How the Founding of America paved the way for the Restoration

Our worship service is called Sacrament Meeting.  There we sing hymns, join in prayer, partake of the sacrament (bread and water), conduct church business, and listen to talks that members of the ward have been assigned.  I was assigned a talk that I presented this morning.  The assignment was to speak on "How the founding of America paved the way for the Restoration". 

As I was researching for this talk the last couple of weeks, I have come to realize how fascinating the topic really is.  I will share with you a few ideas and quotes that I shared in my talk and then give you a link for the talk in its entirety.  

The Lord was intimately involved in the establishment of America.

President Joseph F. Smith said, "This great American nation the Almighty raised up by the power of His omnipotent hand, that it might be possible in the latter days for the kingdom of God to be established in the earth." 

America was discovered, colonized, and established by individuals and groups prepared, raised up, and inspired by God.

Columbus, the Puritans, and later colonizers who came to the land of America were all brought here by the hand of the Lord.

"A contemplation of the complete attainment, at a period earlier than could be expected, of the objects for which we contended against so formidable a power, cannot but inspire us with astonishment and gratitude.  The disadvantageous circumstances on our part under which the war was undertaken can never be forgotten.  The singular interpositions of Providence in our feeble condition were such as could scarcely escape the attention of the most unobserving, while the unparalleled perseverance of the armies of the United States through almost every possible suffering and discouragement for the space of eight years was little short of a standing miracle."

 -George Washington in his farewell orders to the colonial army in 1783.

Prayer at Valley Forge by Arnold Friberg

Doctrine and Covenants Section 101: verse 80 "And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood."

"I hold the precepts of Jesus, as delivered by himself, to be the most pure, benevolent, and sublime which have ever been preached to man.  I adhere to the principles of the first age; and consider all subsequent innovations as corruptions of this religion, having no foundation in what came from him...If the freedom of religion, guaranteed to us by law in theory, can ever rise in practice under the overbearing inquisition of public opinion, truth will prevail over fanaticism, and the genuine doctrines of Jesus, so long perverted by his pseudo-priests, will again be restored to their original purity.  This reformation will advance with the other improvements of the human mind, but too late for me to witness it."

-Thomas Jefferson, November 4, 1820

Click here for the complete talk.