Thanksgiving is of God
by: ProIsrael
Total views: 122
Word Count: 1517
Lynch v. Donnelly court ruling:
"Our history is replete with official references to the value of invocation of Divine guidance in deliberations and pronouncement of the Founding Fathers and contemporary leaders...President Washington and his successors proclaimed Thanksgiving, with all its religious overtones, a day of national celebration and Congress made it a National Holiday more than a century ago." (Gateways Thanksgiving letter, 2007)
"Our Founders and national leaders consistently invoked the Almighty as the guiding Source of America's blessings and the chief Cornerstone of our liberty and moral rightness." (Israel My Glory, CLP, pg 16, Nov./Dec. 2007)
America's first president, George Washington, was a Pro-Israel, Bible-believing Christian. At a time of Roman Catholic persecution in Spain and Portugal, the Sephardic Jews sought refuge in the New World, to be America. "George Washington became the first head of state to guarantee religious freedom to Jews forever, in 1790. He also promised them full citizenship throughout the land." (Lingen, Marissa, The Jewish Americans: We came to America, 23). George Washington is known for saying, "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible." "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports." (Gipp, Dr. Samuel C.) George Washington is also known to have prayed, "Almighty God,... I beseech thee, my sins, remove them from thy presence, as far as the east is from the west, and accept of me for the merits of thy son Jesus Christ, that when I come into thy temple, and compass thine altar, my prayer may come before thee as incense; and as thou wouldst hear me calling upon thee in my prayers, so give me grace to hear thee calling upon me in thy Word...for his sake, who lay down in the Grave and rose again for us, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen." (Gipp, Dr. Samuel C.)
In 1777, the Continental Congress issued the the first official Thanksgiving Proclamation. President Washinton issued two of them as America's first president. In his Thanksgiving Proclamation, George Washington wanted to be thankful for the many signal favors of Almighty God in the lives of the people. In 1789, he wrote, "Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be that we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country...for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed...and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually...To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best." (Wikipedia)
America's second president, President John Adams, issued two Thanksgiving Proclamations while in office. John Adams is known for saying, "The Bible is the best book in the world."(Gipp, Dr. Samuel C.) He is also known for saying, "Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their own law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited...what a utopia; what a paradise this region would be!" He is also known to have written a letter to Thomas Jefferson dated June 28, 1813, wondering at the "army of fine young Fellows" who sacrificed their lives for their country. (Israel My Glory, CLP, 16, Nov/Dec. 2007)
Although the third president, President Thomas Jefferson, did not make any Thanksgiving Proclamations, he is known for saying that his thoughts were, "the result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from the anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am indeed opposed, but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus Himself. I am a Christian in the only true sense in which He wished anyone to be, sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others..." He is also known to have "authorized prayer at the graduation ceremonies at the University of Virginia, the college he founded." (Israel My Glory, CLP, 16, Nov/Dec 2007)
America's fourth president, President James Madison, issued two Thanksgiving Proclamations. This makes it a total of six Thanksgiving Proclamations during the first thirty years of the United States of America. After 1815, there were no more Thanksgiving Proclamations until President Lincoln. (wikipedia)
During the civil war, America's sixteenth president, President Abraham Lincoln, made two Thanksgiving proclamations.
Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation (infoplease)
Transcript:
Washington, DC October 3, 1863
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well as the iron and coal as of our precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.
In testimony 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 3d day of October, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
Abraham Lincoln
By the President:
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State.
For Public School educators and those intimidated by people who prevent them to speak freely:
****A federal court case that has withstood two attacks by the ACLU:****
The policy reads: "Music, art, literature and drama having religious themes or basis are permitted as part of the curriculum for school-sponsored activities and programs if presented in a prudent and objective manner and as a traditional part of the cultural and religious heritage of the particular holiday." (Gateways Thanksgiving letter)
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