Initially, the Bible was the chief textbook in colonial America, and there was widespread literacy, especially among the Puritans. In this brief television segment, Dr. Jerry Newcombe shows how the schools eventually came to banish the Bible, with predictable results.

 Except for Cornell, all the great Ivy League schools were founded by Christians for Christian purposes. In this short video, Dr. Jerry Newcombe shows how Princeton was founded by Presbyterian elders to train future ministers. [Pictured: Rev. John Witherspoon, president of Princeton at the time of American Independence]

 The Puritans were very concerned that their ministers and their populace be well educated. Dr. Jerry Newcombe shows in this short television segment that within months of their arrival in 1630 they made plans for founding a college in order to train ministers of the Gospel. That school was Harvard. [Pictured: Rev. John Harvard]

Because the Bible was the chief textbook in one way or another, there was for the most part widespread literacy among the Americans. Dr. Jerry Newcombe shows in this television segment how even by 1863, when Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address, it drew on Biblical themes and his hearers knew it.

We are often told today that America’s founding fathers were unbelievers—men of the enlightenment, who had outgrown any need for the Bible. Dr. Jerry Newcombe shows that this view is historically inaccurate.

Today’s public education is so godless it’s hard to imagine that virtually all the education in early America was Bible-based. But as one scholar noted, the founding fathers knew the Bible “down to their fingertips.” Watch now!

America began as a place of refuge for many fleeing religious persecution in Europe. This Providence Today video looks at the role Christianity played in the founding of most of the colonies.

The Pilgrims cast a long and positive shadow on the nation to come—the United States. And as Dr. Jerry Newcombe explains, they began in a day when King James I punished any religious non-Conformists, including the Pilgrims.

Dr. Peter Lillback: Welcome to Providence Today. We’re here at valley forge. We remember when Washington came here, he had to clear the land and build all those huts for his men. In the same way, our friends at Mercury One are clearing the land so that America will relearn the story of American history […]

Jerry Newcombe: Education lays the foundation for the next generation in each society. In early America, the Bible was the key to education, even in how children learned their ABCs. The Puritans set the tone for this and ended up creating a society which was among the best-educated societies in the history of the world. […]