Today, let’s look a bit deeper into the phrase you always hear “separation of church and state,” and let’s look at some Biblical History, and then, at what it truly meant when our founding fathers created the very “FIRST” Amendment to the Constitution, which by the way never mentions the phrase “separation of church and state.”  I’ll tell you what the ‘separation of church and state’ really means, in my own words, after researching many written works and speeches of our founding fathers, and I’ll tell you the TRUTH, that what both the Communists and the Fascists in this country have tried to make you believe it means, is a LIE, directly from the Evil One, whom they serve, some knowingly, some unwittingly.  Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, or whatever other name used for the devil has repeated and defined incorrectly to you over the years, just like the serpent lied to Eve in the garden; this lie about church and state, causing much damage to this country.  So let’s take a look, at Biblical History, and at US History, and rid ourselves of this lie from the pit of hell!

As an FYI, one of the best sites not just for information, but for Indexed, bookmarked, information, with links to original writings, so you can go directly to the source work and read it as well, to make sure it isn’t being used out of context, is “Wallbuilders.com,” that is where I began my study that I have put together for you here.  Much is summary of articles from the wall builders site and from researching the links to read the Founding Fathers own words.  I could go for weeks on this, showing you Patriots you heard of, and many you never heard of, who signed the Declaration and/or the Constitution, and/or were Judges, Presidents, Governors, etc.; all to a man, say what I will summarize for you here.  Over the next few days, perhaps, I’m still praying on it, I will give you some of their writings, I don’t know for sure yet, there is SO MUCH to cover about so much…and I only want to stay focused on the Biblical view of Politics, Government, and the Vote till the election.  There is only so much time, I hope ‘you’ will become a BEREAN not just about Scripture, but about true American History, which is NOT being taught to your kids in school today.  Go ahead, ask them if they have ever been told to even read the Constitution or Declaration of Independence, or studied it.  I think you’ll be surprised at how little it’s even mentioned, and then just in derogatory terms; about how we need to change it.  We have much to do, Christians, to reclaim our country, and the world, for GOD, so the bride can be made ready for her soon coming Husband!  In truth, our last few generations have done little to occupy till He comes, to truly Be a prepared Bride, instead we have allowed compromise after compromise to push us deeper and deeper into darkness; but it is NOT too late to change that!  Right here, is one place to begin, with this truth!

We’ve all heard the phrase “separation of Church and State.” It is one of the best-known but least understood phrases in America today. Today, it has come to mean that there should be a wall of separation between one’s personal faith and “any” display of that faith in public. THAT is a LIE from the pit of Hell; and if it were true, no Muslim woman would be allowed to wear a Hijab, and no Muslim man any traditional garb either; no Jew to wear a Yamika, no Christmas Trees, no cross necklaces…all that would be illegal.  They would be displays for your Faith in public.  Ridiculous, right?  Yet if a teacher places a Bible on her desk,1 if a student bows his head to pray in school,2 or cheerleaders display Bible verses on their posters,3 they are accused of violating separation of church and state – of “subjecting” those around them to their faith.  By the way, pretty much every faith says you should share your faith, live your faith, practice your faith daily…but only “Christians” are expected to NOT do that???

As Christians, you need know how to respond to this lie from the pit of hell. You nee to know at least a summary history behind the phrase? You need to know your God-given, and Constitutionally-protected, rights? You need to understand, and teach your children, the Founding Fathers’ true intentions with the phrase, and remind them it ISN’T in the Constitution, and where it is written, it has been misconstrued.  

Let’s look at some simple ways we can respond so that we do not fall prey to the silencing of our freedom of religion in the public square.

1. First we’ll look at where does the phrase “Separation of Church and State” originate?4

You might be surprised, given what I’ve said, that the concept of separation of Church and state actually originates in the Bible.  Father God created three institutions. In the first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, God established the institution of family by creating male and female and placing them together in a lifelong union. Next came the institution of civil government to address our relationship with our fellow man. The final institution addressed our relationship with God, and was the creation of the temple, and with the coming and ministry of Jesus, the Church.

Let’s go back, for just a moment, to when God’s people left Egypt. God had them establish their own nation, the 12 tribes of “Israel.” At that time, God placed Moses over government and civil affairs and Aaron, as the High Priest, over spiritual ones, thus God separated those two roles and jurisdictions. You have to notice though, neither excluded God from its operation, but each was to be headed and run by a different individual and not the same person. Later in the Bible, in 2 Chronicles, Chapter 26, when King Uzziah, who to that point had been a good king, entered the Temple and the  tried to combine the two institutions, entering the Temple of God to offer Incense on the Altar, and serve as both a King and a Priest, God sovereignly weighed in and made clear that He did not want the same individual running both institutions together.  Uzziah spent the rest of his life outside the camp of Israel, a Leper, stuck by God for his disobedience.

Let’s jump ahead, to 391 AD, Roman Emperor Theodosius combined both Church and State, putting the State, Roman, in charge of the church; and for the next twelve centuries, it remained that way, and frankly, terrible acts were committed. With the government deciding what the official Church doctrines would be, people were punished; any violator who disagreed with those positions, entire towns in history, were wiped out for not obeying EXACTLY how there STATE said to worship!  People were not allowed them to practice their faith; and “the church” did it’s best to ensure nobody actually had a Bible to read, or even could read. For the “dark ages” of Christianity there was only a state-established Church, the Church was an official arm of the State and with it being run by church officials appointed by the government; and sometimes vice versa, but always it seems, to the detriment of the believer. In the 1500s during the Protestant Reformation, those who followed the Bible began to call for a return to a Biblical separation of Church and State so that the government would no longer control or prohibit religious activities.

The early colonists who came to America brought this view of Freedom of Worship with them, and in America they made sure that the government, or the State, could not control or limit religious beliefs or activities. This was, and IS, the TRUE understanding of the separation of Church and State.

As I told you, the phrase “separation of Church and State” cannot be found in the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence. In fact, it is not found in any of our nation’s founding documents. Related to government, the phrase first appeared in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut in 1801.5

Thomas Jefferson had worked very hard to separate the Anglican Church (Church of England) from the government in his home state of Virginia so that all other denominations could practice their faith without government penalty or persecution. As I’ve mentioned before, and you need to understand, for these early Americans, it wasn’t “ancient” history when the state-run church would go in and literally burn down a church and murder the whole town in Europe, because the practiced full immersion Baptism, like John the Baptist and Jesus Himself, rather than the state-churches “sprinkling and dabbing the foreheads of infants.  Jefferson contributed to ending government-run religion in his home state, so when he became president of the United States, the Baptists and those from other denominations who had come to America to escape the persecution, were his strong supporters because he had fought for their freedom of religious practice – for their right to be free from state control in matters of faith.

The Danbury Baptists, in particular wrote Thomas Jefferson expressing their concern that the government might try to regulate their religious expression. In response, Jefferson wrote his now famous letter, using the phrase “Separation of Church and State” to reassure the Danbury Baptists that the First Amendment prohibited the government from trying to control religious expression. In short, our First Amendment was intended to keep government out of regulating religion, but it was never meant to keep religion out of government or the public square; those Founding Fathers, to a man, LIVED OUT their religion, praying for hours together, over how the Constitution and Declaration of Independence should read.

2. That being the case, What Does the Constitution Actually Say?

Today, people believe that “separation of Church and State” is in the First Amendment of the Constitution. But in the First Amendment the Constitution actually says,
First Amendment:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

The famous separation phrase appears nowhere in that Amendment, or in the Constitution.

So you have to ask yourself: How does a student praying over his lunch mean the same thing as Congress making a law? How does “living like Jesus Christ” and making your political decisions based on your FAITH mean the same thing as Congress making a law saying you MUST do that? The answer: it doesn’t. The First Amendment meant Congress is NOT ALLOWED to set up a national denomination, and/or method of worship.  Also, Congress is limited from prohibiting the free exercise of your religious faith. The First Amendment was NEVER meant to  limit faith, or the people, only the government.  Which is why the government doesn’t like it – because our government has started to think they run you, and not way around!

The First Amendment was created by America’s Founders because of their desire to avoid something like the government-run Church of England. In fact, it was not just the government of England they longed to be different from, but they were also striving to be different from the way that churches and government had operated across most of Europe for the previous thousand years, for most nations at that time had state-established and state-controlled churches, which as I’ve already told you, committed horrible atrocities across Europe for centuries whenever any group of people tried to worship in any way but the way they told them to.which if you read your Bible…not a one of those state-run religions, was run as Jesus wanted and as the Apostles lid out.  All these state-run religions re-instituted various forms of the priesthood and were nothing more than top-down ruling Pharisees; not the “servant-leadership” that Christ taught us.  That’s why they never wanted the common man to actually read the Bible…their lies would be so obvious!

The Pilgrims, Puritans, and others who settled America wanted to return to God’s original plan of separating the church from government control. That long-standing American desire and practice of freedom of religion was specifically written in the First Amendment.

One your screen is a picture of one of the Bibles (dated 1590) that the Pilgrims and Puritans brought to America with them.

The notes in this Bible (which sadly you can’t see in this photo) actually discuss having a separation between government and the church. The Pilgrims therefore set up a system where they would have separate elections for both state leaders and church leaders so that the leaders would be different, rather than the same, as was the practice in England.

3. Faith has been part of American public Society for over 180 years.

Students had been praying over their lunches for over 180 years under the Constitution with no problem, as well as doing other religious activities that were always constitutional.

In fact, we actually have several original sermons from a church that Thomas Jefferson helped facilitate. This was a church that met inside the U.S. Capitol,7 where services were held in the House Chamber every Sunday. Jefferson, both as Vice President and as President of the United States, faithfully attended those church services inside the US Capitol and saw no constitutional problem with them, for Congress was not controlling religion for the entire nation but rather was only allowing religious expressions to occur, which was their constitutional role.

These next pictures are of sermons preached at the Church that met inside the U.S. Capitol. The first one is on “The Public Worship of God,” and the second is on “The Imperishable and Saving Words of Christ.” Both sermons were preached in the Chamber of the U. S. House of Representatives.  You can find the sermons online if you are willing to do the research.

It has only been in recent years that faith has been excluded from public schools, governmental venues, and from the public square. So, did we ‘just’ fall prey to this lie?No, the phrase has existed since centuries before Jefferson, but today its meaning has been taken out of context and twisted to mean something entirely different, and it all started, in America, in 1947 when an activist Supreme Court quoted only one phrase from Jefferson’s short 1801 letter to the Danbury Baptists that we covered earlier. The Court claimed that there was to be “a wall of separation between Church and State” and that religious activities could no longer occur in the public square.8 They took the intent and clear purpose of Jefferson’s letter completely out of context. And they did it on purpose. They did not show his entire short letter of only three paragraphs and 233 words, which contained all the context and explanation, but rather they lifted an 8-word phrase out of it and remained silent on the rest, so they could set the narrative THEY wanted; creating law where there was none, the job of Congress, not the Courts; and an undeniable change to the very Constitution they were sworn to UPHOLD, not change.

So, the next time you hear someone claim religion has no place in public because of the “wall of separation,” I hope you’ll remember a few of the things I’ve revealed to you today, and maybe, do a little more of your own research…maybe start by directing yourself and your children, to “Wallbuilders.com,” for some real American history.  I’m going to post my notes to this one on my Webpage, including the “endnotes” from Wallbuilders, so you can go there, and follow some of the links to the actual documents to check my accuracy.

Endnotes

1 See, for example Roberts v. Madigan, 702 F. Supp. 1505 (D. Colo. 1989), aff’d, 921 F.2d 1047 (10th Cir. 1990).

2 See, for example, Broadus v. Saratoga Springs City School District, 02-cv-0136 (N.D.N.Y. 2002).

3 See, for example, Kountze Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Matthews, No. 09-13- 00251 (Tex. App.— Beaumont 2014).

4 See an article on the history of the phrase “Separation of Church and State” here.

5 See the text of the Danbury Baptists 1801 letter to Thomas Jefferson, and Jefferson’s 1802 reply here.

6 A Geneva Bible from the WallBuilders library, belonging to the Arthur Upton family.

7 See David Barton’s article “Church in the U.S. Capitol” for more information.

8 Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1 (1947).

This is One Pilgrim, that’s it for mer for today, the way things are going lately, I can’t promise I’ll be back tomorrow, I want to be, it’s a matter of time, and having time to do necessary research to bring you something meaningful, and Biblical.  Perhaps between now and the election it’ll be every other day…  Please receive the blessing Moses gave to Aaron to give to God’s people, from Numbers 6:24-26:  

‘“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” ’’