It wasn't John Adams saying that, he was quoting someone he heard. This is the full context: "One Evening, as I satt in one Room, I overheard Company of the Common sort of People in another, conversing upon serious subjects. One of them, whom I afterwards found upon Enquiry to be a reputable, religious Man, was more eloquent than the rest-he was upon the Danger of despizing and neglecting serious Things. Said whatever Person or People made light of them would soon find themselves terribly mistaken. At length I heard these Words -- "it appears to me the eternal son of God is operating Powerfully against the British Nation for their treating lightly serious Things."" David Barton does this a lot where he massively rips the words of context to make them seem like they were actual Christians whereas in reality many of them were Deists who rejected the divinity of Christ and liked some parts of the Bible but viewed other parts to be Jewish fantastical myths and superstitions.
