November 24, 2016
A Thanksgiving Proclamation
On September 25, 1789, Elias Boudinot, a US Representative from New Jersey, introduced in the House of Representatives a resolution that President George Washington proclaim a day of “public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God. . .”
Washington declared November 26 as a Day of Thanksgiving!
But an annual Thanksgiving day wasn’t celebrated until 1942, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made the holiday the fourth Thursday in November. In his proclamation he quoted Psalm 92:1, ”It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.”
Presidential Thanksgiving proclamations have been popular throughout American history, with many of the presidential proclamations containing references from the Bible!
Engage with the Bible—in its ongoing impact and influence!