Articles - The Bible

  The national tradition of belief in God has been affirmed by the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in the book On Faith published posthumously in early 2019. In this article I am affirming a second national tradition that historically manifests public religiousness. It is belief in the Bible.

   The Syntopicon of Great Books of the Western World describes the Bible in the following: “One Book stands out from all the rest because in our tradition it is—as the use of ‘Bible’ for its proper name implies—the book about God and men” (2. 558, emp. added). Additionally, the same source characterizes the Bible as having “unparalleled” influence upon western culture (3. 589). More recently, during this decade, David Berlinski, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute in Seattle, and author of The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions, during an interview said the following: “The Old Testament is the greatest repository of human knowledge and wisdom in the history of civilization, anytime, any place . . . [an] enormously complex, rich, and dramatic piece of work.” Coming from one who claims to be a secular Jew, such a statement is of no little significance. Somewhat parallel to Berlinski’s assessment of the Old Testament is the description of the New Testament by the late McGeorge Bundy. A former Harvard academic dean and special assistant for national affairs to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, Bundy called the New Testament “the most powerful single volume you encounter” (Books that Made the Difference 62).

The sixth president of the United States, John Quincy Adams, wrote some remarkable letters to one of his sons while the boy was attending school in Massachusetts. Nine of the letters were published in 1848 in a book titled Letters of John Quincy Adams to His Son on the Bible and Its Teaching. In Letter II, Adams says, “There are three points of doctrine, the belief of which, forms the foundation of all morality. The first is, the existence of a God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is, a future state of rewards and punishments.” Adams continued “Suppose it possible for a man to disbelieve either of these articles of faith, and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of the tiger or the shark; the laws of man may bind him in chains, or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy” (22-23).

Used book sales often are the source of some great treasurers purchased at minimal prices. Such was the case when I made a visit to an annual Fall book sale that uncovered several good finds including one titled, Books that Made the Difference, a twenty year old study conducted by a husband-wife team, Gordon and Patricia Sabine, both university journalism professors. The Sabine’s travelled the country and interviewed some 1,400 Americans with regard to two questions: (1) What book made the greatest difference in your life? (2) What was the difference? The results of 200 of these interview were then published under the above title in a book sponsored by The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

Robert Milligan, while President of The College of the Bible in Kentucky University, wrote a book in 1867 titled Reason and Revelation. In the Introduction, Milligan wrote,

    It is painful to see the popular indifference that is everywhere manifested for the Word of God. I do not mean to say, with some, that this indifference is increasing; or that it is even as great now as it was a hundred years ago. I am fully persuaded that it is not. Indeed, I feel entirely confident, that the Holy Scriptures had never before so great an influence over the masses of mankind as they have at present. But, nevertheless, their influence is very little in comparison with what it ought to be. Very few persons seem to believe the Bible with their whole hearts. And hence but few tremble at its solemn precepts and warnings. . . . (xi, emp. added)

    While discussing the qualifications of the Bible student, Milligan states that the first moral qualification of the Bible student is “a profound reverence for the Bible. . . . [I]n all cases, and under all circumstances, we should approach the Bible as we would approach its Divine Author” (382).