THE BIBLE AND THE FOUNDING OF AMERICA

At a time when there was no Internet, no TV, no phones, no radio and no movies, the people of colonial America spent most of their leisure time reading, and they read the Bible more than any other book.

Indeed, in early America, the Bible was cherished and quoted far more than any other book. America’s founding generation found in the pages of the Bible its moral compass, its guide for ethics, and the lens through which it viewed and interpreted all of life.

From the beginning, the Bible was incorporated into all the learning of the schools in colonial America. For example, The New England Primer coupled Bible verses and Christian doctrine with the learning of the ABCs. The letter “A” was associated with “Adam” and the statement, “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.”  The letter “B” was associated with “Bible” and the phrase, “Thy life to mend, the Bible tend.” The letter “C” was associated with “Christ” and the phrase, “Christ crucified, for sinners died.”

The New England Primer became the most popular educational textbook in 17th century America, and the foundation of most primary education in the 18th century. Most of America’s Founding Fathers learned their ABCs from the New England Primer. And this commitment to a biblical orientation was true, not only of elementary education, but also of the first colleges founded in America.

Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and all the so-called Ivy League schools, were founded on biblical principles with a Christian worldview. For example, Harvard was founded in 1636 to train pastors and ministers. Its founding document references John 17:3 and declares that the purpose of the college is, “to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all knowledge and learning.”

A ten-year study to determine where America’s founders derived their ideas for America’s founding documents, found that they quoted the Bible far more than any other source (Hyatt, America's Reawakening, 67). It is, therefore, not surprising that when the first English Bible was printed in America in 1782, it carried a recommendation from Congress.

The publisher of this Bible, Robert Aitken, had written a letter to Congress in which he asked for that government body’s sanction of his work. In the letter, Aitken called this Bible, “a neat Edition of the Scriptures for the use in schools.”

Congress enthusiastically responded to his request by commending his work and declaring that they, “recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States and hereby authorize him to publish this recommendation in the manner he shall think proper” (Hyatt, America's Reawakening, 64).

America’s Founders considered the Bible to be the basis for the Constitutional Republic they brought into existence. John Adams, America’s 2nd president, wrote a letter to Benjamin Rush, another Founding Father and signer of the Declaration of Independence, in which he said,

The Bible contains the most profound philosophy, the most perfect morality, and the most refined policy that was ever conceived on earth. It is the most republican book in the world (Hyatt, America's Reawakening, 168).

With this sort of pervasive esteem for the Bible, no one was surprised when George Washington took the first presidential oath of office with his hand on a Bible. It was the American thing to do. This act showed his great respect for the Bible, for when someone swears an oath, they swear by something greater than themselves. For Washington and virtually every American, the Bible was the highest tangible authority by which he could swear to uphold and defend the Constitution.

Andrew Jackson, America’s seventh president, understood this prominent role of the Bible in the founding of America. In a conversation with a colleague, he gestured toward a Bible and declared, “That book, sir, is the rock on which our Republic rests.”

Ronald Reagan declared 1983 to be the “Year of the Bible” and to coincide with his proclamation, Newsweek, a secular magazine, carried an article entitled, “How the Bible Made America.” In this article, the authors correctly stated,

For 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 (Hyatt, 1726: The Year that Defined America, 7).

Yes, it was the Bible that made America great, and if America is ever going to be truly great again we must have a “Back to the Bible” Awakening, beginning with the churches of America. 

This article was derived from 1726: The Year that Defined America and America's Reawakening by Dr. Eddie L. Hyatt, and available from Amazon and his website at http://eddiehyatt.com.