Billy Graham's Famous American Birthday Message Rings True 56 Years Later

(PENSACOLA) --- In God We Trust.

That was the ultimate message in America’s favorite Preacher Billy Graham’s 1970 July 4 address in Washington, D.C.

The famous and reverent “The Unfinished Dream” address emphasized humanity’s need for God’s guidance in that hour of history. 250 years ago today, George Washington placed his life and his troops' lives in the hands of the Creator for the sake of freedom from royal rule.

In the fourth day of the week-long "America 250" series, OpGov.News recalls Washington's whereabouts exactly 250 years ago, when his fight became a firm foundation for the 13 colonies to stand.

(Photo: MountVernon.org)

Citing John Adams, Graham reiterated America’s first vice president:

“Who (Adams) wrote Statesmen may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone upon which freedom can securely stand,” Graham said. “John Adams continued, 'A Patriot must be a religious man.’”

Graham told the audience that the Declaration of Independence reflects the feelings of men to whom religious faith was all-important.

“There was not an atheist or agnostic among the 56 who signed that declaration,” Graham said.

Granted, “some of them were deists,” according to the preacher, who noted that “only some believed in a Supreme Being but did not believe in Jesus Christ.”

However, they all “bowed his head in prayer” before they signed, Graham added.

“The Declaration’s giant step was being taken with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,” Graham said. “In declaring themselves free, they were assuming a separate and equal station to which the laws of God entitled them.”

(Photo Credit: Billy Graham Evangelical Association website)

Graham goes on to say, “Such expressions were not mere polite suggestions to God; they were the firm commitment to the principle that God must be central to any form of government.”

Then the famous preacher ends by asking a question that still applies today in this hour of history.

“Because they signed that document, some of those men were captured and hanged, some were stripped of their possessions, some were jailed,” Graham said before a reverent pause, asking, “At another hour of America's crisis, do we have that kind of courage?” and “Would you be willing to sign?”