The Bible and
America’s Founding
By Dr. Bryan Smith
M
ODERN HISTORIANS DISCOUNT the role of
religion in the events of the past. Because of their
secular bias, they prefer to focus on things like trade imbal-
ances, poverty, and technological innovations. These are the
things that motivate people to make history, not belief in
God and the Bible.
But not every historian is secular. Daniel Dreisbach is a
credentialed historian who has spent his life researching
America’s founding and the role of religion in that found-
ing. Dreisbach has written a book that you should consider
purchasing: Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers. 1
His thesis is that the Bible greatly influenced the Founding
Fathers’ political views and their vision for the republic they
sought to establish. 2
Familiarity with the Bible
Dreisbach begins by emphasizing that the Founders lived
in a world very different from our own. In America in the
1700s, the Bible was a key text used to educate the young.
Throughout the colonies, ministers (and their sermons)
were held in high esteem, and the Bible was the one book
that just about every literate person owned and knew well.
In fact, in some colonies, it was illegal not to own a Bible. 3
Along this line, Dreisbach includes an anecdote from
the correspondence of Benjamin Franklin. The year was
1781, and Franklin was a minister to France. The Reverend
Samuel Cooper had sent him a sermon he had preached the
previous October. Franklin wrote back to say that he wanted
to print the sermon for a European audience. But, Franklin
16
explained, he would need to make some adjustments: “It
was not necessary in New England where everybody reads
the Bible, and is acquainted with Scripture Phrases, that you
should note the Texts from which you took them; but I have
observed in England as well as in France, that Verses and
Expressions taken from the sacred Writings, and not known
to be such, appear very strange and awkward to some Read-
ers; and I shall therefore in my Edition take the Liberty of
marking the quoted Texts in the Margin.” 4
Dreisbach observes that this same ignorance is common
among modern historians. And since the Founders often
cited the Bible as Cooper did (without quotation marks),
modern scholars underestimate the role of the Bible in
America’s founding because they fail to recognize the bibli-
cal language the Founders employed. 5
The Founders’ View of the Good Life
America’s Founders were attempting to establish a just
society. Essential to this endeavor was a vision of what the
good life would look like. For many of them, that view was
derived largely from the Bible, particularly from Micah 4:4:
“They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig
tree; and none shall make them afraid.”
The Founders saw in this statement the kind of society
they hoped to establish. It would have a government strong
enough to protect personal property rights. But the govern-
ment would also be limited. A government that heavily
taxed its citizens was contrary to the vision of Micah 4:4 and
was also contrary to the vision of the Founders. 6