This week, I want us to examine the thinking of some of our most important Founding Fathers and Presidents in regard to the place that the Bible has influence in the governing of our nation. The period of the first 150 years of our country’s founding is significant because the foundation was being laid for the building of a nation.
Our nation, America, was conceived in the thoughts and hearts of our Founding Fathers and expressed in our great documents of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights. These great documents contain many direct references to scripture and its nuances. The Judeo-Christian Bible was the most consulted book that our Founding Fathers and our current leaders used in seeking to build a great Nation.
In light of the decline monetarily (excessive debt), morally (myriads of assaults on God-given sexuality and fidelity in marriage), and violence in our streets…it is important that we reflect on our decline and ask the simple question, “How did we get here?”
Well, when we stray from the blueprint (the Bible) and seek to build apart from the clear guidelines laid out for nation-building in the scriptures, we create a culture of confusion, a society of no morals, no clear right or wrong. That is where we have drifted, too, since we have severed the chords of faith from government in the name of individual rights over clear truths of nature and nature God.
Two important scriptures speak to us of God being involved in the blessing of Nations. Psalm 33:12 states: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,” and Proverbs 14:34 says: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”
Let’s examine a few quotes in regard to the place and importance of the Bible and Prayer in the minds and lives of some of our most influential leaders.
“It is impossible to Govern the World without God and the Bible.” George Washington
“We have staked the whole future of American civilization not on the power of government, far from it. We have staked the whole of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the commandments of God. The future and success of America is not in the Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which the Constitution is founded.”James Madison
“ The first and almost the only book deserving of universal attention is the Bible. I speak as a man of the world..and I say to you, “Search the Scriptures.” John Quincy Adams
“That book, sir, is the Rock upon which our Republic rests.” Andrew Jackson
“ In regard for this Great Book, I have this to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good Savior gave to the world was communicated through this Book.”
Abraham Lincoln
“ Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet anchor of your liberties, write its precepts in your hearts, and practice them in you lives. To the influence of this book are we indebted for all the progress made in true civilization, and to this we must look as our guide to the future.” Ulysses S. Grant
“ If you take out or your statutes, your constitution, your family life all that is taken form the Sacred Book, what would be left to bind society together? Benjamin Harrison
“ We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic. Where we have been the truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts, we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity.” Franklin Roosevelt.
“Inside the Bible’s pages lie all the answers to all the problems man has ever known…It is my firm belief that the enduring values presented in its pages have a great meaning for each of us and for our nation. The Bible can touch our hearts, order our minds, and refresh our souls.” Ronald Regan
“The rights of man came not from the generosity of the state but from the had of God.” John F. Kennedy
There are of course hundreds of quotes from famous leaders conveying the importance of the Bible in our culture for the good of all society. If you have never taken the time to read the Bible, (even if you are not a person of religious persuasion), I would encourage you to examine this amazing book…in the words of Hebert Hoover, “The study of the Bible is a post-graduate course in the richest library of human experience.”
Until next week….
Allen
