Roger Sherman also successfully worked to have President Washington officially declare a national Thanksgiving Day holiday. His remarks were recorded in the Journals of Congress:

"Mr. Sherman justified the practice of thanksgiving, on any signal event, not only as a laudale one in itself, but as warranted by a number of precedents in Holy Writ: for instance, the solemn thanksgivings and rejoicings which took place in the time of Solomon, after the building of the temple, was a case in point. This example, he thought, worthy of Christian imitation on the present occasion." ³

In 1788, as a member of the White Haven Congregational Church, Roger Sherman was asked to use his expertise in revising the wording of their creed. In his own handwriting, he wrote the following:

"I believe that there is one only living and true God, existing in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the same in substance equal in power and glory.

"That the scriptures of the old and new testaments are a revelation from God, and a complete rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.

"That God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, so as thereby he is not the author or approver of sin.

"That he creates all things, and preserves and govern all creatures and all their actions, in a manner perfectly consistent with the freedom of will in moral agents, and the usefulness of means.

"That he made man at first perfectly holy, that the first man sinned, and as he was the public head of his posterity, they all became sinners in consequence of his first transgression, are wholly indisposed to that which is good and inclined to evil, and on account of sin are liable to all the miseries of this life, to death, and to the pains of hell forever.

"I believe that God having elected some of mankind to eternal life, did send his own Son to become man, die in the room and stead of sinners and thus to lay a foundation for the offer of pardon and salvation to all mankind, so as all may be saved who are willing to accept the gospel offer: also by his special grace and spirit, to regenerate, sanctify and enable to persevere in holiness, all who shall be saved; and to procure in consequence of their repentance and faith in himself their justification by virtue of his atonement as the only meritorious cause.

"I believe a visible church to be a congregation of those who make a credible profession of their faith in Christ, and obedience to him, joined by the bond of the covenant....

"I believe that the souls of believers are at their death made perfectly holy, and immediately taken to glory: that at the end of this world there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a final judgement of all mankind, when the righteous shall be publicly acquitted by Christ the Judge and admitted to everlasting life and glory, and the wicked be sentenced to everlasting punishment." 4   

¹ June 28, 1787.  James Madison, Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of l787 (1787; reprinted NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 1987), p. 210.  David Barton, The Myth of Separation (Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, 1991), p. 109.

² Christopher Collier, Roger Sherman's Connecticut (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1979), p. 129.  David Barton, The Myth of Separation (Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, 1991), p. 35, 122.

³ Annals of Congress, 1789-1791 (Washington, D.C: Gales & Seaton, 1834), Vol. I, p. 914.  David Barton, The Myth of Separation (Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, 1991), p. 114.

4 Lewis Henry Boutell, The Life of Roger Sherman (Chicago: A.C McClure & Co., 1896), pp. 272-273.  Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987), pp. 136-137.