by Gordon Eldridge

Created on: May 18, 2008

Nearly every important document in our nation's history has some reference to the Bible. Our ancestors came to this country for religious freedom, to serve and worship as they chose to do. The Bible is not a "human inspired history or made up tale", it is the inspired Word of the Living God. The Creator of the universe and of every human being since the beginning of time.

I do realize that the stories recorded in the Bible are hard to accept since the educational system in this country has been pushing the Bible out of the classroom for the past eighty years or so. In some areas of the country, even trying to teach "intelligent design" may get you fired if you are a teacher.

The Bible is the one guide which all mankind can turn to for guidance and truth, and it has stood as such for over two thousand years. The advice given in most, if not all, of the self help books on bookshelves today is echoed in the Bible. The words are different, but the message is the same. Psalms and Proverbs are two of the most influential books in the Bible, with advice about almost any topic contained in both.

Our children and their parents and teachers need the wisdom found in this "outdated" book, and need it desperately. If our society is to survive much longer as a society, our government officials would do well to go back to the practice of opening sessions of Congress with prayer and reading from the Bible.

The Bible is the only religious book which shows that our God loves us and cares for us, all of us. It should be one of the first books required to be read and studied in school from elementary through college. It doesn't have to be the major point of study, but all other studies should branch from its principles. I know this is not going to be a popular view of education, but it would serve our world much better, and we could serve Him better as well, if it were the center of education rather than being pushed out as "antique" and outdated.

The stories in the Bible reflect the human condition and our struggle with ourselves and the struggles we all face on a daily basis. The nation and people of Israel went through these struggles while on their way to the land which God had promised them. The fought Him almost every step of the way. God would get angry at them like a father does with his children, they would repent. Then "not many days hence", they would be off on another rebellious antic doing something they were told not to do. Exactly the way we behave today, as children and as adults.

What has always puzzled me is that they SAW the miracles that God performed. With their own eyes. How could they possibly have been so disobedient? Because we are human. Until we realize just how much we depend on God's grace and mercy just to get up every day, we will always be just as disobedient as they were.

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