Faith of a Founder

I love learning about our Founding Fathers. These were amazing men who took risks and made incredible sacrifices for this country.

For the final paper for my last history class in college I chose to study and write about the faith of our Founding Fathers. I learned that one cannot lump them together as all Christians or all Deists. What's more, only the Lord knows what was in their heart; we can, however, look at the fruit of their lives.

Patrick Henry is an example of a Founding Father whose actions and words demonstrated a life that was lived for his Savior.

Patrick Henry’s words certainly had a significant part in America’s rebellion against its Mother Country with his stirring words: “Give me liberty or give me death!” He was not only an energetic speaker, but a statesman as well. In 1765 he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses. He was delegate at the Second Continental Congress, but resigned when he joined the military. He also served as Governor of Virginia. To Henry his political convictions aligned with his Christian faith. Henry’s father was a devote Anglican and his mother was a Scottish Presbyterian who had a great influence on her son through her Christian character and always taking him to church. Henry firmly believed that God guided the direction of nations. In his “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech he stated, “There is a just God who presides over the destines of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.”

The recorded actions of Henry also demonstrate that he was a Christian. Indeed, it is said that he spent an hour a day at sunset in private devotion and prayer. During this time no one would disturb him. He took communion whenever it was offered and would pray and fast before he partook.

Henry grew angry when individuals defaind Christianity as can be seen when he wrote a rebuttal against Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason. However, Henry was dissatisfied with his work and he asked his wife to destroy it. Nevertheless, those who did read it considered this work the most articulate defense for the truths of the Bible ever written.

His family was always important to him and, more times than not, his faith would penetrate the letters he wrote to them. For example, after the death of his sister’s husband he wrote, “For indeed, my dearest sister, you never knew how I loved you and your husband. My heart is full. Perhaps I may never see you in this world. O may we meet in heaven, to which the merits of Jesus will carry those who love and serve him. Heaven will, I trust, give you its choicest comfort and preserve your family”

Even at his death his faith was evident. He was comforting his family who were weeping at his bedside with words describing his thankfulness to God for his life. He even turned to his physician, who was not a Believer, and testified of God’s love and grace telling the bewildered doctor that God had never failed him in life and He would not in death. Moreover, his last will and testament demonstrated his final declaration of faith, “This is all the inheritance I can give my dear family. The religion of Christ can give them one which will make them rich indeed.”

Patrick Henry’s voice of freedom rang out during the American Revolution and beyond. More importantly, his life sang of the mercies of Jesus and pointed others to the knowledge of Him.