Skip to content America's Christian Heritage Jul 9 · 16 min ...more
America's Christian Heritage
July 9, 2026 · 16 min
Pastor John Mark reveals how the Treaty of Paris opens with "the most holy and undivided Trinity"—proof that faith wasn't separate from our nation's birth, it was the cornerstone. From the 34% of Founding Fathers' writings directly quoting Scripture to John Adams declaring the Constitution suited only for "a moral and religious people," this message uncovers a history rarely taught.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton
John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
July 9, 2026 · 16 min · "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton
Pastor John Mark reveals how the Treaty of Paris opens with "the most holy and undivided Trinity"—proof that faith wasn't separate from our nation's birth, it was the cornerstone. From the 34% of Founding Fathers' writings directly quoting Scripture to John Adams declaring the Constitution suited only for "a moral and religious people," this message uncovers a history rarely taught. ...more Show the full description Show less Pastor John Mark reveals how the Treaty of Paris opens with "the most holy and undivided Trinity"—proof that faith wasn't separate from our nation's birth, it was the cornerstone. From the 34% of Founding Fathers' writings directly quoting Scripture to John Adams declaring the Constitution suited only for "a moral and religious people," this message uncovers a history rarely taught.
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In this video 0:00 God's Institutions and America's Foundations9:00 From Declaration to Treaty: Christian Nation Declared13:00 Pastors, Seminaries, and Biblical Influence16:00 Washington, Congress, and Adams: Faith in Action
God's Institutions and America's Foundations 0:00 Happy birthday, America. Give yourselves a hand if you would, right there. Have you enjoyed so far? Yes. Man, this is a great thing. You know, when you think about 2500:12 years, it's an amazing thought just to be here after 250 years. You know if you look back over the history of all governments and all constitutions anywhere anytime, but looking back over 4005 thousand years0:23 ago, the average constitution only last about 17 to 19 years. So, making it to 250 is pretty impressive. Give that a hand right there.0:38 And there ought to be something then must be special. There should be something special about our constitution, our declaration of independence. You know, God really gave us, if you don't want to write you want to write0:47 these down put them up on the slide. God in his word gave us 3 institutions, that will keep us strong and healthy and faithful to him. Institution number 1 is the family. Number 2 is the0:59 church and number 3 is government. And, here's what I want you to know. Moms and dads, if you won't lead your family in a godly biblical way,1:10 satan is happy too. How many of you know that? He'll happily step in that gap. What about the church? Man, if men and women won't stand up and stand on God's word, even when it's unpopular1:22 in society, if we won't stand up, Satan's happy to lead the church. How many of you know that? Also, government. If we don't have godly men and women who are willing to stand up and run for office and lead in our1:34 government, Satan is happy to step in the gap. And so, as we think about where we've been as a country, a lot of people talk about what is referred to as the establishment clause. Everybody says,
1:45 well you know, congress said we don't want to do anything to establish a religion. Let me tell you historically what that truly meant. See, every 1 of those people and the men, women and
1:57 families that came over in the early time, they came over from a country in Europe that had an established religion. And, they didn't want that here. If they came from, France
2:09 or Spain or Italy, guess what? The established state religion was Catholicism. If they came from, England or Great Britain, the established state religion was the Church of England or
2:21 Anglicanism. If they came from Germany, the established state religion was Lutheranism. If they came from someone else, the established state religion, the only 1 that was legal to practice may have been Presbyterianism.
2:33 And so, when they came here, they said, listen. We don't want to choose between those Christian denominations. We want to say, hey, feel free to worship any way you want. So, a lot of people say, man,
2:45 they wanted religion out of government. That was a 1 way street. I'm gonna show you here in a 2nd. They absolutely wanted religion in the government, they just didn't want the government to tell you how to worship. I
2:56 love Psalm 33 verse 12. We'll put it up on the screen. It says, blessed Everybody say blessed. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. The people he chose
3:08 for his inheritance. You know, when you think about the history of our country, we clearly have an inheritance of amazing blessings from God. If you go back all the way to the beginning, we
3:20 all remember the declaration of independence signed on July the 4th 17 76, what we celebrate. Let me tell you what the declaration of independence is. How many of you ever have received in your house a
3:32 save the date for a wedding? Just me? Okay. They send you a card and they say save the date, put this on your calendar. The declaration of independence was
3:44 a save the date and only the save the date. You say, what do you mean pastor? Well remember, when they signed the declaration of independence, that was a save the date. They still had to fight a war. How many of us
3:53 understand that? Had they not won the war, that would have been worthless. However, they did win the war and so here's the date. The save the date was the declaration of independence. The actual date was signed
4:05 in the treaty of Paris, we'll put it up there, on September the 3rd of 17 83. The fighting was over. Pretty much the
4:17 British soldiers were here. We just weren't fighting. They had given up. And so, what happened is you had 3 of our people, Ben Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay traveled to
4:29 Paris to negotiate our full and final separation from England. Alright? It was this parish treaty that actually established us as
4:41 a sovereign nation. It gave us, more land all the way to the Mississippi. It gave us a lot more rights to fish where we want to fish and live how we want to live. It was a heavy
4:52 negotiated process, but the save the date came down to this date, September the 3rd 17 83. Now, let me point something out about this document that you probably were never
5:04 taught in school. If you look at the top of that document that was written by a guy named John Jay, who by the way was your 1st Supreme Court Justice in all of the new United States of
5:16 America. Here's what he wrote at the top, and Ben Franklin, and John Adams, and all the other people in Congress when they brought it back approved. Here's what it says, in the name of the most
5:28 holy and undivided trinity. The God the father, God the son, God the holy spirit were there at the save the date. They
5:40 were there at the beginning. Now, let me tell you what John Jay who actually authored that said. He he By the way, he was the president of congress. He was a signer. This was, just said, the Treaty of Paris. He was the
5:52 author author of the Federalist Papers. He was the original chief justice of the Supreme Court. Here's what he said, providence has given to our people the
6:03 choice of the rulers. It is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our What are those next 2 words? Say that again. Christian nations.
6:15 Okay. So, the guy that pinned the document, the congress approved said our Christian nation and as a Christian nation, what is it our duty to do? Here it is, to select and
6:27 prefer Christian rulers over other rulers. So, right there at the establishment, we were called a Christian nation. You say, but pastor, when did that stop? Start with
6:38 George Washington. Every president who ever presided over our country referred to us as a Christian nation nation until President Obama. He was the 1st 1 to go away and not
6:50 refer to us as a Christian nation. That is absolutely history. That's fact. Let me show you. We'll put a book on the screen. I encourage you to get it. Here's the book. It's called The New
7:02 England Pulpit and the American Revolution. It's written by a lady named Alice Baldwin. You can find her. She was a Duke University professor. She wasn't over at Duke Seminary. She was just a history professor.
7:14 And, she began to study all of these founding fathers. And what she began to notice in the writings and letters and documents of these founding fathers that they had major influences on their life. That
7:26 they constantly began to say, man this man really impacted my life. This person impacted my life. This teaching, this 1. Guess who she says and you can go pick her book up. Guess who she says the most
7:38 influential person was in the lives of every 1 of the founders of our country? Nope. Their pastor. Their pastor was
7:50 speaking in, was preaching in, was sharing in to them. And so, here I want you to know, these founders were most impacted by their pastors above and beyond all else. Now,
8:02 here's kind of an interesting let me give you a breakdown. By the way, let me share something with you before I go on. Here's what she said. At least 29 of the 56 signers attended of of the declaration of independence
8:14 attended colleges founded primarily to train Christian ministers. Today, you would call it a seminary or a bible college where biblical studies and theology theology were
8:26 central parts of the curriculum. While most did not go on, the signers, to become pastors, they were educated in institutions that deeply shaped their Christian
8:38 teaching. What an in thought. You say, alright pastor, what is the religious breakdown of those 56 signers? Here it is. 32 of them were Anglican or Episcopal,
8:50 13 were Congregationalists, 9 were Presbyterians, 1 was a Quaker, and 1 was a Catholic. So everyone who signed was Christian. Followed up,
From Declaration to Treaty: Christian Nation Declared
9:02 here's another book. I definitely encourage you to get this book. It's called The Origins of the American of American Constitutionalism written by this guy named Donald S. Lutz. He
9:14 he was a long time political science professor at the University of Houston. Any cougars in the room? Nope. Well, I had to bring that up. My mom is watching from Houston. She graduated from
9:25 Houston, so I had to bring that up. He was a long time political scientist, got in, studied every writing of every founding father, read all their letters, all their books, everything they ever said, And, what they were
9:37 looking for are men that they quoted or sources that they quoted. And, all according to his book, you can go read it. All of it's footnoted. According to all of the writings of the
9:49 founding fathers, the 3 men, individuals they quoted the most were Charles Montesquieu, William Blackstone, and John Locke. What do those 3 men have in common?
10:02 All Christian. Then he says, not only that, when we look at all of the direct quote from sources, guess what the number 1 source
10:14 of quotes in every 1 of the founding fathers writings was? The Bible. 34 percent of every quote in every 1 of the
10:26 letters, in every 1 of the books, in every 1 of the writings that our founding fathers wrote, 34 percent came straight out of the Bible where they put a Bible reference and a quote. Interestingly,
10:38 you can read on and he goes, and those were just direct quotes. He said there were many other times that you were sitting here going, this phrase came straight from the Bible, but it didn't have quotes on it, so they
10:49 didn't count it. He says if you count those things that clearly came from the bible, guess what? You'd probably have it far over 40 or 45 percent. So, the number 1 most quoted thing of all of our founding
11:01 fathers was the what? The bible. The bible. The bible. So, if anybody tells you different, tell them to go read. If anybody says this wasn't a Christian nation to begin with, say, have you read the treaty
11:13 of Paris? Man, this was started under the father, God the father, God the son, God the holy spirit. Alright. So, we win, we signed the treaty of Paris. Remember a guy how many of you remember a guy named George
11:24 Washington? You ever heard of that guy? Remember at 1st, he was put in charge of our continental army. Go read this. You know what his 1st command was? Is that every Sunday
11:36 morning at 11 AM, every 1 of the battalions or groups or wherever they were fighting at 11 AM, they stopped and had church.
11:48 And they had Christian church And part of his order and command was that the officers had to go every Sunday so they would be good examples for the rest
12:00 of the soldiers. Do you know when George Washington actually won the war, then he became the 1st president of the United States, you wanted to know what his 1st decision was? After he was sworn in, he
12:12 went to church. And so, we've been lied to about the origins of our country. You know it wasn't long after that that your congress
12:25 actually endorsed the bible. How many of you think that's kind of a cool thing? Alright? Let me just show it to you. I'm gonna put it up on the screen for you and, you'll notice it here and you'll see it. Here it is.
12:36 September the 10th, 17 82. Alright? The 1st printed Bible in the US. Alright. Robert Aitken went to and here's what happened. While we were under the king's rule, before we won the war, basically the
12:47 king, they were Anglican, said you cannot translate a Bible over in America. You've got to take our Bibles that we give you. Why? Because he didn't want us to translate a Bible over here that conflicted with his Anglican
12:59 or Church of England religion. Right? So, he didn't want that. Well, now that we've won the war, Robert Aiken goes to Congress and said, hey listen. We can now actually interpret and translate the Bible directly from the
Pastors, Seminaries, and Biblical Influence
13:09 Hebrew into English, from the Greek into English, and we'll have our own Bible and it won't be sourced through the king. And so, he said that sounds like a great idea. So, he goes out and goes word for word
13:21 from the Hebrew Bible from Genesis to Revelation. He finishes it and he brings it to congress. Well, most of the congressmen aren't specialists in Hebrew and Greek. And so, they say, let's get a group of
13:33 pastors together and we want you to go word for word and see if there's a good translation. That group came back and said, this is actually a really good translation. And so, here's the endorsement from 7 September
13:45 the 10th 17 82. It says, whereupon resolved that the United States in Congress, the assembly, assembled highly approved the pious and laudable undertaking undertaking
13:57 in Mr. Aiken. As subservient to the interest of not only religion, as well as the instance and progress of arts in this country. And being satisfied from the above report, that's those pastors that said it's a good
14:09 translation, of his care and accuracy in the execution of the work, they recommend this edition of the bible to the inhabitants of the United States and hereby authorize
14:21 him to publish even this recommendation in the manner that he thinks is right. Give God a hand for that. Alright?
14:33 I've got about 50 other quotes just like every sermon I preach that I'm not gonna get to. However, but I want in with this 1. So, I've talked to you about John Jay. Here's John Adams. He was a
14:44 signer of the declaration of independence, signed the bill of rights, the 2nd president of the United States. Here's what he said, our constitution was made only for a
14:56 moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. He says the gen and then it then it said By the way, this is a different work, not the same work. The general principles
15:08 of which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. So if anyone says to you, this nation was not
15:20 founded as a Christian nation, Just look at them and say you haven't read much. Let's pray. God, thank you so much for the United States of America.
15:32 Thank you for our founding fathers and those who over the years have given the full and final sacrifice for the freedoms we have. God, thank you for the blessings
15:44 that you have bestowed upon us, not as a perfect nation, but as a blessed nation. So God, just like as we look back and thank you for your blessings, we look forward
15:56 and still simply ask, God, bless America. In Jesus name we pray, amen and amen.
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