As the National Bible Association, our main concern is the well being of our country. We want to encourage America to read the Bible, because we believe that the Bible has played a large role in making America great, and we need to retain a serious knowledge of the Bible in order to remain a great nation.
One way to show the influence the Bible has had upon our nation is to let our leaders speak. In their own words, the founders and forgers and keepers of our nation’s greatness give testimony to the importance of the Bible to the United States.
John Adams Diary entry on 2/22/1756:
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! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love and reverence toward Almighty God
€¦What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be.
John Quincy Adams,
In Sept., 1811 in a letter to his son from St. Petersburg Russia, while serving for the second time as an ambassador to that country wrote:
I have myself, for many years, made it a practice to read through the Bible once every year
€¦ My custom is, to read four to five chapters every morning immediately after rising from my bed. It employs about an hour of my time
€¦
Zachary Taylor
Feb. 21, 1849:
I accept with gratitude and pleasure your gift of this inestimable Volume. It was for the love of the truths of this great Book that our fathers abandoned their native shores for the wilderness. Animated by its lofty principles they toiled and suffered till the desert blossomed as a rose.
The same truths sustained them in their resolutions to become a free nation; and guided by the wisdom of this Book they founded a government under which we have grown .
€¦ If there were in that Book nothing but its great precept, “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them,” and if that precept were obeyed, our government might extend over the whole Continent.
President Abraham Lincoln from a address in Baltimore, acknowledging the Bible they had presented Him (1864):
I believe the Bible is the best gift God has given to man. All the good 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 wrote on June 6, 1876:
Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet anchor of your liberties; write its precepts in your hearts, and practice them in your lives. To the influence of the Book are we indebted for all the progress made in true civilization, and to this must we look as our guide in the future. “Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people.”
William McKinley, Inaugural Address, 3/4/1897
The more profoundly we study this wonderful Book, and the more closely we observe its divine precepts, the better citizens we will become and the higher will be our destiny as a nation.
President Theodore Roosevelt said in 1909:
[It is my]
€¦ great joy and glory that, in occupying an exalted position in the nation, I am enabled, to preach the practical moralities of the Bible to my fellow-countrymen and to hold up Christ as the hope and Savior of the world.
Woodrow Wilson said in 1911:
The Bible. . .is the one supreme source of revelation of the meaning of life, the nature of God and spiritual nature and needs of men. It is the only guide of life which really leads the spirit in the way of peach and salvation.
Calvin Coolidge said in 1923:
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 would cease to be practically universal in our country.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote on January 25, 1941:
I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States. Throughout the centuries men of many faiths and diverse origins have found in the Sacred Book words of wisdom, counsel and inspiration. It is a fountain of strength and now, as always, an aid in attaining the highest aspirations of the human soul.
Herbert Hoover said in 1943:
Democracy is the outgrowth of the religious conviction of the sacredness of every human life. On the religious side, its highest embodiment is the Bible; on the political side, the Constitution.
President Dwight David Eisenhower said in 1954:
The purpose of a devout and united people was set forth in the pages of The Bible
€¦(1) to live in freedom (2) to work in a prosperous land
€¦and (3) to obey the commandments of God
€¦This Biblical story of the Promised land inspired the founders of America. It continues to inspire us
€¦
On October 9th, 1963, just six weeks before his assassination, President Kennedy wrote:
One of America’s greatest strengths is the unity we achieve through diversity. The Bible has served as a symbol of this unity by virtue of its appeal to Americans of every faith, creed and color; for, in perusing its sacred pages, we are constantly reminded of our common bonds.
In his National Bible Week statement of 1970, President Richard Nixon said:
In this decade when we are more than ever called upon to turn our hands and hearts to assisting those in our country for whom our general prosperity is still a distant dream, it is well that we refresh our spirits and fortify our resolves by reading the Holy Scripture.
President Jimmy Carter, in a letter from the White House in 1978 wrote:
Speaking from firsthand experience for myself and all my family, I know what a difference Bible reading can make in inspiring confidence, stability, reassurance, and courage to deal with the challenges of everyday living.
Ronald Reagan on 10/4/82 designated 1983 as the Year of the Bible
€“ Resolution Public Law 97-280:
WHEREAS the Bible, the Word of God, has made a unique contribution in shaping the United States as a distinctive and blessed nation and people;
WHEREAS deeply held religious convictions springing from the Holy Scriptures led to the early settlement of our Nation;
WHEREAS Biblical teachings inspired concepts of civil government that are contained in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States;
WHEREAS many of our great national leaders
€“ among them Presidents Washington, Jackson, Lincoln, and Wilson
€“ paid tribute to the surpassing influence of the Bible in our country’s development, as in the words of President Jackson that the Bible is “the Rock on which our Republic rests”;
WHEREAS the history of our Nation clearly illustrates the value of voluntarily applying the teachings of the Scriptures in the lives of individuals, families, and societies;
WHEREAS this Nation now faces great challenges that will test the Nation as it has never been tested before; and
WHEREAS that renewing our knowledge of and faith in God through Holy Scripture can strengthen us as a nation and a people:
NOW, THEREFORE, be it
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the president is authorized and requested to designate 1983 as a nations “Year of the Bible” in recognition of both the formative influence the Bible has been for our Nation, and our national need to study and apply the teachings of the Holy Scriptures.
In a Statement recognizing National Bible Week 1996, President Bill Clinton wrote:
The Bible has guided Americans for generations, helping to shape and define our nation’s direction and character. It’s words enlighten, challenge, and inspire us, providing the grace and courage we need to sustain us in the most difficult times. Let us turn to the Bible often, seeking to apply its words to our daily lives.
In his National Bible Week statement of 2004, President George W. Bush wrote:
Throughout our history, the teachings of the Bible have helped shape the character of our Nation. In the Holy Scriptures, we find important and timeless lessons about serving others, compassion, and love. People across our country continue to witness the transformational power of God’s word and to be strengthened by its message of boundless blessings and mercy.
The Providence Forum (www.providenceforum.org) is devoted to guarding the memory of our nation’s roots in the Judeo-Christian principles of the Bible. We thank the Providence Forum’s Founder and President, Peter Lillback, for compiling this brief sample of our national leaders speaking in their own words about the importance of the Bible to our nation.