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History. Nonfiction. HTML: Secular textbooks now fill our classrooms, while the Ten Commandments have been removed from their walls. Is this the vision held by those who worked to found this nation? What faith did our founding fathers truly believe and practice in their daily lives, and what does it really matter for us? Were they God-fearing, Bible-believing Christians or simply enlightened Deists, Transcendentalists, and Unitarians? Today the debate rages on, becoming a polarizing cultural issue, the outcome of which will lead to a vastly different nation in the years ahead. This probing study: Examines the facts that have created debate for years among educators, scholars, and historians Studies the intimate papers, diaries, and letters of the founders themselves Helps solve this mystery of our nation's past so that we can best guide its future. Meticulously documented, Faith of Our Founding Fathers by best-selling author Tim LaHaye details the Christian principles of these early Americans, and notes how the argument for the separation of church and state has led us to the vast secularization of our culture. Studying the original writings of those who shaped this nation will help Christians present the case for renewing the former vision for this great country..… (more)
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In Faith of Our Founding Fathers, Tim LaHaye seeks to prove that, contrary to what is now taught in schools and upheld by the media and the government, the Framers of the Constitution believed in Christian principles and incorporated
Those who did attend [the Constitutional Convention] were selected for their deep commitment to Puritan and Calvinistic doctrines, as well as for other political considerations. Their goal was not to establish a democracy in which ‘every man does that which is right in his own eyes.’ Instead, they formulated a representative form of government based on divinely inspired law. The Constitution they wrote and the government they founded upon it verified that they never intended to establish a secular nation. Instead, it was and still is ‘one nation under God’ (p. 22).
To support his thesis, LaHaye explains the historical events that led up to the writing of the Constitution and lists the historical documents that influenced the authors. He also describes the Christian cultural consensus that existed in the colonies and how it shaped the beliefs of the Founding Fathers. In the second half of the book, LaHaye takes a closer look at the individual beliefs of the delegates who attended the Convention, with one in-depth chapter dedicated to George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.
Throughout the book, the author stresses how most of the Founding Fathers adhered to Christian principles. Contrary to what liberals claim today, many of the Framers of the Constitution viewed secular humanism as a threat to a self-governing society of free people.
The book closes with a call for Christians to act now to return the nation to a Christian consensus, and in doing so, secure our constitutional freedoms.
The book is generally well-written. However, LaHaye does borrow heavily from modern scholars and not so much from original documents. Sometimes he tells what a person believed, but doesn’t let that person “speak” in his own words by quoting primary sources. This book would also be more useful if it had an index.
Anyone interested in defending the Constitution as a biblically based document would find this book helpful. It could also serve as a supplement text for a high school American history class.