Hi, I'm David Bercot, and tonight we're going to be talking about the faith of George Washington. Let's first talk about George Washington, the man. From purely a human secular standpoint, George Washington was one of the greatest men of all time. He's certainly, in my opinion, the greatest American. And I think he was our greatest president. Again, I'm not talking about from a Christian sense, but if you're just looking at it from a secular sense. Now why do I hold him with such regard?
There were other generals in history who were certainly more effective generals than he was and who won enormous victories and either started a new kind of government or created a new empire. I think of men like Oliver Cromwell, Napoleon, Alexander the Great, and Julius Caesar. George Washington stands in contrast with those men because he relegated his own personal ambitions to what was best for his country. Those other four men were not able to let go of power once they had it.
George Washington was also a man of high integrity and high morals. And I think I can say that without George Washington, there may not have been a United States of America, at least not as we know it today. I mean, number one, he kept the Revolutionary War alive. He figured out a way to win it. But more importantly, is that he stepped down from his command at the end of the American Revolution. Men like Oliver Cromwell and Napoleon and Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, see, they were not able to do that.
Once they had the power, they were not going to let go of it. In fact, at the end of the war, before anyone knew what George Washington would do, King George III of England said that if George Washington stepped down from his command and walked away from the power he had, he was the greatest man on earth. And then that's exactly what George Washington did do. He really didn't have any great political ambitions.
He was one of the few presidents that we have who served primarily out of a sense of duty, not because he particularly wanted the office. I think he would have definitely been happier to just live out his days at Mount Vernon and be a successful plantation owner. But the truth is, is that when the founding fathers were drafting the Constitution, the Office of the President that was described in the Constitution was drafted with everyone in that room figuring that George Washington would be that first president.
And George Washington set a precedent for all future presidents, how he dressed. How was he addressed? Was he sir, somebody or other or your majesty, your highness, anything like that? No. See, he didn't want to be addressed that way. He didn't dress in fancy rich robes. He set a precedent in what kind of house the president should live in. Now he never personally lived in the White House, but he set the pattern for it in that he did not want to live in a lavish palace like the kings and queens of Europe.
If you've ever visited either Mount Vernon or the White House, you'll no doubt come away impressed with how relatively small they are and that they're nothing like the palaces of Europe if you visited any of the restored palaces that are there. Another huge thing that George Washington did that has affected our country ever since is that he stepped down from office after serving two terms. And that set a huge precedent.
If George Washington was willing to only serve two terms and felt that was the safest thing for the country, well, no one following him had the audacity to say, oh, I'm going to serve three terms or four terms or something like that. Not until you get to FDR, Franklin Roosevelt. And then after he died in office, not too long after that, a constitutional amendment was passed that did limit the term of presidents to two terms, which again, that was set by George Washington.
It was not a provision in the original Constitution. He could have run and stayed in office his entire life with the understanding he didn't have any sons, but with the understanding that some relative would take over in his place. And he didn't want that to happen. And so it was his personal lack of ambition, his personal willingness to walk away from power that set the pattern for our nation that we benefit from today.
Because what happens in democracies when presidents don't have a term limit is that eventually they get enough power that they can control everything, the legislature and the courts. They never step down and you essentially have a dictatorship. Also, George Washington was special, and I don't think any other president you could even say this about, and that is he was above politics. He wanted a country without political parties.
He didn't get that, but that is what he wanted and what he fought for during the time he was in office. I now want to talk about George Washington's faith. Since I admire George Washington, I would very much like to say, hey, he was a conventional Christian. Now, if you consider a person to be a Christian, if he simply believes in God, was baptized as an infant, attends church, and lives an upright moral life, well then yes, George Washington was a Christian. If that's how you look at Christianity, then fine.
You can call him a Christian. The problem is that the very people who care so much about this issue, that would be evangelical Christians, are the very people who have a very narrow definition of Christianity. They would say that the type of person I just described is not a Christian. In fact, they're very emphatic that those things don't make you a Christian.
The fact you go to church, the fact you were baptized as a baby, the fact that you live a good life, the fact you believe in God, they would say that doesn't make you a Christian. In fact, they say if you can't point to a day and hour when you were born again, then you're not a Christian. And George Washington certainly had no born again experience or a day and time he could say I was born again. They say that if you think you're saved through good works and not by faith alone, then you're not a Christian.
They say if you don't believe in the Trinity, you're not a Christian. And many of them would say if your only baptism was that of an infant, then you're not a Christian either. So let's be honest with each other. If you believe that those things I've just mentioned are essential things that make someone a Christian, then George Washington was definitely not a Christian.
Let's not have a double standard here that we want to call great men like George Washington Christians and be able to claim them as one of us when we would not consider other people living around us who would have the same spiritual faith as being Christians. Now it doesn't bother me if you want to come to a different conclusion about George Washington, his spiritual standing, whether we can rightly call him a Christian or not, if you come to a different view than I do.
All I ask is that we look at the evidence honestly and objectively, and then you can form your own conclusion. Let's begin by talking about what resources we have. And I'm talking about primary sources, not about going to a history book or a website or a book like The Light and the Glory, something like that. By primary sources, I'm talking about things that are original documents, things like letters of George Washington, speeches that he gave, his diary, which is actually six volumes. It's a considerable work.
His actions as testified by people who were around him who knew him well. And what his pastors had to say about him. Those are the primary sources I'm referring to. Now, as I mentioned last night, oftentimes you can find these things on various websites, or you'll find a quotation from them. And then if you do further research, you can actually get the document itself, a copy of a letter or of a speech he gave, things like that. Some of these resources I was only able to find in our university library.
I have not been able to find them online. Okay, now when I went to these resources, I had no idea what category to put George Washington in. I just wanted to look at the evidence. What I found out is that he was an Episcopalian. He definitely believed in God and in God's providence. Specifically, he believed that God's providence had saved his life during the French and Indian War, and that God's providence helped the colonists to defeat Great Britain.
I use the term " providence " because that's the way he usually referred to God. During his presidency, George Washington attended church on most Sundays. George Washington believed that religion and morality play an important role in society. So he wanted to see strong churches in every community. In fact, he wasn't opposed to laws that would require everyone to pay taxes that would go to support the church of their choice.
Now, of course, the Constitution didn't allow Congress to do that, but the states were still allowed to do that if they chose to do so. And as I said, Washington would be in favor of such a law. Washington was in favor of Christianizing the Indians. Okay, those are things that are on his plus side spiritually. And like I say, if you want to turn him into a Christian, you can take things from that, references from his speeches, et cetera, and say, see, he was a Christian.
But there were other things I saw from going to these primary sources. One was that he almost never talked about his personal religious beliefs. No one really knows what he believed about Jesus or the Trinity or salvation. And I would have to say that that is quite strange for someone who is truly born again, who has a genuine relationship with Christ. And the problem is not a lack of letters or diary or other documents. We have all of that. Is that he just never said what he believed about those things.
Now, although Washington sometimes makes references to God in his letters, it's usually in terms like providence or heaven or the supreme architect of the universe. It's never in any kind of intimate way. And I don't recollect ever finding a reference to Jesus in his writings. Now I may have overlooked a reference here or there, but you would have to read an awful lot if there is one to find it.
Now those things don't prove he was not a Christian, but they create some strong doubts in my mind because he refers to God the same way that Thomas Jefferson and other Deists referred to God as providence or heaven rather than an intimate sense. But the things that persuaded me the most and the reasons why I classified George Washington where I do are letters written by two of the pastors that he had and from reading George Washington's diary.
And I'd like to read to you these same things that I read that brought me to the conclusions I've made. This first one is a letter from Dr. James Abercrombie. It was written in 1831 after George Washington had been dead for a while and a number of people were searching into what was the faith of the Founding Fathers. Now this Dr. James Abercrombie had been the assistant minister at Christ Church in Philadelphia.
And during the time that George Washington was president, he lived in Philadelphia and that was the church he attended. So this minister personally knew George Washington. And this is the letter that he wrote in response to an inquiry about Washington's religious practices.
He says this: " With respect to the inquiry you make, I can only state the following facts: that as pastor of the Episcopal Church, observing that on sacramental Sundays, General Washington, immediately after the desk and pulpit services, went out with the greater part of the congregation, always leaving Mrs. Washington with the other communicants. She invariably being one.
So I considered it my duty in a sermon on public worship to state the unhappy tendency of example, particularly of those in elevated stations who uniformly turned their backs upon the celebration of the Lord's Supper. I acknowledge the remark was intended for the president, and as such, he received it.
A few days after this sermon, in a conversation with, I believe, a senator of the United States, the senator told me he had dined the day before with the president, who in the course of conversation at the table said that on the preceding Sunday, he had received a very just reproof from the pulpit for always leaving the church before the administration of the sacrament, that he honored the preacher for his integrity and candor, that he had never sufficiently considered the influence of his example, and that he
would not again give cause for the repetition of the reproof.
And that as he had never been a communicant, were he to become one then, it would be imputed to an ostentatious display of religious zeal, arising altogether from his elevated station. Accordingly, he never afterwards came on the morning of sacramental Sunday, though at other times he was a constant attendant in the morning. End quote. Now, you may or may not grasp the significance of what this pastor was saying.
I used to be an Anglican, so I well understand how important communion is to an Anglican or an Episcopalian. It's the center of the service. In fact, if you're sick in bed at home, the minister or a deacon will come and bring communion to you. That's how important it is in a sacramental church like the Anglican Church. So for George Washington to never take communion and to state that he had never been a communicant is basically saying that I'm not a believer. Again, he obviously believed in God. We know that much.
And he had enough appreciation for church that he went there regularly during his presidency. And although he attended not every Sunday, but on a fairly regular basis during much of his life, it's hugely significant that he never took communion. And that even when he was reproved for this, rather than changing his life and coming to a relationship with Christ where he would want to take communion, that he would just skip church on the Sundays when they were having communion.
Now today it's pretty typical for an Episcopal or Anglican church to have communion every Sunday, but at that time it might be every other Sunday or even once a month that they would have communion. And this isn't just an isolated testimony. We also have a letter written by William White, who was a bishop in the Anglican and the Episcopal Church, and he served as rector of Christ Church when Washington was residing in Philadelphia, which he did, I think, during virtually his entire presidency.
And again, someone had written him inquiring about Washington's faith and spirituality, and in response, he wrote this letter. The father of our country, during the Revolutionary War, as well as during his presidency, attended divine service here at Christ Church in this city, which is Philadelphia, except during one winter, when being here for the taking of measures with Congress towards the opening of the next campaign, he rented a house near St. Peter's Church, then in union with Christ Church.
During that season, he attended regularly at St. Peter's. His behavior was always serious and attentive. But as your letter seems to intend an inquiry on the point of kneeling during service, I owe it to the truth to declare that I never saw him in that posture. During his presidency, a vestry provided him with a pew, not 10 yards in front of the pulpit. It was habitually occupied by himself, by Mrs. Washington, who was regularly a communicant, and by his secretaries. That's the end of that letter.
So the one minister talked about the fact that George Washington never received communion, and his other minister said he never saw him even kneeling during service. And again, having been an Anglican, unless you're there just more as an observer, you spend a lot of the service on your knees because there are a lot of prayers in the service that the congregation is supposed to pray along with the minister.
So for George Washington to attend church and never receive communion, never be observed on his knees praying, I guess I ask you, does that sound like someone who's born again and has a close relationship, a living, vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ? It certainly doesn't to me. Actually, before I ever came across those letters from the two ministers, I realized that it was extremely unlikely that George Washington was a born-again Christian.
The reason I say that is because I spent an entire afternoon at my university's library reading the diaries of George Washington. Now I haven't read every page of his diaries because they comprise six large volumes. However, I've read large portions from each of the six volumes. And the thing that I immediately noticed was the complete absence of any reference to God, let alone to Jesus Christ. I read page after page and nothing.
Well, after several hours of that and finding nothing, I started reading just the entries in his diaries for Sundays. But again, I found the same thing. Except for when he was president, I found very few references to his even attending church. And when he did attend, there's never a reference in his diary concerning what the sermon was about. There's not even a mention about the music or the service or anything else to indicate that he got anything out of it.
In fact, throughout all six volumes, I never found a reference about prayer, about God, about any spiritual subject. Now, a diary carries much more weight than letters and speeches, because it's easy to add spiritual dressing to letters and speeches, because you're aware of the impression that they will make on others. And certainly in all Western countries at that time, public figures were expected to believe in God and to make mention of him in his speeches and letters.
So like I say, it's easy to dress those things up, but when you're keeping a diary, you're not expecting anyone else to ever read it. The whole point of what you're doing is making a personal record of your true inner feelings and the things that you consider important. What I want to do now is to read you some typical entries in his diary for various Sundays so you can see what I'm talking about.
What I've done is just to pick a couple of months totally at random and to read to you the Sunday entries for those months. Now first I'm going to read you a random entry for a day other than Sunday so you can get a flavor of what a typical daily entry reads like and they are very, very similar. Here's one from Saturday, July 8th, 1786. He writes, " Mercury at 74 in the morning, 78 at noon, and 77 at night.
Clear and warm with very little wind till about 2 o'clock, when a black and extensive cloud arose to the westward, out of which much wind issued with considerable thunder and lightning and a smart shower of rain. I rode to the ferry, muddy hole, and neck plantations, finished cutting the rye about noon at the latter, and set into the wheat adjoining immediately after. Should have finished cutting and securing in shocks the wheat at Muddy Hole this afternoon, had it not been for the interruption given by the rain.
Okay, and like I said, you could read pages and pages and they would read very similar to that one. From here after I'll leave out the weather report so that this doesn't get tedious. Now I'm going to read you the entries for all of the Sundays for the month of July 1786. Sunday the 2nd. About noon, I set out for the intended meeting to be held tomorrow at the Seneca Falls. Dined at Colonel Gilpin's, we're meeting with Colonel Fitzgerald, we proceeded all three of us to Mr. Brian Fairfax's and lodged.
Sunday the 9th. Dr. Stewart, Mrs. Stewart, and Betsy and Patsy Custis came here to breakfast and Dr. Craik to dinner, the last of whom went away in the evening. Sunday the 16th. Dr. Craik came here in the forenoon, dined and returned afterwards. Now you might not be familiar with that term forenoon. I wasn't myself. It's just another name for morning. Now, I noticed a lot of entries about this Dr.
Craik, and I thought maybe he was a minister that George Washington was having this minister over on a lot of the Sundays. But then after doing some research, I learned that he was actually George Washington's personal physician, and he was a good friend. Okay, I'll keep reading Sunday the 23rd. Mr. Powell, Mr. Porter, and Miss Ramsey and Miss Craik came here to breakfast from Alexandria and returned again after dinner. Sunday the 30th. Cool and pleasant with the wind at east.
And that's it for all of the Sundays for July 1786. No mention of going to church. No mention of any spiritual subject. All right, December 1787. I actually picked the month of December because I thought, well, with Christmas being in that month, maybe there will be an entry about the birth of Jesus or something like that. Start with Sunday the second. He writes, " At home all day, Mr. G.W. Lewis and George Steptoe, Washington, who with Mr.
William Booth came here yesterday to dinner, returned this afternoon to their respective homes. Sunday the 9th, Colonels Fitzgerald and Gilpin, Captain Conway and Mr. Herbert, Mr. Hartshorne and Dr. Craik Jr. came here to dinner and return afterwards. Sunday, the 16th, nothing there other than the weather. Sunday, the 23rd, at home all day. Sunday, the 30th, Dr. Craik and Mr. O. Kelly went away after breakfast. And about 11 o'clock, Mr.
Paradise and his lady lately from England, but now of Williamsburg, came in on a visit. For the entire month, there's no indication that he even went to church. And the entries for Christmas Eve and Christmas. Again, no mention at all about either church, about the birth of Jesus Christ, nothing. For Christmas Eve, he just has the general entries describing the work on the plantation. And then for Christmas Day, just the weather report. Doesn't even mention it's Christmas. Another month, April 1788. Sunday the 6th.
Sent my two jackasses to the election at Marlborough in Maryland that they might be seen. And when I first read this, I thought, oh, George Washington had a sense of humor. I always liked people with a sense of humor. I thought he was maybe talking about two simpletons who maybe were relatives of his who were running for public office. But it turns out he's actually talking about two donkeys. And since people came together for the election, this was actually a vote on ratifying the Constitution.
He figured this would be a good time to display his donkeys. They were prized donkeys that he was advertising for stud services. Okay, Sunday the 13th. Aha, went to church in Alexandria, accompanied by Colonel Humphreys, Mr. Lear, and Washington Custis, brought Harriet Washington home with us, who had been left at Abington and came to church with Mrs. Stewart. So he did go to church that day, but it sounds like the main reason was because he had to meet his relative Harriet Washington. Sunday the 20th, Mr.
Herbert, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Findell, and Dr. Stewart came here to dinner and returned afterwards. Mrs. Stewart and her three daughters came to dinner and stayed all night. Sunday the 27th. No entry except for the weather report. Well, next I picked July 1787 because this was the month that George Washington was at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. I thought, okay, maybe when he's in a more public setting, we would find him going to church. He says this for Wednesday, July 4th, visited Dr.
Chauvat's anatomy figures and the convention having adjourned for the purpose went to hear an oration on the anniversary of independence, delivered by a Mr. Mitchell, a student of law. After which I dined with the State Society of the Cincinnati at Epileast Tavern and drank tea at Mr. Powell's. Sunday the 8th. About 12 o'clock road to Dr. Logan's near Germantown where I dined. Returned in the evening and drank tea at Mr. Morris's. Sunday the 15th dined at Mr. Morris's and remained at home all day.
Sunday the 22nd left town by 5:00 a.m.. Had breakfast at General Mifflins, rode up with him and others to the spring mills and returned to General Mifflins by dinner after which proceeded to the city. Thought, okay, maybe this was going to church that they went up to spring mills, but it was an actual mill. And in fact, the owner of it had his own diary, and this is what he wrote for that day.
This day, General Washington, General Mifflin, and four others of the convention did us the honor of paying us a visit in order to see our vineyard and bee houses. In this, they found great delight, asked a number of questions, and testified their highest approbation with my manner of managing bees. And then Sunday, the 29th, dined and spent the whole day at Mr. Morris's principally in writing letters.
As I've mentioned, the entries in George Washington's diary during the years that he was president indicate that he attended church fairly regularly on Sundays during his presidency, except when he was traveling. Now here are just some random entries for various Sundays between the years 1789 and 1791 when he was in office. The first one, Sunday the 17th.
Colonel Ashe, the representative of the district in which this town stands and several other gentlemen called upon me and invited me to partake of a dinner which the inhabitants were desirous of seeing me at, and accepted it, dined with them accordingly. Sunday, May 1st, left Georgetown about six o'clock and crossing the Santee Creek at the town and the Santee River 12 miles from it at Lynch's Island, we breakfasted and dined at Mrs. Horries, about 15 miles from Georgetown, and lodged at the plantation of Mr.
Manigold about 19 miles farther. Sunday the 4th went to St. Paul's Chapel in the forenoon. Again, forenoon is morning, spent the remainder of the day in writing private letters for tomorrow's mail. Sunday the 11th, at home all day, writing private letters. Sunday the 18th when in the forenoon to the Episcopal Church and in the afternoon to one of the congregational meeting houses. Attended to the first by the Speaker of the Assembly, Mr. Edwards and Mr.
Ingersoll, and to the latter by the governor, the lieutenant governor, the mayor, and speaker. These gentlemen all dined with me by invitation, as did General Huntington, at the house of Mr. Brown, where I lodged and who keeps a good tavern. Drank tea at the mayor's. Upon further inquiry, I found that there has been about, and then he leaves it blank, yards of course linen manufactured at this place since it was established, and that a glasswork is on foot here for the manufacture of bottles.
At seven o'clock in the evening, many officers of this state, belonging to the late Continental Army, called to pay their respects to me. By some of them, it was said that the people of this state could, with more ease, pay an additional £100,000 tax this year than what was laid last year. Sunday the 25th attended divine service at the Episcopal Church, whereas Dr. Parker is the incumbent in the forenoon, and the congregational church of Mr. Thatcher in the afternoon.
Dined at my lodgings with the Vice President, Mr. Bowden accompanied me to both churches. Between the two, I received a visit from the governor who assured me that indisposition alone prevented his doing it yesterday. Sunday the 8th. It being contrary to law and disagreeable to the people of this state, that was Connecticut, to travel on the Sabbath day. And my horses, after passing through such intolerable roads, needing rest, I stayed at Perkins Tavern all day, which, by the by, is not a good one.
In a meeting house being within a few rods of the door, I attended morning and evening service and heard very lame discourses from a Mr. Pond. So there you have it. Even when he attended church, his main interest was on who went to church with him, various governmental officials. Again, no hint of any spiritual life inside of him, any relationship with the Father, with Jesus Christ. The only comment I could find about any of the sermons he heard was that last one where he says it was a pretty lame discourse.
Now all of the passages I've read will be posted on disk number 15 of this series of messages on the myth of Christian America so that you can read them for yourself. And in fact, there will be a reference on disk 15 of where you can find the diaries of George Washington online, where you can read them online. So you can dig and see for yourself what he said in his diary. Whether I've been honest with you and giving you the selections that I have, I think you will.
But you're welcome to check that out for yourself and the reference will be there. Next, I want to address the claims made by patriotic Christians, particularly conservative Christians, to try to show that George Washington was a devout Christian and was a man specially picked by God. The first claim I want to look into is that during the French and Indian War, George Washington wasn't killed during this surprise attack on the Braddock expedition.
Bullets whizzed by him, four bullets passed through his coat, and two horses were shot out from underneath him. Yet Washington was unharmed and was able to lead a retreat. Did that really happen? Yes, it did. And George Washington believed that Providence had protected him and saved his life. Does that make George Washington a Christian? Does that turn the United States into a Christian country? Does that mean that the United States is God's favored nation?
Well, books by patriotic evangelicals try to use that incident to make such claims. But what do the facts of history actually reveal? They reveal that in every war, there are all sorts of men on both the winning and losing sides that narrowly escape death or injury. And they invariably give credit to God for it. For example, if you read British accounts of the American Revolution, you find that various British generals and officers had one or more horses shot out from underneath them.
During various battles, they had bullets whizzed by them and passed through their coats or hats, and yet they survived unharmed. Anybody who has narrowly escaped death should properly give thanks to God. However, we play a fool's game when we try to decipher God's plans and thoughts, his permissive and passive will, and his approval or disapproval, based on personal incidents like that. For one thing, Christians who do that invariably confuse the two kingdoms.
They're imagining that God's kingdom can somehow be intertwined with kingdoms of this world. They also imagine that because God either causes or allows a certain ruler or a certain country to be victorious, that must mean that he approves of them. I used the example a few nights ago about the numerous victories won by Muslim armies during the centuries right after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Does that mean that God was on their side? No.
So unless the Bible specifically reveals something differently, the most we can ever say about any event, good or bad, is that God allowed it to happen. We can never say that God caused it, or that God wanted it that way. No, all we know is he permitted it. But as the reason why he permitted it, we humans rarely have any clue. And we only show ourselves to be imprudent when we pretend that we know God's purposes and His dealings in the kingdoms of men. Let me give you just two examples.
We'll start with Alexander the Great. His life is so amazing. It's hard not to think that God miraculously raised him up. He was only 20 years old when he became king of Macedonia and set out to conquer the world. He spent 11 years in conquest, conquering the Persian Empire and fighting all the way into India. Yet in 11 years of battle, he never lost even one single battle. And so many times he was fighting an army vastly larger than his own. And Alexander took part in the thick of those battles.
He wasn't one of these generals far behind who sat in his tent and arranged this or that. Often he led the actual cavalry charges, and he came within inches of losing his life numerous times. Yet somehow, he always just missed being killed or severely wounded. It's no wonder that he came to believe that he was a son of the gods. But why did God raise up or allow Alexander? That's something we humans will never know until we're in the Lord's presence.
After all, the Persians who he overthrew were the one world power who were nice to the Jews, who had freed the Jewish captives, and had allowed Jerusalem to be rebuilt. In contrast, once the Greeks took over, the Greek rulers persecuted the Jews, and they outlawed the observance of the Mosaic Law. Alexander himself was not a godly man, nor was he someone who acknowledged the Most High God.
I certainly don't expect to see Alexander the Great in heaven, yet the things that happened in his life are far more miraculous than the things that happened to George Washington. Some have surmised that perhaps God raised him up because through his conquest, he spread the Greek language and it allowed for an international language that many different peoples could read, which was an advantage when Christianity came along.
Well, that's one possibility, but Aramaic was already that language in the east where most of Alexander's conquests were. Another example is Hitler. Did you know there were 17 planned attempts on Hitler's life that we know of, and perhaps many more that we've never heard of? In fact, he narrowly avoided death in World War I. And I have to wonder, why didn't God let him be killed in World War I? After all, over 56 million people died in World War II.
Not only that, World War II allowed the expansion of communism into Eastern Europe, into China, and Southeast Asia, which brought on millions and millions of more deaths. Why didn't God cause Hitler to be killed in World War I? After all, he was recklessly putting himself in extreme danger in the trenches. Did you know that Hitler received the Iron Cross for personal bravery in World War I?
And one of the German colonels said about him, " There was no circumstance or situation that would have prevented him from volunteering for the most difficult, arduous, and dangerous tasks, and he was always willing to sacrifice his safety and life and tranquility for his fatherland and for others. " That was said during World War I, not later when Hitler became famous. And he saw men all around him being killed, yet his life was spared. He himself began thinking, " Maybe God has a purpose for me.
" And later, when he survived various attempts at assassination, he definitely believed that God was preserving his life, that he was God's favored man. For example, at the very beginning of World War II, on November 8th, 1939, a certain man, Johann Elser, decided that he was going to kill Hitler by placing a time bomb in one of the columns behind the podium where Hitler was to give a speech. This was in a beer cellar in Munich. Well, he set the bomb to detonate at precisely 9:20 p.m.
when Hitler should have been there in his speech. Well, and at 8:10, Hitler entered the beer hall as he was supposed to, but then at 9:12, he suddenly ended his speech and abruptly left. Eight minutes later, the bomb exploded, killing eight people and wounding 65. And it certainly would have killed Hitler if he had been there. In February 1944, an infantry captain agreed to blow up Hitler and himself while he demonstrated a new Army winter overcoat to Hitler to be used on the troops.
However, the day before he was supposed to meet with Hitler, a British air raid destroyed the warehouse where the uniforms were kept. So the meeting was called off. A few weeks later, the same man who had arranged that plot decided to try it again. This time they got a different man to volunteer for the job, a German major. However, once again, Hitler's life was saved because another air raid just before the demonstration was about to take place forced it to be canceled. Well, I won't go through all 17.
The one that's most famous is the one in which Lieutenant Colonel von Stauffenberg tried to kill Hitler with a bomb. He was at a high level meeting with Hitler and other Nazi leaders, and he came into the meeting with a briefcase containing 2,000 grams of plastic explosives. Everybody was certain that the amount of explosives would certainly kill everyone in the building. Well, Hitler and the other men were standing around a map table while Hitler showed them different things on the map, whatever his strategy was.
Well, Stauffenberg left the briefcase under the table and then left the room on the pretext that he needed to make a phone call. This was just a few minutes before the bomb was to go off. Well, the bomb exploded and he was certain that Hitler had been killed. But Hitler wasn't killed because the officer who had filled in his place there at the table noticed the briefcase and with his foot he pushed it further under the table.
And it was pushed right next to one of the heavy supports of this table, which was a massive oak table. Well, as a result, Hitler was shielded from the full force of the explosion. Although some of the officers were killed, Hitler escaped with just minor injuries. And Hitler was now completely convinced that he was invincible and that God's hand of favor was on him. So back to George Washington. He narrowly escaped being killed during the French and Indian War. What does that prove? Absolutely nothing.
Wicked men have narrowly escaped death, and it's very, very hard to understand why God allows them to be spared. Let's move on to the second claim. It's the claim that George Washington was a devout man of prayer because he was seen during the winter at Valley Forge, off in the woods, on his knees praying. Like me, you've no doubt seen the famous painting of that scene that was done by Arnold Friberg sometime around 1860. So what's the truth about that?
Well, the first thing to do for any claim is to find the source. How do we know that George Washington did that? Well, after doing some digging, I found what the source for this story is. It comes from Parson Weems's biography of George Washington that was written around 1800. In case you're not familiar with the name Parson Weems is the writer who made up the story about George Washington and the cherry tree. And he is our sole source for the story about George Washington praying at Valley Forge.
When I say that he's the sole source, I mean that the story originated with him. I realize that many other people repeated that afterwards, but there's no account of it before Parson Weems. In his biography, this is what he said. In the winter of 1777, while Washington with the American Army lay encamped at Valley Forge, a certain good old Quaker of a respectable family and name of Potts, if I'm mistaken, had occasion to pass through the woods near the headquarters.
Treading his way along the venerable grove, suddenly he heard the sound of a human voice. Which, as he advanced, increased on his ear. And at length became like the voice of one speaking much in earnest. As he approached the spot with a cautious step, whom should he behold in a dark natural bower of ancient oaks, but the commander-in-chief of the American armies on his knees in prayer. Motionless with surprise, Mr. Potts continued at the place till the general, having ended his devotion, arose.
And with countenance of angelic serenity, retired to his headquarters. The Quaker then went home and on entering his parlor, called out to his wife, " Sarah, my dear Sarah. All's well, all's well. George Washington will yet prevail. " " What's the matter, Isaac? " she replied. " Thee seems moved. " " Well, if I seem moved, she's no more than what I really am. I have this day seen what I never expected.
He knows that I always thought that the sword and the gospel were utterly inconsistent, that no man could be a soldier and a Christian at the same time. But George Washington has this day convinced me of my mistake. He then related what he had seen and concluded with the prophetical remark: " If George Washington be not a man of God, I am greatly deceived. And still more shall I be deceived if God does not through him work out a great salvation for America.
" Well, that's a moving story, but there are several problems with this story. For one thing, Parson Weems is not a primary source. He didn't personally know George Washington. He didn't serve in the Continental Army. And he doesn't even claim to be an eyewitness to this Valley Forge prayer. He's saying that this Isaac Potts is the one who saw it. So we're left with hearsay evidence, the type of evidence they don't allow in a court of law. Number two, Parson Weems isn't a reliable source.
He had been a minister, but was unable to make ends meet, and so he became a popular bookseller and a writer. And none of his books have the ring of truth. They aren't scholarly works. In fact, I didn't have to go very far in Weems's biography about George Washington before I came across statements that I knew for a fact were not true. For example, he tries to make the case that what made George Washington different than men around him who failed was his religion. And that's his term, religion, not Christianity.
And then he draws a contrast between George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. And he writes this: " There was the gallant General Hamilton, also a gigantic genius, a statesman fit to rule the mightiest monarchy. A soldier fit to stand by Washington and give command. " But alas, for lack of religion, see how all was lost.
Preferring the praise of man to that praise which cometh from God and pursuing the phantom honor up to the pistol's mouth, he is cut off at once from life and greatness and leaves his family and country to mourn his hapless fate. " End quote. Well, we just saw last night that the exact opposite is true. Alexander Hamilton was a conventional Christian and a fairly devout Christian.
He didn't go to the duel because he was pursuing the praise of men, but he went there trusting in God's mercy either that God would spare him or if he chose not to, that he could still rest in God's arms knowing he had tried to do something worthwhile for his fellow man by becoming a martyr at the hands of Aaron Burr. So I mean, Weems didn't know what he was talking about. A third problem with this story is that Weems didn't write his biography until George Washington was dead.
Therefore, no one could authenticate the various stories about George Washington by going and asking Washington. Hey, this Parson Weems said that you were out praying, et cetera, et cetera. He tends to use anonymous sources or sources that would be hard to check, people who were already dead, etc. A fourth problem with this story is that Weems wrote it 23 years after the incident supposedly took place.
Now it's rather strange that the story didn't surface before then, particularly when George Washington was president. If it were true, surely Isaac Potts would have come forth and said this is a great man. Let me tell you what I saw about him during the dark days at Valley Forge. I mean, after all, he supposedly was so moved that he changed his religious beliefs. Isn't it strange that Isaac Potts never wrote anything about it?
Why would a story like that stay hidden for 23 years and then come forth from the pen of Parson Weems, who is so unreliable? Well, the fifth thing for non-resistant Christians is if you're like me in reading that story, you knew it wasn't true. That is not the effect that would have on a non-resistant Christian. See, Weems obviously didn't know Isaac Potts and knew very little about Quakers, except that they were opposed to war. And he imagined that they thought that devout men could not possibly be men of war.
Well, we non-resistant Christians, whether we're Mennonites, Quakers, brethren, or simple disciples of Jesus Christ, we know that all kinds of devout professing Christians take part in war. We know that many of them actually are very devout men of prayer. But that doesn't in the least bit persuade us that, oh, war is right after all. It's not because we don't think somebody can be devout and still go to war. It's because Jesus said to love your enemy and to not resist evil.
And we're trying to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and in the footsteps of his apostles and disciples. So Pastor Weems's story is obviously hogwash. No Quaker would act that way simply because they saw a general praying. Does Weems think that the British generals never prayed? And then finally, what we do know about George Washington does not fit the story.
In fact, one of the reasons I was so curious to read George Washington's diaries was to try to determine the veracity of this story because I knew it was disputed. And I wanted to read George Washington's diary because it would reveal if this was a man of deep prayer. Well, instead what I saw, he wasn't a man of prayer at all, at least from the record he left behind. There's no indication of him ever praying, no deep thoughts about God, rarely attending church except when he was president.
And then you couple that with the eyewitness reports from the two ministers where Washington went to church. And one tells us that he would never take communion. And the other one that he never saw him kneeling in church, which is a common thing you do when you're Episcopalian or Anglican. On communion Sundays, he would just get up and walk out before communion, leaving his wife there by herself. And then when he was reproved for that, he just quit coming to church on Communion Sunday.
Now, is it believable that a man like that doesn't even make one reference to God in six volumes of diaries? That this kind of man would be out alone on his knees in the snow, praying to God out loud in this fervent prayer? No, I don't think so. Let's now briefly examine the other claims made about George Washington to prove he was a Christian. Claim number three is that he wrote prayers and delivered speeches with reference to God and Christianity.
Well, George Washington definitely believed in God, and he believed that religion plays an indispensable role in society. He believed that God's providence had saved his life, and that God's providence enabled the colonies to win the American Revolution. There's no doubt on those points. And if you feel that those beliefs accompanied with attendance at church means you are a Christian, well then yes, George Washington was a Christian.
The problem is, as I stated at the beginning, the Christians who make the loudest claims about George Washington being a Christian are the very ones who deny that merely believing the things I just mentioned are enough to make you a Christian. The other thing we have to realize is that Alexander Hamilton wrote most of Washington's speeches and many of his letters. And as we saw last night, Hamilton was a conventional Christian.
So public letters and public speeches of George Washington aren't always the best evidence of what his personal faith was. All right, another claim is the so-called Washington Prayer. This has been circulated for a couple hundred years around the country. You may or may not have come across it, and I'll read it to you in just a minute. Well, what's the truth about it? The truth is that the so-called Washington prayer is part truth and it's part forgery. To begin with, it was not a prayer.
It was a paragraph taken from the formal circular letter that George Washington sent to the various governors of the 13 states at the end of the American Revolution. In it, Washington resigned his commission as Commander-in-Chief, and he laid out some proposals that he felt would be necessary for the new nation to be able to work and to stay as a permanent country.
Now, the letter itself is actually quite lengthy, but the closing paragraph of the letter says this: " I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you and the state over which you preside in His holy protection, that He would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for brethren who have served in the field.
And finally, that he would 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 an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.
Well later, some pious Christian took that last paragraph of his letter, changed the wording slightly, and added at the end of it through Jesus Christ our Lord. And then he or she circulated it as a prayer that George Washington had composed. Now, if that paragraph were in Washington's personal diary or in private letters he wrote to someone, it would carry a bit more weight. Instead, as I said, it was a public document sent out to the states.
So it was carefully drafted with the help of others, probably including Alexander Hamilton. The original draft of this letter is in the Library of Congress, and it's not in George Washington's handwriting. Now, obviously, George Washington wouldn't have sent out the letter if he had objected to anything in it, and it's completely consistent with everything else we know about Washington, that he wanted God's blessing on this new nation. But the actual wording of that last paragraph is probably not his.
Well, the final claim I want to look at is a letter of Nellie Custis Lewis that was included in a work about George Washington by Reverend Jared Sparks. During the 1830s, Mr. Sparks did extensive research and published a work entitled The Life and Writings of George Washington. Now he did not know George Washington personally, but in contrast to Pastor Weems's fanciful biography about Washington, the work of Jared Sparks is quite scholarly.
And in one of the volumes of his work, Jared Sparks reproduced a letter he said he received from Nellie Custis Lewis. She was the granddaughter of Martha Washington. Her father was a son of Martha Washington from a previous marriage before she married George Washington. Now, Nellie's father died at the end of the Revolutionary War. And so George and Martha Washington raised her from the time she was a little girl.
In this letter to Reverend Sparks, Nellie defends George Washington and says to say he was not a Christian would be to impeach his sincerity and honesty. She also says, " I should have thought it the greatest heresy to doubt his firm belief in Christianity. His life, his writings prove that he was a Christian. " And she closes the letter by saying, " Is it necessary that anyone should certify George Washington about himself to be a believer in Christianity?
" As well, may we question his patriotism, his heroic disinterested devotion to his country. His mottos were deeds, not words, and for God and my country. So what can we say about her letter? Well, it's certainly an important piece of evidence that we have to examine when we're looking at the religious faith of George Washington. It's not something we can just lightly dismiss. Now a copy of her entire letter is posted on Scroll Publishing's website so you can read it all.
And on the basis of her letter, it's possible that George Washington should be grouped with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay as a conventional Christian. But there are some problems. The main one is what do you mean by being a Christian? The things that Nellie relates about Washington are things we already basically know from his diaries, speeches and other documents. He had a real faith in God, and during his presidency, he attended church quite regularly. He was a good, unselfish, moral person.
He was always respectful and reverent at church, and he wanted the American people to be a religious people. Now, if those things make you a Christian, he was definitely a Christian. He certainly was not a secular humanist, and he was not someone who mocked Christianity. But there are other problems with this letter. Now, nobody has the original letter that Nellie wrote. We only have the testimony of Jared Sparks, the historian who wrote this, that this is what her letter to him said.
Now, ordinarily, that wouldn't be of great concern, except that Reverend Sparks was trying to prove that George Washington was a Christian. He was not a disinterested chronicler. Furthermore, an eminent historian of his day, Lord Mahan, took him to task for changing some of Washington's letters in his work. So he may have altered some of the things that Nellie had written to him. Another problem is that Nellie Custis was only 10 years old when Washington was inaugurated as president.
So the George Washington she knew was primarily the President George Washington. And as we've already seen, his church habits were quite different after he was elected president. Not because he was being hypocritical, but because he wanted to set a good example for others. He wanted the American people to be churchgoers. And the final problem is that Jared Sparks was a Unitarian minister. Now few evangelicals would consider the Unitarians to be Christians.
So what Jared Sparks considered a Christian to be, and what evangelicals consider a Christian to be, are two very different things. In conclusion, George Washington is definitely a bit harder to classify spiritually because he wrote so little about his own religious beliefs. From a human standpoint, he was certainly a great man. And when I categorize the Founding Fathers, I'm not doing it in a judgmental sense. God's grace can cover enormous sins and enormous theological errors.
If in his grace he granted salvation to George Washington, I will rejoice to know that. Well, tomorrow night, we're going to be looking at the faith of the remaining Founding Fathers.