George Washington Baptized by Baptist Army Chaplain John Gano; 42 Witnesses; Hudson River, 1783

EJP hosts epic historian and Brother-in-Christ Professor Arthur Bowser on the true Christian faith and life of George Washington.

Baptist Chaplain John Gano Baptizing George Washington, Hudson River, 1781

The following article came from this webpage:

http://drjamesgalyon.wordpress.com/2008/06/16/john-gano-evangelist-calvinist-baptist/

John Gano: Evangelist, Calvinist, Baptist

John Gano, a contemporary of Isaac Backus, served both as a pastor and as an itinerant evangelist in New England, the Middle Colonies and the South.  David Benedict comments that as an itinerant evangelist, Gano was “inferior to none… unless it were the renowned Whitefield.”  Gano had extensive evangelistic experience both as an itinerant and as a pastor.  His initial ministry experience came when he accompanied Benjamin Miller and John Thomas, who were responding to a request made for assistance by a pair of Virginia churches to the Philadelphia Association.  On this journey the young evangelist had the opportunity to preach.  Taking Romans 10:3 as his text, he preached with power and several people were converted.  This embarkment led to several preaching invitations for the novitiate.

In 1755 the Charleston Association authorized Oliver Hart, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Charleston, to secure the services of a missionary.  This missionary was to be sent to the destitute parts of that colony and to its neighboring provinces.  Gano received the appointment and began his career as an evangelist.  The resulting missionary tour at the Jersey Settlement on the banks of the Yadkin River was very successful.  Henry C. Vedder notes this “was the beginning of that work of evangelization to which the subsequent rapid progress of Baptists was made.”

Gano’s subsequent pastoral ministry included stops in New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, but the bulk of it was spent serving the First Baptist Church of New York City.   First Baptist was constituted in 1762 with 27 members.  Under Gano’s leadership and evangelistic zeal, the membership grew to 132 in five years.  The War of Independence suspended the ministry of the church, as it did many other congregations.  Disbanded in 1777, the congregation did not reconvene until 1784.  When the church reopened its doors, the members who made their way in—noticeably smaller in number than seven years earlier—found that their facilities had been damaged by the British troops who had used them as a stable.  [The Union troops of the North would do the same to Southern Churches in the South!]  The ravages of war had not only wreaked havoc to the structure of the church building but had also depleted the congregation of well over half of its members. Nevertheless, Gano penned the circular letter on behalf of the Philadelphia Association with a hopeful tone.  He wrote to the affiliate churches:

We trust, you will unite your efforts with ours, to the same good purpose; and that our thanksgivings for the present peace, harmony, and increase of our churches, our prayers for their further growth, with a more powerful effusion of the Divine Spirit and grace upon them, will be mutually offered up.  May the consideration of our effectual calling prove an incentive thereunto!  Which is the subject now to be considered, as in the tenth chapter of our Confession of faith…. This is an act of sovereign grace, which flows from the everlasting love of God, and is such an irresistible impression made by the Holy Spirit upon a human soul, as to effect a blessed change….

We are to consider who are the called.  They are such as God hath chosen and predestinated both to grace and glory, elected and set apart in Christ, as redeemed by his blood….

The changes produced are from darkness to light, from bondage to liberty, from alienation and estrangedness to Christ to a state of nearness and fellowship with him and his saints….

This is an holy calling, and is effectual to produce the exercise of holiness in the heart, even as the saints are created in Christ Jesus unto good works.

Samuel Waldo, moderator for the association, and William Verndon, its clerk, signed the letter by order of the association.  Gano remained with the New York congregation only four more years; yet in that brief span he baptized 125 individuals and the total membership of the church grew to 192.

Richard Furman, who served as the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Charleston, and as the first president of the Triennial Convention, stated the doctrines Gano “embraced were those which are contained in the Baptist Confession of Faith, and are commonly styled Calvinistick [sic].”  Furman described the evangelistic preaching of Gano, observing, “The careless and irreverent were suddenly arrested, and stood in awe before him; and the insensible were made to feel, when he asserted and maintained the honour of his God.”  It was under such searching preaching by Gano and others that A.H. Newman says a “large proportion” of General Baptists in Virginia “felt… for the very first time they understood what conversion meant.”  Leon McBeth declares Gano “must be ranked as one of the most outstanding Baptist leaders in early America” because his preaching abilities, his evangelistic zeal, and his appointment as an associational missionary helped “turn scattered Baptist churches of America into a denomination.”

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Here is what J. T. Headley wrote of Gano in The Chaplains and Clergy of the Revolution (1864) on page 264-265; 271-272:

“On another occasion he was standing near some soldiers who were disputing respecting whose duty it was to cut wood for one of the came fires.  At length one exclaimed in an angry manner, ‘I’ll be d—–d if I will do it.’  Soon after finding he must, he took up the axe to perform it.  Gano immediately stepped forward, and reaching out his hand, said, ‘Give me the axe.’  ‘Oh no,’ replied the soldier, ‘the chaplain shan’t cut the wood.’  ‘Yes, but I must.’  ‘Why?’ said the soldier in surprise.  ‘Because I just heard you say you would be d—–d if you would cut it, and I had rather do it for you than that you should be made imserable forever.’  The longest homily on the guilt of profanity would not have produced half the effect on the soldiers that this indirect rebuke did. . . .”

“Mr. Gano returned to New bury, where the army erected huts to live in during the winter, andone lafger than the reast for a place of public worship on the Sabbath.  Here three services a day were held, the chaplains from each brigade preaching in rotation.

“Thus passed the winter, while rumors of peace filled the land with hope and delight.  In the spring the British evacuated New York, and Gano returned to the city, to find his house dilapidated and plundered.  His scattered congregation, such as were living, soon returned, and he settled down once more to his pastoral labors.  He continued here for some time, but attracted by representations made to him of the growing state of Kentucky, and hoping to relieve himself from debt which he saw no way of canceling in his present position, he removed thither in 1781 [just after Gano had baptized George Washington by immersion in the Hudson River while encamped at Newburgh], much to the disappointment and regret of his church.  He settled near Frankfort, where he died in 1804, in the seventy-fifth year of his hag.  A fall from his horse in 1798, followed by a paralytic chock, rendered him a cripple the last six years of his life, but he never ceased his labors—sometimes preaching while lying on his back.  Calm and resigned, he saw death approach without a terror, and to a friend who asked him if he wanted to go home and be with Christ, he faintly, sweetly answered, ‘Yes.’ This was the last utterance of his lips on earth, and the Christian and patriot passed to that better land reserved for the people of God.

“True to his country, true to his high office, true to his God, he went through the trying scenes of the Revolution, and through life honored, respected and loved by all who knew him, and now sleeps with those whose names are inscribed in the hearts of their countrymen.”

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Of Gano baptizing George Washington we read from Dr. William P. Grady’s tome How Satan Turned America Against God (2005) on pages 150-153:

“Citing The Baptism of George Washington, as recorded in the archives of the First Baptist Church of New York, Dr. E. Wayne Thompson writes:

‘Daniel Gano, one of Gano’s sons and a captain of the artillery, was present and said that he, with about forty officers and men, accompanied the chaplain down to the Hudson River where the Reverend John Gano baptized George Washington.’

“Dr. James Norwood, a former associate pastor of Dr. J. Frank Norris, cites from A History of the First Baptist Church in the City of New York by I. M. Haldemann:

‘While in camp at Newburgh [near the Hudson River, 1781], General Washington requested Patsor Gano to baptize him according to the Scriptures.  He did so immersing him in believer’s baptism, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.’

“With the onset of the Washington Bicentennial, a number of secular historians began to question the well-established tradition, citing an absence of ‘official’ documentation.  In an attempt to ‘convince the gainsayers,’ Dr Lemuel Call Barnes, a respected Baptist historian, devoted thirty-five years to the question, ‘Was General George Washington baptized by Chaplain John Gano?’  He notes:

‘Washington said that many things about his life could be known only by tradition.  He took costly pains for the preservation of his personal writings [his letters subsequently burned by Tobias Lear V after he murdered the General via the poison cup!], leaving us “over 400″ manuscript volumes. . . . Yet he said to a correspondent:

“Notwithstanding that most of the papers, which perhaps may be deemed official, are preserved; yet the knowledge of innumerable things of a more delicate and secret nature is confined to the perishable remembrance of some few of the present generation.”

“Dr. Barnes writes (with regard to what I believe to be the crowning achievement of his unpublished, 180-page manuscript),

‘At my request, grandchildren of the chaplain put the certainty of their childhood teaching into affidavits.’

“After contacting several Gano descendants, I discovered that the priceless documents had been lost to the family for decades.  My own investigation turned up nothing.  Then, in May of 2002, my friend and colleague, Pastor James Beller, informed me that he had found the missing affidavits in the archives of the Samuel Colgate Historical Library, Rochester, New York!  Two months later, I had the priviledge of personally reviewing these amazing handwritten papers.  Two notarized testimonies read as follows:

‘I am the grandson of Rev. John Gano, now in my eighty-third year, and the brother of Mrs. Margaret Ewing.  I was raised from my fifth year to manhood by Mrs. Margaret Hubbell (nee Gano).  I have heard her say that her father baptized (immersed) George Washington.

‘S. F. Gano, M.D.

‘Subscribed and sworn to in my presence this 16th day of August, 1889.

‘Stephen Gano Long, Notary Public, State of Kentucky

‘To whom it may concern: I, Margaret Ewing (nee Gano) aged 90 years last May, being of sound mind and memory, make this statement:  I have often heard my aunt Margaret Hubbell (nee Gano), the elderdaughter of Rev. John Gano, say that her father told her that he baptized General George Washington, at Valley Forge, to the best of my recollection.  She, Mrs. Hubbell, also said that General Washington, for prudent reasons did not desire that his baptism should be made public.  Rev. John Gano was a Chaplain in the Revolutionary War and an intimate personal friend of General Washington.

‘Margaret Ewing

‘Subscribed and sworn to in my presence this 16th day of August, 1889.

‘Stephen G. Long, Notary Public, State of Kentucky’

“That a ninety-year-old Christian widow would employ the innocent qualifier ‘to the best of my recollection’ when suggesting Valley Forge as the baptismal site (as opposed to Newburg) is refreshingly disarming of suspicion.

“In 1908, Rev. E. T. Sanford of Manhattan’s North Church commissioned a painting of Gano baptizing Washington.  The historical masterpiece was originally placed in the Baptist church at Asbury, New Jersey, where it hung until Mrs. Elizabeth Johnston, John Gano’s great-granddaughter, presented it to William Jewell College, Liberty, Missouri, in 1926.  (Time magazine named the former Baptist school as its choice for Liberal Arts College in the year in 2001.) . . .

“In the lobby of the John Gano Chapel (underneath the painting of Washington’s baptism), an encased sword is prominently featured.  A commemorative plaque reads:

‘The Sword’

‘In 1996, Margaret Gano Redpath, the great, great, great, great granddaughter of John Gano offered William Jewell College the family sword.  George Washington had received it from the Marquis de Lafayette; in turn, he bestowed it on John Gano, the first chaplain of the Continental Army.  History records George Washington gave the sword to John Gano after he baptized Washington in the Potomac [in fact, the Hudson River].’ . . .

“Pastor Beller renders the following profound observation in his book, America in Crimson Red:

‘George Washington presented that battle sword, given to him by Lafayette to his Baptist chaplain, John Gano.  Let us not take this gesture of kindness too lightly, for a commanding officer knows exactly the ramifications of surrendering his sword. . . . The author will leave the reader to ponder the full thrust of its meaning.  However, “a word fitly spoken” is in order at this juncture of our narrative.

‘It is the contention of this author that Washington knew the symbols he was leaving to posterity:  He was breaking the baptism of the established church-state monstrosity by submitting to believer’s baptism.  He further demonstrated, to the best of his ability, his deferment to the victor of the second state of the war, the spiritual stage.  This deferment was not to John Gano personally, but to the Bible and the belief system he so profoundly represented.  He placed the symbol of victory and the final break with England, and in essence, Rome, in the hands of a Bible believing, baptized preacher of the Gospel.

‘To the baptized believers, looking back through the leaves of history, the meaning of the baptism and the sword ought to be clear—America is not under the baptism of England, or Europe or Rome.  America’s baptism has no earthly headquarters.‘”

The End

Ezra Stiles, Congregationalist Minister and President of Yale College, 1783

AV1611 Reformation Bible-believing, Congregationalist Calvinist Ezra Stiles was in fact one of the principle men behind the Founding Fathers of the American Federal Republic sent from Connecticut and Rhode Island.  That glorious American Republic (1789-1868), born out of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant and Baptist Calvinist American Revolution beginning at Lexington and ending with the Treaty of Paris (1775-1783), would, according to our man of God, develop a huge maritime commerce.  That commercial blessing from God would in turn be the means by which the gospel of Jesus Christ would be taken to all nations.  Stiles, the President of Yale College, spoke these several words about our great White Founding Father, George Washington, in a sermon delivered in 1783:

“And while we render our supreme honors to the Most High, the God of armies, let us recollect with affectionate honor the bold and brave sons of freedom who willingly offered themselves and bled in the defense of their country.  Our fellow citizens, the officers and soldiers of the patriot army, who, with the Manlys, the Joneses, and other gallant commanders and brave seamen of the American navy, have heroically fought the war by sea and by land, merit of their once bleeding but now triumphant country laurels, crowns, rewards, and the highest honors.  Never was the profession of arms used with more glory, or in a better cause, since the days of Joshua the son of Nun.  O Washington!  How do I love thy name!  How have I often adored and blessed thy God for creating and forming thee the great ornament of humankind!   Upheld and protected by the Omnipotent, by the Lord of hosts, thou hast been sustained and carried through one of the most arduous and most important wars in all history.  The world and posterity will with admiration contemplate thy deliberate, cool, and stable judgment, thy virtues, thy valor, and heroic achievements, as far surpassing those of a Cyrus, whom the world loved and adored.  The sound of thy fame shall go out into all the earth, and extend to distant ages.  Thou hast convinced the world of the beauty of virtue; for in thee this beauty shines with distinguished luster.   Those who would not recognize any beauty in virtue in the world beside, will yet reverence it in thee.  There is a glory in thy disinterested benevolence which the greatest characters would purchase, if possible, at the expense of worlds, and which may excite indeed their emulation, but cannot be felt by the venal great, who think everything, even virtue and true glory, may be bought and sold, and trace our every action to motives terminating in self–

“Find virtue local, all relation scorn;

See all in self, and but for self be born.”

(Dunciad, b. 4, p. 480.)

But thou, O Washington!  Forgottest thyself when thou lovedst thy bleeding country.  Not all the gold of Ophir, nor a world filled with rubies and diamonds, could effect or purchase the sublime and noble feelings of thine heart in that single self-moved act when thou renouncedst the rewards of generalship, and heroically tookest upon thyself the dangerous as well as arduous office of our generalissimo, and this at a solemn moment, when thou didst deliberately cast the die for the dubious, the very dubious alternative of a gibbet or a triumphal arch.  But, beloved, enshielded, and blessed by the great Melchisedec–the King of righteousness as well as peace–thou hast triumphed gloriously.  Such has been thy military wisdom in the struggles of this arduous conflict–such the noble rectitude, amiableness, and mansuetude of thy character–something is there so singularly glorious and venerable thrown by Heaven about thee–that not only does thy country love thee, but our very enemies stop the madness of their fire in full volley, stop the illiberality of their slander at thy name, as if rebuked from Heaven with a “Touch not mine anointed, and do my hero no harm!”   Thy fame is of sweeter perfume than Arabian spices in the gardens of Persia.   A Baron de Steuben shall waft its fragrance to the monarch of Prussia; a Marquis de Lafayette shall waft it to a far greater monarch, and diffuse thy renown throughout Europe; listening angels shall catch the odor, waft it to heaven, and perfume the universe.

And, now that our warfare is ended, do thou, O man of God, greatly beloved of the Most High, permit a humble minister of the blessed Jesus—who, though at a distance, has vigilantly accompanied thee through every stage of thy military progress, has watched thine every movement and danger with a heartfelt anxiety and solicitude, and, with the most sincere and earnest wishes for thy safety and success, has not ceased day nor night to pray for thee, and to commend thee and thy army to God—condescend to permit him to express his most cordial congratulations, and to share in the triumphs of thy bosom, on this great and joyous occasion.  We thank the Lord of Hosts that has given His servant to see His desire upon His enemies, and peace on Israel.  And when thou shalt now at length retire from the fatigues of nine laborious campaigns to the tranquil enjoyment, to the sweetness and serenity of domestic life, may you never meet the fate of that ornament of arms and of humanity, the great Belisarius, but may a crown of universal love and gratitude, of universal admiration, and of the universal reverence and honor of thy saved country, rest and flourish upon the head of its veteran general and glorious defender, until, by the divine Jesus whom thou hast loved and adored, and of whose holy religion thou art not ashamed, thou shalt be translated from a world of war to a world of peace, liberty, and eternal triumph!”

Stiles also addresses several important topics worthy of review!

To read most of the sermon preached before the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut on May 8, 1783, see this link.

Washington Crossing the Delaware River, Accompanied by Baptist Chaplain, Captain John Gano, December 25, 1776

“General Washington’s personal appearance was in harmony with his character; it was a model of manly strength and beauty.  He was about six feet two inches in height, and his person well proportioned,—in the earlier part of life rather spare, and never too stout for active and graceful movement.  The complexion inclined to the florid; the eyes were blue and remarkable far apart; a profusion of brown hair was drawn back from the forehead, highly powdered according to the fashion of the day, and gathered in a bag behind.  He was scrupulously neat in his dress, and while in camp, though he habitually left his tent at sunrise, he was usually dressed for the day.  His strength strength of arm, and his skill and grace as a horseman, have been already mentioned.  His power of endurance was great, and there were occasions, as at the retreat from Long Island and the battle of Princeton, when he was scarcely out of his saddle for two days.  Punctilious in his observances of the courtesies of society as practiced in his day, he was accustomed, down to the period of his inauguration as President, at the balls given in his honor, to take part in a minuet or a country-dance.  His dairy uniformly records, sometimes with amusing exactness, the precise number of ladies present at the assemblies, at which he was received at his tours through the Union.  His general manner in large societies, though eminently courteous, was marked by a certain military reserve.  In smaller companies he was easy and affable, but not talkative.  He was frequently cheered into gayety, at his fireside, by the contagious merriment of the young and happy, but also relapsed into a thoughtful mood, moving his lips, but uttering no audible sound.

Washington’s religious impressions were in harmony with the rest of his character,—deep, rational and practical.  On this topic, our remaining space admits of little more than a reference to the interesting article on this subject in the fourth section of the appendix to Mr. Sparks’s twelfth volume.  Washington was brought up in the Episcopal communion, and was a member of the vestry of two churches.  He was at all times a regular attendant on public worship, and an occasional partaker of the communion; and is believed habitually to have begun the day with the reading of the Scriptures [the AV1611 English Reformation Bible] and prayer in his closet.  His private correspondence, his general orders, and his public acts of all kinds contain devout recognitions of a divine Providence in the government of the world [as did Oliver Cromwell], and his whole life bears witness to the influence of a prevailing sense of religious responsibility.  In his last moments he breathed a truly pious spirit of resignation.  In his own affecting words, he died ‘hard,’ but he was ‘not afraid to go.’ Though prevented, by the rapid progress of his disease, and the almost total obstruction of the vocal organs [our dear George was strangling to death via a poison cup!], from expressing his feelings, he manifested to the last the submission of a sincere Christian to the will of the great Disposer. . . .

In the final contemplation of his character, we shall not hesitate to pronounce Washington, of all men that have ever lived, THE GREATEST OF GOOD MEN AND THE BEST OF GREAT MEN.”

[Emphasis added in Bold]

Edward Everett, The Life of George Washington, (New York: Sheldon and Company, 1860), pp. 258-263.

The the maxims of the Declaration of Independence of 1776 is reviewed; King George III and his Hanoverian Hessian mercenaries is covered along with Frederick the Great’s taxation of said mercs while passing through his kingdom.  Washington’s response to the disrespectful British General Howe is remarkably wonderful!

The honest and upright life of George Washington is noticed along with his skills as a military commander.

North Carolina Declaration of Independence of 1775 is covered along with the introduction of the wonderful Father of the Federal Republic of the United States (1787-1868), General George Washington

The reading of Ridpath’s Universal History is continued.  The virtue of George Washington, the Father of our once most blessed, White Anglo-Saxon-Celtic, Protestant and Baptist-Calvinist, Federal Republic of these United States of America (1787-1868), is touched upon.  Without the White Protestant United Netherlands, there is no White Protestant United States of America!  Bible-believing Ethan Allen orders the commander of Ticonderoga to “Surrender this fort instantly in the name of Jehovah and the Continental Congress!”

The link at the end of this article properly concludes that George Washington, the Father of the Av1611 Reformation English Bible-based, Theocratic, Protestant and Baptist-Calvinist, Federal Republic of these United States of America (1787-1868), was a low-level, generally inactive, American Freemason.  Washington was an enemy of the Illuminati as stated by himself in a notorious letter written in the 1790s.  Washington stated that the Illuminati had not infiltrated American Freemasonry in his day, and thus, being merely an association of American patriots—many of which were Protestants (unfortunately)—he gave his hearty approval.  Washington did not consider Freemasonry a religion (thus ignorant of its occult essence) and regarded it merely as a gentleman’s club for American patriots who were also anti-papacy—not anti-Roman Catholic people.  Washington’s boy general, the Marquis de Lafayette, was a French Roman Catholic who hated the Jesuit Order and warned of its threat to the American Republic, yet he also was a low-level Freemason.  At this epoch in time, Freemasonry, due to the First Great Masonic Schism of 1753, was God’s means of expelling the Jesuit Order first from Roman Catholic Portugal, then Roman Catholic France and finally Roman Catholic Spain—wrought by the hand of Roman Catholic-Freemasonic advisers to the Roman Catholic kings of these countries.

Washington was not the Roman Catholic Freemason portrayed to be by P. D. Stuart in his Codeword Barbelon.  Washington was not the Freemasonic conspirator portrayed in Jesuit Temporal Coadjutor F. Tupper Saussy’s Rulers of Evil.  Apparently, it is now the quest of the Order to paint our beloved George Washington with the brush of Freemasonic fanaticism, that he was some sort of a “supermason,” that he was merely the creature of the Jesuit Order—then suppressed by Pope Clement XIV in 1773 who was subsequently poisoned—and that the America he founded was merely a Jesuit Republic subject to the Black Pope.  These are all lies and will be dealt with over time through a series of articles on our heaven-sent, bold and brave, Baptist-Calvinist winner of the Protestant American Revolution and First President of the late, great, Federal Republic of these United States of America (1787-1868), George Washington.

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The Baptism of George Washington in the Hudson River by his favorite chaplain, Baptist-Calvinist Pastor and Army Captain John Gano, 1783

That the reader may have a better understanding of the exchange, Greg believes George Washington was a Freemasonic Jesuit Temporal Coadjutor during the American Revolution; after the Revolution when presiding at the Constitutional Convention; and during his two terms as president of the United States of America (1789-1797).  Greg holds this position, along with John Daniel, F. Tupper Saussy and other authors of note while EJP believes Washington was a low-level American Freemason, a Baptist-Calvininst having no ties whatsoever to the Order’s Bavarian Illuminati.  This subject is of great concern for the Reformation AV1611 Bible-believing patriot; for, if Washington was an agent of the Order then underground due to its suppression by the Pope, the federal government from its inception was under the secret control of the Company via its Illuminati then seeking to re-unite a divided Freemasonry.  If Washington was not an agent of the Order via Illuminized Freemasonry, then the federal government was not a creation of the Society of Jesus—just as the Constitution reflects in its separation of powers legislative, executive and judicial.  For the absolute separation of powers flies in the face of Jesuit absolutism be it in the form of socialist-communism, socialist-fascism, radical socialist democracy, socialist Labor Zionism as well as Islamic Sharia Law.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAi7_Q6Ss0E&feature=related

Greg

Lower level politicians and clergy would of course join freemasonry thinking it was a wholesome and good organization.  They still do.

However, men like Washington had to know what was going on “Behind the Scenes.” As you know, history can be twisted.  Let’s keep unraveling the Jesuit ball of twine and see what we find.

Greg