America needs the Bible more than ever. Thankfully, at the Museum of the Bible last week, they had various leaders read through the whole book. Even the president participated.
Two months before it happened, I wrote about it, calling it “An Ambitious Bible Reading Plan.”
AmericaReadsTheBible.com explains their vision: “In honor of the 250th birthday of the United States, America Reads the Bible serves as a spiritual celebration of our nation’s founding ideals and a call to rediscover the truth that still anchors us today.”
Just as in the Bible days, when the Scriptures were read, revival would often break out, the organizers of America Reads the Bible desire the same outcome. Bunni Pounds, head of Christians Engaged, is the chief organizer of this unique event, which was livestreamed through PureFlix.com.
Many faith leaders read from the Scriptures. As noted, even the president participated with a few short verses. As the Bible-reading website noted: “As part of America Reads the Bible, President Trump read 2 Chronicles 7:11-22 – a powerful call for a nation to humble itself, pray, and return to God.”
The United States of America has greatly benefited from the Holy Bible. When Ronald Reagan was president, the federal government declared 1983 as “The Year of the Bible.”
On the eve of that year-long celebration, Newsweek had a cover story (Dec. 27, 1982) on the Bible and its impact on America. The magazine wrote: “[F]or centuries [the Bible] has exerted an unrivaled influence on American culture, politics and social life. Now historians are discovering that the Bible, perhaps even more than the Constitution, is our founding document: the source of the powerful myth of the United States as a special, sacred nation, a people called by God to establish a model society, a beacon to the world.”
I wouldn’t call it a myth. But the Bible as “our founding document” makes sense to me.
Later, TIME magazine had a cover story, “Whatever Happened to Ethics,” which included an article, “Looking to Its Roots” (May 25, 1987). The article indirectly paid homage to the Bible’s influence on the founding of our nation: “Ours is the only country deliberately founded on a good idea. That good idea combines a commitment to man’s inalienable rights with the Calvinist belief in an ultimate moral right and sinful man’s obligation to do good. These articles of faith, embodied in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution, literally govern our lives today.”
Many people today are not biblically literate, so even if they read writings of early Americans, they may not see that the Bible (in particular the King James Version) contributed heavily to the prose, concepts and institutions of the nation in the first few centuries.
The Bible was the No. 1 book, found in virtually every home. The No. 2 book was “Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan, which is completely based on the Bible.
The settlers and the founders of our nation knew the Scriptures. For example, George Washington, the father of our country, knew the Bible well and phrases from its pages flow into his writings and speeches. Public and private statements drip with phraseology from the Bible.
Dr. Peter Lillback and I have an entire Appendix on this in our book, “George Washington’s Sacred Fire” (Providence Forum, 2006). Here are just a few (among dozens of) examples: “measure of iniquity,” “edict of Pharaoh – bricks without straw,” “Lord of Hosts,” “the Lord gives and takes,” “Lord and Ruler of Nations,” etc.
Our first president’s favorite Bible verse is Micah 4:4. “But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.”
Washington cited this verse in whole or in part more than 40 times. He saw this as a metaphor for America. He even cites this verse in some of the encouraging letters he wrote to Jewish assemblies – such as Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island. He was grateful that here in America, “there shall be none to make them afraid,” including Jews, who have often been persecuted.
Our 16th president clearly read the Bible. Like George Washington, if you cut him, it is as if Abraham Lincoln also would bleed Scriptures.
Don’t tell the ACLU, but there are at least three Bible verses from his Second Inaugural Address chiseled in stone at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
One of our great icons is the Liberty Bell. It has a Bible verse on it. “Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof” (Leviticus 25:10).
And we could go on and on. Perhaps President Andrew Jackson summed it all up the best: The Bible is “the rock upon which our republic rests.” Kudos to Bunni Pounds and her team at Christians Engaged for organizing this event, America Reads the Bible. We need more Bible, not less.
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