St Paul’s Chapel, New York City (Wikimedia Commons)
On August 15th 2021 the U.S. flag was removed from our embassy in Kabul as we began a chaotic and embarrassing withdrawal from Afghanistan and witnessed the shocking Taliban return to power. The U.S. campaign in Afghanistan ended in utter failure…resulting in a humiliating 20th year anniversary of the attack on the U.S. on September 11, 2001 (referred to as ‘911’).
Our decades of heroic military efforts witnessed great sacrifice by the men and women who answered the call to take up arms against Islamic terror. Yet…their efforts were finally undone by the election of leadership that represents one more step forward in the cycle of God’s judgement that now exists in America.
In the months after 911, America’s churches would fill as our country turned to God in the wake of this tragedy. In fact, on the evening of 911, approximately 150 members of Congress –both Republican and Democrat – would gather on the Capitol’s steps to sing “God Bless America” (The Singing of “God Bless America” on September 11, 2001). But, in time, all of this would fade…and over the ensuing decade, we would actually accelerate our national departure from God.
Only two nations in history were founded as part of a covenant with God – America and Israel. The Old Testament gives a detailed account of the covenant relationship between Israel and God – but few today realize that America was also founded as part of a covenant (Hormandl).
8/16/2021 Photo of U.S. Flag about to be flown from Kabul – Jennifer Griffin @JenGriffinFNC
On April 30, 1789 George Washington took the oath of office of President and gave the first inaugural address at Federal Hall in our nation’s capital at the time, New York City. Federal Hall is located on Wall Street and was the site of the first Congress, Supreme Court, and Executive Branch offices – it is today a museum to the birthplace of American Government (Federal Hall). The presidential oath would be administered by New York Chancellor Robert Livingston in Federal Hall. On that morning papers in the city announced the event with these words:
On the morning of the day on which our illustrious President will be invested with his office, the bells will ring at nine o’clock, when the people may go up to the house of God and in a solemn manner commit the new government, with its important train of consequences, to the holy protection and blessing of the Most high. An early hour is prudently fixed for this peculiar act of devotion and . . . is designed wholly for prayer
On a Federal Hall balcony in full view of the Senate and the multitudes present in the street below, George Washington stood in front of Robert Livingston, with Vice President John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Roger Sherman, John Jay and others in close attendance. At the center was a table with a red velvet cushion upon which was placed a King James Bible. The Bible was randomly opened to a later chapter of Genesis. Washington then placed his left hand on the open page, and took the Presidential Oath. He then bent over, kissed the Bible and proclaimed “so help me God”. Chancellor Livingston then shouted, “It is done!” (Wallbuilders).
President Washington then proceeded to give his inaugural address by opening with his own prayer to God:
Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station; it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe — who presides in the councils of nations — and whose providential aids can supply every human defect — that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge (Washington’s Inaugural Address of 1789).
Washington called on the country to remember the debt of gratitude this nation owed to God for His divine providence as each step of our founding seemed to occur as part of some Heavenly plan:
In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow citizens at large, less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency. And in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government, the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities, from which the event has resulted, cannot be compared with the means by which most governments have been established, without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage (Washington’s Inaugural Address of 1789).
“No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States.”
George Washington (Washington’s Inaugural Address of 1789)
President Washington then reached a critical moment, when he gave a covenant prophetic warning regarding a nation who meets the blessings of the Almighty with utter disregard for His Laws:
I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my Country can inspire: since there is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity: Since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven, can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained: And since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people (Washington’s Inaugural Address of 1789).
He then concluded with a recognition that God has favored the American people and that the success of government is dependent upon His divine blessing:
Having thus imparted to you my sentiments, as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign parent of the human race, in humble supplication that since he has been pleased to favour the American people, with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquility, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of Government, for the security of their Union, and the advancement of their happiness; so his divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend (Washington’s Inaugural Address of 1789).
From Federal Hall President Washington and both houses of Congress then walked to nearby St Paul’s Chapel in New York City “where Divine Service was performed by the chaplain of Congress” (Wallbuilders). It was at St Paul’s Chapel that our first President and entire governmental body knelt to pray and consecrate the newly formed nation to God. As his first official act, President Washington led the congregation in prayer at St. Paul’s Chapel. This was his prayer (American Freedom Museum: Washington Man of Prayer):
A PRAYER
by
GEORGE WASHINGTON
“Almighty God, We make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy Holy protection; and Thou wilt incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government; and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field. And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the Characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.“
(Washington’s Prayer for America as it appears on a plaque in St. Paul’s chapel, New York City)
From the wooden cross erected at Cape Henry, Virginia, by the first English colonists in 1607 to the Pilgrim settlement in Cape Cod and Mayflower Compact of 1620, the roots of the nation can be found in the Christian faith and desire for the advancement of the Gospel (Cape Henry: The Beginning of a Christian Nation) (von Buseck). With the covenant prayers and beseeching of God for blessing and protection, the inauguration of George Washington and subsequent gathering of the government at St. Paul’s Chapel in New York City can be seen as the capstone to the Christian founding of the nation. Like Israel of old, America was in covenant with God.
As such, it is not unjustified to view St Paul’s Chapel as the spiritual cornerstone for America.
On September 11, 2001 the twin towers of the World Trade Center would fall as Islamic terror came to the shores of this country. The attack of 911 was the worst terrorist attack in history…and marked the first time America suffered large-scale terrorist attacks on its own soil. America had finally experienced what the rest of the world had long endured. Just one block from ground zero in New York City stands St Paul’s Chapel.
It would be the only building at ground zero to suffer no damage in the attack of 911.
In Israel today, there is a mirror counterpart to 9-11. On 11-9 in the Hebrew Calendar falls the ninth of Av – the day of fasting to remember the destruction of the First and Second Jewish Temples. In a strange twist of fate, both temples were actually destroyed on the same day in history, the ninth of Av (and other sad events occurred on this day as well). The destruction of the Jewish temples came as part of God’s judgement against the land—and we have seen through the work of Jonathan Cahn that America is following a similar path. In Israel a rabbi pointed out that the 911 attack had now joined the U.S. and Israel in a “covenant of suffering” linking the destruction of the World Trade Center to the lost Jewish Temples –which are eerily referred to as Israel’s own “Twin Towers” (Berkowitz, 9-11: Israel And U.S. United In a Covenant of Suffering).
On 911, America would see the site of the nation’s first capital and location for the birthplace of American government struck by a foreign enemy. And most importantly, these were the grounds that witnessed George Washington’s covenant warning to our country. America – like Israel of old – had departed from its spiritual roots and turned from its covenant with God.
We can see God’s judgement at work in the U.S.; but hope remains, because in the aftermath of 911, St. Paul’s Cathedral—the symbol of our national covenant with God—was still standing at ground zero.
But we had received a powerful warning…but that would not be the last one.
Next – Chapter 8: The Return
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