How the Bible has shaped American history

OPINION:

After the many and various America 250 summertime celebratory events, it is easy to conclude the national semiquincentennial is drawing to a close.

Still, the exact opposite is true, and one of the best exhibitions in the nation is a jewel box of a show in Washington, the Museum of the Bible’s America 250 exhibit, “Sacred Liberty.”

Recently, I had the great privilege of touring it. As I did so, I could not help but be struck once again by what I call the great American story, which I mention in my book “Toward a More Perfect Union.” This is the incredible vision of our nation’s Founding Fathers: to create a land based on the eternal truths of Scripture, in which its citizens are made in God’s image and should thus be treated with dignity and respect.

The exhibit could not come at a more critical time, as we struggle with ever-increasing political polarization, disrespect for our fellow citizens and the potential loss of what the Founding Fathers bequeathed to us.

In January 1989, in his prescient farewell speech to America, President Reagan warned: “If we forget what we did, we won’t know who we are. I’m warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit.”

He was, sadly, correct. I could go on and cite one depressing statistic after another about the current state of American history and civic education and how it has led us down the road of collective ignorance about our nation’s founding ideals.

To have that memory rekindled, we desperately need exhibits such as this to educate and remind us that we are truly “one nation under God” and that all our rights come directly from him, not from any human.

Although not all the Founding Fathers were Christians, all had a profound appreciation for Judeo-Christian principles and shaped a society based on those ideals.

As Mark David Hall, Regent University politics professor and a featured speaker at a Museum of the Bible presentation, has written, “the Founders were far more likely to see liberty as the freedom to do what was morally correct. Christian ideas undergird some key tenets of America’s constitutional order. For instance, the Founders believed that humans are created in the image of God, which led them to design institutions and laws meant to protect and promote human dignity.”

In other words, the Founders saw liberty not as “doing what we want,” but as “doing what we ought” to ensure that everyone flourished.

That message is evident in the exhibit’s sections dedicated to how our Founders laid a spiritual — not human — foundation for the nation. The exhibit reminds us that when we turn to God, he is faithful. All he asks is that we place our trust in him.

Yet, as I mentioned before, we are at a critical time in our nation’s history, perhaps best summarized by Benjamin Franklin after the signing of the U.S. Constitution: Our Founders had created “a republic, if you can keep it.”

Thus, unless we return to those founding principles, we are in danger of losing our republic, and with it, our sacred liberty.

That is why we must return to and recognize the source of that liberty: the Judeo-Christian principles our nation’s Founders embraced and implemented, the Bible, not any human document created before or since.

I am thankful for the Museum of the Bible providing us with such a reminder. We should take the words of the Lord to Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7:14 to heart: “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

May this exhibit be the start of our return to the biblical principles upon which our nation was founded. We indeed have a “sacred liberty” that, if taught and followed, benefits all.

I am confident that a return to that understanding and a restoration of biblical principles will bring the national healing we so desperately want and need during these troubled times. That is how we will continue to live and tell the great American story.

• Timothy S. Goeglein is the vice president of government and external relations at Focus on the Family and the co-author of a new book, “What Really Matters: Restoring a Legacy of Faith, Freedom, and Family” (Fidelis, 2026).