There’s this strange image I’ve seen many times of George Washington on his knees Tebowing which is based on the journal entry of an 18th century Presbyterian Minister. But this is, of course, impossible, because George Washington was born well before Tim Tebow engineered his first fourth quarter comeback.
I listen to the media so therefore I know that Tebow is the first person to do this odd physical gesture of falling to one knees and conversing with the Creator. So I wonder what George Washington was doing on his knees. Perhaps he was simply foreshadowing Tebow.
Rev. Nathaniel Randolph Snowden, an ordained Presbyterian minister and graduate of Princeton with a degree from Dickinson College stated:
“I knew personally the celebrated Quaker Potts who saw Gen’l Washington alone in the woods at prayer. I got it from himself, myself. Weems mentioned it in his history of Washington, but I got it from the man myself, as follows:
“I was riding with him (Mr. Potts) in Montgomery County, Penn’a near to the Valley Forge, where the army lay during the war of ye Revolution. Mr. Potts was a Senator in our State and a Whig. I told him I was agreeably surprised to find him a friend to his country as the Quakers were mostly Tories. He said, ‘It was so and I was a rank Tory once, for I never believed that America c’d proceed against Great Britain whose fleets and armies covered the land and ocean, but something very extraordinary converted me to the Good Faith!” “What was that,” I inquired? ‘Do you see that woods, and that plain. It was about a quarter of a mile off from the place we were riding, as it happened.’ ‘There,’ said he, ‘laid the army of Washington. It was a most distressing time of ye war, and all were for giving up the Ship but that great and good man. In that woods pointing to a close in view, I heard a plaintive sound as, of a man at prayer. I tied my horse to a sapling and went quietly into the woods and to my astonishment I saw the great George Washington on his knees alone, with his sword on one side and his cocked hat on the other. He was at Prayer to the God of the Armies, beseeching to interpose with his Divine aid, as it was ye Crisis, and the cause of the country, of humanity and of the world.
‘Such a prayer I never heard from the lips of man. I left him alone praying.
‘I went home and told my wife. I saw a sight and heard today what I never saw or heard before, and just related to her what I had seen and heard and observed. We never thought a man c’d be a soldier and a Christian, but if there is one in the world, it is Washington. She also was astonished. We thought it was the cause of God, and America could prevail.’ “He then to me put out his right hand and said ‘I turned right about and became a Whig.'”
Imagine that, the founding Father of the United States of America Tebowed. Who’d a thunk it? What a nutjob, huh?
December 13, 2011 at 2:59 am
We live in an age where scoffing at religion and believers in God is all the rage. In some ways the Eighteenth Century was like this time period. In the Age of Enlightenment more than a few people scoffed at Christianity and some openly embraced atheism. It was considered witty and daring and fun by the avant garde, especially in Europe. It seemed much less humorous at the tail end of the century when the French Revolutionary regime for a time persecuted Christians and slaughtered them for their faith. This type of hostility was much less in evidence in Eighteenth Century America. Even those, for example Thomas Jefferson, who had doubts about the divinity of Christ, praised His teachings and had no doubt as to the existence of God.
George Washington, the commanding American figure of his day, was a very conventional Christian. He attended church regularly, said his prayers and read his Bible. His faith was as much a part of him as his love of his wife, his love of Mount Vernon and his ability to lead men through sufferings in the War of Independence that most of us today would find simply unimaginable. Pious without being sanctimonious, Washington had no doubt that the fate of America in the Revolution was firmly in the hands of God.
We see this belief in the General Order he issued to the Continental Army on March 6, 1776:
"Thursday the seventh Instant, being set apart by the Honorable the Legislature of this province, as a day of fasting, prayer, and humiliation, “to implore the Lord, and Giver of all victory, to pardon our manifold sins and wickedness’s, and that it would please him to bless the Continental Arms, with his divine favour and protection”—All Officers, and Soldiers, are strictly enjoined to pay all due reverance, and attention on that day, to the sacred duties due to the Lord of hosts, for his mercies already received, and for those blessings, which our Holiness and Uprightness of life can alone encourage us to hope through his mercy to obtain."
At the end of the War, looking back on it, Washington saw the hand of God in the American victory:
"A contemplation of the compleat attainment (at a period earlier than could have been expected) of the object for which we contended against so formidable a power cannot but inspire us with astonishment and gratitude. The disadvantageous circumstances on our part, under which the war was undertaken, can never be forgotten. The singular interpositions of Providence in our feeble condition were such, as could scarcely escape the attention of the most unobserving; while the unparalleled perseverance of the Armies of the U States, through almost every possible suffering and discouragement for the space of eight long years, was little short of a standing miracle."
I agree with General Washington, and I pray that our country may ever receive, and deserve, such favor from God.
December 13, 2011 at 3:23 am
ISAIAH AND I
God is here first. God was here first. God will be here first.
On December 25th, the PERSON of Jesus Christ is celebrating the anniversary of His birth. It is OPEN HOUSE and all men are invited, all sovereign kings are welcome. The stable has no doors to shut. For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon His shoulders dominion rests.
They name Him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.
His dominion is vast and forever peaceful, from David’s throne, and over His kingdom, which He confirms and sustains by judgment and Justice, both now and forever.1 IS.9
Not by appearance shall He judge, nor by hearsay shall He decide.
Justice shall be the band around His waist.
Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a child to guide them.
The baby shall play by the cobra’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair. There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain. 2 Is.11
“or prohibit the free exercise thereof;”First Amendment U.S. Constitution
Atheism has no legal standing in a court of law. The founding principles inscribed in The Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution are found and are inscribed in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. Our nation is founded on Judeo-Christian principles. Since the atheist has no principles that he might call his own, what is he and where does he come from and worse, what is he taking from us?
December 13, 2011 at 5:08 pm
This article is so precious! Here's a big salute to Washington and Tebow!
December 13, 2011 at 7:28 pm
If George Washington can bow to God, Tebow can bow to God. Tebow reads "your bow" and he does!"or prohibit the free exercise thereof." Atheists please be advised that "or prohibit the free exercise thereof" is the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and since atheism has been prohibiting the free… I SAY FREE… exercise thereof, atheism needs to be gone…to be gone… as it never really existed as a civil right in any of our founding principles.
December 14, 2011 at 2:02 pm
One of these days I will get an atheist on the record saying this country is founded on Rousseau's principles, not Christian ones. And then I will demand he tear up his voter card.
Rousseau, after all, though fairly religiously indifferent (and probably a Deist, of Calvinist background), considered atheism a mental illness, that ipso facto excluded someone from having a role in the state.
It's only because of Christianity that we tolerate atheists; the "Enlightenment" secularists wouldn't have dreamt of it.
Incidentally, of the Founders, only Ben Franklin was a Deist; Jefferson was what we'd call a Liberal Christian (Deists didn't start correspondence with "In Christ", and Jefferson did). Thomas Payne was the only atheist.
December 14, 2011 at 9:16 pm
There is a letter quoted on many internet sites as being from Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Paine. Actually it was written on December 13, 1757 from Franklin to an unknown author who had sent him a manuscript. Here is the letter:
"Dear Sir,
I have read your manuscript with some attention. By the argument it contains against a particular Providence, though you allow a general Providence, you strike at the foundations of all religion. For, without the belief of a Providence that takes cognisance of, guards, and guides, and may favor particular persons, there is no motive to worship a Deity, to fear his displeasure, or to pray for his protection. I will not enter into any discussion of your principles, though you seem to desire it. At present I shall only give you my opinion that, though your reasons are subtle, and may prevail with some readers, you will not succeed so as to change the general sentiments of mankind on that subject, and the consequence of printing this piece will be, a great deal of odium drawn upon yourself, mischief to you, and no benefit to others. He that spits against the wind spits in his own face.
But were you to succeed, do you imagine any good would be done by it? You yourself may find it easy to live a virtuous life, without the assistance afforded by religion; you having a clear perception of the advantage of virtue, and the disadvantages of vice, and possessing a strength of resolution sufficient to enable you to resist common temptations. But think how great a portion of mankind consists of weak and ignorant men and women, and of inexperienced, inconsiderate youth of both sexes, who have need of the motives of religion to restrain them from vice, to support their virtue, and retain them in the practice of it till it becomes habitual, which is the great point for its security. And perhaps you are indebted to her originally, that is to your religious education, for the habits of virtue upon which you now justly value yourself. You might easily display your excellent talents of reasoning upon a less hazardous subject, and thereby obtain a rank with our most distinguished authors. For among us it is not necessary, as among the Hottentots, that a youth, to be raised into the company of men, should prove his manhood by beating his mother.
I would advise you, therefore, not to attempt unchaining the tiger, but to burn this piece before it is seen by any other person, whereby you will save yourself a great deal of mortification by the enemies it may raise against you, and perhaps a great deal of regret and repentance. If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it?"
Note that Franklin does not wish to get into a religious debate, but merely notes the social utility of religion and advises the author that the world would be a worse place without it. His last sentence is striking: If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it? Sadly, the last century thumpingly answered that query.
December 14, 2011 at 9:17 pm
At the end of his life on January 9, 1790, just a few weeks before his death, Franklin set forth his religious beliefs in a letter to Ezra Stiles:
"You desire to know something of my religion. It is the first time I have been questioned upon it. But cannot take your curiosity amiss, and shall endeavor in a few words to gratify it. Here is my creed: I believe in one God, the creator of the universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them. As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is like to see; but I apprehend, it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble. I see no harm however in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more respected and more observed, especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss by distinguishing the believers in his government of the world with any peculiar marks of his displeasure. I shall only add respecting myself, that having experienced the goodness of that being in conducting me prosperously through a long life, I have no doubt of its continuance in the next, though without the smallest conceit of meriting such goodness. My sentiments on this head you will see in the copy of an old letter inclosed, which I wrote in answer to one from an old religionist whom I had relieved in a paralytic case by electricity, and who being afraid I should grow proud upon it, sent me his serious, though rather impertinent caution. I send you also the copy of another letter which will show something of my disposition relating to religion."
December 15, 2011 at 4:03 am
more proof of time travelling.
December 15, 2011 at 7:42 pm
Hahahahaha! George Washington Tebowing! I love, love, LOVE it!