You know that prayer has been eliminated from America’s public schools.  If you wondered exactly how that happened, I have shown you exactly how in the following words.  If you wondered whether God and prayer and refences to God have been eliminated from our national treasures in Washington, D.C., they certainly have not. Just look below and see:

Ron

In 1960, atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair sued the Baltimore City Public School System in the case of Murray v. Curlett to have prayer and Bible reading taken out of public schools.

She used her 14 year old son, William J. Murray, III, as the plaintiff.

The case went to the Supreme Court where it was combined with the case of Abington Township v. Schempp, which gave the unprecedented decision that school-sponsored Bible reading in public schools is unconstitutional.

Then, in Engel v. Vitale, 1962, the Supreme Court made school-sponsored prayer in public schools unconstitutional.

O’Hair’s son, William J. Murray, III, disassociated himself from his atheist mother and became a renown Christian author and speaker. He founded the Religious Freedom Coalition to aid persecuted Christians in Communist and Islamic countries.

William J. Murray wrote a best-selling book, My Life Without God (2012).

Madalyn Murray O’Hair, referred to as “the most hated woman in America,” disappeared in 1995 amidst rumor and speculation.

In 2001, an FBI investigation discovered that her practice of hiring felons as body guards was a fateful mistake. The felons she had hired made her empty her bank accounts and give them the money. Then they murdered her and buried her mutilated body on a remote ranch in Texas.

President Ronald Reagan commented, March 6, 1984, regarding the Supreme Court’s opinion: “From the early days of the American colonies, prayer in schools was practiced and revered as an important tradition. Indeed, for nearly 2 centuries of our history it was considered a natural expression of our religious freedom. Then in 1962, the Supreme Court declared school prayer illegal. Well, I firmly believe the loving God who has blessed our land and made us a good caring people should never have been expelled from America’s classrooms.”

The simple prayer declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court had been in a public school in New Hyde Park, New York:  “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our country. Amen.”

The Justice who issued Engle v. Vitale opinion 1962, was Hugo Black.

Prior to Franklin Roosevelt appointing him to the Supreme Court, Black had been a Democrat Senator from Alabama, whose only court experience was one year as a city court judge.

Many predicted that removal of prayer and Bible reading from public schools would result in an increase in crime in schools.

The Democrat Party’s three time candidate for President, William Jennings Bryan, had written in the New York Times, September 7, 1913:  “A religion which teaches personal responsibility to God gives strength to morality.  There is a powerful restraining influence in the belief that an all-seeing eye scrutinizes every thought and word and act of the individual.”

In a little over 50 years after prayer was taken out of schools, problems have gone from chewing gum and running in the hallways to drugs, fighting, robbery, vandalism, assault, rape, suicide, murder, school shootings, and the transgendered agenda, which effectively severed the last ties to Biblical morality.

Jesus taught in Mark 10:6, “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female” and warned in Matthew 18:6:  “If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”

Two days after Hugo Black’s decision to stop school prayer, Senator Robert Byrd addressed Congress, June 27, 1962:  “Inasmuch as our greatest leaders have shown no doubt about God’s proper place in the American birthright, can we, in our day, dare do less?  In no other place in the United States are there so many, and such varied official evidences of deep and abiding faith in God on the part of Government as there are in Washington.”

Byrd continued:  “Inside the rotunda is a picture of the Pilgrims about to embark from Holland on the sister ship of the Mayflower, the Speedwell.  The ship’s revered chaplain, Brewster, who later joined the Mayflower, has open on his lap the Bible.  Very clear are the words, ‘the New Testament according to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.’  On the sail is the motto of the Pilgrims, ‘In God We Trust, God With Us.'”

Senator Byrd added:  “Every session of the House and the Senate begins with prayer. Each house has its own chaplain.  The 83rd Congress set aside a small room in the Capitol, just off the rotunda, for the private prayer and meditation of members of Congress. The room is always open when Congress is in session, but it is not open to the public.  The room’s focal point is a stained glass window showing George Washington kneeling in prayer. Behind him is etched these words from Psalm 16:1: ‘Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust’.

The phrase, ‘In God We Trust,’ appears opposite the President of the Senate, who is the Vice-President of the United States.  The same phrase, in large words inscribed in the marble, backdrops the Speaker of the House of Representatives.  Above the head of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court are the Ten Commandments, with the great American eagle protecting them.  Moses is included among the great lawgivers in Herman A MacNeil’s marble sculpture group on the east front.

The crier who opens each session closes with the words, ‘God save the United States and this Honorable Court.’

Engraved on the metal on the top of the Washington Monument are the words: ‘Praise be to God.’

Lining the walls of the stairwell are such biblical phrases as ‘Search the Scriptures,’ ‘Holiness to the Lord,’ ‘Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.’

Numerous quotations from Scripture can be found within its (the Library of Congress) walls.

One reminds each American of his responsibility to his Maker: ‘What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with thy God'(Micah 6:8).

Another in the lawmaker’s library preserves the Psalmist’s acknowledgment that all nature reflects the order and beauty of the Creator, ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork’ (Psalm 19:1).  And still another reference: ‘The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not’ (John 1:5).

Millions have stood in the Lincoln Memorial and gazed up at the statue of the great Abraham Lincoln.  The sculptor who chiseled the features of Lincoln in granite all but seems to make Lincoln speak his own words inscribed into the walls:  ‘That this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.’

At the opposite end, on the north wall, his Second Inaugural Address alludes to ‘God,’ the ‘Bible,’ ‘providence,’ ‘the Almighty,’ and ‘divine attributes.’  It then continues:  ‘As was said 3000 years ago, so it still must be said, The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'”

Senator Robert Byrd concluded:  “On the south banks of Washington’s Tidal Basin, Thomas Jefferson still speaks:  ‘God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?

Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.

Jefferson’s words are a forceful and explicit warning that to remove God from this country will destroy it.'”

On April 8, next Tuesday much of the United States will have a total eclipse. Many people are very intrested in watching it. Some are traveling great distances to be at just the right place at the right time. Ron

Do you know how rare it is for a total solar eclipse to cross over the same place twice?

To answer that, we have to first look at some of the interesting history of eclipses:

Genesis 1:14 records: “And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons.”

The Hebrew word for “signs” is “oth” which means “warning.”

So, let’s examine this:

The Earth revolves around the Sun, and the Moon revolves around the Earth.

Sometimes, the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon, and the shadow of the Earth passes over the Moon, first appearing red, sometimes called a “blood moon,” before completely blacking it out.

This is called a lunar eclipse and occurs around every six months.

Other times, the Moon’s orbit passes between the Sun and the Earth, and the Moon’s shadow blocks out the Sun.

This is called a solar eclipse, and also occurs around every six months.

Where a lunar eclipse is visible at night for over an hour from anywhere on the side of the Earth that faces the moon, a solar eclipse is visible during the day but only in a narrow path 60 to 120 miles wide, stretching across a particular 8,000-mile-long swath of the Earth’s surface, taking only 3 to 5 minutes to pass over any specific spot.

Therefore, viewing a solar eclipse is much rarer than viewing a lunar eclipse.

Just as lunar eclipses occur in predictable cycles, solar eclipses occur in a predictable series of overlapping 18-year cycles, called saros cycles.

This was first discovered by Babylonian astronomers in Mesopotamia some 2,500 years ago.

Since eclipses are visible across many civilizations, such as China, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Rome, they provide an accurate way of correlating events on ancient calendars.

Most lunar and solar eclipses occur with no apparent correlation to events on Earth, such as July 5, 1777, Captain Cook’s crew observed a solar eclipse from Tonga; or May 29, 1919, a solar eclipse confirmed Einstein’s prediction that light from a distant star would appear to bend due to gravitational forces, verifying his theory of general relativity.

Other eclipses have been considered foreboding and ominous signs.

One of these was during the reign of Israel’s King Jeroboam II, 793-753 BC.

The Prophet Amos prophesied that an eclipse would occur: “And it shall come to pass in that day,” says the Lord GOD, “That I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in broad daylight.”

At the time of Amos, the Prophet Jonah was sent to the Assyrian capital of Nineveh, the largest city in the world.

Nineveh was a sinful place. It had a temple to the pagan goddess, Ishtar, with female prostitutes, as well as male prostitutes dressed as females, together with infant sacrifice.

At the time of Jonah’s preaching, the solar eclipse prophesied by Amos took place, June 15, 763 BC.

Since Assyrians viewed eclipses as signs of imminent judgement, this may have contributed to Nineveh repenting.

A solar eclipse, May 28, 585 B.C., near Greece, caused the Medes to stop fighting right in the middle of a battle with the Lydians. Not long after this, the Medes were conquered by Cyrus the Great of Persia.

The Greek historian Herodotus recorded a solar eclipse on October 2, 480 BC, when Xerxes departed from Persia on his fateful expedition against Greece. The Persian army had initial success, winning the Battle of Thermopylae, but it was eventually defeated by the Greeks, beginning the Persian Empire’s decline.

The Roman Empire experienced five solar eclipses between 447 AD and 464 AD, as Attila the Hun and Germanic barbarians flooded over the borders, till Rome finally fell in 476 AD.

Other Bible prophets mentioned eclipses associated with judgement:

The Book of the Prophet Joel, chapter 2, has the line: “The sun will be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.”

Mark 13:24 states: “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light.”

And the Apostle John recorded in Revelation 6:12 “He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood.”

Another example of a solar eclipse being viewed as a foreboding sign was when King Henry I was saying goodbye to England to go on a military campaign in Normandy, when suddenly a solar eclipse occurred, August 2, 1133. The King never returned, as he died not long after, and England was thrown into chaos and civil war.

On August 8, 1496, an eclipse passed over the Aztec and Mayan empires, which had existed for a very long time. They interpreted this as a sign of doom. Within a generation, Spanish Conquistadors arrived, and 75 percent of the native population died from war and pestilence.

A 20th century coincidence was after the Titanic sank in the Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912. Just 60 hours later, an eclipse passed over the exact path the ship took.

On August 21, 1914, a solar eclipse divided Europe, the Ottoman Empire, and Russia. At this very spot fighting started, beginning World War One.

On August 21, 1933, an eclipse passed over Jerusalem and Baghdad while Hitler and the Nazis rose to power in Germany, leading up to World War Two.

On July 9, 1945, the U.S. government established the White Sand’s Missile Range in New Mexico. That day a solar eclipse occurred, traveling from the U.S. to the U.S.S.R.

A week later, July 16, 1945, the U.S. detonated world’s first atomic bomb at White Sand’s, beginning the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union.

On February 26, 1979, a solar eclipse passed over Mount St. Helens. A little over a year later it erupted.

On July 31, 1981, a solar eclipse crossed over the entire U.S.S.R., touching no other nation. The U.S.S.R. began to decline until it collapsed a decade later.

On rare occasions, due to the Earth and Moon’s cyclical orbits, the shadow of two eclipses can cross the same place on the Earth within a period of seven years or less, which if plotted on a map would look like a giant X pattern.

How rare is this?

NASA Goddard programmer Ernest T. Wright mapped the paths of every total solar eclipse for the past 5,000 years, 11,898 of them, and found that for a total solar eclipse to cross the same place twice only happens once every 366 years.

The letter X in the ancient paleo-Hebrew alphabet is called the Tav. It is the last letter, indicating the end or judgement.

This adds to the speculation as to whether an eclipse is sign from God.

Since 1776, America has had only a few times when the paths of two eclipses crossed each other within a seven year period, forming an X.

One account was in the early 1800s.

On June 16, 1806, the path of a solar eclipse crossed the entire American continent, passing over an area where the Ohio River and the Mississippi River meet in southern Missouri and Illinois.

This area is called the New Madrid fault.

Then, less than seven years later, on September 17, 1811, the path of another solar eclipse crossed that same New Madrid spot, making a giant X in the middle of America.

Shortly after, that same New Madrid area experienced cataclysmic earthquakes with the ground shifting and geysers shooting water out of the ground.

The Mississippi River flowed backwards for a day and earthquake tremors were felt as far away as New York City, Boston, Montreal, and Washington D.C. President James and Dolley Madison felt them in the White House.

At the same time, there was another sign in the heavens, Chief Tecumseh’s Comet raced across the sky.

Indian Chief Tecumseh capitalized on this sign to raise a coalition of Indians to join the British in fighting Americans during the War of 1812.

Then there was another time when an X was created by the paths of two eclipses crossing, the first being February 12, 1831, the year of Nat Turner’s slave uprising.

This eclipse crossed Georgia and Tennessee.

Then, a little over three years later, November 30, 1834, another eclipse crossed like an X over that same area, between Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

The X was on the exact path where the Indians tribes of Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek and Chickasaw were being forcibly removed by the Federal government to Oklahoma.

Then, exactly seven years, seven months and seven days from that first 1831 eclipse, there was another eclipse on March 25, 1838.

This was right before General Winfield Scott received his final “Orders No. 25,” May 17, 1838, to finish the job and remove the last remaining 15,000 Cherokee from Georgia.

It tragically took place during the harshest of winters, with freezing rain, sleet, and snow, in what became known as the Trail of Tears. 4,000 died.

This forced relocation by the Federal government was condemned by Christian missionaries, as well as by the famous Congressman from Tennessee, Davy Crockett.

French writer Alexis de Tocqueville witnessed the Trail of Tears and wrote in Democracy in America: “In the whole scene there was an air of ruin and destruction, something which betrayed a final and irrevocable adieu; one couldn’t watch without feeling one’s heart wrung.”

Recently, on August 21, 2017, just seven months after President Trump took office, a solar eclipse crossed over the entire United States from west to east, one of only three to do that.

The first was in 1806 and the second in 1918.

The path of the 2017 eclipse passed over seven cities named Salem which means peace.

Seven years later, which happens to be the first day of the Hebrew calendar year, another solar eclipse crosses the United States, April 8, 2024.

Its path crosses over or near seven cities named Nineveh, as well as a town named Jonah in Texas, and Wilmington, Kentucky, where The Ark Encounter is located.

The path of the 2017 eclipse and the 2024 eclipse both cross Carbondale, Illinois, at a place called “Little Egypt,” forming a giant X over the United States.

Similar to the 1811 eclipse, with Tecumseh’s Comet being visible, the 2024 eclipse will coincide with a comet being visible, known as the “devil comet,” which circles the Sun every 71 years.

To add to the anxiety, in April 2024 there will be trillions of cicadas, a plant-eating winged insect, sometimes called a locust, though there are differences.

Nymph cicadas live underground for years until their metamorphosis and they emerge above ground.

In middle America, there are two main groups, or broods, of cicadas.

One brood lives underground in a 13-year cycle and another in a 17-year cycle.

Every 221 years, the two cycles overlap.

The last time this happened was in 1803.

This year, beginning in April of 2024, both the 13-year and the 17-year broods of cicadas will emerge above ground at the same time, resulting in trillions of cicadas.

This all sounds so much like the Biblical judgements in Egypt.

Are eclipses just coincidences or are they signs from God?

Whether they are or are not, most people consider America to be on a path away from God.

We are all called to repent and turn back to the Lord.

Mark 1:14-15, declared: “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’”

Do you know how rare it is for a total solar eclipse to cross over the same place twice?

To answer that, we have to first look at some of the interesting history of eclipses:

Genesis 1:14 records: “And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons.”

The Hebrew word for “signs” is “oth” which means “warning.”

So, let’s examine this:

The Earth revolves around the Sun, and the Moon revolves around the Earth.

Sometimes, the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon, and the shadow of the Earth passes over the Moon, first appearing red, sometimes called a “blood moon,” before completely blacking it out.

This is called a lunar eclipse and occurs around every six months.

Other times, the Moon’s orbit passes between the Sun and the Earth, and the Moon’s shadow blocks out the Sun.

This is called a solar eclipse, and also occurs around every six months.

Where a lunar eclipse is visible at night for over an hour from anywhere on the side of the Earth that faces the moon, a solar eclipse is visible during the day but only in a narrow path 60 to 120 miles wide, stretching across a particular 8,000-mile-long swath of the Earth’s surface, taking only 3 to 5 minutes to pass over any specific spot.

Therefore, viewing a solar eclipse is much rarer than viewing a lunar eclipse.

Just as lunar eclipses occur in predictable cycles, solar eclipses occur in a predictable series of overlapping 18-year cycles, called saros cycles.

This was first discovered by Babylonian astronomers in Mesopotamia some 2,500 years ago.

Since eclipses are visible across many civilizations, such as China, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Rome, they provide an accurate way of correlating events on ancient calendars.

Most lunar and solar eclipses occur with no apparent correlation to events on Earth, such as July 5, 1777, Captain Cook’s crew observed a solar eclipse from Tonga; or May 29, 1919, a solar eclipse confirmed Einstein’s prediction that light from a distant star would appear to bend due to gravitational forces, verifying his theory of general relativity.

Other eclipses have been considered foreboding and ominous signs.

One of these was during the reign of Israel’s King Jeroboam II, 793-753 BC.

The Prophet Amos prophesied that an eclipse would occur: “And it shall come to pass in that day,” says the Lord GOD, “That I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in broad daylight.”

At the time of Amos, the Prophet Jonah was sent to the Assyrian capital of Nineveh, the largest city in the world.

Nineveh was a sinful place. It had a temple to the pagan goddess, Ishtar, with female prostitutes, as well as male prostitutes dressed as females, together with infant sacrifice.

At the time of Jonah’s preaching, the solar eclipse prophesied by Amos took place, June 15, 763 BC.

Since Assyrians viewed eclipses as signs of imminent judgement, this may have contributed to Nineveh repenting.

A solar eclipse, May 28, 585 B.C., near Greece, caused the Medes to stop fighting right in the middle of a battle with the Lydians. Not long after this, the Medes were conquered by Cyrus the Great of Persia.

The Greek historian Herodotus recorded a solar eclipse on October 2, 480 BC, when Xerxes departed from Persia on his fateful expedition against Greece. The Persian army had initial success, winning the Battle of Thermopylae, but it was eventually defeated by the Greeks, beginning the Persian Empire’s decline.

The Roman Empire experienced five solar eclipses between 447 AD and 464 AD, as Attila the Hun and Germanic barbarians flooded over the borders, till Rome finally fell in 476 AD.

Other Bible prophets mentioned eclipses associated with judgement:

The Book of the Prophet Joel, chapter 2, has the line: “The sun will be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.”

Mark 13:24 states: “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light.”

And the Apostle John recorded in Revelation 6:12 “He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood.”

Another example of a solar eclipse being viewed as a foreboding sign was when King Henry I was saying goodbye to England to go on a military campaign in Normandy, when suddenly a solar eclipse occurred, August 2, 1133. The King never returned, as he died not long after, and England was thrown into chaos and civil war.

On August 8, 1496, an eclipse passed over the Aztec and Mayan empires, which had existed for a very long time. They interpreted this as a sign of doom. Within a generation, Spanish Conquistadors arrived, and 75 percent of the native population died from war and pestilence.

A 20th century coincidence was after the Titanic sank in the Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912. Just 60 hours later, an eclipse passed over the exact path the ship took.

On August 21, 1914, a solar eclipse divided Europe, the Ottoman Empire, and Russia. At this very spot fighting started, beginning World War One.

On August 21, 1933, an eclipse passed over Jerusalem and Baghdad while Hitler and the Nazis rose to power in Germany, leading up to World War Two.

On July 9, 1945, the U.S. government established the White Sand’s Missile Range in New Mexico. That day a solar eclipse occurred, traveling from the U.S. to the U.S.S.R.

A week later, July 16, 1945, the U.S. detonated world’s first atomic bomb at White Sand’s, beginning the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union.

On February 26, 1979, a solar eclipse passed over Mount St. Helens. A little over a year later it erupted.

On July 31, 1981, a solar eclipse crossed over the entire U.S.S.R., touching no other nation. The U.S.S.R. began to decline until it collapsed a decade later.

On rare occasions, due to the Earth and Moon’s cyclical orbits, the shadow of two eclipses can cross the same place on the Earth within a period of seven years or less, which if plotted on a map would look like a giant X pattern.

How rare is this?

NASA Goddard programmer Ernest T. Wright mapped the paths of every total solar eclipse for the past 5,000 years, 11,898 of them, and found that for a total solar eclipse to cross the same place twice only happens once every 366 years.

The letter X in the ancient paleo-Hebrew alphabet is called the Tav. It is the last letter, indicating the end or judgement.

This adds to the speculation as to whether an eclipse is sign from God.

Since 1776, America has had only a few times when the paths of two eclipses crossed each other within a seven year period, forming an X.

One account was in the early 1800s.

On June 16, 1806, the path of a solar eclipse crossed the entire American continent, passing over an area where the Ohio River and the Mississippi River meet in southern Missouri and Illinois.

This area is called the New Madrid fault.

Then, less than seven years later, on September 17, 1811, the path of another solar eclipse crossed that same New Madrid spot, making a giant X in the middle of America.

Shortly after, that same New Madrid area experienced cataclysmic earthquakes with the ground shifting and geysers shooting water out of the ground.

The Mississippi River flowed backwards for a day and earthquake tremors were felt as far away as New York City, Boston, Montreal, and Washington D.C. President James and Dolley Madison felt them in the White House.

At the same time, there was another sign in the heavens, Chief Tecumseh’s Comet raced across the sky.

Indian Chief Tecumseh capitalized on this sign to raise a coalition of Indians to join the British in fighting Americans during the War of 1812.

Then there was another time when an X was created by the paths of two eclipses crossing, the first being February 12, 1831, the year of Nat Turner’s slave uprising.

This eclipse crossed Georgia and Tennessee.

Then, a little over three years later, November 30, 1834, another eclipse crossed like an X over that same area, between Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

The X was on the exact path where the Indians tribes of Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek and Chickasaw were being forcibly removed by the Federal government to Oklahoma.

Then, exactly seven years, seven months and seven days from that first 1831 eclipse, there was another eclipse on March 25, 1838.

This was right before General Winfield Scott received his final “Orders No. 25,” May 17, 1838, to finish the job and remove the last remaining 15,000 Cherokee from Georgia.

It tragically took place during the harshest of winters, with freezing rain, sleet, and snow, in what became known as the Trail of Tears. 4,000 died.

This forced relocation by the Federal government was condemned by Christian missionaries, as well as by the famous Congressman from Tennessee, Davy Crockett.

French writer Alexis de Tocqueville witnessed the Trail of Tears and wrote in Democracy in America: “In the whole scene there was an air of ruin and destruction, something which betrayed a final and irrevocable adieu; one couldn’t watch without feeling one’s heart wrung.”

Recently, on August 21, 2017, just seven months after President Trump took office, a solar eclipse crossed over the entire United States from west to east, one of only three to do that.

The first was in 1806 and the second in 1918.

The path of the 2017 eclipse passed over seven cities named Salem which means peace.

Seven years later, which happens to be the first day of the Hebrew calendar year, another solar eclipse crosses the United States, April 8, 2024.

Its path crosses over or near seven cities named Nineveh, as well as a town named Jonah in Texas, and Wilmington, Kentucky, where The Ark Encounter is located.

The path of the 2017 eclipse and the 2024 eclipse both cross Carbondale, Illinois, at a place called “Little Egypt,” forming a giant X over the United States.

Similar to the 1811 eclipse, with Tecumseh’s Comet being visible, the 2024 eclipse will coincide with a comet being visible, known as the “devil comet,” which circles the Sun every 71 years.

To add to the anxiety, in April 2024 there will be trillions of cicadas, a plant-eating winged insect, sometimes called a locust, though there are differences.

Nymph cicadas live underground for years until their metamorphosis and they emerge above ground.

In middle America, there are two main groups, or broods, of cicadas.

One brood lives underground in a 13-year cycle and another in a 17-year cycle.

Every 221 years, the two cycles overlap.

The last time this happened was in 1803.

This year, beginning in April of 2024, both the 13-year and the 17-year broods of cicadas will emerge above ground at the same time, resulting in trillions of cicadas.

This all sounds so much like the Biblical judgements in Egypt.

Are eclipses just coincidences or are they signs from God?

Whether they are or are not, most people consider America to be on a path away from God.

We are all called to repent and turn back to the Lord.

Mark 1:14-15, declared: “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’”

To so many people in the Western World Easter is all about the Easter bunny and colored Easter eggs and similar things.  Young people grow up with Easter egg hunts put on and sponsored by their local communities.  On a national level Easter is celebrated by the Easter Egg Roll Party. Since 1878, American presidents and their families have celebrated Easter Monday by hosting an ‘egg roll’ party held on the South Lawn of the White House; it is one of the oldest annual events in White House history.  However, if you will stay with me, I would like to tell you what Easter is really about. Ron

Since Christianity is the largest religion in the world, around a third of the Earth’s population, and since Easter is the most important day to Christians, this day could be considered the most important day in the world!

President Ronald Reagan stated April 2, 1983: Christians have been commemorating the last momentous days leading to the crucifixion of Jesus 1,950 years ago. Tomorrow, as morning spreads around the planet, we’ll celebrate the triumph of life over death, the Resurrection of Jesus.” And in the United States we call it “Easter”.

Egyptians had enslaved the Israelites, with the Pharaoh’s order to have their infant boys thrown into the Nile River. In response, God sent plagues upon Egypt as judgment, the final one being similar to Pharaoh’s order, the sending of the angel of death to kill the firstborn.

On the 15th day of the Hebrew month Nisan, each Israelite family was to kill a lamb and put its blood over the doorposts of their house so that the judgment of the angel of death would “pass over” their home, indicating their faith that the lamb had taken the deserved judgment in their place.

Exodus 12:8 gave instructions regarding the Passover lamb: “And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.”

Jewish days began at sunset and lasted until the next sunset. In 33 AD, Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples in the evening and then in the morning he was crucified — on the day of Passover.

The Apostle Paul wrote in First Corinthians 5:7: “For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”

The lamb is considered the most innocent of animals. John the Baptist saw Jesus and exclaimed: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world!”

Justin Martyr, who lived 100 to 165 AD, described: “That lamb was commanded to be wholly roasted a symbol of the suffering of the cross which Christ would undergo. For the lamb is roasted and dressed up in the form of the cross. For one spit is transfixed right through from the lower parts up to the head, and one across the back, to which are attached the legs of the lamb.”

Crucifixion was the most painful Roman torture, reserved for slaves and rebels.

Dr. Alexander Metherell, M.D., Ph.D. wrote: “The pain was absolutely unbearable. In fact, it was literally beyond words to describe; they had to invent a new word: excruciating. Literally, excruciating means ‘out of the cross.’”

Cicero called crucifixion, “the most cruel and hideous of tortures.” Historian Will Durant wrote that “even the Romans pitied the victims.

It is amazing to me that the Prophet Isaiah wrote from 740 to 701 BC all about how Jesus would be born to a virgin, many other things about him and his life, even about his suffering at the crisifiction, 2,800 years before it ever happened.

Isaiah chapter 53 prophetically foretold: “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent.

He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer. The Lord makes his life an offering for sin.

My righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.”

Of course skeptics could say: “How do you know that was written that long ago. Maybe it was just ‘made up’ in recent times and made to look that old.”

If you will stay with me, I would like to relate to you how I know it is true: I had several ranches, all with those big, beautiful Santa Gertrudis cattle. On the 1,600 acre ranch where we lived in an obscenely big house, we would have a cattle round-up each Spring. There we would cut-out the adolescent aged bulls and heifers and dehorn them, brand them with my brand, and brand their mother’s number to their rear flank.

My cowboys and I needed extra help for this. So, we started inviting a bunch of friends and made it into a big party. Most of the folks did not help with the tough cattle work, they stayed at the house around the swimming pool and cabana, playing tennis on my fine court, riding horses, and the other fun activities.

My friend Clint Murchison, Jr. who owned the Dallas Cowboys and I, had this thing going about who had the best BBQ ribs in Texas. We finally decided that for sure it was “Cattaas’s” (Carter’s) over on Oakland Ave. in East Dallas.

The best thing about this “Round-up Party” was that I would have a big “mess” of “Cattaas’s” ribs and a big bunch of his black folk’s sides to go with them together with his famous BBQ sauce. We served it out under the shade trees on a big, long table. Then, after all that, at sundown we had some fantastic entertainment.

Many of the guests waited for the entertainment. It was held in my big living room. That room had a huge fireplace, a library down one side, and as many square feet as most people’s whole house. The entertainment that everyone looked so forward to was: Danny Korem. Danny was not only considered the #1 magician in the world by the other professional magicians, but was considered the world’s foremost authority on “deception” by the major new’s media TV Channels and major new’s papers. When a major news outlet thought they had found someone with “Powers”, they would call Danny and get him to expose what “tricks” that person was useing. Danny exposed Uri Geller on national TV who had convinced so many that he could bend metal like car keys with his mind or “Powers”. Danny also exposed Jeane Dixon who had convinced so many people across America of her ability to make “accurate” predictions.

With eveyone assembled, the first thing that Danny did for us was to ask for a few vounteers to get out a sheet of paper and for each volunteer to select a single digit number and write it on that sheet of paper. Then he asked a volunteer to go over across the room an get a sheet of paper out of the briefcase that he had brought to the party. When we looked at the number that the volunteer had written down, sure enough the number on the sheet of paper that Danny had brought were exactly the same. The whole room got quiet at that point.

Next, Danny asked for 5 or 6 volunteers to go over to my library bookcase and select a book. Then he asked each volunteer to put the book behind their back and open it, and put their finger firmly onto a spot on the open page. Danny then had each volunteer step forward and he called out a short phrase. When each volunteer read the words from the book where their finger was placed, they were the very same words that Danny had calle out. That is when things got really quiet.

There were some really famous people there in the room. One was tha famous Christian artist, Jack Hamm, whose pictures each week are published in newspapers across the world. Another person there was, Jimmy Smith, the famous cowboy who won the National Junior Roping Championship for America when he was in highshool.

After some more feats Danny finished with and amsolutely amazing one. He had me go out to the horse barn and get a waterproof piece of canvas. He then explained that he had brought to the party a big block of ice and that he had put it in the freezer in my back entrance. He had two strong volunteers go back and get that block of ice and put it on the canvas on the floor of that livingroom. Since most Texas men carry a sharp poketknife, he asked for volunteers to chip down to the center of that big block of ice. He explained that there was a laminated card frozen in the center of the ice.

While they were chipping, he asked Jack Hamm to get a dollar bill from someone there. He asked several times if Jack wanted to use the dollar collected or get another one. Jack decided to just keep that one. Then Danny had Jack Hamm to write down on a piece of paper the serial number on that dollar bill. When the guys finally got down to the center of the ice and found the laminated card, it had a number on it. And when it was read out, it turned out to be the exact serial number on the dollar bill that had been collected by Jack Hamm. Wow!!!

So, Danny asked the folks there if they thought that he had “powers”. They all did, but he explained that he did not, but that he had used deception at levels they had neer seen. Then he explained that in his whole career of exposing fake prophesies, the only real prediction that he had ever found that was real and true, were the prophesies of Isaiah about Jesus. And he said that if they had not found the Dead Sea Scrolls and Carbon Dated them several times, they could have been produced after the fact.

Danny Korem is very Jewish. He is also a strong Christian. He explained to the Group that he never would have become a Christian without the proof of that one true predicion by Isaiah 2,800 years ago.

At Jesus crisifiection the Roman Centurion in charge of the Roman soldiers said that this man must have really been the Son of God, because of all that then happened, like the black clouds that turned the day dark, the shaking if the earth, and all kinds of amazing manifestations.

After Jesus crusifiction, they took his body down and put it into a tomb carved out of rock that had been prepared for a wealthy man. They then rolled a huge, heavy rock over the front of the tomb to seal it. But on the morning of the third day, when Jesus deciples came, the huge rock was rolled away, and the grave clothes they had put on Jesus were laying right there. He had risen from the dead!!!

Several hundred people saw Jesus over days that followed. They attested that they saw and touched the scars left from his crusifiction.

Then Jesus took a group of his deciples across the valley from Jerusalem to the top of the cliff there. After giving them some parting words, Jesus just ascended up through the clouds. And as He left, he said that one day he was coming back the same way, and that they should be anticipating his eventual return.

In closing, one last question needs to be answered. Why did the Lamb have to die?

To answer that, we must ask: Why did God make us?

First, we are creatures made with a free will with the ability to love God.

Secondly, God has to hide himself behind His creation for us to have a free will, because if He ever revealed Himself in all of omnipotent universe creating power, your response would be involuntary. And for love to be love it must be voluntary!

Thirdly, God is just and must judge every sin, because if He did not judge their sin He would by default be giving consent to their sin.

Numbers 30 explains that silence equals consent. This is seen in wedding ceremonies where the minister asks if anyone objects they should speak now or forever hold their peace. By staying silent, those in attendance are giving their consent to the wedding.

In mathematical equations, there are constants and variables.

In the equation of redemption the constant is that God forever was, is, and forever will be just. The variable is who takes the judgment – you or a substitute.

The Lamb is our substitute. The Lamb is God’s way to love you without having to judge you.

The Lamb of God took the judgment in our place: “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son.”

How was Jesus’ sacrifice enough to pay for the sins of all mankind?

Jesus is divine and experienced judgment in a dimension we will never understand.

Jesus suffered the equivalent of eternal judgement in all or our places, and He is THE ONLY ONE who could have done it!

When someone believes the Gospel – that Jesus suffered in their place, that their sins have been taken away, that they are forgiven and accepted by God – they are filled with joy and gratefulness.

The unconditional love they experience brings a behavioral change from the inside–out. “The goodness of God brings men to repentance.” (Romans 2:4)

They experience a polarity change in their heart — instead of avoiding God, they are drawn to God.

They enter into a personal relationship with God the Father through Jesus the Son, then they are filled with Holy Spirit who dwells within them and works through them to bring the love of God to a lost and hurting world.

To sum it all up: God made a way for us to be washed clean by Jesus blood and thus to be able to live in heaven for all eternity with the living God of this Universe. How foolish for so many to just throw this away and not accept it. If you have never accepted it and been saved into Heaven, please do so right now. Just get on your knees and pray this Prayer:

Lord Jesus, I need you. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. Right now I open the door of my heart and receive You as my Savior and my Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins, and for giving me eternal life. Now Lord, just take control of the throne of my life, and make me into the kind of person that you want me to be.

If you ever doubted that the men who founded these United States of America believed in the one and only Mighty God of this Universe, please take the time to read this brief series of their Proclamations.

American Proclamations

During the days of America’s founding, colonies would declare:

• days of prayer when times were bad;
• days of fasting when times were real bad; and
• days of thanksgiving when things turned around.

This developed into many colonies, like New Hampshire and Massachusetts, having annual days of fasting, often on Good Friday.

This is evidence that colonists were not “deists” who believed God set the laws of nature in place and then let everything run on its own.

America’s founders believed in a living relationship with God where:

• if people sinned, He would call them to repent;
• if they did not repent, He would send judgment; and
• then, when they repented and believed, He would send deliverance, health, and blessings.

This was expressed in Deuteronomy 28: “If thou shalt HEARKEN diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments all these BLESSINGS shall come on thee, and overtake thee. But if thou wilt NOT HEARKEN unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandmentall these CURSES shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.”

In 2nd Chronicles 7:14, the Lord promised: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

During a threaten war, Ben Franklin published a proclamation of a General Fast in the Pennsylvania Gazette, December 12, 1747:”The calamities of a bloody war seem every year more nearly to approach us and there is just reason to fear that unless we humble ourselves before the Lord and amend our ways, we may be chastised with yet heavier judgments.  We have thought fit to appoint a Day of Fasting to join with one accord in the most humble and 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.”

Thomas Jefferson, as a member of the House of Burgesses, drafted a Day of Fasting for Virginia in 1774 to be observed on the day British ships blockaded Boston’s harbor:”With apprehension from the hostile invasion of the city of Boston whose commerce and harbor are to be stopped by an armed force, deem it highly necessary that the said first day of June be set apart, by the members of this House, as a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, devoutly to implore the Divine interposition.”

After the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed July 4, 1776, the first “National” Day of Thanksgiving was declared by the Continental Congress on November 1, 1777, to celebrate British General Burgoyne surrendering over 6,000 soldiers at the Battle of Saratoga:  “The grateful feeling of their hearts join the penitent confession of their manifold sins that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance and under the providence of Almighty God secure for these United States the greatest of all human blessings, independence and peace.

In the fighting going on in the Revolutionary War, the British were in command of the world’s seas.  They accomplished this primarily with their 50 gun fighting vessels called Ships-of-the Line.  They were awesome adversaries for the few Colonial ships.  However, the Americans had one of the most intrepid fighting men in its long history of fighting men…..Captain John Paul Jones.  He was awesomely aggressive.  He was in command of the frigate, Bonhomme Richard.  The name was in honor of Benjamin Franklin’s pen name, Poor Richard.

In the summer of 1779 Jones was sailing around the British Isles.  In the channel between Ireland and Scotland he had a duel with the British Ship HMS Drake and captured it.  Then his small squadron sailed to Yorkshire, England and on September 23, 1779 at Flamborough Head they encountered one of those awesome British Ships-of-The Line, the HMS Serapis which was escorting 40 British merchant ships.  The intrepid Jones immediately took after it.  The Bonhomme Richard sustained heavy fire with massive splintering of wood.  Jones knew that his only hope was to board the Serapis for hand-to-hand combat.

As he moved in the Serapis’ jibboom caught onto the Bonhomme Richard’s rigging. Jones instructed the Bonhomme Richard’s crew to attach to the Serapis, which they did. So locked together, they blasted away with their cannon.  The Bonhomme Richard was getting blown to pieces, but Captain Jones had one advantage.  He had a small group of Marines with their long accurate hunting rifles from the American Colonies.  All the British had were their muskets which could not hit anyone unless they were standing face to face. 

After a long bloody battle and after three attempts by Jones to board the HMS Serapis, the British Captain hailed Jones again and asked for his surrender, saying, “Has your ship struck?” (Meaning, have you surrendered?)  Jones replied with one of the most famous quotes of the American Revolution, “I have not yet begun to fight!” After five more attempts to board the HMS Serapis, the two ships were locked into hand-to-hand combat, but the little group of American Marines were hidden in the Bonhomme Richard’s rigging and furled sails way up high.  They were picking off British sailors right and left.

Finally, the British Captain realized that he was not going to have any sailors left.  He surrendered and Captain John Paul Jones sailed off with his captured British Ship-of-The-Line.

 He stopped in Amsterdam and was honored for his great victory.  The Dutch nicknamed him “The Terror of the English.” On December 27, Jones took command of the HMS Serapis, renaming the vessel Serapis, and gave it to the French Navy as a prize ship. Louis XVI of France granted Jones the rank of Chevalier and he received an elegant sword from the King of France.  Louis XVI credited Jones with maintaining “The Freedom of the Seas.” The pyrrhic victory over the Royal British Navy at the Battle of Flamborough Head further solidified the alliance and friendship of the American and French people.    

When the British surrendered on September 23, 1779, the Continental Congress declared a Day of Thanksgiving, recommending that the thirteen states do likewise.

In accordance with this, Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson proclaimed for Virginia, November 11, 1779:

“Congress hath thought proper to recommend to the several States a day of public and solemn Thanksgiving to Almighty God, for his mercies, and of Prayer, for the continuance of his favor that He would go forth with our hosts and 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; that He would bless and prosper the means of education, and spread the light of Christian knowledge through the remotest corners of the earth. I do therefore issue this proclamation appointing a day of public and solemn Thanksgiving and Prayer to Almighty God. Given under by hand this 11th day of November, in the year of our Lord, 1779…… Thomas Jefferson.”

After British General Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Congress proclaimed a Day of Thanksgiving, October 11, 1782: “It being the indispensable duty of all nations to offer up their supplications to Almighty God the United States in Congress assembled do hereby recommend it to the inhabitants of these states in general, to observe the last Thursday of November next, as a Day of Solemn Thanksgiving to God for all his mercies.”

The Treaty of Paris was signed September 3, 1783, officially ending the Revolutionary War. It began, “In the Name of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity.” 

Congress proclaimed a Day of Thanksgiving, October 18, 1783:  “Whereas it hath pleased the Supreme Ruler of all human events, to dispose the hearts of the late belligerent powers to put a period to the effusion of human blood, by proclaiming a cessation of all hostilities by sea and land, and these United States are not only happily rescued from the dangers and calamities to which they have been so long exposed, but their freedom, sovereignty and independence ultimately acknowledged.

And whereas in the progress of a contest on which the most essential rights of human nature depended, the interposition of Divine Providence in our favor hath been most abundantly and most graciously manifested, and the citizens of these United States have every reason for praise and gratitude to the God of their salvation.

Impressed, therefore, with an exalted sense of the blessings by which we are surrounded, and of our entire dependence on that Almighty Being, from whose goodness and bounty they are derived, the United States in Congress assembled do recommend it to the several States, to set apart the second Thursday in December next, as a day of public thanksgiving, that all the people may then assemble to celebrate with grateful hearts and united voices, the praises of their Supreme and all bountiful Benefactor, for his numberless favors and mercies.

That he hath been pleased to conduct us in safety through all the perils and vicissitudes of the war and above all, that he hath been pleased to continue to us the light of the blessed gospel, and secured to us in the fullest extent the rights of conscience in faith and worship.And while our hearts overflow with gratitude, and our lips set forth the praises of our great Creator, that we also offer up fervent supplications, that it may please him to pardon all our offenses to smile upon our seminaries and means of education, to cause pure religion and virtue to flourish, to give peace to all nations, and to fill the world with his glory.

Done by the United States in Congress assembled, witness his Excellency Elias Boudinot, our President, this 18th day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, and of the sovereignty and independence of the United States of America the eighth.”

Massachusetts Governor John Hancock, who was a former President of the Continental Congress, proclaimed a Day of Thanksgiving, November 8, 1783:  “The Citizens of these United States have every Reason for Praise and Gratitude to the God of their salvation I do appoint the 11th day of December next (the day recommended by the Congress) to all the States to be religiously observed as a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer, that all the people may then assemble to celebrate that he hath been pleased to continue to us the Light of the Blessed Gospel that we also offer up fervent supplications to cause pure Religion and Virtue to flourish and to fill the world with His glory.”

The same week Congress passed the Bill of Rights, which included the First Amendment, it requested President George Washington issue a National Day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God.

Washington wrote October 3, 1789: “Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer to be observed by acknowledging 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 now, therefore, I do recommend Thursday, the 26TH DAY of NOVEMBER to be devoted by the People of these United States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be, that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble Thanks for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government particularly the national one now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue.”

While the French Revolution was raging, President George Washington proclaimed on January 1, 1795, a National Day of Thanksgiving:”When we review the calamities, which afflict so many other nations the great degree of internal tranquility we have enjoyed; the recent confirmation of that tranquility by the suppression of an insurrection which so wantonly threatened it, the happy course of public affairs in general, the unexampled prosperity of all classes of our citizens; are circumstances which peculiarly mark our situation with indications of the Divine beneficence towards us.

In such a state of things it is, in an especial manner, our duty as people, with devout reverence and affectionate gratitude, to acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God and to implore Him to continue and confirm the blessings we experience.

I, George Washington, President of the United States, do recommend to all religious societies and denominations, and to all persons whomsoever, within the United States, to set apart a Day of public Thanksgiving and Prayer: and on that day to meet together and render their sincere and hearty thanks to the great Ruler of Nations.”

After the War of 1812 was ended with the Treaty of Ghent, President James Madison proclaimed a National Day of Thanksgiving, March 4, 1815: “The Senate and House of Representatives signified their desire that a day may be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity as a Day of Thanksgiving and of devout acknowledgments to Almighty God for His great goodness manifested in restoring to them the blessing of peace.No people ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the goodness of the Great Disposer of Events and of the Destiny of Nations than the people of the United States.

His kind Providence originally conducted them to one of the best portions of the dwelling place allotted for the great family of the human race. He protected them under all the difficulties and trials to which they were exposed in their early days. In the arduous struggle they were distinguished by multiplied tokens of His benign interposition. He enabled them to assert their national rights and to enhance their national character in another arduous conflict, which is now so happily terminated by a peace and reconciliation with those who have been our enemies. And to the same Divine Author of Every Good and Perfect Gift we are indebted for all those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land.

I now recommend a Day on which the people of every religious denomination may in their solemn assemblies unite their hearts and their voices in a freewill offering to their Heavenly Benefactor of their homage of Thanksgiving and of their songs of praise. Given in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifteen …….James Madison.”

Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the first “Annual” National Day of Thanksgiving, Washington, D.C., October 3, 1863:”In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.

And I recommend they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth………. By the  President: Abraham Lincoln, and William H. Seward, Secretary of State.”

I have been sending you stories about absolute miracles from God concerning the founding of the United States.  Here is another one of those amazing stories:

The Battle of Bunker Hill

“Don’t Shoot Until You See the Whites of Their Eyes!” commanded Colonel William Prescott, repeating the order of General Israel Putnam, JUNE 17, 1775.

Colonel William Prescott’s men were in the center redoubt located on Breed’s Hill, in front of Bunker Hill, guarding the north entrance to Boston Harbor.

Samuel Swett wrote in his History of Bunker Hill, that as the 2,300 British soldiers advanced:

“The American marksmen are with difficulty restrained from firing. Putnam rode through the line, and ordered that no one should fire till they arrived within eight rods.  He even set up a stake in front of the patriot’s line and ordered that no one fire until the British had passed that stake.

Powder was scarce and must not be wasted. They should not fire at the enemy till they saw the whites of their eyes.  The same orders were reiterated by Prescott at the redoubt.”

Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed March 20, 1942:  “Our Army is a mighty arm of the tree of liberty.

It is a living part of the American tradition, a tradition that goes back to Israel Putnam, who left his plow in a New England furrow to take up a gun and fight at Bunker Hill.”

At the beginning of the battle, a stray musket ball from a British gun killed an American soldier, resulting in other soldiers running away.

To stop the confusion, Colonel William Prescott climbed on top of the wall of the fortification, stood upright and walked back and forth, rallying his men.  Many of those involved considered it an act of God that he could be there going up and down on top if the redout in full view of the advancing British and never receive one wound.

When British General Thomas Gage saw Prescott through his telescope, he asked a local loyalist, Abijah Willard, who happened to be Prescott’s brother-in-law, if Prescott had enough courage to fight.

Willard replied:  “Prescott is an old soldier, he will fight as long as a drop of blood is in his veins.”

Another recorded Willard’s statement as:  “As to his men, I cannot answer for them, but Colonel Prescott will fight you to the gates of hell.”

Historian George Bancroft wrote that at the redoubt in the center of battle:  “No one appeared to have any command but Colonel Prescott. His bravery could never be enough acknowledged and applauded.”

British General Gage had no respect for the rag-tag Americans, resulting in him pridefully committing the serious mistake of ordering a direct assault.

British General William Howe had intended to unleash an artillery bombardment from field pieces on the Americans prior to the British advance, but providentially for the Americans, the British brought the wrong caliber ammunition. They had six pounder cannons but nine-pound shot. As a result, British artillery was not able to soften the resistance.  This was almost inconceivable for the highly trained British army.  Again, most considered such an error to be a direct act of God on behalf of these Colonial patriots.

General Howe ordered some 2,300 British soldiers to fix bayonets, and in their wool uniforms, charge in the hot sun up the hill covered with fences and uneven rows of uncut grass.  The high, thick grass had not yet been harvested for winter hay.  There were all manner of uneven pieces of ground hidden by the grass as well as the  old fences, too.  Besides their hot, wool uniforms, the British soldiers were required to carry heavy backpacks.

The British intended to flack the Americans at Breeds Hill and attack them from the rear.  However, when they tried the flanking maneuver, they ran into all the patriots dug in on top of Bunker Hill.  So, they had to go back and use frontal attacks at Breeds Hill.  Those long lines of Red Coats were just mowed down by the long hunting rifles of the patriots.  Some regiments had only 8 or 9 men left alive out of their whole group.  The Americans had built platforms inside of their over six foot high breast-works on which to stand and fire.

In their first assault many of the British ran all the way back to the boats that had carried them across the river.

The patriots tended to shoot first at the field officers.  One British general had his whole staff wiped-out.  Eventually the Red Coats were reassembled for a second assault.  It too was repelled with great loss of life a second time.

General Howe was determined to overcome what he considered a rag-tag group of “untrained rebels”.  This third time he attacked with his troops lined up in single files and without their heavy packs.  Though they had to step over their fallen comrades, many still screaming for help.

By now, the Americans had run out of gunpowder and shot.  They did not have those long black bayonets like the British, either.  So, they were compelled to retreat.  Most of the 500 American casualties happened during the retreat.  However, the British generals wrote later that they were most impressed that the Americans did not just go running wildly away, but retreated in military order to the rear in units.

Over 1,000 British were killed or wounded in this first major action of the Revolutionary War.

There were nearly 500 American casualties, including the notable Dr. Joseph Warren.

Amos Farnsworth, a corporal in the Massachusetts Militia, made this entry in his diary immediately after the Battle of Bunker Hill, JUNE 17, 1775:  “We within the entrenchment having fired away all ammunition and having no reinforcements were overpowered by numbers and obliged to leave. I did not leave the entrenchment until the enemy got in. I then retreated ten or fifteen rods. Then I received a wound in my right arm, the ball going through a little below my elbow, breaking the little shellbone. Another ball struck my back, taking a piece of skin about as big as a penny. But I got to Cambridge that night. Oh the goodness of God in preserving my life, although they fell on my right and on my left! O may this act of deliverance of thine, O God, lead me never to distrust thee; but may I ever trust in thee and put confidence in no arm of flesh!”

The British then burned the nearby town of Charlestown.

One of the Saff Officers under General Howe wrote after the battle:  “We won the battle and we hold the ground, but a few more ‘victories’ like this one and there will be no more British Army left in the Colonies.”

Daniel Webster declared at the Bicentennial Celebration at Plymouth Rock, December 22, 1820:  “In New England the war of the Revolution commenced. I address those who saw the burning spires of Charlestown; who beheld the deeds of Prescott, and heard the voice of Putnam amidst the storm of war, and saw the generous Warren fall, the first distinguished victim in the cause of liberty. It would be superfluous to say, that no portion of the country did more than the States of New England to bring the Revolutionary struggle to a successful issue.”

This same day as the Battle of Bunker Hill, 300 miles away in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress drafted George Washington’s commission as commander-in-chief, for which he refused a salary.

Washington wrote to his wife, Martha:

“Dearest … It has been determined in Congress, that the whole army raised for the defense of the American Cause shall be put under my care, and that it is necessary for me to proceed immediately to Boston to take command I shall rely therefore, confidently, on that Providence which has heretofore preserved, and been bountiful to me.”

Washington ended:  “I got Colonel Pendleton to Draft a Will the Provision made for you, in case of my death, will, I hope, be agreeable.”

Yale President Ezra Stiles wrote May 8, 1783:  “Every patriot trembled till we had proved our armor, till it could be seen, whether (we) could face the enemy with firmness. They early gave us the decided proof of this, in the memorable Battle of Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775). This instantly convinced us, and for the first time convinced Britons themselves, that Americans both would and could fight with great effect. Whereupon Congress put at the head of this spirited army, the only man, on whom the eyes of all Israel were placed (George Washington). This American JOSHUA was raised up by God, and divinely formed by a peculiar influence of the Sovereign of the Universe, for the great work of leading the armies to liberty and independence.”

On July 20, 1775, General Washington issued the order:  “The General orders this day to be religiously observed by the Forces under this Command, exactly in manner directed by the Continental Congress.

It is therefore strictly enjoined on all Officers and Soldiers to attend Divine Service; and it is expected that all those who go to worship do take their Arms, Ammunition and Accoutrements, and are prepared for immediate action, if called upon.”

I have written you about some amazing miracles from God before, but this true story is about one of the most amazing miracles ever to happen on American soil.

Ron

General Washington was given authority by the Continental Congress to put together 28,500 troops, though he had way fewer in his first engagement against the British. 

On March 17, 1776 he laid siege to the city of Boston where the British were encamped.  He drove the British out in the first victory of the War for Independence. 

The British sailed away to Halifax, Nova Scotia as their new base.

General Washington by now has 19,000 troops in his army. He relocated them to Manhattan Island, New York to defend the City. He knew that the British would want that city for its port and port facilities for their huge navy.

He left Boston on April 7 and got to New York on April 13.

He set up fortifications around the lower part of Manhattan, and moved almost half of his army across the East River and set-up fortifications in Brooklyn.  Fort Stirling was just west of the hamlet of Brooklyn Heights, the highest point on Long Island.

He then built three small forts along the East River since any attack was expected to come from the East River.  They were called Fort Putman, Fort Greene, and Fort Box.  They where each surrounded by deep ditches and all together had 36 cannons.

On June 29, 45 British ships arrived from Halifax and dropped anchor in Lower New York Bay.  And in less than a week a total of 130 ships were there just off Staten Island.

The island had little population, and the British decided that it would be and ideal place to locate for what would be their attempt to capture Manhattan Island and its port and port facilities.

On July 6 news reached New York that Congress had voted for Independence of the American colonies from Great Britian. 

On Tuesday, July 9, General Washington had several brigades march to the Commons of the city to hear the Declaration of Independence read to all.  After the reading a mob of men ran to Boling Green with bars and ropes and tore down the equestrian statue of King George III of Great Britain.

They severed the head of the king and put it on a spike outside of a popular tavern.  The rest of the large lead statue was melted down into musket balls.

By August 12, 400 ships including 73 major war ships were there at Staton Island and 32,000 troops were encamped there. The British king was not going to put-up with such a thing as independence of these rebel colonies.

So, now General Washington had almost half of his army over on the east side of the East River on Long Island.  To defend New York it would be necessary to defend Brooklyn, and any attack upon Brooklyn would obviously be from across that little strip of ocean that was called the East River.

However, the brilliant General Howe in charge of all British forces had a secret plan that was totally unexpected.  He had decided to ferry a contingent of troops and artillery down the coast of Long Island and attack the Americans from their rear

On August 22 at 5:10 AM 4,000 British troops left Staton Island under the command of Generals Clinton and Cornwallis in special flat-bottomed boats and headed down the coast of Long Island to come on shore at Gravesend Bay.  And by noon 15,000 troops had landed on shore with 40 pieces of artillery.

Washington believed that the main objective of the British was still to take Manhattan only. So, he had a total on only 6,000 troops in Brooklyn under the command of General Israel Putman.

Eventually the British sent Hessian mercenaries for reinforcements, bringing their total to 20,000 troops.

The British plan of General Howe was to head west and attack the Americans from their rear, not from the direction they had expected.  He sent General Grant with 4,000 British troops and some Hessians for a frontal assault on the American positions. Then he and General Clinton would make an all night march through an unguarded pass to attack the American’s flank.

On the night of August 26 Clinton led a crack brigade of light infantry with fixed bayonets.  Cornwallis followed with 8 battalions and 14 artillery pieces.  General Percy followed them with more men and artillery pieces.  In total they stretched out for 2 miles, and as a diversion they left their camp fires burning so the Americans would not know of their secret night march.

Eventually they reached a popular spot on Long Island called Howard’s Tavern.  Old man Howard’s son says he was awakened by a soldier standing by his bed.  When he got downstairs there was his father with General Howe and 4 other British officers in the bar room.  General Howe wore a Camlet cloak over his General’s uniform.  He asked for a glass of liquor which was promptly served to him.

Howe said:  “Show me the way over Rockaway Path around the pass.”  Tavern owner Howard explained that “we belong to the American side.”  To which Howe replied: “That is alright, stick to your country and your principes, but Howard you are my prisoner and must guide my men over the hills.”  Howard made more objections.  Then Howe explained: “You have no alternative.  If you refuse, I shall shoot you through the head.”  That settled the question.  By dawn, the British were through the pass and approaching the American positions.

The first shots fired in the Battle of Long Island were by American pickets from Samuel Atlee’s Pennsylvania Regiment upon British soldiers who were foraging in the watermelon patch near the Red Lion Inn.      

At about 1:00 PM on August 27 as 300 British troops approached the Red Lion Inn, American troops fired on the British. After about two fusillades they retreated on up the Gowanus Road.

Brigadier General Samuel Parsons and Col. Atlee were stationed farther up the road and slowed the British.

General Stirling had now been warned.  He had a total of 1,600 troops under his command.  Stirling placed Atlee’s men in an apple orchard on the south side of Gowanus Road.  General Parsons wrote:  “Atlee received the enemy’s fire and gave them well directed fire from his regiment which did great execution, and then retreated to the hill.”

On the highest ground where Brookland Heights got its name there were several hills.  One of them was the highest and came to be known as “Battle Hill”.  The British tried to outflank the Americans be taking this hill.  The Americans tried to prevent the British move, sending troops under Parsons and Atlee to take the hill.  The British got there first but the Americans were able to dislodge them in fierce fighting. Battle Hill was the site of especially brutal fighting, with the Americans inflicting the highest number of casualties among British troops during the entire Battle of Long Island.

Still, this was not yet the center of the British main attack.  They were still planning on outflanking the Americans.  At 9:00 General Howe fired his signal guns and the Hessians started their bombardment.  And the main British army came at the Americans from their rear.  Heavy casualties mounted on both sides.  Hand to hand fighting followed, with the Americans swinging their muskets and rifles like clubs to save their own lives. It was later claimed that those Americans who surrendered were bayoneted by the Hessians.

Sullivan, despite all the chaos, managed to get most all his men down to the East River.

The main contingent of the Americans was now under attack from three sides.  All seemed hopeless for escape.  Then a contingent of Maryland troops under Gist came down and threw themselves at the British attacking from the rear.  They became known in history as the “Maryland 400” though they did not number quite that many.  Stirling and Gist led them in attacks against overwhelming numbers of British numbering over 2,000 and supported by two cannons.  They actually attacked twice.  Their heroism allowed the remaining Americans to escape.  Fewer that a dozen of the “Maryland 400” made it back to American lines.  By now General Washington had made it to the battlefield from Manhattan and was observing from a nearby hill.  As he watched the brave attacks of the Marylanders he reportedly said: “Good God, what brave fellows I must this day lose.”

Howe then ordered his troops to halt the attack.  He knew that he had the Americans trapped totally on the land side, and he assumed that the Royal Navy had control of the East River side.  He knew that he would lose a huge number of troops against the Americans dug into trenches.  He decided to wait them out or annihilate the whole bunch the next day, pushing them against the river, or maybe General Washington would realize his position was hopeless and surrender.

What happened next is considered one of the greatest miracles that God has ever orchestrated on American soil.  The British dug trenches right up to the Americans.  They could hear each other talking. 

General Washington sent couriers across the East River and to all the people in the area with boats and sloops, and asked for their help. 

During the night they evacuated two-thirds of the entire army and all of their arms and powder and cannons.  It is confirmed that not an oar creaked, not a sound was heard.  God just slapped everything into silence.  But now it is about to get daylight and the one-third still there will be annihilated for sure.

What happened next has never been seen before and never since.  A fog descended upon the East River so dense that nothing could be seen and so thick that it muffled all sounds.  General Washington stepped onto the last boat to leave and was the last man to cross.

They had kept their camp fires burning all night to deceive the British.  And when that fog lifted, the British could not believe that not a single American was left on that side of the East River.

It is said by historians that both sides of the conflict acknowledged that this was a divine act of God.  And General Washington ordered that a day of prayer and thanksgiving be celebrated by his entire army.

I have been sending you stories about the amazing men who founded our country who you probably neve heard of. Here is another one of them. No take note of him.

Ron

Justice James Kent

“Whatever strikes at the root of Christianity, tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government” – Justice James Kent

Chief Justice James Kent explained in People versus Ruggles, 1811, what made OATHS effective: “In Taylor’s case the court said, that Christianity was parcel of the law, and to cast contumelious reproaches upon it, tended to weaken the foundation of moral obligation, and the efficacy (effectiveness) of Oaths.”

This view was held by President and Commander-in-Chief George Washington, who stated in his Farewell Address, September 19, 1796: “Let it simply be asked where is the security for prosperity, for reputation, for life, if the sense of RELIGIOUS obligations desert the OATHS, which are the instruments of investigation in the Courts of Justice?”

Yet this is exactly what Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James announced September 17, 2014, that the U.S. Air Force OATH need no longer include the mention of GOD.

James Kent was appointed Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court by New York Governor John Jay in 1804.

At that time in early U.S. history, the New York Supreme Court was more influential than the United States Supreme Court. This was due in part because New York City had been the capital of the United States from 1785 to 1790, and it was the largest city in the nation.

From 1793 to 1798, James Kent served as the first professor of law at Columbia College in New York, which was the oldest institution on higher learning in the state, being founded in 1754 as King’s College.

Kent is considered the premier jurist in the development of the legal practice in the United States, known for compiling Commentaries on American Law, 1826-1830.

Earlier in his career, 1796-1797, James Kent was as a member of New York’s Legislature where he opposed a regulation requiring African Americans own property before they could vote.

Kent was responsible for enunciating what would become the Cherokee doctrine, where American Indian peoples were considered sovereign nations.

After his death, James Kent was elected to the American Hall of Fame, 1900.

Named for him are:

Kent County, Michigan;

Kent City, Michigan;

Chicago-Kent College of Law;

Columbia Law School’s Kent Hall

Chancellor Kent Professorship at Columbia Law School;

Chancellor Kent Professorship at Yale Law School.

A bronze statute of Chancellor James Kent is in the Library of Congress Main Reading Room in the Thomas Jefferson Building.

Chief Justice James Kent wrote in People versus Ruggles, 1811: “In the case of Rex versus Woolston the court said whatever strikes at the root of Christianity, tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government.

The same doctrine was laid down in the late case of The King versus Williams.The authorities show that blasphemy against God, and contumelious reproaches and profane ridicule of Christ or the Holy Scriptures are offenses punishable at common law’ because it tends to corrupt the morals of the people, and to destroy good order. They are treated as affecting the essential interests of civil society.

We stand equally in need, now as formerly, of all the moral discipline, and of those principles of virtue, which help to bind society together.  The people of this state, in common with the people of this country, profess the general doctrines of Christianity, as the rule of their faith and practice; and to scandalize the author of these doctrines is not only, in a religious point of view, extremely impious, but, even in respect to the obligations due to society, is a gross violation of decency and good order.”

Chief Justice Kent continued:  “Nothing could be more offensive to the virtuous part of the community, or more injurious to the tender morals of the young, than to declare such profanity lawful.

To use the words of one of the greatest oracles of human wisdom – Lord Bacon, ‘profane scoffing doth by little and little deface the reverence for religion; and who adds, in another place, ‘two principal causes have I ever known of atheism, curious controversies, and profane scoffing. Things which corrupt moral sentiment, as obscene actions, prints and writings, and even gross instances of seduction, have, upon the same principle, been held indictable.”

And he continues: “The free, equal, and undisturbed, enjoyment of religious opinion is granted but to revile, with malicious and blasphemous contempt, the religion professed by almost the whole community, is an abuse of that right.  Nor are we bound to punish indiscriminately the like attacks upon the religion of Mahomet or of the grand Lama for this plain reason that we are a Christian people, and the morality of the country is deeply ingrafted upon Christianity, and not upon the doctrines or worship of those impostors.”

Chief Justice Kent stated further:  “It is sufficient that the common law checks upon words and actions, dangerous to the public welfare whose morals have been elevated and inspired with a more enlarged benevolence, by means of the Christian religion. Though the constitution has discarded religious establishments, it does not forbid judicial cognizance of those offenses against religion and morality punishable because they strike at the root of moral obligation, and weaken the security of the social ties.”

“The – New York – Constitution declaring that ‘the free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, should for ever thereafter be allowed within this state, to all mankind was never meant to withdraw religion in general, and with it the best sanctions of moral and social obligation from all consideration and notice of the law.

To construe it as breaking down the common law barriers against licentious, wanton, and impious attacks upon Christianity itself, would be an enormous perversion of its meaning. The proviso guards the article from such dangerous latitude of construction, when it declares, ‘the liberty of conscience hereby granted, shall not be so construed as to excuse ACTS OF LICENTIOUSNESS (sexual immorality).'”

Chief Justice Kent added: “Christianity, in its enlarged sense, as a religion revealed and taught in the Bible, is not unknown to our law.  The statute for preventing immorality (Laws, vol. 1. 224. R. S. 675, s. 69, et seq.) consecrates the first day of the week, as holy time, and considers the violation of it as immoral.

This was only the continuation, in substance, of a law of the colony which declared, that the profanation of the Lord’s day was ‘the great scandal of the Christian faith.’

The act concerning OATHS, (Laws, vol. 1. p. 405., 2 R. S. 407, s. 82) recognizes the common law mode of administering an OATH, ‘by laying the hand on and kissing the Gospels.”

Chief Justice Kent concluded: “Surely, then, we are bound to conclude, that wicked and malicious words, writings and actions which go to vilify those Gospels, continue, as at common law, to be an offense against the public peace and safety.  They are inconsistent with the reverence due to the administration of an OATH, and among their other evil consequences, they tend to lessen, in the public mind, its religious sanction.”

Addressing the topic of oaths, President Calvin Coolidge told the Holy Name Society in Washington, D.C., SEPTEMBER 21, 1924:  “More than six centuries ago there was much ignorance, much wickedness the common people appeared to be sunk in hopelessness. The speech of men was too often profane and vulgar, until the earth rang with the tumult of those who took the name of the Lord in vain. The foundation of this day was laid in the formation of the Holy Name Society.  It sought to rededicate the minds of the people to a true conception of the sacredness of the name of the Supreme Being.  It was an effort to save all reference to the Deity from curses and blasphemy, and to restore the lips of men to reverence and praise.”

In affirmation of Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Coolidge continued: “This is the beginning of a proper conception of ourselves, of our relationship to each other, and our relationship to our Creator. Human nature cannot develop very far without it.

The mind does not unfold, the creative faculty does not mature, the spirit does not expand, save under the influence of reverence.  It is only by a correct attitude of mind begun early in youth and carried through maturity that these desired results are likely to be secured. It is along the path of reverence and obedience that the race has reached the goal of freedom, of self-government, of a higher morality, and a more abundant spiritual life.  He who gives license to his tongue only discloses the contents of his own mind.  By the excess of his words he proclaims his lack of discipline.”

Coolidge added: “The worst evil that could be inflicted upon the youth of the land would be to leave them without restraint and completely at the mercy of their own uncontrolled inclinations.  Under such conditions education would be impossible, and all orderly development intellectually or morally would be hopeless.  I do not need to picture the result. We know too well what weakness and depravity follow when the ordinary processes of discipline are neglected.”

President Coolidge continued:  “The very first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence asserted that they proposed ‘to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them.’  And as they closed that noble document they again revealed what they believed to be the ultimate source of authority by stating that they were also ‘appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of their ‘intentions.’

When finally our Constitution was adopted, it contained specific provision that the President and members of the Congress and of state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officials, should be qualified for the discharge of their office by OATH or affirmation.  By the statute law of the United States … such OATHS are administered by a solemn appeal to God for help in the keeping of their covenants.”

Coolidge added:  “I scarcely need to refer to the fact that the Houses of Congress, and so as I know the state legislatures, open their daily sessions with prayer.  The foundation of our independence and our Government rests upon basic religious convictions.  Back of the authority of our laws is the authority of the Supreme Judge of the World, to whom we still appeal for their final justification.”

Coolidge stated further:  “All liberty is individual liberty. The principle of equality is recognized. It follows inevitably from belief in the brotherhood of man through the fatherhood of God.  When once the right of the individual to liberty and equality is admitted, there is no escape from the conclusion that he alone is entitled to the rewards of his own industry.”

President Coolidge concluded: “It seems to me perfectly plain that the authority of law, the right to equality, liberty and property, under American institutions, have for their foundation reverence for God.  If we could imagine that to be swept away, these institutions of our American government could not long survive.”

You have heard that the famous hymn “Amazing Grace” was written by the captain of a slave ship.  That is about all that most of us have ever heard other than the words of the song.  However, if you would like to know the rest of the story, I have provided it here below:

And as you remember the song starts out………..

“Amazing grace!

How sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see.”

These were the words of John Newton, a former slave ship captain, who died December 21, 1807.

At age 11, his mother died and he went to sea with his father.

Young John Newton fell in love with Mary Catlett while on shore leave, but overstaying his visit, he missed his ship’s departure.

In 1744, he was caught by a “press gang” and dragged onto the ship HMS Harwich where he was forced to be a sailor.

Newton tried to desert but was caught, stripped to the waist and flogged with 8 dozen lashes.

John Newton later wrote in a letter:  “Like an unwary sailor who quits his port just before a rising storm, I renounced the hopes and comforts of the Gospel at the very time when every other comfort was about to fail me.”

His reckless behavior caused him to be traded to a slave ship.  Being a continual problem, Newton was intentionally left on a slave plantation in Sierra Leone, West Africa in 1745.  There, the African slave dealer, Amos Clowe, made Newton a slave of his wife, Princess Peye, an African duchess, where he suffered abuse and mistreatment.

Years later, Scottish Missionary David Livingstone mentioned John Newton and the Muslim Arab slave traders’ shocking treatment of African slaves (Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, London, October 1857):  “It was refreshing to get food which could be eaten without producing the unpleasantness described by the Rev. John Newton, of St. Mary’s, Woolnoth, London, when obliged to eat the same roots while a slave in the West (Africa)”

Livingstone continued:  “A party of Arabs from Zanzibar were at a village in the same latitude as Naliele town. The Arabs mentioned they disliked the English, ‘because they thrash (criticize) them for selling slaves’. I ventured to tell them that I agreed with the English, that it was better to let the children grow up and comfort their mothers when they became old, than to carry them away and sell them across the sea, and there were many explanations of our abhorrence of slavery, and how displeasing it must be to God to see his children selling one another.”

Livingstone described the Arab Muslim slave trade as “a monster brooding over Africa.”

Lord Baden-Powell gave the account in The Downfall of Prempeh (1896) of the cruel African Ashanti King who sold captured Africans into slavery, even for human sacrifice: “The main reasons for the expedition: To put an end to human sacrifice; To put a stop to slave trading and raiding. Every tribe in the neighborhood of the Ashanti lived in terror of its life from the king, who had on several occasions destroyed, one after another, tribes which had sough our protection. In England we scarcely realize the extent to which human sacrifice had been carried out by the Ashanti. On the death of a king the custom of washing the grave involved enormous numbers of sacrifices.  Then sacrifices were also made to propitiate the gods when war was about to be entered upon or other trouble was impending.  Victims were also killed to deter an enemy from approaching the capital; sometimes they were impaled and set up on the path, with their hand pointing to the enemy and bidding him to retire.  At other times the victim was beheaded and the head replaced looking in the wrong direction; or he was buried alive in the pathway, standing upright, with only his head above ground, to remain thus until starvation or — what was infinitely worse — the ants made an end of him.

In no part of the world does slavery appear to be more detestable than in Ashanti. Stop human sacrifice, and you deal a fatal blow to the slave trade.”

In 1748, John Newton was finally rescued from Africa but continued his immoral life in the slave trade, hatefully deriding Christians with blasphemy that shocked even sailors.

He wrote in 1778:  “How industrious is Satan served.  I was formerly one of his active under-temptors and had my influence been equal to my wishes I would have carried all the human race with me. A common drunkard or profligate is a petty sinner to what I was.”

In 1747, Newton was on the slave ship Greyhound.  The ship was caught in a storm so terrible that he was convinced they would sink.  He prayed for the first time in his life.  Someone gave him a copy of Thomas a Kempis’ Imitation of Christ and the Bible, which he began to read.

Newton continued in the slave trade for a time, but endeavored to treat slaves humanely.  Newton finally left the slave trade, married Mary Catlett in 1750, and moved to Liverpool, where from 1755 to 1760 he worked as a surveyor of tides.  He wrote:  “I am not the man I ought to be, I am not the man I wish to be, and I am not the man I hope to be, but by the grace of God, I am not the man I used to be.”

In America’s God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations,  Newton wrote:  “Afflictions quicken us to prayer.  It is a pity it should be so; but experience testifies, that a long course of ease and prosperity, without painful changes—has an unhappy tendency to make us cold and formal in our secret worship.  But troubles rouse our spirits, and constrain us to call upon the Lord in good earnest—when we feel a need of that help which we only can have from His Almighty arm.  Afflictions are useful, and in a degree necessary, to keep alive in us—a conviction of the vanity and unsatisfying nature of the present world, and all its enjoyments; to remind us that this world is not our rest, and to call our thoughts upwards, where our true treasure is, and where our heart ought to be.  When things go on much to our wish, our hearts are too prone to say, ‘It is good to be here!'”

While in Liverpool, Newton met the evangelistic preacher George Whitefield and John Wesley, the founder of Methodism.  He was inspired to become a minister and taught himself Greek and Hebrew.  Newton was turned down by the Anglican Archbishop of York, but persisted and was eventually ordained in 1764.  He was assigned to the village of Olney, Buckinghamshire, where he humbly proclaimed the saving power of Christ.

In 1767, poet William Cowper moved to Olney, and with his help, Newton composed songs for their weekly prayer meetings.  William Cowper wrote in the poem “Winter Walk at Noon,” 1785:

“Nature is but a name for an effect,

Whose cause is God.”

Newton and Cowper’s songs were first published in 1779 in a collection titled “Olney Hymns.”  The Olney Hymns include:

“Oh! for a Closer Walk with God,”

“God Moves in a Mysterious Way,” and

“There is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” which has the lines:

“The dying thief rejoiced to see

That fountain in his day;

And there may I, though vile as he,

Wash all my sins away

Wash all my sins away,

Wash all my sins away;

And there may I, though vile as he,

Wash all my sins away.”

This is a reference to God, being just, judges every sin, but being love, He provided the Lamb to take the judgment for our sins, washing them away.

Revelation 1:5: “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.”

Isaiah 53: “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent. He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer. The Lord makes his life an offering for sin. My righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

John Newton moved to London in 1780 to become rector of St. Mary Woolnoth Church.  He counseled:“God could have over-ruled every difficulty in your way, had he seen it expedient. But He is pleased to show you, that you depend not upon men—but upon Himself. He who has begun a good work in you, is able to carry it on, in defiance of all seeming hindrances, and make all things (even those which have the most unfavorable appearances) work together for your good.”

Newton continually preached against slavery and published his ghastly experiences in the slave trade in 1788.  On John Newton’s tomb, and on a church plaque, is written:

“John Newton, Clerk,

once an infidel and libertine,

a servant of slaves in Africa,

was, by the rich mercy

of our Lord and Saviour

Jesus Christ,

preserved, restored, pardoned,

and appointed to preach the faith

he had long labored to destroy.”

Many influential leaders in England attended John Newton’s services.  In 1795, a famous British member of Parliament, William Wilberforce, came to have a living faith in Jesus Christ through the help of Newton.

Wilberforce initially wanted to become a preacher, but Newton persuaded him to serve God by fighting slavery in the British Parliament, as Britain was the world’s largest slave trader in the 19th century.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan wrote in “Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation” (The Human Life Review):  “Prayer and action are needed to uphold the sanctity of human life. I believe it will not be possible to accomplish our work of saving lives, ‘without being a soul of prayer.’ The famous British member of Parliament William Wilberforce prayed with his small group of influential friends, the ‘Clapham Sect,’ for decades to see an end to slavery in the British empire.”

Eric Metaxas wrote in his post, “Break Point: Wilberforce and the ‘Necessary Evil'” (July 26, 2018):  “After his dramatic conversion to Jesus Christ in 1785, the heretofore unfocused Wilberforce made three consequential decisions that ended up changing the world:  first, stay in politics, at a time when conventional wisdom held that politics was too dirty a business for Christians;  second, work for the abolition of the slave trade in Britain; and, third, work for moral reformation in society.”

Wilberforce wrote in his journal:“My walk is a public one. My business is in the world, and I must mix in the assemblies of men or quit the post which Providence seems to have assigned me.  A man who acts from the principles I profess reflects that he is to give an account of his political conduct at the judgment seat of Christ.”

Fighting the entrenched, deep-state slavery interests for 11 years, Wilberforce wrote: “So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the trades wickedness appear, that my own mind was completely made up. Let the consequences be what they would; I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition. ”Parliament finally passed an act abolishing the slave trade in 1807, but it took 26 years to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire.

President Reagan wrote:  “Wilberforce led that struggle in Parliament, unflaggingly, because he believed in the sanctity of human life.  He saw the fulfillment of his impossible dream when Parliament outlawed slavery just before his death.”

John Newton wrote:  “Although my memory’s fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.  This is faith: a renouncing of everything we are apt to call our own and relying wholly upon the blood, righteousness and intercession of Jesus.  If you once love Him, you will study to please Him.  Whoever is truly humbled — will not be easily angry, nor harsh or critical of others. He will be compassionate and tender to the infirmities of his fellow-sinners, knowing that if there is a difference — it is grace alone which has made it! He knows that he has the seeds of every evil in his own heart. And under all trials and afflictions — he will look to the hand of the Lord, and lay his mouth in the dust, acknowledging that he suffers much less than his iniquities have deserved.”

Considered the most popular Christian hymn ever, John Newton’s words are:

“AMAZING GRACE!

How sweet the sound

That sav’d a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see.

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,

And grace my fears reliev’d;

How precious did that grace appear

The hour I first believ’d!

Thro’ many dangers, toils, and snares,

I have already come;

‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,

And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promis’d good to me,

His word my hope secures;

He will my shield and portion be

As long as life endures.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,

And mortal life shall cease;

I shall possess, within the veil,

A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,

The sun forbear to shine;

But God, who call’d me here below,

Will be forever mine.”

---

I am sending you an edited version of this special story again since the huge number of people in China who are reading these storis did not get to see it.

Dr. Edward Teller

I have already alluded to Dr. E.V. Hill’s insight into how God works. Remember, Dr. Hill said that God decided to do His work only through people. As Dr. Hill put it: That was the dumbest thing God could have ever done. Dr. Hill said: “That is God’s Plan A. Heain’t got no Plan B.”

In that context it is my contention that God used Dr. Teller’s brilliant mind and background to protect America and its people, even with all of Dr. Teller’s faults. He was born in Hungary to an affluent Jewish family. It was there where he was influenced for the rest of his life by the horrors he saw in Communist dictatorships. He then moved to Germany where he was also influenced for the rest of his life by the horrors he saw in Nazism, The National Socialists Party. He finally got to the United States. He was one of the first to sound the alarm over Germany’s work to produce an atomic bomb.

He drove the car for Leo Szilard, his boyhood friend in Hungary, when those two brilliant physicists went to Long Island to Albert Einstein’s cottage and secured the letter from Einstein to FDR that caused Roosevelt to initiate the Manhattan Project for the US to produce an atomic bomb first.

By the time the war started, he was a respected professor at George Washington University, but left in the spring of 1943 to move to Los Alamos where he was recruited to work on developing the atomic bomb.

All along, Dr. Teller saw the possibility of a much greater bomb by using atomic energy to compress and ignite a large mass of tritium or deuterium to cause fusion. He is thus considered the father of the Hydrogen Bomb even though the brilliant mathematician Stanislaw Ulam actually worked out the detailed calculations for it. Dr. Teller was obsessed that the US produce the hydrogen bomb before the Russians did at the start of the Cold War.

Dr. Teller’s mind was just amazing, and he managed to keep it very clear and active until he died at age 95 in 2003. He did this by getting hyperbaric oxygen treatments every month from a doctor in Dallas. I have studied hundreds of x-rays and their dates that prove that proper hyperbaric treatments will also cause bones to heal in a matter of days instead of weeks. It does the same for severe bruises and many other ailments. The National Football League finally started using it to heal their players more quickly.

On my lunch hour I used to go up to Dr. Maxfield’s clinic and visit. He would show me x rays of former patients, file after file. Their dates showed how bones healed amazingly fast. One that I remember vividly was of a high school student from Canada. He was the goalie on his school’s hockey team. They were to play for their Province’s championship game, but he broke his arm in their final playoff game. His father knew about Dr. Maxfield and hyperbaric treatments from his mining company. One of his father’s key foremen had a broken bone that just would not heal. The foreman was sent down to Dallas and the hyperbaric oxygen treatments healed the bone quickly.

So, the father sent his son down to Dallas for those treatments before their Championship game in two weeks. Dr. Maxfield told the boy’s mother that he thought the boy would be able to play. However, when she went into the doctor to have the boy’s cast cut off, the doctor said: “What in the world do you mean. I just put that cast on a few days ago!” She called back to Dallas to ask what to do. Dr. Maxfield told her to go down the street to another doctor, and not say anything other than to just cut the cast off.

The boy did play, though I did not hear whether they won the championship or not.

Another time I was there at the clinic and stopped to visit with this older woman. She was just fussing and fussing. I asked her what was wrong: “You are supposed to feel great when your treatment is finished.”

She said: “Oh, I do, my leg is completely healed.”

“So, what are you fussing about?”

Then I looked down and her other leg was completely gone. She was fussing because she would still have it if she had known about hyperbaric oxygen treatments. And I said: “You were smoking too much weren’t you.” She hung her head and said: “Yes.”

It consists of being in a chamber for about an hour at 2 ½ atmospheres of pressure in a pure oxygen environment. It just saturates the body and one’s brain with healing oxygen. Where the football players use a fairly large chamber, Dr. Maxfield used a glass tube just large enough to hold Dr. Teller’s prone body. My 2nd oldest son used to go with me when Dr. Teller was getting treatments. Raymond would bolt the end on the chamber down, and then unbolt it when Dr. Teller’s treatment was finished. They could have used much higher atmospheres of pressure, but it was found the 2 ½ was sufficient and that higher pressures caused no better results.

As I mentioned, his mind was just amazing. I would spend time with him at Dr. Maxfield’s place on Lake Kiowa near Gainesville. We would discuss different potential business projects that Dr. Teller had thought up that he wanted me to pursue.

On one occasion after his treatment he wanted a good hamburger. We decided to take him to a county club in Dallas where the chef made great ones. I had three books with me that I wanted Dr. Teller to read and give me a report on rhetorical physics and its implications on his next trip to Dallas for his treatments a month later. He went on up ahead with his doctor and my son and I followed along behind in my Suburban. Much to my amazement, when we arrived at the country club he had devoured all three books and gave me the analysis before lunch.

General Lemay kept our country safe during the Cold War with manned aircraft. As the age of rockets carrying nuclear bombs dawned, Lemay thought we should still keep some manned aircraft as a safeguard. We did with the B-1 bomber that flies under enemy radar and the new stealth bomber. But the Russians could still target every one of our ICBM rockets and every one of our aircraft on the ground, and all our ships with rockets, and every one of our aircraft carriers with a first strike by their rockets. I have been told by analysts at the CIA that they most likely would have done so except for one thing………our Trident Submarines.

The “cream of the crop” in our navy seeks to enter the Trident Program. They get their new Trident sub and then go out and shoot one Trident missile for practice. Then in a few days they submerge for 89 days and get totally lost. The Russians don’t have a clue where they are.

With the help of Dr. Teller and his friends I have been allowed to go down on those Tridents. You stand in the War Room and look down through that long sub with 12 Trident missiles on each side. The sailors sleep between the missiles. I have talked to the weapon’s officer. He said he could only tell me that each of the 24 missiles could travel over 10,000 miles. Each one has 7 to 8 independently targeted war heads. When I asked the weapon’s officer how he would deploy those war heads, he said that he could lay a star pattern over the whole Moscow area.

When I wanted to get some idea of just how destructive a hydrogen weapon would be, I was told that just one detonated at 2½ thousand feet would blow a hole in the ground 500 feet deep and 12 miles across, with all of that material blasted into the air with its deadly fallout. And not even counting the blast effects way on beyond the 12 miles. Yet, the Russians never dared touch us because of those Trident subs.

Each Trident has two devices that just barely fit into their torpedo tubes. One was sitting right there in the War Room since it was too big to fit most anywhere else. If the officers on the Trident think they may have been discovered, they can send out one of these devices. They are so designed to perfectly simulate a Trident sub. In this way the real sub can have a high chance of getting lost again.

To shoot their one practice missile before submerging for 89 days, they liked to do so in a few hours after the launch of one of our Space Shuttles. All the cameras and tracking devices are set-up down range to track the flight of the Shuttle. So, the tracking of the Trident missal can just be used by them, also.

Every sub has a tender or fairly large ship that stays on the surface in the general area of the sub’s location. It has all kinds of provisions and safety devices in case of an emergency on the sub. I have been on those tenders. I have never seen such elaborate showers as they have. They are to wash down any sailors who may have been exposed to the nuclear material that powers the sub.

Also, with the help of Dr. Teller and his friends, I was allowed to go out on the tender ship to observe a Trident shoot its one practice missile. That morning we were in the VIP area with the astronaut’s families and the technical officers for the Shuttle launch. It is an amazing sight.

Then that night after it was totally dark, we went out with the submerged sub.

Just off Cape Canaveral the Russians keep an observation ship permanently moored there. It is not huge, but it has all manner of electronic listening and observation devices all over it. As our tender went out, the Russian ship pulled up its anchors and went out with us.

The tender has a wide, curved bridge or war room almost the whole width of the ship. It was lit only with the eerie red light that they use for night operations. It is a great place to observe, but I wanted to get outside in the front on the main deck of the ship to watch. On that deck was one of the sophisticated camera cages from Hollywood where the photographer sits in the cage that tilts in any direction to film the missile launch and track it on camera.

It got quite tense as the time for the missal shot approached. It blasts from 300 feet down up into the air where it ignites and zooms off into space. I wanted to know if I would be able to get a picture of it; and was told not to worry. I would totally be able to. As the time approached for the shot, there were two helicopters sweeping the area to make sure there were no stray craft around. I was fascinated to see them shine their powerful search lights down onto the Russian ship and the Russian ship shine its powerful lights back up at the helicopters.

Just before the missal blasted out of the ocean, a sailor and I saw this little red streak shoot up from the Russian ship. Then we saw all these flairs going up from what appeared to be from the surface of the water. It was so dark that we could not tell for sure. We, along with most everyone else assumed the flairs were part of the operation.

Wow! That missal lit-up everything. Since there were no clouds, you could follow its bright glow far off into the distant sky.

Later we learned that one of the helicopters had gone down. It did not just crash; it had slowly settled down to the surface of the water in the pitch dark. Those flairs that the sailor and I saw were distress signals from the three officers in the helicopter. No one had taken notice of them since everyone was concentrating on the missile shot.

Eventually we went over and picked up the three officers who had been in the front of the helicopter. However, the three airmen who had been in the back of the helicopter were no-where to be found. We searched all around, but they were not found. Since the helicopter had settled down onto the water gently, we were sure they had not been injured.

We were supposed to go back to the port at Cape Canaveral, but we spent the whole rest of the night looking for them. We did find the helicopter floating just below the surface and pulled it onboard. We then spent the whole next day navigating in ever-widening squares searching for the three airmen.

I visited with an engineer from a contracting company who was onboard. His company made the covers or seals that covered the tops of the missals when their outside shields are opened. He was sad about not finding the airmen, but he was thrilled that we were able to recover the several pieces of those seals. He had never been able to retrieve them before. I helped him put them back together on the deck. They fit together like the slices of an orange.

That afternoon, the sailor and I were hauled in and admonished to never breathe a word of what we had seen just before the missal shot. We knew that those Russians had shot down the helicopter; and had for sure captured the three airmen. So far as I know, they were never heard from again.

Late that afternoon we finally went back into port. As we passed by that Russian observation ship which was anchored back there again as it always is, I had heavy mixed feelings.