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by Jerry Newcombe, New American Prophet, ©2024

Rev. John Witherspoon, unknown American painter (public domain)

(Jun. 14, 2024) — This year happens to be the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the first Congress (then known as the Continental Congress). Its first session opened in prayer. And Congress has opened each session in prayer since then.

But earlier this year, the prayer opening the 118th Congress caused quite a stir. Among other things, the preacher dared to pray in the name of Jesus.

On January 30, 2024, at the request of Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson, Pastor Jack Hibbs of California, opened Congress in prayer. But he didn’t pray “To Whom It May Concern,” and many on the left blew a gasket.

26 members of Congress, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Muslim, objected to Speaker Johnson for inviting Jack Hibbs to speak. By inviting Hibbs, Speaker Johnson was guilty, said the Congresspersons, of using “the platform of the Guest Chaplain to lend the imprimatur of Congress to an ill-qualified hate preacher who shares the Speaker’s Christian Nationalist agenda and his antipathy toward church-state separation.” One wishes they could get equally furious about the flood of illegal immigration or the frightening rise of antisemitism in America.

Jack Hibbs is the pastor of Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, California, and author of Living in the Daze of Deception.

I interviewed him for a radio segment recently about this prayer incident. He told me that about two-thirds of his controversial prayer were based on historical phrases coming from those who founded the country: “I just borrowed from our history, and they couldn’t take that.”

For example, an historical source Hibbs borrowed from in his prayer was Rev. John Witherspoon, who served in the Continental Congress as a delegate from New Jersey.

Witherspoon, the president of Princeton, was the founding father who educated so many other founding fathers about a Biblical perspective on government. One of his star pupils was James Madison, a key architect of the Constitution.

Another historical source Pastor Hibbs drew from was Rev. Jacob Duché. Duché offered the first prayer in the first official opening of the first Continental Congress. That day was September 7, 1774. And this took place in Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia.

The day before, some of the founders huddled together to discuss how they should open the first official day of their proceedings. Should they open in prayer? That was a long-standing tradition. Some of those present, including professing Christians, thought it might be unwise since men from the different Christian denominations represented prayed in slightly different ways.

But Samuel Adams, a Congregationalist from Massachusetts, stood up and persuaded them to hold prayer. His distant cousin, John Adams, tells what happened: “Mr. Samuel Adams arose and said that he was no bigot, and could hear a Prayer from any gentleman of Piety and virtue, who was at the same time a friend to his Country.” Having heard good things about the Anglican Rev. Duché, Sam Adams recommended he lead the opening prayer. They agreed to this.

Read the rest here.