1 - The Faith of George Washington

George Washington was well known during his day by both his enemies and colleagues alike for his impeccable moral character.  At the core of his life was his strong faith in God and the Bible.  Washington was known to spend two hours a day reading the Bible and in prayer to God; one hour in the morning and the other in the evening.  This was a practice that he maintained even while he was leading the revolutionary army as the General in America’s war for independence as well as during his tenure as President of the United States.[1] 

The following are excerpts written by Washington in his own personal prayer journal that give evidence to his devotion and faith in God and in Jesus Christ as his Savior.[2]

“O most Glorious God, in Jesus Christ my merciful and loving father, I acknowledge and confess my guilt, in the weak and imperfect performance of the duties of this day I have called on thee for pardon and forgiveness of sins, but so coldly and carelessly, that my prayers are become my sin and stand in need of pardon….”

“I have done thy work, yet it hath been so negligently that I may rather expect a curse than a blessing from thee.  But, O God, who art rich in mercy and plenteous in redemption, mark not, I beseech thee, what I have done amiss; remember that I am but dust, and remit my transgressions, negligences & ignorances, and cover them all with the absolute obedience of thy dear Son….”

The following are excerpts from Washington’s First Inaugural Address as President of the United States delivered on April 30, 1789.  These excerpts give evidence to his belief in the omnipresence and omnipotence of God along with his belief in the need for a nation to follow God’s rules for morality.

“[It] would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes; and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success, the functions allotted to his charge….

I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness….[W]e ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered as deeply, perhaps finally, staked on the experiment intrusted to the hands of the American people….”

[I] shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the Benign Parent of the Human Race, in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquility, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for the security of their union and the advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessings may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend.”

2 - The Faith of Abraham Lincoln

There are number of sources that claim that Lincoln was not a Christian.  These claims are based upon various quotes made by Lincoln throughout his life that do in fact support that belief.  Lincoln was in fact not a Christian for most of his life.  It wasn’t actually until just after the death of his son Willie and around the time that he delivered the Gettysburg Address that Lincoln professed his faith in Jesus Christ. 

At the Lincoln Museum in Washington, D.C., in “The Lincoln Memorial: Album-Immortelles” in the O.H. Oldroyd Collection, Lincoln was recorded as giving the following response to an Illinois clergyman’s question to him, “Mr. President, do you love Jesus?”  Lincoln responded with the following:

“When I left Springfield I asked the people to pray for me.  I was not a Christian.  When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian.  But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ.  Yes, I do love Jesus.”[3]

The two years leading up to his assassination, Lincoln’s speeches clearly reflected a deep faith in God and the Bible.  The following speech is one such example as well as his Second Inaugural Address written on March 4, 1865. 

Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day, March 30, 1863

            Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.  And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.  And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People?

            We have been 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.  We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.  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!  It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. 

            Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30^th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer.  And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.  All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace. 

            In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.  Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.