(upbeat music)

- "The Bible is the Word of life."

"You will find it full of thethings you've wondered about

"and been troubled about all your life."

That's a quote from Woodrow Wilson,

and just one example of how the Bible

has influenced America's history.

Take a look.

(swooshing)

- [Narrator] Robert Morganis a Nashville pastor,

author, speaker, and alover of American history.

He believes that without the Bible,

our nation would nothave been born as it was.

- Had there been no Bible,there would be no America

as we know it.

- [Narrator] In his latest book,

"100 Bible Verses That Made America",

Pastor Morgan explainsthe vital connection

between God's Word and 100 keymoments in America's history.

- It's a wonderful book

and we welcome to the700 Club Robert Morgan.

It's good to have you with us.

- Thank you, Terry.

- Your new book is anambitious undertaking.

What inspired you to do this?

- Everybody, every othergroup is trying to have

their contributionsincluded in our textbooks

and their story written and rewritten,

sometimes in a revisionist way,

particularly secularists and other groups,

that may not be healthy for our children.

And at the same time, thetextbooks and the schools are

pushing out the genuinecontributions made by the Puritans

and the pilgrims and by Christiansall through our history.

And as much as they wannapush that material out,

I wanna push it right backin and let people know

about the role the Biblehas played in our history.

- Talk about that a little bit.

How pervasive is the Bible'sinfluence on America's history?

- Well, people are talking agreat deal now about Jamestown

and the introduction of slavery in 1619.

But they forget about thefact that the very next year,

1620, the Puritans came, the pilgrims came

and tens of thousands over thenext 20 or 30 years flooded

into Cape Cod and Boston andNew England and established

the basis for abolition, thebasis for civil liberties,

a desire for freedom ofspeech and set the stage

for the Judeo-Christian moralitythat has guided our nation.

And that became a tremendousforce against the slavery

that was introduced in 1619 bythe secularists in Jamestown.

The founding fathersknew and loved the Bible

and the Great Awakeningpaved the way for the

Revolutionary War and theDeclaration of Independence.

So much depends upon thepower of the Scripture

in our early days andthroughout our history.

- You talk about AbrahamLincoln in the book

and how he was influenced by the Bible.

He actually, as a young man was

at best, I would say, anagnostic and possibly atheistic

until he had his ownencounter with Christ.

- Yes, he was very

anti-Christian and anti-Biblical.

He, in fact, as a youngman, as an infidel,

he wrote a book attacking Christianity,

which a friend of hisburned, because he said,

"If this is ever published,then no one is ever going

"to vote for you."

But later, Lincoln found inhis father-in-law's library,

a book about apologetics,why it is that Christianity

can be demonstrated to be true.

And this book influenced him a great deal.

And then as he got into the White House

and into the tremendous burdens,

he turned increasingly to the Bible.

And the last words hespoke at Ford's Theater

were to his wife,

Mary Todd, and he said,"When this war is over

"and we're out of the WhiteHouse, let's travel abroad."

"Let's go to Jerusalem andsee where the Savior lived."

And at that moment the bullet struck him.

He moved from near atheism to a place

of loving the Bible andquoting it continually.

- Well, tell us a littlebit about the great moment

in history that took place onthat American transport ship,

the Dorchester.

- Well, this was during World War II.

It was in February, verycold weather, of 1942.

The Dorchester was amilitary transport ship

that was taking American troops to Europe.

And it was fired upon by a German torpedo

and many lives were lostas the ship went down

in that frigid water.

But there were four chaplains.

You know, Terry,chaplains have been a part

of the United States military

from Bunker Hill.

It was the Puritan preachers who advocated

freedom of religion, and theyjoined the fight as chaplains.

Well, there were fourchaplains, many centuries later,

on the Dorchester.

And as that ship wentdown, those chaplains gave

their life preservers,they gave their gloves,

they gave their coats,they gave even their shoes

to these men who were jumping overboard.

And the last time anybodyever saw these four chaplains,

they were going down with theship and they perished there.

And President Truman said,

"Greater love has no man than this,

"that he lay down hislife for his friends",

as he dedicated a memorial tothese four brave chaplains.

The chaplaincy of ourmilitary forces has been

a tremendous part of our heritage

with all of our branches of service.

- Our country is in such a divided

and crucial place right now.

It was encouraging tome as I read your book

to read about how it's happened before,

and there was spiritual restoration.

What do you want people totake away from your book

and remember about thefoundation of our country?

- We just can't go forward, Terry,

if we don't look backwards at the Bible

on which our nation was founded.

And we need a spiritual revival.

It was the Great Awakeningthat paved the way

for the American Revolution.

It was the Second GreatAwakening that established

the morality of America for 200 years.

And we need political helpand we need economic help,

but we need a revival.

We need another great awakening right now,

because our problems in our nation are not

primarily political, theyare primarily spiritual.

And God can heal us.

If he will revive us again,

then his people can rejoice in him.

- Well I wanna say the book

"100 Bible Verses That MadeAmerica" is an excellent place

to refresh your history of how the Bible

impacted our country.

It's available where books are sold.

Robert Morgan, thank you so much.

It's great to have you here today.