In God We Trust:

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Schaumburg Bible Institute

• In God We Trust
• A Christian Perspective on
• American History

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A Religious New World
3
The colonists who settled America were deeply
religious people with strong religious
convictions. In 1776, 98 of the population was
Protestant Christian, 1.8 Catholic Christian,
and .2 of 1 Jewish. That means that 99.8 of the
people in America in 1776 professed to be
Christians. The denominational backgrounds of
these Protestant Christian groups is varied and
tells a portion of the story of the cultural
diversity that characterizes Americas history.
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• As we discussed the first week in lesson 1,
  Exploration and Discovery, the Protestant
  Reformation resulted in the creation of numerous
  Protestant denominations and groups. The New
  World became the home of many of these groups
  as well as Catholics and Jews. North America
  took on a distinctive character as a new field
  into which established groups could expand, as a
  laboratory for religious experiments, and as a
  safe haven for persecuted sects.

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During the 1500s, religion in England swung back
and forth like a pendulum from Catholicism to
Protestantism.

• King Henry VII was a Catholic till his death.

• King Henry VIII broke from the Roman Catholic
  Church but only because he wanted to divorce his
  wife. He remained doctrinally a Catholic.

• Under young King Edward VI, Protestant leaders
  pushed for a thorough reform of the Church of
  England.

• Catholic Queen Mary successfully returned England
  to Catholicism by means which included burning
  some three hundred Protestants at the stake.

• Queen Elizabeth wanted to end the religious
  controversy. She wanted a Protestant church.

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The religious chaos resulted in three distinct
reactions, or mindsets, within the Church of
England.
The Anglicans remained Protestant in name but
continued to hold to some Catholic symbolism,
worship, and doctrine.
The Puritans wanted a reformed Anglican church
that was doctrinally sound but still Catholic in
practice. After staying in the Church of England
for 10 years, the Puritans finally abandoned
their attempt to purify the church and came to
America in 1630.
The Separatists believed that the whole Church of
England was corrupt and that true Christians must
separate from it. Separatists groups included
the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620
and later the Baptists and Quakers and
Presbyterians.
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Anglican

Puritan
Separatist
Deity of Christ, trinity, resurrection, virgin
birth, original sin.
Deity of Christ, trinity, resurrection, virgin
birth, original sin.
Deity of Christ, trinity, resurrection, virgin
birth, original sin.
Authority in the Bible and the Book of Common
Prayer (1549)
Authority in the Bible alone
Authority in the Bible alone
Infant Baptism, Apostolic Succession of Bishops,
Episcopal Polity, Excommunication, Calvinist
Infant Baptism, unregenerate membership
Congregational Polity, covenant, Calvinist
Believers Baptism, saved membership,
Congregational Polity, Calvinist
Creeds, homilies, candles, robes, established
authority of the state church
Creeds, robes, highly superstitious, desire to
purify the state church
Preaching, highly separated in practice,
abandoned the state church
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Discussion
What happened to the Puritans and Anglicans?
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Anglican

Puritan
Separatist

• No direct churches remain

• Baptists
• Quakers
• Presbyterians

• Reorganized as the Protestant Episcopal Church
• Reformed Episcopal Church

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Puritans
In Congregationalist churches, a person joined
the church upon his profession of his salvation
through faith in Christ. The children of
converted church members, however, were baptized
as infants. These children were then considered
members of the church, but could not become full
members until they owned the covenant, or
declared their personal faith in Christ as
Savior.
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As the years passed, fewer and fewer members of
the later generations owned the covenant. Most of
the New Englanders did not want to leave the
church, however, because privileges of
citizenship, such as the right to vote in
colonial elections, were open only to church
members. Because of the Congregationalist
system, the churches of New England were slowly
filling up with unconverted members.
Puritans
The presence of these unconverted church members
led to another problem could the children of
unsaved members be baptized? Eventually, the
ministers of New England devised the Half-Way
Covenant, which allowed unsaved members whose
lives were moral to present their children for
baptism and enjoy full rights of citizens.
Despite its purpose of keeping people in the
church and under sound preaching, the Half-Way
Covenant served only to increase the number of
unregenerate church members.
12
Puritans
Having forsaken much of the faith of their
fathers, the Massachusetts colony sank into
fanaticism and hysteria. In 1692 the Salem witch
trials resulted from the claims of several young
girls in Salem Village, MA that they were being
afflicted by witches.
The authorities took the charges seriously and
began to try those who were accused. Before the
hysteria was over, at least twenty people were
dead, and the reputation of Massachusetts had
been permanently damaged. The spiritually
chilling influence of the Half-Way Covenant and
the reaction after the hysteria of the witch
trials left the Puritans bankrupt and dispersed.
13
The American Revolution inflicted deeper wounds
on the Church of England in America than on any
other denomination because the King of England
was the head of the church. Anglican priests, at
their ordination, swore allegiance to the King.
The Book of Common Prayer offered prayers for the
monarch, beseeching God "to be his defender and
keeper, giving him victory over all his enemies,"
who in 1776 were American soldiers as well as
friends and neighbors of American Anglicans.
Loyalty to the church and to its head could be
construed as treason to the American cause.
Patriotic American Anglicans, loathe to discard
so fundamental a component of their faith as The
Book of Common Prayer, revised it to conform to
the political realities.
Anglicans
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Maryland's Revised Book of Common Prayer The
Maryland Convention voted on May 25, 1776, "that
every Prayer and Petition for the King's Majesty,
in the book of Common Prayer . . . be henceforth
omitted in all Churches and Chapels in this
Province." The rector of Christ Church (then
called Chaptico Church) in St. Mary's County,
Maryland, placed over the offending passages
strips of paper showing prayers composed for the
Continental Congress. The petition that God "keep
and strengthen in the true worshipping of thee,
in righteousness and holiness of life, thy
servant GEORGE, our most gracious King and
Governor" was changed to a plea that "it might
please thee to bless the honorable Congress with
Wisdom to discern and Integrity to pursue the
true Interest of the United States."
Anglicans
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Anglicans
The problem was handled similarly by Christ
Church, Philadelphia. The rector, the Reverend
Jacob Duché, called a special vestry meeting on
July 4, 1776, to ask whether it was advisable
"for the peace and welfare of the congregation,
to shut up the churches or to continue the
service, without using the prayers for the Royal
Family." The vestry decided to keep the church
open but replace the prayers for the King with a
prayer for Congress "That is may please thee to
endue the Congress of the United States all
others in Authority, legislative, executive,
judicial with grace, wisdom understanding, to
execute Justice and to maintain Truth."
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Anglicans
More than half of the Anglican priests in
America, unable to reconcile their oaths of
allegiance to George III with the independence of
the United States, relinquished their pulpits
during the Revolutionary War. At a convention in
1789 the remaining clergy reorganized the church
into the Protestant Episcopal Church of the
United States and the Anglican church disappeared
from the American scene.
17
Separatists Quakers
The Quakers, or the Society of Friends,
originated from Englishman George Fox who claimed
to have guidance by the Inner Light, an
illumination from God found in every man. Most
Quakers opposed participating in war, taking
oaths, or holding political office. They
practiced a plain method of worship and did not
have ministers or ordinances.
Three tendencies eventually emerged among the
Friends. Some mystics emphasized the inner light
to the point that they rejected the bible and
claimed direct communication with God. Others
became moralists, emphasizing the performance of
good works alone as the essence of being a
Quaker. Still others held to the Biblical views
of atonement only through Christ and the
authority of the Bible. Many of those in the
last group broke with Quaker tradition and
established churches with ordained pastors and
regular preaching. The moralist party came to
dominate most Quaker groups, and segments of the
denomination became more social than religious in
emphasis. Some Biblically orthodox Quakers still
exist today.
18
Separatists Baptists
When Roger Williams fled from Massachusetts and
founded Rhode Island, he sought to create a purer
church than those in the rest of New England. In
1639 Williams and another Christian baptized each
other. Williams then baptized ten others in his
tiny congregation.
This act marked the founding of what is
generally considered the first Baptist church in
America. Rogers only remained in the church for
a few months before leaving to seek a purer
church. The Baptists, however, continued without
him and successfully established churches
throughout the colonies, with their largest
numbers in religiously tolerant Pennsylvania.
The Baptists emphasized the doctrine of baptism,
practiced Congregational polity, and believed
that only the regenerate should be church
members. Unlike Congregationalists, Baptists
baptized only professing believers and then only
by immersing them completely in water. In 1996
there were reported 28,921,564 individual
Baptists in America.
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Separatists Presbyterians
The roots of Presbyterianism lie in the European
Reformation of the 16th century, with the example
of John Calvin's Geneva being particularly
influential. Most Reformed churches who trace
their history back to Britain are either
Presbyterian or Congregationalist in government.
Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the
sovereignty of God, a high regard for the
authority of the Bible, and an emphasis on the
necessity of grace through faith in Christ. The
Presbyterians were the last major English
Separatist group to come to America. Doctrinally
the Presbyterians were much like the
Congregationalists, except that they practiced
presbyterian polity. In the twentieth century,
some Presbyterians have played an important role
in the Ecumenical Movement, including the World
Council of Churches. Many Presbyterian
denominations have found ways of working together
with other Reformed denominations and Christians
of other traditions, especially in the World
Alliance of Reformed Churches. Some Presbyterian
Churches have entered into unions with other
churches, such as Congregationalists, Lutherans,
Anglicans, and Methodists. However, others are
more conservative, holding traditional
interpretations of doctrines and shunning, for
the most part, relations with non-Reformed
bodies.
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The Church of England was not the only entity
that contributed to the denominational morass in
the New World. The Protestant Reformation
affected many groups and countries throughout
Europe and many of these groups migrated to the
New World with the same desire for religious
freedom as did the Pilgrims. European
Denominations included Reformed Church
(German, Dutch, French) Lutherans Anabaptists
(Amish and Mennonite) Pietist Groups
(Moravians) Roman Catholics From these groups
and the Church of England emerged a plethora of
religious sects and denominations, including but
not limited to the Church of Christ, Assembly of
God, Christ Community Church, Presbyterian,
Baptist, Episcopal Church of the Unites States,
Evangelical Free Church, Unitarian Universalists,
and the Methodist churches.
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Discussion
Why were there so many denominations started
around the same time?
American independence created a setting in which
freedom of conscience and freedom of worship were
given, for the first time, a outlet to freely
express their faith and practice. Thus, the
aspirations of national Liberty ignited sparks of
religious liberty that burned in the hearts of
Christians around the world and drew them to this
new, fertile land of opportunity.
22
The independence of the United States stimulated
American Methodists, as it did their brethren in
the Church of England, with whom the Methodists
had considered themselves "in communion," to
organize themselves as an independent, American
church. This happened at the Christmas Conference
in Baltimore in 1784, where Francis Asbury and
Thomas Coke were elected as superintendents of
the new Methodist Episcopal Church.
In the years following American independence,
Anglican ministers who had remained in the
colonies began planning for an independent
American church. They formed the Protestant
Episcopal Church of the United States. A church
government and revised Book of Common Prayer
believed to be compatible with a rising
democratic nation were adopted.
23
The Presbyterian churches of America reorganized
their church as a distinctly American entity,
thereby reducing some of the influence of the
Church of Scotland. From debates at the synods of
1787 and 1788 emerged a new Plan of Government
and Discipline, a Directory of Public Worship,
and a revised version of the Westminster
Confession, which was made "a part of the
constitution.
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I Corinthians 110-13 Now I beseech you,
brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that ye all speak the same thing, and that there
be no divisions among you but that ye be
perfectly joined together in the same mind and in
the same judgment. 11 For it hath been declared
unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of
the house of Chloe, that there are contentions
among you. 12 Now this I say, that every one of
you saith, I am of Paul and I of Apollos and I
of Cephas and I of Christ. 13 Is Christ divided?
was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized
in the name of Paul?
Ephesians 42-6 With all lowliness and meekness,
with longsuffering, forbearing one another in
love 3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body,
and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope
of your calling 5 One Lord, one faith, one
baptism, 6 One God and Father of all, who is
above all, and through all, and in you all.
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Conclusions
American independence created a setting in which
freedom of conscience and freedom of worship were
given, for the first time, a outlet to freely
express their faith and practice. Thus, the
aspirations of national Liberty ignited sparks of
religious liberty that burned in the hearts of
Christians around the world and drew them to this
new, fertile land of opportunity.
But Americas deep conviction to allow freedom of
expression and freedom of religion, while giving
liberty for true and pure worship, has created a
land where any form of religion or worship is
protected by the laws of the government.
Americas original intent for freedom of religion
gave us a land to worship God freely, but also
gave us a land where no religious practice may be
prohibited. Through our efforts to create a
religious, tolerant, persecution free world, we
have created a fertile land that grows an
unstoppable, unquenchable religious chaos.