The Bible says: James 4:8 NIT

(“Come close to God, and God will come close to you.”)

God wants to build an intimaate relationship with you, but do you desire the same thing? The intimate moments you share with the Savior, worshipping Him, sensing His closeness, and experessing your love for Him—are the very times when He reveals Himself to you. In fact, Exodus 33:11 describes the conversations God had with Moses “as one speaks to a frined.” The word friend here means “intimate companion.” This is the kind of relationship He desires to have with you as well.

The Lord never intended for you to merely know about Him. He wants you to know His ways and His unconditional love for you on a deeply personal level as you go through life, to see Him as your unfailing Companion and wonderful Friend.

Therefore, draw closer to the Father in fellowship. Because when you do, You’ll trust Him more deeply and share the feelings and challenges you face with Him more openly. And you will get to know Him as Moses did, as your truly intimate, trustworthy Friend, who lovess you, provides for you, and knows you best.

Pray: Lord draw me close. May Your sweet Spirit guide all my ways. Amen.

The Liberty Bell, weighing over 2,000 pounds, was cast in England in August of 1752.

Inscribed on The Liberty Bell is:

“PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT ALL THE LAND UNTO ALL THE THE INHABITANTS THEREOF.” (Leviticus 25:10)

The Liberty Bell got its name from being rung JULY 8, .1776, to call the citizens of Philadelphia together to hear the Declaration of Independence read out loud for the first time.

A copy of the Declaration was rushed to General Washington in New York, who had it read out loud to his troops, July 9, 1776.

Washington then immediately appointed chaplains to each regiment, ordering that: “Officers and soldiers attend carefully upon religious exercises. The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary but especially so in times of public distress and danger. The General hopes and trusts, that every officer and man, will endeavor so to live, and act, as becomes a Christian Soldier, defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his country.”

During the Revolution, British Admiral Richard Howe’s ships transported the army under the command of his brother, General William Howe, to invade Philadelphia in September of 1777. The Liberty Bell was rushed out of the city to prevent the British from melting it down to make musket balls.

Transported on a wagon covered under hay and manure to prevent the British from spotting it, the Liberty Bell was brought to Zion Reformed Church in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The church’s floorboards were temporarily removed to lower it into the basement. Finally, the British forces under General Howe evacuated Philadelphia and the Liberty Bell was returned in June of 1778.

It was rung every anniversary of the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence.

The most common story is that the Liberty Bell cracked JULY 8, 1835, while being rung at the funeral of Chief Justice John Marshall, perhaps as a portent.

John Marshall, the longest-serving Chief Justice, began the trend of increasing the Supreme Court’s power by using an expansive reading of the enumerated powers, thereby advancing the view of the supremacy of the Supreme Court through “judicial review.” This pattern has been observed throughout history, where good leaders concentrate power to be more efficient in doing good, but after they are gone, ambitious leaders inherit the concentrated power and use it oppressively.

Joseph in Egypt helped concentrate power into the hands of the Pharaoh who used it for good, providing food for the Children of Israel, giving them the best land of Goshen, and even giving them jobs taking care of his cattle. Then there was a new Pharaoh “who did not know Joseph,” and he used the concentrated power to oppress the Children of Israel.

Thomas Jefferson had warned Mr. Hammond, 1821: “The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the federal judiciary, working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the States.”

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defined “usurp” as: USURP, verb transitive. [Latin usurpo.] To seize and hold in possession by force or without right; as, to usurp a throne; to usurp the prerogatives of the crown; to usurp power. To usurp the right of a patron, is to oust or dispossess him. Vice sometimes usurps the place of virtue.

Thomas Jefferson explained to Supreme Court Justice William Johnson, June 12, 1823: “On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”

James Madison wrote to Henry Lee, June 25, 1824: “I entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. In that sense alone it is the legitimate Constitution. And if that be not the guide in expounding it, there can be no security for a consistent and stable exercise of its powers. What a metamorphosis would be produced in the code of law if all its ancient phraseology were to be taken in its modern sense.”

As the Quakers of Pennsylvania were anti-slavery, and the the Leviticus 25 Year of Jubilee freed the slaves, the Liberty Bell became an anti-slavery symbol. It was popularized by the New York Anti-Slavery Society’s journal, Anti-Slavery Record.

In 1839, Boston’s abolitionist society Friends of Liberty titled their journal The Liberty Bell. Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison’s anti-slavery publication The Liberator helped promote The Liberty Bell as an symbol to fight slavery in the Democrat South.

Black Republican Frederick Douglass stated at the Southern Loyalists’ Convention in Philadelphia, 1866: “I ask you to adopt the principles proclaime by yourselves, by your revolutionary fathers, and by the old bell in Independence Hall.”

Nelson Mandela was awarded the Liberty Medal in Philadelphia, July 4, 1993. He spoke of: “the durability of the glorious vision that gave birth to the independence of this country and to the United States Constitution. The Liberty Bell is a very significant symbol for the entire democratic world.”

(The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 4, 1993) Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., made reference to the bell ringing freedom in his “I Have A Dream” speech, August 28, 1963:

“When the architects of our great republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Now is the time to make justice a reality to all of God’s children. I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

I have a dream that one day out in the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”

Rev. King vocalized opposition to views such as critical race theory, which divide people based on race: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character.”

A Republican, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., condemned the “vicious racist” views of Democrat Governor George Wallace of Alabama, who refused to integrate schools: “I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”

Rev. King quoted from the prophet Isaiah: “I have a dream that one day ‘every valley shall be engulfed, every hill shall be exalted and every mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together’ (Isaiah 40:4-5). With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together.”

King quoted from the patriotic song “America (My Country, ‘Tis of Thee)” written in 1831 by Rev. Samuel Francis Smith, pastor of Boston’s Park Street Church: “This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning, ‘My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father’s died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!’

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual, ‘Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.’”

Rev. King referred to a Negro Spiritual published by John Wesley Work, Jr., in New Jubilee Songs and Folk Songs of the American Negro, 1907):

Free at last, free at last. I thank God I’m free at last. Free at last, free at last.

I I I I thank God I’m free at last.

Way down yonder in the graveyard walk

I thank God I’m free at last.

Me and my Jesus going to meet and talk

I thank God I’m free at last.

On my knees when the light pass’d by

I thank God I’m free at last.

Tho’t my soul would rise and fly

I thank God I’m free at last.

I thank God I’m free at last.

Goin’ meet King Jesus in the air Some of these mornings, bright and fair

I thank God I’m free at last.

At the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, 1926, President Calvin Coolidge stated: “People at home and abroad consider Independence Hall as hallowed ground and revere the Liberty Bell as a sacred relic. That pile of bricks and mortar, that mass of metal, might appear as only the outgrown meeting place and the shattered bell. But to those who know, they have become consecrated. They are the framework of a spiritual event. The world looks upon them because of their associations of 150 years ago, as it looks upon the Holy Land because of what took place there nineteen hundred years ago.”

Coolidge added:

“The American Revolution represented the convictions of a great mass of independent, liberty-loving, God-fearing people who knew their rights, and possessed the courage to dare to maintain them”

He explained further:

“In the great outline of its principles the DECLARATION was the result of the RELIGIOUS TEACHINGS of the preceding period. The PRINCIPLES which went into the DECLARATION of Independence are found in the texts, the SERMONS, and the writings of the EARLY COLONIAL CLERGY. They preached equality because they believed in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. They justified freedom by the text that we are all created in the divine image. Placing EVERY MAN on a plane where he acknowledged no superiors, WHERE NO ONE POSSESSED ANY RIGHT TO RULE OVER HIM, he must inevitably choose his own rulers through a system of SELF-GOVERNMENT. In order that they might have freedom to express these thoughts and opportunity to put them into action, WHOLE CONGREGATIONS with their PASTORS had migrated to the colonies.”

Coolidge added:

“In its main feature the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE is a great SPIRITUAL DOCUMENT. It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, LIBERTY, popular sovereignty, the rights of man — these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their SOURCE and their roots in the RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS. They belong to the unseen world.”

Sir William Blackstone wrote in Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-1769), which was the definitive pre-Revolutionary source of common law by United States courts: “Of great importance to the public is the preservation of this personal liberty; for if once it were left in the power of any the highest magistrate to imprison arbitrarily whomever he or his officers thought proper there would soon be an end of all other rights.”

Coolidge concluded his address:

“UNLESS the faith of the American in these RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS is to endure, the principles of OUR DECLARATION WILL PERISH. We cannot continue to enjoy the RESULT if we neglect and abandon the CAUSE of God.”

Ron

—

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The Bible says:  John 17:21 NIT

(“I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you.”)

Jesus often went to the Father with concerns and petitions; and like Him we are encouraged to make our requests known to God in all circumstances. We are to come boldly before the Lord with our specific needs—not timidly.

Friend, through Christ, your spirit has been forever joined to the One who has all answers, all solutions, all provision, all blessings. Therefore, your mind should be focused on the God who saves, delivers, heals, redeems, and restores you, regardless of your circumstances. He multiplies your resources provides you ways you cannot even imagine, and is able to work miraculously on your behalf.

So pray! Turn your attention to the Father, who knows all controls all, has all power, and is all loving. He will help you be one with Him through the Spirit and walk according to His will. Thanks be to the Lord Jesus, whose ultimate sacrifice now allows us to this sort of access!

Pray:  Lord Jesus, thank You for making me one with You and giving me unlimited access to Your throne of grace, Amen.

(We hear so very much about America’s Revolutionary War and all the wars since. However, we hear little about Her war with Spain. Most of its fighting and its conclusion took place in Cuba. It was very important to our history, and it gave us the Philippines among other places. I have told you about it below. Do read it.)

Slavery existed in Cuba longer than anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere, except Brazil.

Slaves were purchased from Africa where Arab Muslim slave traders had enslaved an estimated 180 million blacks over the fourteen centuries of Islamic rule.

President James Buchanan wrote December 19, 1859:

“When a market for African slaves shall no longer be furnished in Cuba. Then Christianity and civilization may gradually penetrate the existing gloom.”

President Ulysses S. Grant, who fought to end slavery in America, stated, December 2, 1872:

“Slavery in Cuba is a terrible evil. It is greatly to be hoped that Spain will voluntarily adopt emancipation in sympathy with the other powers of the Christian and civilized world.”

Cuban Independence movements were attempted in the 1820s and 1830s, but these were crushed by the Spanish monarchy.

On October 10, 1868, landowner Carlos Manuel de Céspedes freed his slaves and declared Cuba’s independence from Spain.

Cubans drafted a “10th of October Manifesto,” 1868:  “Rebelling against Spanish tyranny, we want to indicate to the world the reasons Spain governs us with iron and blood; it imposes taxes at will; it deprives us of all political, civil and religious freedom; it has put us under military watch in days of peace, arresting, exiling and executing, without being subject to any proceedings, it prohibits that we freely assemble.”

The “10th of October Manifesto” continued:

“Spain loads us with hungry bureaucrats who live from our patrimony and consume the product of our work, so that we do not know our rights, it maintains us in the ignorance. It forces us to maintain a expensive army, whose unique use is to repress and to humiliate us. To the God of our consciousness we appealed, and to the good faith of the civilized nations.”

The “10th of October Manifesto” ended:

“We want to enjoy the freedom for whose use God created man. We want to abolish slavery. We want freedom of meeting, freedom of the press and the freedom to brings back consciousness; and we appeal to practice inalienable rights of the man.”

In 1878, the Spanish Government crushed the revolt and ended “The Ten Years War” in which thousands were killed.

Under international pressure, Spain ended slavery by Royal decree in 1886.

Another “Little War” took place in 1879, and finally, in 1895, open rebellion broke out.

Spain sent Governor Valeriano Weyler to Cuba to smash anti-government protestors. Weyler adapted the model of interring Cherokee used during Democrat Administration’s of Jackson and Van Buren in the 1830s, called the Indian Removal Act.

Weyler adapted this into notorious “concentration camps.” Weyler rounded up hundreds of thousands of Cuban civilians from their rural farms and marched them into crowded camps — an example later followed by Hitler’s National Socialist Workers Party and Stalin’s Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Ultimately, between 1896-1897, over a third of Cuba’s population was in concentration camps. Over 225,000 died from starvation, exposure and yellow fever. Continual pleas for help reached the United States. Newspaper publishers made pioneering use of sensationalism and propaganda to influence public policy. Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal, stirred public sentiment with “yellow press” journalism, demanding President McKinley intervene militarily.

Heart’s newspaper illustrator was Frederic Remington, who was on assignment in Cuba. He sent a cable message in 1897: “Everything quiet. There is no trouble here. There will be no war. Wish to return.”

Hearst cabled back: “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.”

President McKinley responded by sending the USS Maine to Havana’s harbor. The ship blew up under suspicious conditions on February 15, 1898.

President McKinley approved a Resolution of Congress, April 20, 1898:  “Whereas the abhorrent conditions which have existed for more than three years in the island of Cuba, so near our own borders, have shocked the moral sense of the people of the United States, and have been a disgrace to Christian civilization, culminating, as they have, in the destruction of a United States battle ship, with 266 of its officers and crew, while on a friendly visit in the harbor of Havana, and cannot longer be endured. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives that the people of the island of Cuba are and of right ought to be free.”

Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt, resigned and organized the first volunteer cavalry, made up of polo riders, cowboys and even Indians to go and help. 

The U.S. Army used the Gatling Gun for the first time in mobile offensive combat.

Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders, along with other regiments, charged up Cuba’s Kettle Hill, then San Juan Hill, capturing it on JULY 1, 1898.

The Rough Riders left over half of their numbers back in Florida, and they never got into the fight. They also left almost all of their horses back in Florida, even though all of the Rough Riders were very skilled horsemen and highly trained to fight only on horseback.

So, the very effective fighting that they did do, such as storming up those hills under heavy fire, was most all done from on foot, even though that “hodgepodge” of tough men had no experience fighting on foot. They did it anyway. They were really tough dudes.

They all vehemently acknowledged that those gatling guns thumping continuously over their heads made all the difference in the battle.

Teddy Rosavelt was outranked by three other regular army officers, but they were not even close to ‘getting the job done,’ so he took command and rallied the fighting men and highly inspired them to charge up those hills under heavy fire against the odds from those highly trained Spanish troops.

The Rough Riders were well armed with the best carbines of the day and each was given a 50 caliber pistol. Yet, the Spanish had rifles that could fire 20 rounds a minute, and would have mowed-down those Rough Riders except for those gatling guns and the two machine guns they had that had just been invented.

After eight hours of heavy fighting there were over 1,500 American casualties.

One of the officers, Lt. John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, later rose to the highest American rank ever, “General of the Armies.”

Pershing wrote:

“The entire command moved forward as coolly as though the buzzing of bullets was the humming of bees, white regiments, black regiments, regulars and Rough Riders, representing the young manhood of the North and the South, fought shoulder to shoulder, unmindful of race or color, unmindful of whether commanded by ex-Confederate or not, and mindful of only their common duty as Americans.”

Among the thousands of Americans who volunteered for service during the Spanish American War were 5,000 black soldiers called “Buffalo Soldiers,” a name given to them by the Indians.

Other black soldiers were nicknamed “The Immunes” as they were considered more resistant to tropical climate and diseases.

All races were integrated in the U.S. Army until Democrat President Woodrow Wilson segregated blacks and whites in 1914.

Casualties of the Spanish-American War included:

• 379 Americans killed,
• 1,645 wounded, and
• 2,621 who died of disease.

On the Spanish side:

• 1,000 killed,
• 800 wounded and
• 15,000 died of disease. The large numbers dying of yellow fever led Army physician Walter Reed to conduct research and confirm the disease was spread by mosquitoes.

This discovery led to methods to control the insects, which later allowed for the construction of the Panama Canal.

Sick and wounded soldiers were cared for by Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, and an order of Catholic Sisters referred to as a Band of Angels.

After the War, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines were no longer controlled by Spain, but by America.

President McKinley wrote, July 6, 1898:

“At a time of the glorious achievements of the naval and military arms at Santiago de Cuba, it is fitting that we should pause and reverently bow before the throne of divine grace and give devout praise to God, who holdeth the nations in the hollow of His Hands.”

Ron

The Bible says in: Psalm 18:16-19 and 139:14

(He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but he Lord was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place: he delivered me, because he delighed in me. I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works: and that my soul knoweth right well.)

Scripture contains many stories of people who waited years before God’s promises came to pass. Waiting upon the Lord develops character and deepens our trust in Him.

Today let’s look at David. He was the chosen heir to Isreal’s throne, but he spent years dodging King Saul’s wrathful pursuit. Despit having two different opportunities for vengence, David resisted the temptation and spared Saul’s life. He chose to adhere to God’s timetable for his coronation instead of dishonoring the Lord by killing the divinely anointed king.

As shown above, Davie reveals his intimate awareness of the Lord’s work in his life. The shepherd king not only ascended the throne through patience; he also learned God’s way is always best. He grew in his commitment to tust the Lord rather than force outcomes through his own actions.

We cannot rush God’s timing, and our patient endurance dosen’t earn His favor; that’s already ours through grace. But waiting on the Lord does transform us. David didn’t receive his blessings because he was special or because he earned them through patience. He received them because God is faithrul to His promises. And that same faithfulness extends to us as we learn to wait on Him.

Ron

(From the times of the Pilgrims all the way to today it has been the custom in America to invoke the help and intervention of Almighty God in times of peril and calamity and even thanksgiving. The whole nation was called to prayer and humiliation before Almighty God. These times were so very important to our nation that I have chronicled a list of them below. Do read them and know of our country’s reliance upon Almighty God.)

In Alexander Young’s Chronicles of the Pilgrims, (Boston, 1841), Edward Winslow recounted: “Drought and the like moved not only every good man privately to enter into examination with his own estate between God and his conscience, and so to humiliation before Him, but also to humble ourselves together before the Lord by Fasting and Prayer.”

Beginning in colonial times, Connecticut proclaimed a day Beginning in early spring for Fasting and Prayer, customarily Good Friday. 

In 1668, the Virginia House of Burgesses in Jamestown passed: “The 27th of August appointed for a Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, to implore God’s mercy: if any person be found upon that day gaming, drinking, or working, works of necessity excepted, upon presentment by church-wardens and proof, he shall be fined.”

In 1746, French Admiral d’Anville sailed for New England, commanding the most powerful fleet of the day, 70 ships with 13,000 troops. He intended to recapture Louisburg, Nova Scotia, and destroy from Boston to New York, down to Georgia.

Massachusetts Governor William Shirley declared a Day of Prayer and Fasting, October 16, 1746. In Boston’s Old South Meeting House, Rev. Thomas Prince prayed: “Send Thy tempest, Lord, upon the water, scatter the ships of our tormentors!”

Historian Catherine Drinker Bowen related that as he finished praying, the sky darkened, winds shrieked and church bells rang “a wild, uneven sound, though no man was in the steeple.”

A hurricane scattered the entire French fleet. With 4,000 sick and 2,000 dead, including Admiral d’Anville; French Vice-Admiral d’Estournelle threw himself on his sword. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote in his Ballad of the French Fleet: “Admiral d’Anville had sworn by cross and crown, to ravage with fire and steel our helpless Boston Town. From mouth to mouth spread tidings of dismay, I stood in the Old South saying humbly: ‘Let us pray!’ Like a potter’s vessel broke, the great ships of the line, were carried away as smoke or sank in the brine.”

As French and Spanish raids increased, Ben Franklin proposed a General Fast, approved by Pennsylvania’s Council and published in the Pennsylvania Gazette, December 12, 1747: “We have thought fit to appoint a Day of Fasting and Prayer to join with one accord in fervent supplications that Almighty God would mercifully interpose and still the rage of war among the nations and put a stop to the effusion of Christian blood.”

On May 24, 1774, as British blockaded Boston’s Harbor, Jefferson drafted a Resolution for the Virginia House of Burgesses: “With apprehension of the great dangers from the hostile invasion of the City of Boston, in our sister Colony of Massachusetts, I deem it highly necessary that the said first day of June be set apart as a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer to implore the Divine interposition, for averting the heavy calamity which threatens destruction to our civil rights.”

Washington wrote in his diary, June 1, 1774: “Went to church, fasted all day.”

Virginia’s Royal Governor, Lord Dunmore, viewed this prayer resolution as a protest against King George so he dissolved the House of Burgesses, resulting in legislators meeting down the street in Raleigh Tavern and planning the Continental Congress.

On April 15, 1775, just four days before the Battle of Lexington, John Hancock led Massachusetts Provincial Congress to declare: In circumstances dark as these, it becomes us, as men and Christians, to reflect that, whilst every prudent measure should be taken to ward off the impending judgments, the 11th of May be set apart as a Day of Public Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, to confess our sins, and to implore forgiveness.”

On April 19, 1775, in a Proclamation of a Day of Fasting and Prayer, Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull beseeched that: “God would graciously pour out His Holy Spirit on us to bring us to a thorough repentance and effectual reformation that our iniquities may not be our ruin, and make the land a mountain of Holiness.”

On June 12, 1775, less than two months after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, where was fired “the shot heard ‘round the world,” John Hancock led the Continental Congress to declare: “Congress, considering the present critical, alarming and calamitous state, do earnestly recommend a Day of Public Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, that we may with united hearts and voices, unfeignedly confess and deplore our many sin. It is recommended to Christians of all denominations to assemble for public worship and to abstain from servile labor and recreations of said day.”

On July 12, 1775, John Adams wrote to his wife: “We have appointed a Continental fast. Millions will be upon their knees at once before their great Creator, imploring His forgiveness and blessing; His smiles on American Council and arms.”

From his Cambridge headquarters, Washington ordered, March 6, 1776: “Thursday, the 7^th being set apart as a Day of Fasting, Prayer and Humiliation, ‘to implore the Lord and Giver of all victory to pardon our manifold sins and wickedness, and that it would please Him to bless the Continental army with His divine favor and protection.’”

On March 16, 1776, the Continental Congress passed a resolution presented by General William Livingston: “Congress, desirous to have people impressed with a solemn sense of God’s superintending providence, recommend a Day of Prayer; that we may, with united hearts, confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and, by sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease God’s righteous displeasure, and, through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain this pardon and forgiveness.”

On November 11, 1779, Virginia Governor Jefferson proclaimed: “Congress hath thought it proper to recommend a day of public and solemn Thanksgiving to Almighty God. That He would crown our arms with victory; that He would grant to His church, the plentiful effusions of Divine Grace, and pour out His Holy Spirit on all ministers of the Gospel, and spread the light of Christian knowledge through the remotest corners of the earth.”

On February 21, 1786, New Hampshire Governor John Langdon proclaimed a Day of Public Fasting and Prayer: “It having been the laudable practice of this State, at the opening of the Spring, to set apart a day to penitently confess their manifold sins and transgressions, that He would be pleased to bless the great Council of the United States of America and that He would rain down righteousness upon the earth, revive religion, and spread abroad the knowledge of the true God, the Savior of man, throughout the world.”

Ben Franklin stated at the Constitutional Convention, 1787: “In the beginning of the Contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for Divine protection.”

Ronald Reagan said January 27, 1983: “In 1775, the Continental Congress proclaimed the first National Day of Prayer. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris officially ended the long, weary Revolutionary War during which a National Day of Prayer had been proclaimed every spring for eight years.”

Yale College had a requirement in 1787: “All the scholars are obliged to attend Divine worship in the College Chapel on the Lord’s Day and on Days of Fasting and Thanksgiving appointed by public authority.”

The same week Congress passed the Bill of Rights, President Washington declared, October 3, 1789: “Whereas both Houses of Congress requested me ‘to recommend to the People of the United States a Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness’. I do recommend the 26th day of November 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.”

After the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania, Washington proclaimed a Day of Prayer, January 1, 1796:

“All persons within the United States fervently beseech the kind Author of these blessings to establish habits of sobriety, order, and morality and piety.” 

During the Quasi-War with France, a second Great Awakening revival swept America. President Adams declared on March 23, 1798:  “The people of the United States are still held in jeopardy by insidious acts of a foreign nation, as well as by the dissemination among them of those principles subversive to all religious, moral, and social obligations. I hereby recommend a Day of Solemn Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer; That the citizens  call to mind our numerous offenses against the Most High God, confess them before Him with the sincerest penitence, implore His pardoning mercy, through the Great Mediator and Redeemer, and that through the grace of His Holy Spirit, we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience to His righteous requisitions. ‘Righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people.’”

James Madison, known as the “Chief Architect of the Constitution,” wrote many of the Federalist Papers to convince the States to ratify the Constitution, and then introduced the First Amendment in the first session of Congress.

During the War of 1812, Madison proclaimed a Day of Prayer:  “Rendering the Sovereign of the Universe public homage, acknowledging the transgressions which might justly provoke His divine displeasure, seeking His merciful forgiveness, and with a reverence for the unerring precept of our holy religion, to do to others as they would require that others should do to them.”

British soldiers invaded Washington, D.C., August 25, 1814, and burned the White House and Capitol. Suddenly dark clouds rolled in and a tornado touched down sending debris flying, blowing off roofs and knocking down chimneys on British troops. Horse and rider were thrown to the ground. Two cannons were lifted up and dropped yards away.

A British historian wrote:  “More British soldiers were killed by this stroke of nature than from all the firearms the American troops had mustered.”  British forces fled and rains extinguished the fires.

Madison proclaimed, November 16, 1814:  “In the present time of public calamity and war a day may be observed by the people of the United States as a Day of Public Humiliation and Fasting and of Prayer to Almighty God.”

On April 13, 1841, President William Harrison died. President John Tyler issued a Day of Prayer and Fasting:

“When a Christian people feel themselves to be overtaken by a great public calamity, it becomes them to humble themselves under the dispensation of Divine Providence.”

During a cholera epidemic, President Zachary Taylor proclaimed, July 3, 1849:  “A fearful pestilence is spreading itself throughout the land, it is fitting that a people whose reliance has ever been in His protection should humble themselves before His throne, acknowledging past transgressions, ask a continuance of the Divine mercy.  It is earnestly recommended that the first Friday in August be observed throughout the United States as a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer.”

During tensions prior to the Civil War, President Buchanan declared a Day of Prayer and Fasting, December 14, 1860:  “In this the hour of our calamity and peril to whom shall we resort for relief but to the God of our fathers? Let us unite in humbling ourselves before the Most High, confessing our individual and national sins. His omnipotent arm only can save us from the awful effects of our own crimes and follies. Let me invoke every individual to feel a personal responsibility to God and his country for keeping this day holy.”

On August 12, 1861, after the Union lost the Battle of Bull Run, President Lincoln proclaimed:  “It is fit to revere the Supreme Government of God; to bow in humble submission to His chastisement; to confess and deplore their sins and transgressions in the full conviction that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I appoint a Day of Humiliation, Prayer and Fasting for all the people of the nation.”

On March 30, 1863, Lincoln proclaimed a Day of Fasting and Prayer:  “The awful calamity of civil war may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people. We have forgotten God. We have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins.”

After the War, President Andrew Johnson issued, April 29, 1865:  “The 25th day of next month was as a Day for  Prayer in consequence of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, but whereas my attention has since been called to the fact that the day is sacred to large numbers of Christians as one of rejoicing for the ascension of the Savior, I do suggest that the religious services recommended as aforesaid should be postponed until the 1st day of June.”

In 1901, when President McKinley was assassinated, President Theodore Roosevelt declared a Day of Prayer:  “President McKinley crowned a life of largest love for his fellow men by a death of Christian fortitude. Now, therefore, I appoint. a Day of Mourning and Prayer throughout the United States, to assemble in their respective places of divine worship, to bow down in submission to the will of Almighty God.”

When the U.S. entered World War One, President Wilson proclaimed May 11, 1918:  “‘In a time of war humbly and devoutly to acknowledge our dependence on Almighty God and to implore His aid and protection, I proclaim a Day of Public Humiliation, Prayer and Fasting, and do exhort my fellow-citizens to pray to Almighty God that He may forgive our sins.”

When President Harding died, Preside Coolidge declared, August 24, 1923:  “I appoint a Day of Mourning and Prayer throughout the United States. I earnestly recommend the people to assemble on that day in their respective places of divine worship, there to bow down in submission to the will of Almighty God.”

During the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed, November 12, 1935:  “Let us then on the day appointed offer our devotions and our humble thanks to Almighty God and pray that the people of America will be guided by Him in helping their fellow men.”

When the U.S. entered World War Two, Roosevelt stated December 21, 1941:  “The year 1941 has brought upon our Nation a war of aggression by powers dominated by arrogant rulers whose selfish purpose is to destroy free institutions. Therefore, I do hereby appoint a Day of Prayer, of asking forgiveness for our shortcomings of the past, of consecration to the tasks of the present, of asking God’s help in days to come.'”

During the D-Day invasion, Roosevelt broadcast over radio, June 6, 1941:  “I ask you to join with me in prayer: Almighty God, Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion, and our civilization. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. We know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph. Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom. Help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.”

After the War, President Truman declared in a Day of Prayer, August 16, 1945:  “This is the end of the schemes of dictators to enslave the peoples of the world. Our global victory has come with the help of God. Let us dedicate ourselves to follow in His ways.”

In 1952, when the Cold War began with the Soviet Union, Truman made the National Day of Prayer an annual observance:  “In times of national crisis when we are striving to strengthen the foundations of peace, we stand in special need of Divine support.”

In 1954, President Eisenhower signed the bill to add “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. In 1956, he signed the bill making “In God We Trust” the official National motto; and the bill adding “In God We Trust” to the Nation’s paper currency.

On February 7, 1954, President Eisenhower supported the American Legion “Back-to-God Program broadcasting from the White House:  “As a former soldier, I am delighted that our veterans are sponsoring a movement to increase our awareness of God in our daily lives.  In battle, they learned a great truth – that there are no atheists in the foxholes. They know that in time of test and trial, we instinctively turn to God for new courage. Whatever our individual church, whatever our personal creed, our common faith in God is a common bond among us.”

After Apollo 13 had an explosion, President Nixon stated April 19, 1970:  “When we learned of the safe return of our astronauts, I asked that the Nation observe a National Day of Prayer. In these days of growing materialism, deep down there is still a great religious faith in this Nation. I think more people prayed last week than perhaps have prayed in many years in this country. We pray for the assistance of God when faced with great potential tragedy.”

On May 5, 1988, President Reagan made the National Day of Prayer the first Thursday in May, saying:  “Americans in every generation have turned to their Maker in prayer. We have acknowledged our dependence on Almighty God.”

President Bush declared Days of Prayer after the Islamic terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and Hurricane Katrina, 2005.

President Trump remarked on the National Day of Prayer, May 3, 2018:  “Today, we remember the words of Reverend Graham, “’Prayer is the key that opens to us the treasures of God’s mercies and blessings’. Graham’s words remind us that prayer has always been at the center of American life, because America is a nation of believers.”

Ron

The Bible Says: 1 John 3:1

(“See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called Children of God.”)

No one loves you more intimately and unconditionally than God does. He created you to be in relationship with Him—to glorify Him, have fellowship with Him, and be His beloved child forever.

He wants you to know how deeply and unconditionally He cares for you. There is nothing you could ever do to surprise or disappoint Him because He knows all things and is never shocked by your actions. Although He does not approve of sin, and may urge you to repent of ungodly behavior. He will always invite you back into His presence and accept you when you repent.

Therefore, when you do stumble, always remember you have an Advocate before the Father—Jesus Christ—who hears your prayers for forgiveness and cares when you are hurting. God may discipline you when you yield to temptation, but He will never withhold His love from you. You are His child. This truth never changes. And because He is righteous, loving, and steadfast, He will certainly never fail you.

Pray: Lord, thank You for forgiving me. No matter what, Your love is everlasting—and I am so grateful! Amen.

(There is much confusion about America’s conflicts with these ruthless pirates along this coast and the Muslim countries of Tripoli, Algeria, Tunis and others. We declared war on them three different times, mostly for their capture of our ships and enslaving their crews. Below I have recorded accurately an account of the history of our conflicts with them. Do read it so that you will understand those conflicts in accurat context.)

The TREATY OF TRIPOLI is of particular interest as secularists have attempted to use a phrase from it out-of-context.

The phrase, “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion,” has been presented as a definitive expression of the intent of America’s founders regarding religion and government.

This view, though, is discounted when one considers four points:

1) historical context shows the treaty’s conciliatory language was an attempt to appease Muslim Barbary pirates;

2) the treaty was negotiated on behalf of the Federal government, while at that time “religion” in America was under each states’ jurisdiction;

3) the treaty’s misquoted phrase is a sentence fragment that must be read with the qualifying words following it; and

4) if treaties are to be considered as showing the founders intent, then all other U.S. treaties must also be examined, including those which favorably acknowledge religion.

The  historical context of the Treaty of Tripoli&n bsp;begins in March of 1785, when  John Adams  and  Thomas Jefferson  met in France with  Tripoli’s ambassador Abdrahaman. Subject of the meeting was to determine  why Muslim Barbary pirates were attacking and capturing American ships  in the Mediterranean and imprisoning American sailors.

Jefferson had previously acquired a translation of the Qur’an. After reading it, Jefferson wrote to William Canby, September 18, 1813: “Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern, which have come under my observation, none appear to me so pure as that of Jesus.”

Jefferson studied why Muslim pirates perpetrated unprovoked attacks and enslave non-Muslims. He asked Tripoli’s ambassador Abdrahaman what the new nation of the United States had done to offend or provoke Muslim Barbary States. Writing to U.S. Secretary of Foreign Affairs John Jay, Thomas Jefferson described: “The ambassador answered us that it was founded on the laws of the prophet, it was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy’s ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once.”

He wrote again to John Jay, 1787, explaining his efforts to ransom captured American sailors through the mediation of the Catholic Order of Mathurins, which was later disbanded during the French Revolution:

“There is an Order of priests called the Mathurins, the object of whose institution is to beg alms for the  redemption of captives. They keep members always in Barbary,&nb sp;searching out the captives  of their country, and redeem, I believe, on better terms than any other body, public or private. It occurred to me, that their agency might be obtained for the  redemption of our prisoners  at Algiers. The General of the Order undertook to act for us, if we should desire it. He told me that their last considerable redemption was of about 300 prisoners who cost them somewhat upwards of 1,500 livres apiece, and that it must be absolutely unknown that the public concern themselves in the operation or the price would be greatly enhanced.”

Congress directed Jefferson and Adams to borrow $80,000 from Dutch bankers to make the extortion tribute payment, as Jefferson wrote to John Jay, 1787:

“If Congress decide to redeem our captives, it is of great importance that the first redemption be made at as low a price as possible, because it will form the future tariff. If these pirates find that they can have a very great price for Americans, they will abandon proportionally their pursuits against other nations to direct them towards ours.”

John Jay, who later would be the First Chief Justice, wrote to the President of Congress Richard Henry Lee, October 13, 1785: “Algerian Corsairs and the Pirates of Tunis and Tripoli (would cause Americans to unite, since) the more we are ill-treated abroad the more we shall unite and consolidate at home.”

In 1788, Jefferson arranged for John Paul Jones, referred to by some as the “Father of the American Navy,” to fight for Empress Catherine the Great of Russia against the Muslim Ottoman navy near the Crimean Peninsula during the 2nd Russo-Turkish War, 1787-92.

Jefferson wrote to General George Washington:

“The war between the Russians and the Turks has made an opening for our Commodore Paul Jones. The Empress has invited him into her service. She insures to him the rank of rear admiral. I think she means to oppose him to the Captain Pacha, on the Black Sea. He has made it a condition, that he shall be free at all times to return to the orders of Congress and also, that he shall not bear arms against France. I believe Congress had it in contemplation to give him the grade of admiral, from the date of his taking the Serapis. Such a measure would now greatly gratify him.”

John Paul Jones wrote in Narrative of the Campaign of the Liman of victoriously sailing his flagship Vladimir against the Turks near the Black Sea’s Dnieper River. The night before the battle, Jones and a Cossack sailor silently rowed out to scout the position of the Turkish fleet. On the side of one Turkish ship, Jones chalked in giant letters: “TO BE BURNED. PAUL JONES.” In the next day’s battle, that ship was among those destroyed by Jones. Jones was then appointed U.S. Consul to negotiate the release of captured U.S. Navy officers held in the dungeons of Algiers.

When John Paul Jones died suddenly, Joel Barlow filled the post. U.S. Consul Joel Barlow tried to stop Tripoli’s Barbary Pirates from continuing to terrorize the seas and capturing American sailors.

In 1793, Muslim Barbary pirates captured the U.S. cargo ship Polly. The fundamentalist Muslim captain justified the crew’s brutal treatment: “For your history and superstition in believing in a man who was crucified by the Jews and disregarding the true doctrine of Allah’s last and greatest prophet, Mohammed.”

In 1795, Muslim Barbary Pirates of Algiers captured 115 American sailors. The U.S. paid ransom of nearly a million dollars.

Tripoli followed sharia law which prohibited them from making treaties with “infidel” Christians:

• Infidels are those who declare: ‘God is the Christ, the son of Mary’ (Sura 5:17);

• Infidels are those that say ‘God is one of three in a Trinity’ (Sura 5:73).

• Believers, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies (Sura 5:51);

• Infidels are your sworn enemies (Sura 4:101);

• Make war on the infidels who dwell around you (Sura 9:123);

• Prophet, make war on the infidels (Sura 66:9);

• When you meet the infidel in the battlefield strike off their heads (Sura 47:4);

• Muhammad is Allah’s apostle. Those who follow him are ruthless to the infidels (Sura 48:29);

• Believers, do not make friends with those who have incurred the wrath of Allah (Sura 60:13).

• So do not falter or cry for peace, for you will have the upper hand and Allah is with you. (Sura 47:35)

• But once the Sacred Months have passed, kill the polytheists who violated their treaties wherever you find them, capture them, besiege them, and lie in wait for them on every way. (Sura 9:5)

Barlow realized that Islamic law frowned upon fundamentalist Muslims making friendship alliances with infidel nations. His challenge was to make a distinction in the minds of the Barbary powers that they were negotiating with a nation-state, not the Christian religion.

This is the second point to consider. Joel Barlow was negotiating the Treaty of Tripoli on behalf of the “nation-state” – the “government of the United States of America” — the “Federal” Government. This was a necessary distinction to make, as Muslims had been at war with the “Christian nations” of Europe for over 1,000 years. The concept of a “nation-state” where citizens within the country had freedom of conscience to join or leave a religion as they wished was unfamiliar and unwelcome to fundamental Muslims, as it still is today among fundamentalist groups like ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood.

In the United States, the “Federal” Government was prohibited by the First Amendment from having jurisdiction over religion, as religion was under each individual state’s jurisdiction. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story wrote in Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, 1833: “The whole power over the subject of religion is left exclusively to the state Governments, to be acted upon according to their own sense of justice and the State Constitutions.”

Jefferson explained in his Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1805: “In matters of religion I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the General (Federal) Government. I have therefore undertaken, on no occasion, to prescribe the religious exercise suited to it; but have left them, as the Constitution found them, under the direction and discipline of state and church authorities.”

Jefferson told Samuel Miller, January 23, 1808: “I consider the (Federal) Government of the United States as interdicted (prohibited) by the Constitution from inter-meddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the states the powers not delegated to the United States (10th Amendment).”

In fact, it was the states’ jealous desire to keep religion under their jurisdictions that motivated the states to insist that a First Amendment be added to the U.S. Constitution to prohibit the Federal Government from inter-meddling with religion.

This was not the case in most European countries which had established churches, or in fundamental Muslim countries which controlled citizens’ religious life through threats of death or dismemberment.

The Islamic understanding of religion and government being synonymous is seen in the original Arabic translation of the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli:

“Glory be to God! Declaration of the third article. We have agreed that if American Christians are traveling with a nation that is at war with the well preserved Tripoli, and (the Tripolitan) takes (prisoners) from the Christian enemies and from the American Christians with whom we are at peace, then sets them free; neither he nor his goods shall be taken.

Praise be to God! Declaration of the twelfth article.

If there arises a disturbance between us both sides, and it becomes a serious dispute, and the American Consul is not able to make clear his affair, and the affair shall remain suspended between them both, between the Pasha of Tripoli, may God strengthen him, and the Americans, until Lord Hassan Pasha, may God strengthen him, in the well-protected Algiers, has taken cognizance of the matter.

We shall accept whatever decision he enjoins on us, and we shall agree with his condition and his seal; May God make it all permanent love and a good conclusion between us in the beginning and in the end, by His grace and favor, amen!”

The wording of the Treaty of Tripoli of 1797 was not to discredit Christianity’s historical contribution to the founding of America, but rather it was an attempt for the Federal government of the United States to negotiate with Muslim powers using phraseology they could relate to and which they would be obliged to honor.

With that background, the phrase in Treaty of Tripoli under discussion was:

“As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion, -as it has in itself no character of enmity against the law, religion or tranquility of the Musselmen-, and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinion shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”

Noted religious critic and anti-theist Christopher Hitchens admitted in his work Jefferson Versus the Muslim Pirates (2007):

“Of course, those secularists like myself who like to cite this Treaty must concede that its conciliatory language was part of America’s attempt to come to terms with Barbary demands.”

In grammar, a comma indicates a qualifying relationship between a dependent clause and an independent clause.

The phrase “As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion,” is followed by a comma indicating that the preceding dependent phrase is qualified by the subsequent phrase which should always accompany it, “-as it has in itself no character of enmity against the law, religion or tranquility of the Musselmen.”

The Treaty of Tripoli, as Christopher Hitchens explained, contained “conciliatory language” in an “attempt to come to terms with Barbary demands.”

John Adams’ Secretary of War James McHenry protested the language of the Treaty of Tripoli, writing to Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott, Jr., September 26, 1800:

“The Senate ought never to have ratified the  treaty  alluded to, with the declaration that ‘the government of the United States, is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.’

What else is it founded on? This act always appeared to me like trampling upon the cross. I do not recollect that Barlow was even reprimanded for this outrage upon the government and religion.”

Immediately after Jefferson was inaugurated President in 1801, the Pasha of Tripoli demanded $225,000 in an extortion tribute payment to keep his Barbary pirates from seizing American ships, confiscating cargo and selling crews into slavery.

When Jefferson refused to pay, the Pasha declared war – the first war after the U.S. became a nation.

Jefferson stated in his First Annual Message to Congress, December 8, 1801:

“Tripoli, the least considerable of the Barbary States, had come forward with demands unfounded either in right or in compact, and had permitted itself to (announce) war on our failure to comply before a given day. The style of the demand admitted but one answer.

I sent a small squadron of frigates into the Mediterranean, with assurances to that power of our sincere desire to remain in peace, but with orders to protect our commerce against the threatened attack. The measure was seasonable and salutary.

The Bey (lord) had already declared war. His cruisers were out.

Two had arrived at Gibraltar.

Our commerce in the Mediterranean was blockaded and that of the Atlantic in peril. The arrival of our squadron dispelled the danger.

One of the Tripolitan cruisers having fallen in with and engaged the small schooner Enterprise, commanded by Lieutenant Sterret, which had gone as a tender to our larger vessels, was captured, after a heavy slaughter of her Muslim men, without the loss of a single one on our part.

The bravery exhibited by our citizens on that element will, I trust, be a testimony to the world. We are bound with peculiar gratitude to be thankful to Him that our own peace has been preserved through a perilous season.”

On December 29, 1803, the 36-gun USS Philadelphia was cruising the Mediterranean when it ran aground on an uncharted sand bar off the coast of North Africa. Muslims surrounded it and captured its crew.

They imprisoned Captain William Bainbridge and his 307 man crew for 18 months.

To keep this ship from being used by Muslim pirates, Lieut. Stephen Decatur sailed his ship, Intrepid, February 16, 1804, into Tripoli’s harbor and set the USS Philadelphia ablaze.

British Admiral Horatio Nelson called it the “most bold and daring act of the age.”

After negotiations, for $60,000 and 89 Muslim prisoners captured in skirmishes, the crew of the USS Philadelphia was released, less 6 who had died in captivity and 5 who converted to Islam, much to the annoyance of the rest.

When the Pasha of Tripoli offered the 5 converts the choice of staying in Tripoli or returning to America, 4 decided to renounce Islam and return home.

Horror covered their faces as the insulted Pasha ordered guards to drag them away, following the instruction in Hadith al-Bukhari:

“Mohammed said, Whoever changes his Islamic religion, kill him.”

In April of 1805, Jefferson sent in the Navy and Marines, led by Commodore Edward Preble, Commodore John Rogers, Captain William Eaton, Lieut. Stephen Decatur, and Lieut. Presley O’Bannon.

The Marines landed at Alexaria, Egypt, the closest port to Derna, the major city and center of the slave trade with its slave markets.

As mentioned, at that time the center of the Muslim slave markets was at Derna on the Barbary Coast, in the province of Tripoli. It was quite secure, since it had large, land-based cannons. The ships which really wanted to bombard Derna did not have cannons that large and were kept awau, so this strategic town was quite safe. It could not be attacked from the land either because to its rear was a formidable desert, 600 miles across.

The Marines in Alexandrina became fast friends of the Bedouin desert worriors. The Bedouin loved those Marines becaus they were so tough and aggesive. The two banded together and decided to attempt to cross that formidible 600 mile desert and attack Derna. For the first time those Marines had to use camels. But as we learned in WW II nothing stops the U.S. Marines.

The Marines became friends with the Bedouin desert warriors there and were highly respected by the Bedouin because they were so tough and aggressive. The Marines made an alliance with the Bedouin warriors to go with them to attack Derma since the Bedouin were not Muslims.

They crossed that formidable, supposedly impossible 600 miles by finding just enough water with the help of those Bedouin. And when they came charging out of the desert with both groups yelling their respective war cries those Muslims just could not believe it. The Marines were armed with the Henry Repeating Rifles like the Texas Rangers were now using along the Mexican border. The Muslims in Derna and along the Barbary coast had nothing like them.

They just obliterated Derna and all of its land based cannons, and totally stopped that horrible slave trade forever, such as this European girl captured and made a slave, and being given to the Pasha:

They seized the Barbary harbor of Derna and the terrorist attacks ceased up and down the whole Barbzry Coast, giving rise to the Marine Anthem:

“From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli …”

Many “mameluke ” Muslim slave-soldiers had their curved scimitar swords confiscated, which became the  Marine  “Mameluke” sword. And to this day is part of the United States Marine’s dress uniform.

Marines were called “leathernecks” for the wide leather straps they wore around their necks to prevent them from being beheaded, as Sura 47:4, stated: “When you meet the infidel in the battlefield, strike off their heads.”

Jefferson then had a new Treaty of Peace and Amity with Tripoli, April 12, 1806, but this time it was negotiated from a position of strength and therefore it did not contain the controversial conciliatory wording of the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli.

Francis Scott Key wrote a song to honor the and Marines titled “When the Warrior Returns from the Battle Afar,” published in Boston’s Independent Chronicle, December 30, 1805, being written to the same tune that nine years later Key would use for the Star-Spangled Banner:

“In conflict resistless each toil they endur’d

Till their foes shrunk dismay’d from the war’s desolation:

And pale beamed the Crescent, its splendor obscur’d

By the light of the Star-Bangled Flag of our nation.

Where each flaming star gleamed a meteor of war,

And the turban’d head bowed to the terrible glare.

Then mixt with the olive the laurel shall wave

And form a bright wreath for the brow of the brave.”

The Europeans and others had tried for so many years to stop the raiding and confiscating such huge numbers from Europe and from the ships at sea for slavery by the Muslim Pirates from the Barbary Coast. However, it took those tough U.S. Marines to finally accomplish it.

Ron

Soon after beginning his ministerial career in England in 1852, he abandoned the concept of the traditional church pulpit in favor of taking the gospel of Jesus Christ directly to the people. Walking the streets of London, he preached to the poor, the homeless, the hungry, and the destitute.

When fellow clergymen disagreed with Booth’s unconventional approach, he and his wife Catherine withdrew from the church to train evangelists throughout England. The couple returned to the East End of London in 1865, where many followers joined their fight for the souls of lost men and women. Within 10 years, their organization, operating under the name The Christian Mission, had over 1,000 volunteers and evangelists.

Thieves, prostitutes, gamblers, and drunkards were among their first converts to Christianity. And soon, those converts were also preaching and singing in the streets as living testimonies to the power of God.

When Booth read a printer’s proof of the 1878 Christian Mission annual report, he noticed the statement, “The Christian Mission is a volunteer army.” Crossing out the words “volunteer army,” he penned in “Salvation Army.” From those words came the basis of the foundation deed of The Salvation Army.

From that point onward, converts became soldiers of Christ and were known then, as now, as Salvationists. They launched an offensive throughout the British Isles that, in spite of violence and persecution, converted 250,000 Christians between 1881 and 1885. Their message spread rapidly, gaining a foothold in America and soon after Canada, Australia, France, Switzerland, India, South Africa, Iceland, and Germany.

Today, The Salvation Army is active in virtually every corner of the world and serves in 133 countries, offering the message of God’s healing and hope to all those in need.

Soon after beginning his ministerial career in England in 1852, William Booth abandoned the concept of the traditional church pulpit in favor of taking the gospel of Jesus Christ directly to the people. Walking the streets of London, he preached to the poor, the homeless, the hungry, and the destitute.

When fellow clergymen disagreed with Booth’s unconventional approach, he and his wife Catherine withdrew from the church to train evangelists throughout England. The couple returned to the East End of London in 1865, where many followers joined their fight for the souls of lost men and women. Within 10 years, their organization, operating under the name The Christian Mission, had over 1,000 volunteers and evangelists.

Thieves, prostitutes, gamblers, and drunkards were among their first converts to Christianity. And soon, those converts were also preaching and singing in the streets as living testimonies to the power of God.

When Booth read a printer’s proof of the 1878 Christian Mission annual report, he noticed the statement, “The Christian Mission is a volunteer army.” Crossing out the words “volunteer army,” he penned in “Salvation Army.” From those words came the basis of the foundation deed of The Salvation Army.

From that point onward, converts became soldiers of Christ and were known then, as now, as Salvationists. They launched an offensive throughout the British Isles that, in spite of violence and persecution, converted 250,000 Christians between 1881 and 1885. Their message spread rapidly, gaining a foothold in America and soon after Canada, Australia, France, Switzerland, India, South Africa, Iceland, and Germany.

Today, The Salvation Army is active in virtually every corner of the world and serves in 133 countries, offering the message of God’s healing and hope to all those in need.

The Bible says: Psalm 51:10 NIT

(“Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.”)

When God points out areas of your life to work on, it’s because He loves you. He wants to cleanse you so that you will be filled with His life and joy.

But be aware, these are the very timess you will be tempted to run away from the Father, imagining He’s angry with you or no longer loves you. Don’t do it. Stay the course and develop you relationship with Him.

Because it is when you’re willing to sit before the Lord and allow Him to expose your heart that your life is transformed. He prunes whatever isn’t spiritually edifying from your life. So whatever He brings to your mind today, the best thing you can do is admit it, confess it, repent of it, and deal with it. That’s the sure way to keep your sweet fellowship with the Father alive and healthy.

Friend, don’t ignore God or rationalize your actions because that will only stymie your growth. Rather, humble yourself befor Him, confess your transgressions and ask Him to clense you. And be assured, He will never turn you away.

Pray: “Lord, cleanse me so that I can enjoy uninterrupted fellowship with You. Thank You for forgiving me. amen.”