Why April 30th ?
On April 30, 1789 America's first President, George Washington, took the oath of office, humbly adding "so help me, God" to the oath. After a short inaugural address in which he honored God's miracles in bringing the United States of America into being, President Washington then led members of Congress to a nearby church where they kneeled and again humbly honored the Living God for His Hand in the creation of the United States of America.
Excerpts from President Washington's short inaugural address on April 30 show His humble devotion to God: " 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: " 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."
April 30 was also a key date in America's destiny during the Civil War.
During that terrible war President Lincoln three times called on God's Help, following Scripture, for a "National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer."
The April 30, 1863 Proclamation speaks to us today:
Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation;
And whereas, it is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truths announced in the Holy Scriptures, and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord;
And, inasmuch as we know that, by his divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God, we have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
God answered that April 30 Day of Repentance, bringing that horrific war to a close.
April 30 was also the Day called for in 1974 by Senator Mark Hatfield, given the national scandal of Watergate.
A devout Christian, the Senator called on God's Solution, 2 Chronicles 7: 13-14, using the very words President Lincoln used in 1863. The Senate Resolution passed unanimously, but was never adopted by the House of Representatives. The National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer was not held on April 30, 1974.
There have been days of national prayer each year, but no other call for National Repentance has been issued from Congress or the White House since 1974!!
Thus at the grassroots in America, it's time for:
America Kneels on April 30, 2024,
And every April 30th thereafter until the Lord returns.
It's time for believers in the Living God to follow His Word, delivered first to King Solomon, and now to us in 2 Chronicles 7: 13-14: " When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
The assignment on April 30 is very simple. Spend time alone, or together with others, humbly confessing to our Helper, the Holy Spirit, your sins, and then, exercising your free will, turn from them, thereby cleansing that much more, becoming more holy as He calls us to be holy.
God willing, He will then hear from heaven, forgive our sins and heal our land.
This year - we are again joining hands with Global Day of Repentance for April 30th, together with a Zoom meeting @ 12noon EST.
For more information - Please visit Global Day of Repentance
*** AMEN ***
BY HIS EXCELLENCY
ABRAHAM LINCOLN,
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!
A PROCLAMATION
For a Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer.
Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation;
And whereas, it is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truths announced in the Holy Scriptures, and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord;
And, inasmuch as we know that, by his divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God, we have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do by this proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all people to abstain from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope, authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President,
William H. Seward, Sec’y of State.