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“America Reads the Bible” continues in Washington, DC · The Daily Article

• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Monday April 20th, 2026 edition of Dineson forums daily article podcast.
• 0:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm narrator Chris Elkins, giving voice to today's daily article written by cultural theologian Dr. Jim Dineson.
• 0:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: America reads the Bible, begins Saturday at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. Over seven days, nearly 500 participants will read the Bible aloud from Genesis to Revelation.
• 0:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Daily readings are scheduled from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
• 0:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you wonder whether America needs a spiritual and moral awakening, you need only read the news.
• 0:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yesterday's mass shooting in Schreefport, Louisiana, in which a father fatally shot eight children, including seven of his own, is enough to break your heart.
• 0:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was also a shooting early Sunday on a pedestrian mall near the University of Iowa, injuring five people.
• 0:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: I could go on, which makes my point.
• 1:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: In such a broken world, how does reading the words of an ancient book out loud help?
• 1:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: There are no plans to preach or teach from the biblical passages being read.
• 1:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: The words themselves will simply be read publicly across the week.
• 1:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Is this merely a performative gesture, perhaps with political motives?
• 1:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: The answer is more relevant to our souls and national future than one might think.
• 1:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: From its beginnings, the Judeo-Christian worldview has promoted the public declaration of biblical revelation.
• 1:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: In Deuteronomy 6, the Jews were instructed with regards to the commands of God in verses 6 and 8 and 9.
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
• 1:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: You shall write them on the door post of your house and on your gates.
• 1:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: This led to the Teflon, also called a filactory, a small box containing scripture verses that Orthodox Jews still bind to their hands and foreheads during worship.
• 2:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: And to the Mizzusa, he grew for doorpost, a small decorative case containing a scroll of scripture that Jews affixed to the doorposts of their homes.
• 2:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: When I led more than 30 study tours to Israel, we stayed in hotels adorned with Mizzusa on each doorpost, a observant Jews often touched them on their way into the rooms.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: In Christian terms, the reading of Scripture is a central part of our public worship services.
• 2:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Some see this as merely the prelude to the sermon to be preached on the text, but many churches read the Bible often responsibly as an act of worship unto itself.
• 2:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Why is this more than performative religiosity and ritual?
• 2:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: In Isaiah 55 verses 10 and 11, God makes a remarkable promise.
• 2:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the soar and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth.
• 3:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the things for which I sent it.
• 3:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Here we discover that the words of Scripture possess intrinsic agency and authority.
• 3:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: This makes sense when we consider their origin, quoting 2 Peter 1, verse 21, no prophecy was ever produced by the Will of Man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
• 3:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: The same spirit who inspired Scripture also knows every human mind and heart and can use biblical truth to guide us into all the truth noted in John 16 verse 13.
• 3:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is why the word of God is alive and active still today as it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart written in Hebrews 4 verse 12 new international version.
• 3:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: From 2 Timothy 3, verse 16 and 17, the Bible is therefore profitable for teaching or reproof or correction and for training and righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
• 4:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: For example, Martin Luther explained his role in the Protestant Reformation this way.
• 4:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: quote, I simply taught, preached, wrote God's word.
• 4:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Otherwise, I did nothing.
• 4:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: And while I slept, or drank, Whittenberg beer with my friends, Philip and I'm Storff, the word so greatly weakened the papacy that no Prince or Emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it.
• 4:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: I did nothing.
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: The word did everything."
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: In quote, Billy Graham explained his ministry in similar terms.
• 4:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: His most famous, off-repeated phrase was simply the Bible says.
• 4:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Over and over, we heard him say this as he quoted God's word.
• 4:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: This was intentional.
• 4:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: During the 1948 Los Angeles crusade that made national headlines and promoted him to the forefront of American culture, Dr. Graham, quote, discovered the secret that changed my ministry.
• 5:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: As he began quoting scripture over and over, he said, I felt as though I were merely a voice through which the Holy Spirit was speaking.
• 5:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: A crusade schedule for three weeks stretched into eight with hundreds of thousands in attendance.
• 5:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Dr. Graham explained that people were not coming to hear great oratory, nor were they interested merely in my ideas.
• 5:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: I found they were desperately hungry to hear what God had to say through his holy word.
• 5:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: I felt as though I had a rapier in my hand and through the power of the Bible, the slashing deep into men's consciences led them to surrender to God.
• 5:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: He added, I found that the Bible became a flame in my hands.
• 5:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: The flame melted away unbelief in the hearts of the people and moved them to decide for Christ.
• 5:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: The word became a hammer, breaking up stony hearts, and shaping them into the likeness of God.
• 6:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: In quote,
• 6:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: I can attest personally to the truth of the great evangelist experience.
• 6:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: The most transformative 30 minutes of my life each day are the time I spend each morning reading scripture, not to prepare for an article or write a book, but simply to let God speak from God's word to my mind and heart.
• 6:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: He esteemed theologian, J.I.
• 6:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Packer, called the Bible, God preaching.
• 6:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Why not today?