Bible Knowledge Necessary to Understand America

Powerline links to a great article on Weekly Standard entitled, Bible Illiteracy In America.

The article begins by asking a very long question about what inspired so many American leaders to believe so strongly in the destiny of our country......

Here is a basic question about America that ought to be on page 1 of every history book: What made the nation's Founders so sure they were onto something big? America today is the most powerful nation on earth, most powerful in all history--and a model the whole world imitates. What made them so sure?--the settlers and colonists, the Founding Fathers and all the generations that intervened before America emerged as a world power in the 20th century? What made them so certain that America would become a light of the world, the shining city on a hill? What made John Adams say, in 1765, "Ialways consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence"? What made Abraham Lincoln call America (in 1862, in the middle of a ruinous civil war) "the last, best hope of earth"?

The author of the article, David Gelernter, then gives an answer...

Many things made all these Americans and proto-Americans sure; and to some extent they were merely guessing and hoping. But one thing above all made them true prophets. They read the Bible. Winthrop, Adams, Lincoln, and thousands of others found a good destiny in the Bible and made it their own.

Read the article. And teach what it says to your children. Pass a copy on to a high school teacher that you know. Ask them to comment on it. How will be ever be "a shining city on a hill" unless we know what "a shining city on a hill" is!

Oh, by the way.....when you are finished reading the article, take a few minutes and read something in the Bible, too!