- [Narrator] Robert Morgan isa Nashville pastor, author,

speaker, and a lover 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.

- Well please welcome Robert Morgan,

and I've got to commend you on this book.

I absolutely think it's marvelous

and I think everyone shouldget an opportunity to read it.

But I'll lead with this.

Why do you believe it's critical

for all Americans to know this history?

- We need to go back toour roots as a nation.

You know, when a plant iscut off from its roots,

it's very hard for that plantor that flower to flourish.

And the roots of our nation are grounded

in biblical principles.

Our forefathers knew the Bible.

They quoted the Bible endlessly.

And when you go back to colonial history,

it is filled with the Scripture,

and this became a very good foundation

for the building of a nation.

It's very unique.

It's what really makesAmerica exceptional,

is the nature of the biblical beginnings

and heritage of our country.

- Well what was the FoundingFathers' view on the Bible?

You know, we hear a lot of what I'll call

revisionist history about this

and, you know, how manywere deists or nonbelievers,

and Thomas Jefferson had hisown Bible without the miracles

and Ben Franklin wasn'texactly a Christian.

What was their view of Scripture?

- Well, all of them knewthe Scripture very well.

Not all of them wereChristians, but even those

like Ethan Allen and ThomasPayne, who were anti-Christian,

they thoroughly knew the Bibleand they actually respected

the ethical teachings of the Bible.

George Washington, to me,clearly was a Christian.

John and Samuel Adams, Ithink, clearly were Christians.

And this thing about being deists,

that's more of a modernprojection back on to history.

Thomas Jefferson was an Anglican

and the whole thing about hisBible has been misunderstood.

He loved the ethicalteachings of Jesus so much,

he cut them out and he made a little book

of the teachings of Jesusfor his own purpose.

He wasn't trying necessarilyto exclude all of the miracles.

He wanted to have his ownpersonal copy of the teachings

and the gospels that he loved the best.

Now, I don't know if hewas a born-again Christian

going to heaven, but hewasn't the kind of infidel

or skeptic that revisionist historians

are making them out to be.

- Well let's get into someof the examples in your book.

One of the ones I love is Samuel Morris,

number 59 in your book,what has God wrought?

And the reason I want to talk about that

is his invention actually created

our ability right now to interact.

So tell us about that one.

- Samuel Morris was a painter.

He was an artist.

In fact, I was just in Washington,

and at the National Gallery,

I saw one of his wonderful paintings.

He was marvelous at that.

And he wanted to paint the murals

in the rotunda of the Capitol,but he lost that contract

and became so disillusioned with art

that he got into electricity.

And he was a Christian and hewas trusting God to guide him.

He was a deep believer in Scripture.

And he is the one whoinvented the telegraph,

and the first message on thetelegraph was a Bible verse,

"What hath God wrought?"

And he said, " I want everybody to know

that this great advancementin our communication system

is something that God is doing.

He has led me to do it.

It is all of Him."

This is the way that the greatinnovators of our country,

this is what they believe.

This is the way they were.

- It's an incredible invention.

Let's throw electrons aroundand we get to manipulate them.

And here we are on thismodern communication device.

And it's all based on Samuel Morris.

It's all based

on let's throw electronsaround in different ways.

Tell us about AbrahamLincoln's last words.

- Abraham Lincoln was many,many years in his earlier life

he was an agnostic, probably an atheist.

He was a skeptic.

He visited prostitutes.

He was an immoral man, but then he found

after he married MaryTodd, he found a book

on Christian apologeticsin her father's library.

And he began to realize hewas wrong about the Bible.

And he began to read the Bibleand he fell in love with it.

He quoted it continually.

And when he got

into the White House,he emphasized Scripture.

Many of his speeches arefilled with Bible verses.

You can almost read any speech

and you'll find abiblical reference there.

Friends say that he quotedthe Bible endlessly.

And when he died

according to Stephen Mansfield,the historian, he looked

over at his wife in thebalcony at the Ford's theater.

And he said, when we getout of the White House

let's travel to Jerusalemwhere the Savior lived.

And those were his last wordsbefore the bullet struck him.

So he clearly moved to Christianityor to near Christianity.

We don't have a particularconversion moment

but his pastor in Washingtonsaid he was deeply committed.

Christian who loved Godand who loved the Bible.

- Well, the Bible, theKing James version is

throughout all of hislanguage, just the four score

and seven years ago, you don't get

that without a King Jamesversion by your bedside

and reading it.

Tell us about the four military chaplains

and their illustration of the Bible.

- Well, the four militarychaplains that you're referring

to were onboard the Dorchesterin February of 1942.

Now military chaplainsgo back to Bunker Hill.

It goes back to the verybeginning of our military forces.

When the battle with the British broke

out, it was the Puritanpreachers who jumped in

and began serving as military chaplains.

The foremost famous

and the 20th century wentdown with the Dorchester.

When it was struck, it wasa military transport ship,

off the coast of Greenland,

a United States ship, and it was hit

by a German torpedo and itwent down in icy waters.

Many people died, some were rescued

but the four chaplains who served

these soldiers gave their lives.

They gave their life best.

They gave their coats,they gave their gloves.

They even gave theirshoestrings to help people tie

on the life preservers.

And they went down with theship and there are memorials

to these four chaplainsall across America.

At one of them in Philadelphia,when it was dedicated,

President Truman quoted the Bible verse,

"Greater love has no man than this,

that he laid down hislife for his friends."

And they represent the bestof our military chaplains.

- That's a great one to end on.

I encourage you to get the book

"A Hundred Bible VersesThat Made America."

It's available wherever books are sold.