Harrison warned the nation that we need to watch out for ‘the false Christs’
With the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump (for the second time), we have once again celebrated another milestone in our history.
It’s interesting to note that nearly every one of our presidents has been sworn in on the Holy Bible and uttered the oath, “So help me God.” George Washington began the process and it has continued to this day – despite the claims of those trying to erase America’s rich Christian heritage.
For example, our second president, John Adams, closed his Inaugural Address in 1797 in this way: “… with humble reverence, I feel it to be my duty to add, if a veneration for the religion of a people who profess and call themselves Christians, and a fixed resolution to consider a decent respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for the public service, can enable me in any degree to comply with your wishes, it shall be my strenuous endeavor that this sagacious injunction of the two Houses shall not be without effect.”
Such a sentiment from Adams does not fit the agenda of those clamoring for what Richard John Neuhaus called the “naked public square,” that is, the expunging of all references to God in the public arena. Washington’s successor said a decent respect for the Christian faith is “among the best recommendations for the public service.”
His son, John Quincy Adams, our sixth president, quoted Scripture (Psalm 127:1) in his Inaugural Address in 1825: “Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh in Vain.” Adams also referenced his need for God’s help: “With fervent supplications for His favor, to His overruling providence I commit with humble but fearless confidence my own fate and the future destinies of my country.”
Our ninth president, William Henry Harrison warned the nation that we need to watch out for “the false Christs whose coming was foretold by the Savior.” And he added, “I deem the present occasion sufficiently important and solemn to justify me in expressing to my fellow-citizens a profound reverence for the Christian religion and a thorough conviction that sound morals, religious liberty, and a just sense of religious responsibility are essentially connected with all true and lasting happiness.”