The Bible and America's Presidents

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I was privileged to be a guest again on the “American Sunrise” program of “Real America’s Voice.” The topic was a new report in the Christian Post about how Bible readership goes up among those facing crises. That makes sense. It’s like the old saying that there are no atheists in foxholes.

The interesting thing about Bible reading and America is how strongly influential the Scriptures were during the nation’s settling and founding eras. Consider just how the Book of books impacted some of America’s presidents alone. It helped provide moral clarity for their difficult task of governing the nation.

· George Washington, the first president under the Constitution, referred to “the blessed religion revealed in the Word of God.” Peter Lillback with Jerry Newcombe, George Washington’s Sacred Fire, 2006, 2026) contains an Appendix, which documents scores of examples of “Representative Biblical Quotations and Allusions Used by George Washington.” Clearly, the father of our country was a regular reader of the Bible and also the 1662 Anglican Book of Common Prayer, which is loaded with Scripture. I like to say that if you had cut the man, he would have bled Scripture.

John Adams said, “The Bible is the best Book in the world. It contains more philosophy than all the libraries I have seen.”
Thomas Jefferson said: “Of all the systems of morality ancient or modern, which have come under my observation, none appear to me so pure as that of Jesus.” Of course, this is found in the Gospels in the Bible.
James Madison noted: “Whilst we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, to profess and to observe the Religion which we believe to be of divine origin, we cannot deny an equal freedom to those whose minds have not yet yielded to the evidence which has convinced us. If this freedom be abused, it is an offence against God, not against man: To God, therefore, not to man, must an account of it be rendered.” [emphasis added]
John Quincy Adams wrote his son: “Let us, then, search the Scriptures….The Bible contains the revelation of the will of God….I have myself, for many years, made it a practice to read through the Bible once every year.”
Andrew Jackson remarked (in reference to the Bible): “That book, sir, is the rock on which our republic rests.”
Abraham Lincoln, U.S. President during the American Civil War, stated: “In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, I believe the Bible is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Saviour gave to the world was communicated through this Book. But for this Book we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man’s welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it.”
Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War Union general and 18th president of the United States, observed: “The Bible is the sheet-anchor of our liberties.”
James Garfield wrote: "It pains my heart to see the ignorance and bigotry that is abroad in the land. I wish that men would let all human traditions alone and take the Bible alone for their guide."
Theodore Roosevelt remarked: “A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.”
In the 1920s, John Calvin Coolidge wrote, “Sometimes it seems as though a popular familiarity with the Scriptures is not as great at the present time as it has been in the past in American life. The foundations of our society and our Government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings should cease to be practically universal in our country.”
For all the members of the Armed Forces, Franklin Delano Roosevelt distributed copies of the New Testament or, for Jewish military personnel, excerpts from the Old Testament. He wrote a foreword page for these little books: “Throughout the centuries, men of many faiths and diverse origins have found in the Sacred Book words of wisdom, counsel and inspiration.”
Ronald Reagan observed, “I’ve found that the Bible contains an answer to just about everything and every problem that confronts us, and I wonder sometimes why we won’t recognize that one book could solve a lot of problems for us.”
George W. Bush noted, "I read the Bible every day during my presidency."

Reading the Scriptures is profitable to those who take the time to read and study it, and if time permits, to memorize helpful verses. If anyone thinks they may be too busy to read the Holy Bible, consider another admonition from Teddy Roosevelt: “If a man is not familiar with the Bible, he has suffered a loss which he had better make all possible haste to correct.”

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Jerry Newcombe, D.Min., is the executive director of the Providence Forum, an outreach of Coral Ridge Ministries. He has written/co-written 36 books, including George Washington’s Sacred Fire (with Providence Forum founder Peter Lillback, Ph.D.) and What If Jesus Had Never Been Born? (with D. James Kennedy, Ph.D.).

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