FOX News political commentator  Bill O’Reilly created considerable controversy last week when he suggested that Christians shouldn’t use the Bible when attempting to influence the debate over gay marriage.  The popular Fox News Analyst sides with many liberal politicians and media pundits who conclude the Bible has nothing to do with civil law.  If we want to influence public policy we should base our arguments on facts, reason and persuasive discussion and not refer to the Scriptures at all. Anyone who quotes the Bible is considered a callow “Bible Thumper” and is quickly dismissed as one who has little understanding of what the American system is all about.

Therefore, Christians shouldn’t bring up the Scripture when seeking to influence public policy.  We should base our arguments on facts, reason and persuasive discussion.  Anyone who quotes the Bible is considered an uninformed “Bible Thumper” and is quickly dismissed as one who has little understanding of what the American system is all about.

Really?  How then do we determine right from wrong?  Fluctuating personal feelings?  Contradictory experts?  Majority opinion?  From Noah’s day to Nazi Germany public opinion has been proven dead wrong.  J. Vernon McGee suggested that majority opinion sometimes means you have a lot of fools in one place!

Folks, we are being duped.  To take the Bible out of the discussion is to remove our strongest argument (see Hebrews 4:12 below) and to reduce the public discourse to flawed human reasoning.  The Apostle Paul warned that when men reject God, “…their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:21-22).

The Bible has been the source of virtue and the basis for establishing moral standards from the very beginning of this country.  That’s one of the primary reasons America has been blessed.  Don’t believe me?  Read the following quotes and note how far we’ve fallen to the point where today, “every man is doing what is right in his own eyes.”

1787 Benjamin Franklin  “I’ve lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God governs in the affairs of men.  If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?  We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that “except the Lord build the House they labor in vain who build it.”  I firmly believe this, and I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.”

1821 John Quincy Adams (6th President)  “The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity… From the day of the Declaration…they were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of the gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledged as the rules of their conduct”.

1833 Noah Webster  “…the religion which has introduced civil liberty, is the religion of Christ and His apostles…This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free constitutions of government…the moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all of our civil constitutions and laws.”

1836 William McGuffey published the first edition of the “McGuffey’s Reader.”  Between 1836 and 1920, 122 million copies sold.  Millions of American children learn to read and write from that reader.  In his forward McGuffey wrote: “The Christian religion is the religion of our country.  From it are derived our prevalent notions of the character of God, the great moral governor of the universe.  On its doctrines are founded the peculiarities of our free institutions.”

1845 President Andrew Jackson asserted: “The Bible is the rock on which our Republic rests.”

1861 President Abraham Lincoln, “In regard to this Great Book (The Bible), I have but to say, it is the best gift God had given to man.  All the good The Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book.  But for it, we would not know right from wrong.  All things most desirable for man’s welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it.”

1909 President Theodore Roosevelt  “…(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.”

1913 President Woodrow Wilson:  “America was born to exemplify the devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the Holy Scriptures.”

1929 President Calvin Coolidge 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.

October 4, 1982 President Reagan designates 1983 as a National “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.”

President Woodrow Wilson was one of America’s more liberal presidents.  Yet he wrote in the early 1900’s, “A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do.”  America was born a Christian nation.  America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of the Holy Scriptures.” 

Someone is sure to counter with the tired mantra of Separation of Church and state.  “We can’t mix religion and government” they insist.  In 1985 Associate Justice William Rehnquist (U.S. Supreme Court) wrote, “It is impossible to build sound constitutional doctrine upon a mistaken understanding of Constitutional history…The establishment clause has been expressly freighted with Jefferson’s misleading metaphor for nearly forty years…There is simply no historical foundation for the proposition that the framers intended to build a wall of separation (between church and state)…The recent court decisions are in no way based on either the language or intent of the framers.”

For over two centuries the Bible provided a common consensus for right and wrong in America.  Unless we repent and return to a reverence for God and His Word we will perish.  I believe our window of opportunity is closing rapidly.  It’s time for preachers and church leaders to be strong and courageous and stand firm on the eternal truth of God’s Word.

“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:12-13).