Influence-of-the-Bible

**By: David Barton** Quotes of Founders: Our Founders were clear on establishing the nation based on Judeo-Christian principles as they were influenced by the Great Awakening. There are numerous quotes, but below or three:
 * Influence of the Bible**
 * Patrick Henry: Toward the end of his life, he reportedly read his Bible for hours at a time. He once said to a neighbor: //"This book is worth all the books that ever were printed, and it has been my misfortune that I never found time to read it with the proper attention and feeling till lately. I trust in the mercy of heaven that it is not too late."//
 * Noah Webster: The Bible is the chief moral cause of all that is good and the best corrector of all that is evil in human society; the best book for regulating the temporal [secular] concerns of men.
 * Benjamin Rush: "The Bible . . . should be read in our schools in preference to all other books from its containing the greatest portion of that kind of knowledge which is calculated to produce private and public happiness."

1620s/1630s à The Pilgrims and Puritans came with the Geneva Bible (the one book they came with); it was a favorite Bible to those persecuted for beliefs and became the most popular Bible of that time; it’s often shown in paintings of the Pilgrims; the Geneva Bible came out of the Reformation when challenges were made to the church; the American Revolution would challenge the divine right of kings.
 * Many in the old world thought kings were biblical (there were kings over Israel); God sent Samuel, though, to warn, but the people still demanded a king; so what did God prefer before kings? In Exodus, the people were told to choose leaders over 1000s, 100s, 50s, and 10s…aka…a republic à Exodus 18:21
 * Early colonists soon established representative governments; Mayflower Compact established self-government.
 * The Geneva Bible was distinct from others in that it had commentaries on how to apply Scripture; the Pilgrims spent several hours a day in the Scriptures; to them, the Bible was for practical day to day living.
 * Two of the 10 commandments deal with private property – Not to covet and not to steal; kings at that time thought they owned the world and land…the Pilgrims knew better and purchased land from Indians around them (also done by Roger Williams in RI, Thomas Hooker in CT, and William Penn in PA).
 * Slavery – when slaves were brought up to Massachusetts, the slave ship’s officers were arrested and the slaves freed and sent back home. Teachings from Acts 17:26 and Revelation 7:9 that all were equal.
 * Social policy – Pilgrims first tried socialism…having all things in common; didn’t take long for lazy to like that system and result was non-productivity; so they went to the Bible: 1 Timothy 5:8 and 2 Thessalonians 3:10
 * They changed their thinking and then their policy. They experienced firsthand how socialism, the redistribution of wealth from those who have to those who don't, leads to more poverty, because there is no incentive to work hard and earn more if the rewards for your labor are just taken from you and given to those not working.
 * Kings didn’t embrace the Geneva Bible, such as George III which challenged the divine right of kings; B. Franklin pointed out that most kings would be like Pharaoh; Kings wouldn’t support something that says they have too much power; the King James Bible was approved by the king and took away the commentaries that the Geneva Bible had.

1647 – desire for public education – one of first laws and wanted to prevent atrocities that existed in Europe over religion and felt reason was illiteracy…so they wanted the populace to be literate and especially biblically literate; they felt if people could read and read the Word of God for themselves, then they would resist evil government (feeling that most atrocities in the past especially over religion was because the commoner was biblically illiterate).
 * Old Deluder Satan Act – in Massachusetts, declared that Satan tried to keep men from the Scriptures so each township would appoint one in their town to teach their children to write and read leading with the Bible; once a town reached 100 families, a grammar school would be set up à Public education originally intended to have children know the Scriptures.
 * Original intent of 1st amendment was to keep the federal government from mandating a certain denomination for the whole nation; separation of church and state is very much misused today (came from Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists). The full history will be covered under the Constitution.

1690 – four decades later there was fears that there were still some illiterate children in the colonies; Connecticut passed an illiteracy law that said it was concerned illiteracy meant a child couldn’t read the Word of God and therefore know good law – feeling that if people didn’t know Scripture then people couldn’t prevent bad law.
 * New England Primer – first textbook; published in 1690; started with phonics – letters and syllables to make words; then, the rhyming alphabet that uses the alphabet with Bible concepts; then letters with lessons for people – letter with a verse; in the back there are over 100 questions for students including questions on the Ten Commandments and questions on how Christ executes various offices including a 1st grade question “What are the benefits which in this life do accompany flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?”

1776 – writings of Declaration came from John Locke specifically his Second Treatise of Government in which Locke refers to the Bible over 1,500 times when discussing proper government. This shows that our very founding document the gave the philosophy to what this America was to be all about was largely influenced by biblical principles.

1781-83 – end of the Revolution; 1781, won at Yorktown and surrender of Cornwallis – America now an independent nation; in 1781 the Congress authorized printing the Bible, which was forbidden by the British – 20,000 were printed in 1782…called the Bible of the Revolution. There had been Bible printed in other languages including Native as the British wouldn’t allow printing in English. In 1782, the first English printed Bible is what took place.
 * In 1783 when a treaty was being signed, Washington resigned his commission as Commander-in-Chief of the army…sent circular letter to all 13 governors in it offering his prayer for God’s protection and goes on to say the example God gave us is what is needed to be a happy nation. He said we need to be like Christ when he said the “Divine Author of our religion.”
 * Sept. 8, 1783 – Treaty of Paris (1783) opened with recognition of God (“In the name of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity”).

1787 – year of Constitutional Convention Judeo-Christian principles and commentaries within the Geneva Bible had led the thinking of the early colonists and that carried over to our Founding Fathers. Above are just a handful of biblical references that I Founders used when framing our Constitution. Our Founders (as well as most in America at the time) were very much biblically literate and looked to invoke Scripture in their own lives.
 * June 28, 1787 Franklin gave one of the longest speeches after major arguments and inability to reach agreements; Franklin said we should seek God…citing how there was daily prayer while fighting the war and asks “have we now forgotten that powerful Friend” and that “God governs in the affairs of men” and “if a sparrow doesn’t fall to the ground without His notice is it possible for an empire to rise without His aid?” He suggested prayer every morning…which was agreed upon.
 * In a study a 1,500 writings from the founding era with the goal of finding the sources of all of the quotes so origin of their ideas could be determined…3,154 direct quotations were identified and documented…single most cited authority was the Bible…34% almost 4 times higher than the second most quoted source.
 * Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances because Jeremiah 17:9 knowing that man was depraved and therefore power needed checked.
 * Uniformed immigration laws and Leviticus 19:34 – uniform rule for immigration (Article 1 Section 8) since Leviticus says to.
 * Natural born citizen provision for president – Deuteronomy 17:15 – appoint from among own brethren, not a foreigner
 * Article 3 Section 3 provision for witnesses for capital punishment with Deuteronomy 17:6 – testimony of 2 or 3 witnesses to be put to death.
 * Article 3 Section 3 provision not to punish whole family or descendants for acts of one – Ezekiel 18:20.
 * Isaiah 33:22 gives us our branches of government
 * Ezra 7:24 – tax exemptions to churches that our Founders gave and are still there today.
 * Exodus 18:21 – idea of republic form of government at each level of government.
 * John Adams – “//The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence, were … the general principles of Christianity, in which all those sects were united, and the general principles of English and American liberty, in which all those young men united, and which had united all parties in America, in majorities sufficient to assert and maintain her independence//.“

1791 – Benjamin Rush started a Sunday School movement to use the Bible to teach people to read; he was already a famous educator; called Father of Public Schools under the Constitution; favored education of women and slaves; wrote a book on why the Bible should be the primary textbook in our schools…gave a dozen reasons.
 * “//But passing by all other considerations, and contemplating merely the political institutions of the United States, I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them. We profess to be republicans, and yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government; that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible; for this divine book, above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and all those sober and frugal virtues which constitute the soul of republicanism.//”
 * James Wilson – signer of Declaration and Constitution; on first Supreme Court; taught law school and wrote first legal textbook for law students; said law should rest on divine law…God’s law or divine law is the basis of good civil law and is contained in the Bible.
 * Fisher Ames – one of the framers of the Bill of Rights and proposed the final wording of the 1st amendment as written; in 1801 he supported of putting moral books into the hands of students but warned that time being spent on new books might lead to less time on the Bible and so wanted the Bible to regain its prominence as the major school book.

1809 – Benjamin Rush helped form the first Bible Society; over the next several years over 100 new Bible societies developed; James McHenry with the Baltimore Bible Society was a Founder who said without the Bible we increase penal laws in vain.

1828 and 1833 – Noah Webster was a founding father as well as an educator writing several textbooks; his been known as the “Schoolmaster to America;” in 1828 he published his Dictionary of the English Language; the Bible impacted his dictionary – in order to show the context of the words, he used the words in a sentence…high percentage of examples were Bible verses à for example, he gave a definition of “man” and then gave sentences using “man” – used Gen. 1:26, Gen. 6:3, Job 14:1, Matthew 4:4, 1 Corinthians 10:13; another example was that he defined the word “heart” and then gave sentences using “heart” – Jeremiah 17:9
 * This religious content has been removed from Webster’s Dictionaries today.
 * In 1833, another work was his revision of the English Bible – updated some of the words (in the front, he put which words he updated).

1844 – Daniel Webster was a 2nd generation statesman who argued an important case before the Supreme Court; the case dealt with a school in Philadelphia that wouldn’t allow ministers on the campus; this prevented religious instruction in the school; Webster made arguments from the Bible and his arguments that he made were even published; Webster argued from Matthew 19:14 when Jesus said let the little children come unto Me that American schools should go by this; he opposed any instruction that wouldn’t allow religious instruction; in a unanimous decision the Supreme Court ruled Webster was right and religious instruction was necessary in schools.
 * Affirmed use of Bible in school…meant to preserve the Bible as important to education.
 * Joseph Story wrote the Court’s opinion: “ // Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament, without note or comment, be read and taught as a divine revelation in the college - its general precepts expounded, its evidences explained, and its glorious principles of morality inculcated? What is there to prevent a work, not sectarian, upon the general evidences of Christianity, from being read and taught in the college by lay-teachers? ...[W]here can the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly or so perfectly as from the New Testament? Where are benevolence, the love of truth, sobriety, and industry, so powerfully and irresistibly inculcated as in the sacred volume? // ”
 * Daniel Webster was known for his oratory skills in debating in Congress. He believed that to be a good orator, one had to read the Bible out loud, which he did. There’s record of people coming to D.C. just to stand outside Webster’s office and hear him read the Bible.

1848 – work written by John Quincy Adams; letter to his son on the Bible and its teachings; he recommended diligent study of the Bible and how to use what was studied; the letters were put into a book so that others could use information. Adams read the Bible to gain wisdom and virtue and urged that to his son.

1892 – the 400th anniversary of Columbus Day; international celebration in Chicago; public school officials said if education didn’t use the Bible, teach principles of Christianity, or daily worship of God then the nation would be better off if the church got all education control back.
 * The National Education Association (NEA) was founded in 1892. The following statement appeared in their published record: "…if the study of the Bible is to be excluded from all state schools; if the inculcation of the principles of Christianity is to have no place in the daily program; if the worship of God is to form no part of the general exercises of these public elementary schools; then the good of the state would be better served by restoring all schools to church control."

1947 – textbooks on Old Testament and New Testament and many had them as graduation requirements.

Some final quotes:
 * John Jay – “ The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts.”
 * John Adams – ” Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited...What a Utopia; what a Paradise would this region be.”
 * Noah Webster – quote from a textbook he wrote in 1832 for schools; “ The brief exposition of the constitution of the United States, will unfold to young persons the principles of republican government; and it is the sincere desire of the writer that our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament or the Christian religion.”
 * Important to know the Bible, but also to follow its precepts – “ All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.”

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