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American Faith Chapter 11 - George Washington - The President Who Feared God · Passing On The Faith

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Braddock, disregarding the counsel of his Virginia volunteers, rode his troops directly into an ambush, and the French and Indian warriors proceeded to slaughter the American and English soldiers.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Almost one thousand men lay dead and wounded at the end of the engagement.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: But not confounded by his superior officers' mistakes, George Washington grabbed a horse and rallied what few troops remained to provide a resistance in the rear guard.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: In the fighting that ensued, Washington had two horses shot from under him, his coat was shot through in four places, and his hat came through the battle sporting two musket ball shaped holes.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: One officer noted that Washington handled himself with the greatest courage and resolution.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: Quite a number of times in the skirmish, the enemy fired on him from point blank range.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: God's providential hand of protection on the man was astounding, even to the Native Americans who were present during the battle.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: Fifteen years later, an old chief visited Washington and explained to him how he had tried to take a direct shot at him during the Battle of Mahangahila.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Our rifles were levelled, rifles which, but for him, knew not how to miss.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: It was all in vain.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: A power mightier than we shielded him from harm.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: He cannot die in battle.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: I am old, and soon shall be gathered to the great council fire of my fathers, in the land of shades, but ere I go, there is something bids me speak.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: The great spirit protects that man and guides his destinies.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: George explained to his brother in a letter written a week after the battle, I now exist and appear in the land of the living by the miraculous care of Providence that protected me beyond all human expectations.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: You're listening to Passing on the Faith, a podcast from generations.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Every week, we bring you a powerful moment from one of our sermons, audiobooks, webinars, or conference talks, handpicked to help you build a strong biblical foundation for your family.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: This week's episode is a chapter from our audiobook, American Faith, entitled George Washington, The President Who Feared God, written by Kevin Swanson.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: Chapter 11.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: Exodus 1821.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: Moreover, you shall select from all the people able men, such as Fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: The American War for Independence began on April 19, 1775, when a shot was fired on Lexington Green while Samuel Adams and John Hancock watched from a nearby wood.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: At the Battle of Bunker Hill, just outside Boston on june seventeenth, the colonials put up a good fight against the better equipped British.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: While the Americans lost ground, the British sustained twice as many casualties.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: These initial skirmishes signaled to the Empire that this would not be an easy fight.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: On june nineteenth, seventeen seventy five, upon the encouragement of Samuel Adams and John Adams, the Continental Congress chose George Washington to command the Continental Army.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: In March 1776, General George Washington fortified Dorchester Heights, an eminence overlooking the city of Boston.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Sensing their vulnerability to attack, the British troops withdrew to Canada.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: Following this, Washington moved his troops to Long Island, New York in anticipation of a British attack there.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: In late summer of seventeen seventy six, the British Parliament sent an army of thirty two thousand men to America, including some German Hessian mercenaries.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: It was the largest force ever sent by Britain to fight in a foreign nation to date.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: There is no question by this time the American colonies were facing the most powerful empire on Earth.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: British General William Howe moved his troops into New York in July 1776.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: The Americans stationed on Long Island were unable to hold their ground against the advancing British forces.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: Under cover of night and accommodated by a providential fog, Washington was able to withdraw his troops to New York City, after which Howe forced him to evacuate the city.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: Washington then retreated to Pennsylvania, losing control of much of New Jersey to the British.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: On Christmas Day, 1776, George Washington and his troops stealthily crossed the Delaware River and attacked a Hessian garrison at Trenton.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: The maneuver was a complete victory for the Americans and helped boost morale for the country.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: In early January, British General Cornwallis attempted to attack Washington's position in New Jersey, but failed on three separate attempts.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: Meanwhile, the British recaptured Fort Ticonderoga, earlier taken by Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain men.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Then British General John Burgoyne marched his troops down the Hudson River Valley, attempting to cut New England off from the rest of the colonies.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: His troops battled American General Horatio Gates' army at Saratoga, New York, between September 19th and October 7, 1777.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Saratoga marked the first great victory for the American colonies.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: The British suffered 1,100 casualties and 7,000 captured, while the Americans counted only 90 killed and 240 wounded.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: The victory at Saratoga was a shock to the British and an encouragement for the French to enter the war on the side of the colonials.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't all going to be easy for the Patriots, however.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: On September 11, 1777, General Howe seized control of Philadelphia and General Washington lost another battle at Germantown on October 4, 1777.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: During the winter months of 1777 and 1778, George Washington chose to bivouac his troops at Valley Forge, about twenty miles northwest of Philadelphia.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because the colonial legislatures failed to provide provisions for their soldiers, disease and starvation resulted in the loss of about 2,000 men during these terrible months.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: In June 1778, the British armies pulled out of Philadelphia to return northwards to New York City.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: Washington attacked them from the rear at Monmouth Courthouse.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: The battle was a tactical draw but boosted American morale.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Between 1778 and 1780, British and American troops had a virtual standoff in the north.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: Meanwhile, between the fall of 1779 and the summer of 1780, the Americans were facing the very worst of conditions in the South.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: The French Navy, allied to the colonial cause, had miserably failed in its attacks on Newport, Rhode Island, and Savannah, Georgia.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: In the most devastating setback of the war, British General Clinton captured Charleston, South Carolina on december twenty sixth, seventeen seventy nine.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: In may seventeen eighty, the colonials suffered a tremendous defeat at Waxhaws, resulting in a massacre of Virginians.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: Then, to make matters worse, General Gates' troops were routed by British General Tarleton, a man known for his cruelty, on august sixteenth, seventeen eighty at Camden.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: In the north, George Washington was confronting the problem of mutiny among his troops.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Some of his regiments were going days without food, reminiscent of the Valley Forge experience.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: He had also just received news of Benedict Arnold's treason.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Circumstances could hardly have been worse.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: The decisive event which turned the tide came about on october seventh, seventeen eighty.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: In the early fall of seventeen eighty, the British and Loyalist armies in the South were feeling confident the war was well in hand.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: British Major Patrick Ferguson had warned the Carolina Patriots that he was coming to hang your leaders and waste your country with fire and sword.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: The threat of scorched earth warfare, as condemned in Deuteronomy twenty, verses nineteen and twenty, became a real concern for the local citizens and the Carolinas.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: As Ferguson and his troops approached a place called King's Mountain, near the border of North Carolina, the major vowed that he would be, quote, king of that mountain, and even God Almighty could not remove him.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: This arrogant proclamation turned out to be a dire mistake.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: To deny the sovereignty of God while claiming sovereignty to oneself is a hazardous business.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: Meanwhile, out on the western frontier in a town called Sycamore Shoals, Tennessee, the settlers had organized a militia to defend Hearth and Home from the invading force.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: They called themselves the Over Mountain Men, largely consisting of Scots Irish Presbyterians.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: As the men prepared for battle, they solicited the aid of their Presbyterian pastor to preach a parting sermon.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: The little known Reverend Samuel Doak preached what may have been the most powerful sermon in the history of this country.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: He ended his final prayer with these passionate words from the Old Testament scriptures in Judges chapter seven verse twenty The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: With a pastoral encouragement, the men marched off to the Battle of King's Mountain on the South Carolina border.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: It would prove to be the shortest and most decisive battle in the history of American warfare.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: In a single hour, the men shattered Ferguson's army and Ferguson himself was killed.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: It was a total rout.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: The British lost eleven hundred men by death or capture, and the over mountain men lost only twenty eight.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: But in the most significant sense, this would be the turning point for the colonials in the war.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: It was a decisive moment in American history.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: One historian summarizes the effects of the battle.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: The victory of King's Mountain was the first in a series of remarkable events that would change the direction of the war in America's favor.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: British General Henry Clinton himself admitted this concerning King's Mountain in his report to King George III.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: Though in itself confessedly trifling, this defeat overset in a moment all the happy effects of his lordship's glorious victory at Camden, and so encouraged the spirit of rebellion in both Carolinas that it never could be afterward humbled.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: General Clinton's assessment was entirely accurate.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: War is all about morale.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: The delicate balance of powers bearing such historical import will shift in wartime when the morale of the armies shifts.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Ultimately, there is nothing human leadership can do to maintain a certain morale.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Such critical elements lie in the hand of God, and certain obscure battles really do shift morale in one direction or another.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: The next momentous battle occurred on January seventeenth, seventeen eighty one, also on the Southern Front.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: British General Tarleton pursued Brigadier General Daniel Morgan with eleven hundred British troops through the South Carolina backcountry for weeks.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: Finally, Morgan elected to take a stand at a broad meadowland called Cowpins on January 17th.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: The Americans were outnumbered again, but it was a complete rout in favor of the colonials.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Almost the entire British force was either dead or captured by the end, and Tarleton fled the battlefield alone.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: This concluded a series of victories secured by disparaged Montley bands of mostly Presbyterians.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: General Daniel Morgan was also a devout Presbyterian layman of Welsh background.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: Reports have it that General Morgan rode across the field praising God for the victory.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: Later, he recorded these words concerning the Battle of Cowpins.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: Such was the inferiority of our members that our success must be attributed under God to the justice of our cause and the bravery of our troops.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: An Irish Presbyterian soldier from the Carolina backcountry described the battle more plainly in his prayer.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: Good Lord, our God that art in heaven, we have great reason to thank thee for the many battles we have won, the great and glorious battle of King's Mountain, and the river glorious and memorable battle of the Cowpins, where we made the proud General Terralton run down the road, Helter Skelter.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: General George Washington also recognized the importance of these battles and the providential hand of God over these events.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: He wrote shortly after Cowpins The remarkable interpositions of the divine government in the hours of our deepest distress and darkness have been too luminous to suffer me to doubt the happy issue of the present contest.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: Following several minor setbacks for the colonials, the war was over.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: The Battle of Yorktown was fought just ten months after Cowpins, upon Washington's troops moving to the Southern Front where the British Army had been badly weakened.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: George Washington's Raising.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: George Washington was born february eleventh, seventeen thirty two, on the family farm in Westmoreland County, Virginia, about a mile from the Potomac River.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: His father, Augustine, was a hard driving businessman and farmer.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: His mother, Mary Ball Washington, was his second wife, a godly, hardworking woman who had been orphaned as a child.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: She named her son George for the family friend who had raised her after she had been orphaned on her parents' death.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: George's mother was particularly careful about her son's Christian education.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: She would read to him daily from a book called Contemplations Moral and Divine, written by the Puritan jurist Sir Matthew Hale.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: The biblical gospel message was clearly found in this instruction.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: Who it was that thus suffered?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: It was Christ Jesus, the eternal Son of God, clothed in our flesh, God and man united in one person, his manhood giving him a capacity of suffering, and his Godhead giving a value to that suffering, and each nature united in one person to make a complete redeemer, the heir of all things Hebrews chapter one verse two, the prince of life, the light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the world nine.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: As touching his divine nature, God overall blessed forever, Romans nine five, and as touching his human nature full of grace and truth, John one fourteen.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: But could no other person be found that might suffer for the sins of man, but the Son of God?
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Or if the business of our salvation must be transacted by Him alone, could it not be without suffering and such suffering as this?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: No, as there was no other name given under heaven by which we might be saved, nor was there any found besides in the compass of the whole world that could expiate for one sin of man, but it must be the arm of the Almighty that must bring salvation Isaiah sixty three five.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: So if the blessed Son of God will undertake the business and become captain of our salvation, he must be made perfect by suffering.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: Hebrews two one and Hebrews five nine.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: And if he will stand instead of man, he must bear the wrath of his father if he will become sin for man.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: Throughout his teachings, Hale, the old Puritan, faithfully adhered to the Reformation doctrines of the sovereignty of God, justification by faith alone, and the holy law of God.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: George kept copies of the books he received in his Christian education, some signed by his own hand at thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen years old.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: These included one, a handbook explaining the book of common prayer to children, two, a book called The Sufficiency of a Standing Revelation, encouraging a high view of the scriptures in a day of skepticism.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: Three, a science textbook called The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of Creation.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: And four, The Young Man's Companion, which was written by W.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Mather, with the goal that his readers would quote, build upon no other foundation besides the rock Christ Jesus, end quote.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: As a twelve-year-old boy, George wrote a sample will, stating that, quote, I recommend my soul to God who gave it hoping for salvation in and through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: End quote.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: These words are perhaps the closest thing to a public profession of faith in Christ to be found in any of Washington's letters and personal records.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: Young George seemed cut out for battle from his earliest years.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: While at play, he often formed his friends in the little battalions and ran them through military drills.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: George was a born leader.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: He was always organized, known for taking copious notes and keeping them for future reference.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: Recognized early on for his athletic abilities, he was without rival when it came to horseback riding, wrestling, and running.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: To the delight of his friends, he once threw a rock to the top of Natural Bridge, a height of two hundred and fifteen feet.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: George's father died when he was eleven years old, and his tutoring and education came under the oversight of his mother and brother Lawrence, who was fourteen years his senior.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: Lawrence inherited the family estate in Fairfax County and called it Mount Vernon.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: Previously, Lawrence had joined the British Navy, but when George was offered the opportunity to do likewise, his mother objected.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: He had already sent his clothes ahead to the ship, but upon his mother's strong admonitions, George relented.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: At thirteen years of age, he began studying surveying, and in his sixteenth year traveled to Western Virginia to help survey a large tract of land for the Lord Thomas Fairfax.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: In 1751, George accompanied his brother Lawrence on a trip to the West Indies in hopes that the weather would help Lawrence's worsening lung problems.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: The voyage didn't help, and in the providence of God, Lawrence died on july twenty sixth, seventeen fifty two.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: In his will, Lawrence left Mount Vernon to twenty year old George.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: Called to the battle.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: Psalm ninety one verses seven through nine.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Only with your eyes shall you look and see the reward of the wicked, because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the most high your dwelling place.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: From the outset of his military career, it was plain that God's hand was upon George Washington in an extraordinary way.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: In february seventeen fifty three, George was assigned to train a militia by the Governor of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: In the fall of the same year, he was sent on a dangerous mission up the Ohio River at the outbreak of the French and Indian War.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: The French were building forts on American British territory, and Washington was carrying a letter from Governor Dinwiddie requesting that they cease and desist.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: An Indian attempted a shot at Washington at fifteen yards distance and missed.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: George's assistant wanted to retaliate and kill the Indian, but Washington insisted that the man be allowed to go on his way.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: They later crossed an icy river on a raft and nearly drowned.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: The eleven-week excursion was, in Washington's words, as fatiguing a journey as it be possible to conceive.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: As the war intensified, a British general named Edward Braddock took command of the Virginia troops.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: In early July 1755, Braddock moved his army into western Pennsylvania to the Mohangahila River, outside of modern day Pittsburgh.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: With George Washington as his personal assistant, Braddock's orders were to launch attacks on the French who were attempting to control the Ohio territories.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: In God's providence, Washington became sick on the march and was forced to ride in a covered wagon at the rear of the army.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: Braddock, disregarding the counsel of his Virginia volunteers, rode his troops directly into an ambush, and the French and Indian warriors proceeded to slaughter the American and English soldiers.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Almost one thousand men lay dead and wounded at the end of the engagement.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: But not confounded by his superior officers' mistakes, George Washington grabbed a horse and rallied what few troops remained to provide a resistance in the rear guard.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: In the fighting that ensued, Washington had two horses shot from under him, his coat was shot through in four places, and his hat came through the battle sporting two musket ball shaped holes.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: One officer noted that Washington handled himself with the greatest courage and resolution.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: Quite a number of times in the skirmish, the enemy fired on him from point blank range.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: God's providential hand of protection on the man was astounding even to the Native Americans who were present during the battle.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: Fifteen years later, an old chief visited Washington and explained to him how he had tried to take a direct shot at him during the Battle of Mahangahila.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Our rifles were levelled, rifles which, but for him, knew not how to miss.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: It was all in vain, a power mightier than we shielded him from harm.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: He cannot die in battle.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: I am old, and soon shall be gathered to the great council fire of my fathers, in the land of shades, but ere I go, there is something bids me speak.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: The great spirit protects that man and guides his destinies.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: George explained to his brother in a letter written a week after the battle, I now exist and appear in the land of the living by the miraculous care of Providence that protected me beyond all human expectations.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: The Presbyterian pastor Samuel Davies made almost a prophetic call on the life of Washington in a sermon he gave on august seventeenth, seventeen fifty five.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: In reference to the Battle of Mahangahila fought a month earlier, he included mention of that heroic youth, Colonel Washington, whom I cannot but hope Providence has hitherto preserved in so signal a manner for some important service to his country.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: There were two other important Americans who survived the Mahangahila massacre, Daniel Boone and Daniel Morgan, the future victor at the critical battle of cowpins.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: The American War for Independence, God's hand still on the man.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: Ezra chapter 7, verses 27 and 28.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who has extended mercy to me before the king and his counselors, and before all the king's mighty princes, so I was encouraged, as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me, and I gathered leading men of Israel to go up with me.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: Facing off with the greatest empire on earth was not an easy challenge for George Washington.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: America had no trained army, and the colonial militias had very little experience in battle.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: The many successes met within the war for independence Washington believed were provided him by God alone.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: He wrote to a friend, I shall most religiously believe that the finger of Providence is in it, to blind the eyes of our enemies.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: The fortification of Dorchester Heights was accomplished in a single night.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: While the Americans were building the fortified wall, the British general considered sending men across the channel to stop the work, but the Lord sent a storm that evening which prevented the interruption.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: As he watched eight thousand nine hundred British troops evacuate Boston in seventy eight ships, Washington noted this must be ascribed to the interposition of that providence, which has manifestly appeared in our behalf through the whole of this important struggle.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: May that being who is powerful to save and in whose hands is the fate of nations look down with an eye of tender pity and compassion upon the whole of the United colonies.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: God's hand of protection continued to follow the general through the war.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: In one exchange with the enemy in New York, a cannonball landed just six feet from Washington, but he sustained no injury whatsoever.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: An officer poisoned a dish of peas set before the general, but a young woman intervened and saved his life.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: The British General House thirty two thousand men were poised to wipe out the last of Washington's eight thousand men in Brooklyn Heights, New York, but again weather prevented the attacks.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: Washington took the opportunity to evacuate his men on august twenty ninth, seventeen seventy six.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: A storm had raged for three full days, but on the third night at eleven PM, the storm abated and was followed by a deathly quiet.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: The Continental soldiers began their evacuation during this lull, but as the morning dawned a large percentage of the men were still waiting for boats to convey them across the river to safety.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: Just in time however the Lord commanded a fog to descend upon the bay.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: Major Benjamin Talmadge described the scene.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: As the dawn of the next day approached those of us who remained on the trenches became very anxious for our own safety, and when the dawn appeared there were several regiments still on duty.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: At this time a very dense fog began to rise out of the ground and off the river, and it seemed to settle in a peculiar manner over both encampments.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: I recall this peculiar providential occurrence perfectly well, and so very dense was the atmosphere that I could scarcely discern a man at six yards distance.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: The fog remained over the British camps until all the American boats had left Long Island.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Throughout the war the weather often seemed to favor the Americans, including Trenton, Cowpins, and Yorktown.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yet the most astounding act of Providence, at least in the mind of George Washington, was the discovery of Benedict Arnold's treason.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: British Major John Andre in civilian clothes happened to be identified and captured by three American soldiers.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: These men discovered incriminating evidence on Andre that revealed Benedict Arnold's intention of surrendering West Point into British hands.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: Had this plot succeeded it would have been a fatal stab into the heart of the American armies.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: General Washington wrote to a friend happily the treason has been discovered to prevent the fatal misfortune.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: The providential train of circumstances which led to it affords the most convincing proof that the liberties of America are the object of divine protection.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: After securing the victory at Yorktown, George Washington wrote to a pastor that, in the midst of our joys, I hope we shall not forget that to divine providence is to be ascribed the glory and the praise.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: Writing to Henry Knox after a full victory over Britain had finally been achieved, Washington voiced his heartfelt conviction that nothing but the mercy and loving kindness of God had safely carried the colonies through their long war with Britain.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: I feel now however as I conceive a wearied traveler must do, who after treading many a painful step with a heavy burden on his shoulders, is eased of the latter, having reached the haven to which all the former were directed, and from his housetop is looking back and tracing with an eager eye the meanders by which he escaped the quick sands and mires which lay in his way, and into which none but the all powerful guide and dispenser of human events could have prevented his falling The Presidency Proverbs twenty eight two ESV When a land transgresses, it has many rulers, but with a man of understanding and knowledge its stability will long continue.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: For the eight and a half years of full time service provided for his country's defense during the war for independence, Washington had foregone all financial compensation.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: Both the Pennsylvania and Virginia state governments offered him some remuneration after the war, but he refused it all.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: In 1780, he wrote If sacrificing my entire estate would affect any valuable purpose, I would not hesitate one moment in doing it.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: George Washington's generosity was only outdone by his humility.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: When the Continental Congress announced his appointment as commander in chief of the American armies, he quickly exited the room and hid in the library.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: He told his wife that he had quote, used every endeavor in my power to avoid it, end quote.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: His adopted daughter Nellie Custis reported that she quote never heard him relate a single act of his during the war, end quote.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: When elected to the presidency in April 1789, Washington made this inauspicious note in his own diary about ten o'clock I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life and to domestic felicity, and with a mind depressed with more anxious and painful sensations than I have words to express, set out for New York, with the best disposition to render service to my country in obedience to its call, but with less hope of answering its expectations.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: The greatest contribution left by George Washington in his service as president was his commitment to keep America out of European squabbles.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: His cabinet did not agree with him on this issue, and when war broke out between France and Britain, Thomas Jefferson aligned himself with France while Alexander Hamilton sided with Britain.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: However, Washington wanted complete neutrality for America in these wars.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: He wrote War having actually commenced between France and Great Britain, it behooves the government of this country to use every means in its power to prevent the citizens thereof from embroiling us with either of those powers by endeavoring to maintain a strict neutrality.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: Both France and Britain persecuted the United States for the next twenty years because the country refused to take sides in their disagreement.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: The French went so far as to send an agent to America to stir up trouble.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: Edmund Charles Gannett formed Jacobin clubs around the United States and tried to initiate a revolution against Washington in 1793.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: Ten thousand people were threatening to drag Washington out of his house and effect a revolution in the government or compel it to declare war in favor of the French Revolution and against England, as John Adams put it.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: Thankfully, Gannette fell out of favor with the revolution and the French sought to kill him.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: Fearing execution if he returned to France, Gannett requested permission of President Washington to remain in America.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: Even though Gannett had recently been plotting Washington's overthrow, the President mercifully granted Gannett's request and thus saved the life of his enemy.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: Washington's handling of the Gannett affair is a beautiful illustration of Christ's command love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: Luke six verses twenty seven and twenty eight Gannett retired to upstate New York and thanks to Washington's prudent international policies, the radical and dangerous influence of the French Revolution did not destroy the newly formed United States during these early years.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: The young United States toyed with anarchy and revolution during these years.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: It is far too easy for a nation to move from tyranny to anarchy and vice versa.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: Both conditions are miserable and only a wise leader can navigate between these two curses.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: George Washington faced the chaos of the French Revolution bleeding into America, the Whiskey Rebellion and other signs of unrest.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: In the providence of God he was probably the only man who could have held the nation together during these years.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: Washington served two terms as the president from seventeen eighty nine to seventeen ninety seven Proverbs twenty four verses twenty one and twenty two My son, fear the Lord and the king, do not associate with those given to change, for their calamity will rise suddenly, and who knows the ruin those two can bring slavery Philemon twelve sixteen I am sending him the slave Onisimus back you therefore receive him, that is my own heart whom I wish to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me and my chains for the gospel.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: But without your consent, I wanted to do nothing that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary for perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: In his letter to Philemon, Paul did not coerce the slave master to emancipate his slave.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: Paul does not recommend slave revolts or civil wars, but instead pushes for a voluntary release of the slave.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: The Christian is always looking for a work of love in the heart of the slave master.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_01: He seeks social change by regeneration, a change of heart in both the slave and the slave master.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: Apparently this change of heart really did come upon George Washington in his life.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: Although born into a slave economy and inheriting slaves himself, few of America's founders came to hate slavery as intensely as did George Washington.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: While acting as president of the United States, he signed the first anti slavery legislation, the Northwest Ordinance.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: Some seventy five years later, the Fourteenth Amendment which finally abolished slavery in the United States would be patterned after this legislation.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: In 1786, Washington wrote There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_01: George Washington certainly represented a repentant attitude towards slavery, first attempting to shut down the slave trade by the Fairfax resolves he penned with George Mason in 1774.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: In his last will and testament Washington ordered the emancipation of all his slaves quote upon the decease of my wife, it is my will and desire that all the slaves which I hold in my own right shall receive their freedom, end quote.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: He also made sure that all of them quote, shall be comfortably clothed and fed by my heirs while they live, end quote.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: In addition, Washington provided a means of education for the young slaves who were to be freed.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas men like Thomas Jefferson and later Abraham Lincoln would seek to banish the African Americans to a separate colony, George Washington would have nothing of the sort.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: He wanted a racially mixed community and an end of slavery in America The Character of George Washington Was George Washington a Christian?
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: Hardly any question in all of American history is more hotly debated than this one.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: Washington was not a pastor and he was not a theologian, but his writings are replete with references to God.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: It is important to consider that although not a pastor, George Washington still had his own spiritual struggles and as a Christian would have had to live out a life of repentance and faith himself.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_01: In his younger years, George was somewhat interested in gambling.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: In May 1772, his personal records indicate that he gambled twelve times in a single month.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yet as he grew older he realized these to be moral failings.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: Writing to his nephew Bushrod in seventeen eighty three he warned of this vice of gambling it is the child of avarice, the brother of inequity, the father of mischief.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: It has been the ruin of many worthy families, the loss of many a man's honor, and the cause of suicide.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_01: Washington certainly expressed a reverence and fear of God throughout his entire life of leadership.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: On february fifteenth, seventeen sixty three, George Washington took an oath and agreement with the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: The oath included the thirty nine articles of religion in which it is stated we are accounted before God only for the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, by faith and not for our own works or deservings.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: Since Washington espoused these beliefs, it would be difficult to disprove his faith unless he quit the church or personally disavowed his previous commitment.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_01: The records give no indication that this ever occurred.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_01: Moreover, George Washington called himself a Christian on many occasions.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: He also encouraged the Delaware Indian chiefs in May 1779 You do well to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all the religion of Jesus Christ.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_01: Perhaps the clearest witness to a simple faith we can find in Washington's writings comes in a letter he sent to the Marquis de Lafayette, his military friend from France who served under Washington during the war for independence.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: Washington was asking forgiveness of his friend and put it this way I stand before you as a culprit, but to repent and be forgiven are the precepts of heaven, I do the former do you practice the latter?
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: And it will be participation of a divine attribute.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_01: He also encouraged the entire nation to confess their sins before God, to implore the Lord and giver of all victory, to pardon our manifold sins and wickedness.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_01: The true measure of faith is ultimately known by a man's fruits and the character of his life.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: With Washington, it is difficult to find a clear verbal profession of his faith in Jesus Christ.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_01: This may have been due in part to his reluctance to use the name of Christ in what some historians see as a respect for his name.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_01: Nonetheless, George Washington's maxim was deeds, not words.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_01: He resented any kind of a pretense of religion.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter ten verses twenty four and twenty five and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_01: Throughout his life George Washington was relentlessly faithful in attending church.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_01: He served as a vestryman or lay elder in several Anglican churches before the war, missing only eight Sabbaths over more than ten years.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_01: When not attending his home church, he favored Presbyterian churches.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_01: He was concerned with the errors in the Roman Catholic Church, but also warned against insulting them.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: In 1762, George went so far as to rebuke his brother in law Burwell Bassett for missing church on Sunday.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_01: I was favored with your epistle written on a certain twenty fifth of July when you ought to have been in church, praying as becomes every good Christian man who has as much to answer for as you have.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_01: Strange it is that you will be so blind to truth that the enlightening sounds of the gospel cannot reach your ear.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_01: Could you but behold with what religious zeal I haymed church on every Lord's day, it would do your heart good, and fill it, I hope, with equal fervency.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_01: During the war there were times at which there was no chaplain available on Sundays, in such cases the general would perform the service himself, reading the scriptures and praying with his men.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_01: While Washington served as president, his private secretary found him on his knees with the Bible open before him, and he believed such to have been his daily practice.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_01: During his presidency, the Washingtons attended church on Sunday mornings and in the evenings George would read a sermon to his wife Washington's Death Although facing death many times on the battlefield, Washington never once appeared afraid to die.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_01: At the Battle of Monmouth he rallied General Lee's retreating troops.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: His horse was killed under him, but he never faltered he merely mounted another horse and continued shouting orders.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: A cannonball exploded yards away, bespattering him with dirt.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_01: A colonel was killed only a few yards from him.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_01: One of his officers wrote Our army loves their general very much, but they have one thing against him, which is the little care he takes of himself in any action.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: His personal bravery and the desire he has of animating his troops by example make him fearless of danger.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_01: This occasions us much uneasiness.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_01: But heaven which hitherto has been his shield I hope will still continue to guard so valuable a life.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_01: While serving as president, George Washington became very ill.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_01: It was then he turned to his doctor and said I am not afraid to die.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_01: I know I am in the hands of a good providence.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: On december twelfth seventeen ninety nine, George Washington contracted a cold while riding his horse around his farm surrounding Mount Vernon.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_01: Two days later his condition worsened.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_01: At five PM he told his doctors I am not afraid to go, I believed from my first attack that I should not survive it.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_01: As Martha read from the scriptures at the foot of his bed, George Washington passed on to his maker around eleven PM Thus a great man died, and the nation mourned at least seven hundred sermons and orations were given in churches, colleges and legislatures around the country.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_01: The Chief Justice of the U.S.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_01: Supreme Court John Marshall put it well when he said more than any other individual and as much as to one individual was possible, has he contributed to found this our widespread empire and to give to the Western world independence and freedom.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_01: Between 1776 and eighteen hundred George Washington was clearly the prime leader in the founding of the United States of America.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_01: No single person was more important in unifying the nation or leading the nation in the battle for independence.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams, both Christians, planted the first seeds of liberty, but George Washington became the figure around which the nation would unify during its formative years.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_01: Of the founders of this nation, these three were the most committed Christians.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_01: Other founding fathers like John Adams, James Madison, James Monroe, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin moved away from Orthodox Christianity.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yet at this critical time in the history of America, God chose three key Christians Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, and George Washington to plant the seeds for an independent, free, and prosperous nation.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_01: Psalm 3312 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord and the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_01: This has been a production of the Generations Media Network.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_01: For more information go to generations.org slash media