of life….[It] should be read in our schools in preference to all other books from its containing the greatest portion of that kind of knowledge which is calculated to produce private and public temporal happiness.” [10] Patrick Henry talked about the fact that “the Bible is a book worth more than all the other books that were ever printed” [11]  The entire foundation for America’s successful political existence was given by George Washington in is “Farwell Address” when he declared the following: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness.” [12] The founding fathers to a man echoed Washington’s belief that religion and morality were the indispensable supports for good government, political prosperity, and national well-being. President John Adams stated: “We 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.” [13] Indeed, the United States House of Representatives said: “Religion must be considered as the foundation (emphasis added) on which the whole structure rests….in this age there can be no substitute for Christianity; that, in its general principles, is the great conservative element on which we must rely for the purity and permanence of free institutions.” [14]    It is reported that the U.S. House of Representatives in 1854 said “Our founders-as well as subsequent courts and congresses—believed intensely that religion in general, and Christianity in particular, produced the public morality without which civil government would not long survive. On this basis, they neither created nor tolerated acts diminishing Christianity’s effect; to have done so would have been to invite the demise of good government.  No rational government would intentionally commit suicide by destroying its very foundation.” Thus, it is clear, in remembering the foundation principles of this Nation that the misunderstood metaphor of “separation of church and state” is not anywhere to be found in the United States Constitution, in the Declaration of Independence, or in any of the founding documents as it has been quoted by the United States Supreme Court. The United States Supreme Court in the landmark decision of Everson v. The Board of Education [15], allowed the transportation of parochial school children to private religious schools on public school buses in New Jersey but it set the stage through Mr. Justice Hugo Black for the decisions that were to come. In the case of Engle v. Vitale [16] the United States Supreme Court struck down a prayer from a local education board’s policy in New York which required teachers to lead willing students in prayer at the beginning of each school day. The court ruled that such a prayer violated the United States Constitution. What was the prayer? The prayer read, “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon thee, and we bid thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our country.” [17] Less than a year later the US Supreme Court in the case of Abington School District v. Schemp  [18] and its companion case Murray v. Curlet.,id, struck down Bible reading in the public schools. These ungodly decisions have epitomized the course of the United States Supreme Court since the late 1940’s. Essentially the court has struck down every godly law that has been challenged and has upheld every ungodly law that has been challenged. From Roe v. Wade, which first found the “right” to abortion on demand allegedly rooted in the United States Constitution, (of course no such right exists) to Roemer v. Evans [19]  which struck down a Colorado State Constitutional provision which had been approved by Colorado voters in a state wide referendum prohibiting the extension of special rights to homosexuals based upon their homosexual lifestyle, the court has been basically consistent. It epitomized the newly faddish approval of homosexual conduct among the elite classes from which the Justices come and to which most of them respond. Justice Antonin Scalia in a dissenting opinion in Roemer stated the following: “The Court has mistaken a kulturkampf [or cultural dispute] for a fit of spite. The Constitutional Amendment before us here is not the manifestation of a “bare…desire to harm” homosexuals, but is a rather modest attempt by seemingly tolerant Coloradans to preserve traditional sexual mores against the efforts of a politically powerful minority to revise those mores through use of the laws. That objective, and the means chosen to achieve it, are not only unimpeachable under any Constitutional doctrine hither to pronounced (hence the opinion’s heavy reliance upon principles of righteousness rather than judicial holdings); they have been specifically approved by the Congress of the United States and by this court… this court has no business imposing upon all Americans the resolution favored by the elite class from which the members of this institution are selected, pronouncing that “animosity” toward homosexuality is evil. I vigorously decent….” We should remember that Jesus did not die because He was weak. He died because He came to die. He is the creator of the universe and He died for you. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He came for the purpose of giving His life a ransom for yours and for every other person who He has called to Himself. Do you know this? If not make your calling and election certain now. Surrender your will to him. Place your trust in Jesus alone for your salvation. Jesus himself says that He is the Messiah. In John chapter 4 as he spoke with the woman at the well and she described the coming messiah and Jesus said “I am he”. As he spoke to the Pharisees and gave them a somber warning that it would be better for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment that it was going to be for Bethsaida and Chorazin and others he concluded by telling them “come unto me all ye who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” [20]Finally, in remembering where we have been as a nation, President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 looked back on the history of the formation of the country and blessing which we had received as a young country from almighty God. In recapping that history Lincoln said the following:“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God….Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become two self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.” President Lincoln’s views are even more applicable today than they were during the time of the Civil War. Our entire nation needs to repent from these serious, ungodly, national sins. II.                 RepentanceRepentance is the surrender of your will to the Lord’s will. The Greek word for repentance is Metanoia which means “a change of mindset”. Metamorphosis is a change of form such as when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Metanoia is a change of mindset such as when we think we should be headed in one direction and realize that it is the incorrect direction and repent and turn to head in the opposite direction. It literally is like a military about face. Every person in Christ has an initial repentance. That is one part of conversion. But, as we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus we find that there are more needs to repent. The reformers declared that conversion consisted of repentance toward God (that is surrender of your will to the Lord’s will) and faith or trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for your salvation. One must know the great and grand promises and claims of the Lord Jesus Christ. He claims to be God. He claims to be the Messiah.  He claims to be the Lamb (Passover lamb) slain from before the foundation of the world. He claims to be “the way, the truth and the life” and states plainly that no one can come to the Father except through and by Him (Jesus). He is our life, our peace, our hope, our redeemer, our portion, our only mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. He was put to death for claiming to be God. As C.S. Lewis said he is either telling the truth or he is not. If he is not telling the truth he was either a lunatic or a liar. Nothing about his life indicates that he was not telling the truth. Nothing indicated lunacy, nothing indicates that he was lying, therefore, he must have been telling the truth. If he is telling the truth, he is worthy of your trust and your repentance. Have you done that? If not, please do so.In Paul’s letter to the Church at Rome in Chapter 1 he says the following in verse 24:“Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves,’ and then in verse 26 he says:  “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections; for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the women, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.”Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in his commentary on Romans says:“We need not go into these things – alas, unfortunately, we all know more than we should know, perhaps, about them, and our modern world is full of them. Vile affections, horrible perversions! But people are defending them; they are even trying to say there is something marvelous about them, there is something really beautiful! This is not sin, they say. “You are being too harsh in all this!” These perversions are being defended today…. Things which are not convenient, as they are called in verse twenty-eight. That means things contrary to nature, violating the law of man’s physical being! Improper! They are not only fools but they are foul.” [21] In this portion of Romans we also see what the Lord God does about these things: Three times, as if to emphasize the danger of this conduct, he says: “God also gave them up.” (See verses 24, 26, & 28)Dr. Lloyd-Jones states that it is God alone that can preserve morality. And when God withdraws Himself you see what happens; you enter into this vileness and filth and foulness. And that is what they deserve, says Paul. That is the recompense meet for such creatures. God withdraws His restraining grace, and all the foulness and the vileness that is in man as the result of sin is given free scope; it is let loose, and the world becomes a kind of living hell! Is this what is happening in America today? [22]III.               ReturnThe Ten Commandments gives us our direction to return unto the Lord God. The Ten Commandments, which are the law of God, act as our school master to lead us to Christ. It is in the realization that we simply cannot keep God’s law in our own strength that brings us to the Lord Jesus Christ. As a nation, and in many instances as individuals, we have gone after other gods; we have bowed ourselves down to worship other gods. Indeed our own President has bowed himself down to Muslim Kings. We have taken God’s name in vain and further we have attempted to eradicate anything acknowledging the Lord God from public life in America. We have decimated the Sabbath day. It was in fact the failure to keep the Sabbath day and the Sabbath years that ultimately sent Israel into exile, first to the Assyrians and then to the Babylonians. We have become more and more disrespectful to parents and to those in authority over us. There seems to be a disrespect to elders of all kind and particularly to those who proclaim the truth of the Gospel of Christ. We have committed sexual immorality, adultery, both heterosexually and homosexually, which is declared to be an abomination. We have allowed, and indeed in some cases, promoted the abomination of same sex marriages.  We have stolen, murdered, and coveted all sorts of stuff. We have committed the sin of bearing false witness. This cannot be denied in any respect. Whether one agrees that these are national sins matters not. According to scripture they are.The good news is that God gives us these warnings and these judgments to call us to repentance and to return to Him. Indeed, in the same book of Isaiah in the 55th chapter God says the following: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Therefore, the call is to seek the Lord while He may be found. The prophecy of Isaiah 9 and the judgment foretold therein did in fact come to pass. Isaiah 9:13 says “the people did not turn to Him who struck them, nor inquire of the Lord of hosts so the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed in one day” verse 16 says ‘for those who guide this people have been leading them astray and those who are guided by them are swallowed up.”  Jesus Himself warns us that we “be not deceived. Jesus said “take heed lest you be deceived.” There are many in our nation now claiming that all of these actions detailed herein are good. They are deceiving many! Sexual immorality, fornication, homosexuality, abortion, ungodliness, unrighteousness of all kinds, stealing, indeed, redistribution of wealth is a form of stealing—all of these things are being promoted not only as being okay and as a part of national policy but are proclaimed as being good. Do not be deceived! Remember what you were and remember what the Lord God has made you in Christ Jesus. Repent from your own sin and repent from the sins of our nation, pray for our nation and all of those in authority over us that God would grant them repentance unto life and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember God’s word to Solomon at the dedication of the First Temple. Return unto the Lord and to our God that He may have compassion on us individually and as a nation for He will abundantly pardon. He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you and your family and God Bless America that He will turn us back unto Himself. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ that great Shepard of the sheep, by the blood of the everlasting covenant equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, thorough Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be the glory for ever and ever Amen. [23]Your friend and brother,Daniel (William Gray)  ________________________________________ [1] Exodus 20:1-17 [2] 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 [3] 2 Chronicles 7:14 [4] Colossians 3:1-2 [5] Church of the Holy Trinity v. U.S. 143 US 457 (1892) [6] Benjamin Franklin, Two Tracks: Information to those who would remove to America and remarks concerning the savages of North America (London: John Stockdale, 1784), p 24. [7] : (Emphasis added) Samuel Adams, The Writings of Samuel Adams, Harry Elonzo Cushing, Editor (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1908) Vol. IV, p. 357, To the Legislature of Massachusetts on January 17, 1794. [8] 374 US 203 (1963) [9] Rush, Letters, Vol. 1, p. 521, to Jeremey Belknap on July 13, 1789. [10] Benjamin Rush, Essays, pp. 94, 100, ‘A Defense of the use of the Bible as a school book [11] William Wirt, Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry (Philadelphia: James Webster, 1818), p 402. See also George Morgan, Patrick Henry (Philadelphia and London: J.B. Lippencot Company, 1929) p 403 [12] : George Washington, Address of George Washington, President of the United States…preparatory to his declination (Baltimore: George and Henry S. Keating, 1796) pp 22-23 [13] John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, Charles Francis Adams, Editor(Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1854), Vol. V, p229 To the Officers of the First Brigade of the 3rd Division of the Militia of Massachusetts on October 11, 1798. [14] Reports of Committee of the House of Representatives, p.8 (1854) B.F. Morris, in his work on Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States (Philadelphia: George W. Childs, 1864) p. 328 [15] Everson v. The Board of Education 330 US 1 (1947) [16] Engle v. Vitale 370 US 421 (1962) [17] Engle v. Vitale 370 US 422 [18] Abington School District v. Schemp 374 US 203 (1963) [19] Roemer v. Evans 116 S. Ct. 1620 (1996) [20] Matthew 11:28-30 [21] Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Commentary on Romans Chapter 1 pp 389-390 [22] Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Commentary on Romans Chapter 1 p 392 [23] Hebrews 13:20-21 ESV