So The Founding Fathers Weren't Religious?

"We have been recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven, but we have forgotten God...We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace...Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us." Abraham Lincoln

"Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection: that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, and entertain a brotherly love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the United States at large. And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen " George Washington June 14, 1783

" Almighty God, Who has given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove oursleves a people mindful of They favor, and glad to do Thy will. Bless our land with honorable ministry, sound learning, and pure manners.... In time of prosperity fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in Thee to fail; all of which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen" Thomas Jefferson (1805)

"I do therefore recommend a convenient day to be set apart, for the devout purposes of rendering the Sovereign of the Universe, and the Benefactor of Mankind. The public homage due to his Holy attributes; of acknowledging transgressions which might justly provoke the manifestations of His divine displeasure; of seeking his merciful forgiveness, and His assistance in the great duties of repentance and amendment; and, especially, of offering fervent supplications, that, in the present season of calamity and war, He would take the American people under His peculiar care and protection" James Madison (During the War of 1812)'

"The Bible is the rock on which our Republic rests" Andrew Jackson June 8, 1845
Anyone who tells me that the founding fathers weren't religious, and didn't intend religion to be an intergral part of everyday life, is doing nothing but lying to themselves and being disingenuous. Freedom of Religion, not freedom from religion. The Freedom of Religion was specifically mentioned in the context of , when leaving England, the settlers wanted to worship in another Christian form other then Anglicanism, which became the national religion of England. Any other forms of Christianity were forbidden and prosecuted. William Brewster had to flee to America because the Church of England wouldn't allow him to hire preachers who read and taught from scripture, John Robinson was a classically trained Anglican priest, but thought that the church's pomp and circumstance, especially their vestements were misplaced values. And William Bradford concluded that the Anglicans were unbiblical, so he removed himself from it. When they settled, the intent of establishing a "freedom of religion" was never intended to be taking faith out of daily life, that just wasn't part of the cultural landscape at that time. The seperation clause that is so often spoken of was a letter from Thomas Jefferson to The Danbury Baptist Assoc." Thus, the Danbury letter is significant because when taken out of context, it provides the foundation for an absolute separation of church and state. Not only was Jefferson referring to the federal government, but his activities while in office also indicate that he was not an absolutist.'

Turning His Glory Into Shame

"O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame?"—Psalm 4:2.

N instructive writer has made a mournful list of the honours which the blinded people of Israel awarded to their long-expected King. (1.) They gave Him a procession of honour, in which Roman legionaries, Jewish priests, men and women, took a part, He Himself bearing His cross. This is the triumph which the world awards to Him who comes to overthrow man's direst foes. Derisive shouts are His only acclamations, and cruel taunts His only paeans of praise. (2.) They presented Him with the wine of honour. Instead of a golden cup of generous wine they offered Him the criminal's stupefying death-draught, which He refused because He would preserve an uninjured taste wherewith to taste of death; and afterwards when He cried, "I thirst," they gave Him vinegar mixed with gall, thrust to His mouth upon a sponge. Oh! wretched, detestable inhospitality to the King's Son. (3.) He was provided with a guard of honour, who showed their esteem of Him by gambling over His garments, which they had seized as their booty. Such was the body-guard of the adored of heaven; a quaternion of brutal gamblers. (4.) A throne of honour was found for Him upon the bloody tree; no easier place of rest would rebel men yield to their liege Lord. The cross was, in fact, the full expression of the world's feeling towards Him; "There," they seemed to say, "Thou Son of God, this is the manner in which God Himself should be treated, could we reach Him." (5.) The title of honour was nominally "King of the Jews," but that the blinded nation distinctly repudiated, and really called Him "King of thieves," by preferring Barabbas, and by placing Jesus in the place of highest shame between two thieves. His glory was thus in all things turned into shame by the sons of men, but it shall yet gladden the eyes of saints and angels, world without end.

Jesus Struggle in Gethsemane

“Then He said to them, ‘My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.’ ”

Matthew 26:38

In His time of greatest distress, Jesus realized His human weakness and His need to depend on the Father.

As Jesus entered the Garden of Gethsemane with Peter, James, and John, He experienced a more profound anguish over sin and death than ever before. His deep and desolate distress was made more severe when He considered the many personal disappointments that confronted Him. First, there was the betrayal by Judas, one of His own disciples. Then there would be the desertion by the Eleven and Peter’s threefold denial of his Master. Jesus would also be rejected by His own people, Israel, whose leaders would subject Him to all kinds of injustices before His death.
It shouldn’t surprise us, then, that Christ tells His three trusted disciples, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death.” A person can die from such heavy sorrow, which in God’s providence did not happen to Jesus. However, the magnitude of Jesus’ sorrow apparently caused the blood capillaries right under His skin to burst. As more and more capillaries burst from the extreme emotional pressures Jesus endured, blood escaped through His pores, “and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground” (Luke 22:44). Such sweating was just one outward result of what our Lord felt at the excruciating prospect of His having to become sin for us. His holiness was completely repulsed by such a thought.
It was because Jesus did keep watch and look to His Father in prayer that He endured and passed this test in the Garden. Right up to the end, Christ lived His earthly life in total, sinless submission to the Father. As a believer, you also will face times of severe testing and trial when only direct communion with God will give you the strength to prevail. And you also have the added encouragement of Jesus’ example in Gethsemane, the climax of His experiences through which He became a High Priest who can fully “sympathize with our weaknesses” (Heb. 4:15).

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Suggestions for Prayer: Praise God today that Jesus was divinely enabled to withstand the trials and temptations that assaulted Him at Gethsemane.
For Further Study: Read Matthew 4:1–11. Write down several key differences between Jesus’ encounter in the wilderness and His experience in Gethsemane. ² What similarities do you see in Christ’s response to the two situations?
MacArthur, John F., Strength for Today, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books) 1997.