George Washington's Sacred Fire Quotes

“As we contemplate Washington’s words and place them in his historical circumstances, it occurs to us that a man so concerned for righteousness in his army, and for military chaplains to lead his men in seeking the blessings of heaven, just might have been a praying man himself.”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“George Washington clearly shared the foundational Virginian concern to “Christianize the savages” dwelling in the Virginia Colony. On July 10, 1789, in response to an address from the directors of the Society of The United Brethren for Propagating the Gospel Among the Heathen, Washington stated: In proportion as the general Government of the United States shall acquire strength by duration, it is probable they may have it in their power to extend a salutary influence to the Aborigines in the extremities of their Territory. In the meantime, it will be a desirable thing for the protection of the Union to co-operate, as far as circumstances may conveniently admit, with the disinterested [unselfish] endeavours of your Society to civilize and Christianize the Savages of the Wilderness.28 A Deist, by definition, rejected Christianity and accepted the equivalence of all religions’ worship of God. So no Deist could see the plan for the “conversion of the heathen” outlined by Bishop Ettwein and the Brethren as both “laudable” and “earnestly desired.” Yet those are Washington’s words.”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“Writing to Gov. Nicholas Cooke on October 12, 1776, he explained, The Advantages arising from a judicious appointment of Officers, and the fatal consequences that result from the want of them, are too obvious to require Arguments to prove them; I shall, therefore, beg leave to add only, that as the well doing, nay the very existence of every Army, to any profitable purposes, depend upon it, that too much regard cannot be had to the choosing of Men of Merit and such as are, not only under the influence of a warm attachment to their Country, but who also possess sentiments of principles of the strictest honor. Men of this Character, are fit for Office, and will use their best endeavours to introduce that discipline and subordination, which are essential to good order, and inspire that Confidence in the Men, which alone can give success to the interesting and important contest in which we are engaged. 50 Washington consistently underscored his view of the “immense consequence” of having “men of the most respectable characters” as the officers surrounding the commanderin chief. He wrote years later to Secretary of War, James McHenry as a new army was being contemplated to address the post-French Revolutionary government: To remark to a Military Man how all important the General Staff of an Army is to its well being, and how essential consequently to the Commander in Chief, seems to be unnecessary; and yet a good choice is of such immense consequence, that I must be allowed to explain myself. The Inspector General, Quartermaster General, Adjutant General, and Officer commanding the Corps of Artillerists and Engineers, ought to be men of the most respectable characters, and of first rate abilities; because, from the nature of their respective Offices, and from their being always about the Commander in Chief who is obliged to entrust many things to them confidentially, scarcely any movement can take place without their knowledge. It follows then, that besides possessing the qualifications just mentioned, they ought to have those of Integrity and prudence in”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“But Washington’s long and faithful service stands in marked distinction from Jefferson’s mere election. Washington actually served with great fidelity. We do not want to read anything into this other than what the facts tell us, and the facts are that George Washington’s service as a vestryman is commensurate with the highest commitment to the Christianity proposed by the Anglican Church.”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“Indeed, given the facts, the burden of proof is not to prove that Washington was a Christian; the burden of proof is to prove that he was a skeptic who nevertheless sought to act like a Christian believer!”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“Washington went to churches where the leaders had to affirm the key doctrines of the Christian Church. Furthermore, he was elected a lay-leader in the Church and as a leader, he had to take oaths affirming foundational Christian doctrines, which included these points and more: • Christ was fully God and fully man •   Christ died on the cross to atone for sins. • He rose bodily from the dead. •   He ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of God the Father. •   History is moving toward the climax of the return of Jesus Christ. • The Bible is the Word of God. •   Sinners need to repent and believe in Jesus Christ for salvation, etc.”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“Skeptics today often claim that George Washington was not a real Christian, but in our view, the burden of proof is on them to explain why he was consistently in church throughout his life, why the churches he was part of were entirely orthodox in terms of the Trinity and the doctrine of Christ, and why he attended churches where the Bible was regularly preached on Sunday.”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“Apparently Washington’s adage of “deeds not words” was utilized to convey to his grandson the importance of the Sabbath, the significance of regular worship, and the value of the reading of the scriptures. Conway’s charges are eviscerated in light of the testimony of the one who was allegedly not evangelized by Washington!”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“If there ever was a time when character mattered, it was in Washington’s role in the birth of America. If he had operated with a different set of moral values and a different personal character, America would have had a king or dictator instead of a federal Constitution and representative government.”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“Moreover, nothing less than both written evidence and recorded deeds from Washington himself will be sufficient to explain how he could simultaneously explicitly advocate Christian missionary evangelism, and yet as a Deist deny the teachings of Christianity.”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“The skeptics who argue for Washington the Deist must explain his lifelong and heartfelt commitment to Christian missionary work.”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“Whether as General, a private citizen, or as president, Washington never swerved from an expressed commitment to the Christian evangelistic mission to the Native Americans that was a legacy bequeathed to him by the very first Anglican settlers of the colony of Virginia.”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“Strange indeed that the immediate descendants of a Deist would have a Gospel text quoting Jesus’ teaching on the resurrection on the alleged Deist’s tomb!”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“We don’t know what inscriptions Washington’s nephew found on the tombs of their early Virginian ancestors. But we do know what Washington’s ancestors ultimately put on his Mount Vernon tomb. Should you visit Washington’s tomb at Mount Vernon, you will read “I am the resurrection and the Life.” (John 11:25), the very first words of the funeral service in the Book of Common Prayer.”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“Washington’s involvement and interest in the “Christianization” of the Indians reached its climax in a connection with British royalty and the evangelist George Whitefield, strange connections, indeed, for the leader of the American Revolution and an alleged Deist!”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“The idea of morning and evening prayer led by a military officer was part of the Virginia in which Washington was raised.40”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“The King’s instructions included that “all persons should kindly treat the savages and heathen people in these parts, and use all proper means to draw them to the true service and knowledge of God.”21 As early as 1588, Sir Walter Raleigh had given 100 pounds for the “propagation of Christianity in Virginia.”22”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“The King’s 1606 patent for Virginia explained that the purpose of their mission to the New World was that: So noble a work may, by the Providence of God, hereafter tend to the glorie of his divine majestie, in propagating of Christian religion to such people as sit in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God, and may in time bring the infidels and savages (living in those parts) to human civility and quiet government.20”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“Concern for the souls of the “savages” was part of the mission into Virginia. When this courageous band had been sent off from England, the Reverend Mr. William Crashaw reminded the colonists, “that the end of this voyage is the destruction of the devil’s kingdom, and the propagation of the Gospel.”19”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“Virginia’s culture and its laws were thus a reflection of its unique origins as the first English settlement in the new world. From 1607 on, the interpenetration of the English state, the Anglican Church, the farm, the Indian, the slave and the convict continued. There needed to be laws for the church, the state, and the soldier.”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“Indeed, to make tobacco in large enough quantities to satisfy the needs and the quotas from markets in England, the Virginia nobility—the true gentlemen farmers—became accustomed to building and maintaining their vast plantations by the utilization of great numbers of slaves, who cared not only for their masters’ fields, but also for their bodies, their horses, their houses, and their children.”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“By the time George Washington was out surveying the wilderness tracts of land for Lord Fairfax, the proprietor of the Northern Neck’s vast expanse, the Indians were no longer an immediate menace, since they had been driven far back into the forests by the previous generations of armed colonists.”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“What the English government and investors expected from their colony in America was a strong return for their past investments, accompanied by an unquestioning obedience.”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“Although Boller entirely ignores them, there are numerous Gospel phrases in Washington’s writings from the teachings of Jesus, the one whom Washington publicly called “the Divine Author of our Blessed Religion.”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“The inescapable conclusion is that Washington was a Christian.”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“Let’s begin by noting that Washington historian Rupert Hughes is wrong when he writes in 1926, “… there is no direct allusion to Christ, and the word Christ has been found in none of Washington’s almost countless autographs.” 3 For George Washington wrote in 1779, “You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are.” 4”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“The secret of Washington’s ability to accomplish so much was his mastery of time management. Consider his statements on time. “What to me is more valuable, my time, that I most regard,” he wrote to James McHenry, September 14, 1799. Similarly, he wrote to James Anderson on December 10, 1799, “… time, which is of more importance than is generally imagined.”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“To say Washington was a Deist—even a “soft Deist”—would imply that he did not have a problem violating his conscience each time he worshiped in his church. It is difficult to imagine how Washington, with his expressed concern for his character and his open commitment to honesty and candor, along with his sensitive conscience, could repeatedly and consistently make a public reaffirmation of a faith that he really did not believe.”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“Is the Judeo-Christian heritage of America a reality or an interloper aimed at suppressing the secularism of the founders? Or, is it the other way around? Are today’s secularists trying to recreate the faith of our founding father into the unbelief of a Deist in order to rid our nation of Washington’s holy flame of faith?”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire

“George Washington’s Sacred Fire intends to convince you that when all the available evidence is considered, the only viable conclusion is that George Washington was a Christian and not a Deist.”
― Peter A. Lillback, George Washington's Sacred Fire