FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 5, 2007
CONTACT: Gary Becks (619) 334-1655
San Diego, CA – Presidential candidate and U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) took the opportunity today to respond to a question posed to candidates at the CNN-YouTube Republican Presidential debate that occurred last week that he did not have an opportunity to answer. Holding a Bible, Joseph Dearing from Dallas, Texas, asked the candidates, “Do you believe every word of this book? Specifically, this book that I am holding in my hand, do you believe this book?” Congressman Hunter has sent Mr. Dearing the following letter in answer to his question:
December 3, 2007
Dear Mr. Dearing:
At last week’s CNN-You Tube debate, you asked the question of all of us “Do you believe in every word of this book?” meaning the Bible. As you know, the moderator called on my fellow candidates Governor Romney, Mayor Giuliani and Governor Huckabee to answer, but I myself was not given an opportunity. Allow me to respond directly to your question now. Do I believe every word of the Bible? Yes, by faith.
I find the center of the Bible to be these words: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life,” John 3:16. If you believe in this promise, which so obviously is not scientifically provable, then is there any other event in the Bible that God’s hand cannot accomplish?
On June 28, 1787, at the Constitution Convention when the delegates appeared to be hopelessly deadlocked, old Ben Franklin made a speech, the central sentence being the following: “The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?”
Following this statement, Franklin made a request resulting in the delegates approving a motion by James Madison to open every session with a prayer. The U.S. Constitution was thus born and this document, which delivers to every American the freedoms we enjoy, was produced by men of great faith and who very strongly believed in the Bible. Our further freedoms have been defended by American soldiers, 619,000 of whom were killed in battle during the last century, and a vast majority I feel believed the Bible.
I am sending you a book which I hope you will find instructive and persuasive, “A Third Testament” by Malcolm Muggeridge, chronicling the lives of great intellectuals in history who became followers of Christ and who believed in the Bible.
When I am asked by those who pride themselves on the reliance on provable scientific facts regarding the validity of the scriptures, I answer with one such set of facts. There are an infinite number of atoms on the head of a pin, each of which are circled by electrons. Who placed those electrons there? I hope their attempt to answer this question helps them to understand my three-word answer to your original question. Do I believe every word of the Bible? Yes, by faith.
Thank you again Mr. Dearing for your question. Sincerely, Duncan Hunter
I am a Duncan Hunter supporter and I think this is a great response.
My problem is that I cannot find the letter at the official campaign website: http://gohunter08.com/
When I email items, such as this letter, to friends I usually provide a link to the source to prove authenticity.
The first paragraphs of A Third Testament: A Modern Pilgrim Explores the Spiritual Wanderings of Augustine, Blake, Pascal, Tolstoy, Bonhoeffer, Kierkegaard, and Dostoevsky read like a Foundation novel. But who needs fiction with real life infinitely more interesting?
When at the beginning of the fifth century A.D. Rome was sacked, Augustine was at the height of his fame as the Bishop of Hippo in North Africa. Confronted with the dissolution of the Roman Empire, like a latter-day Noah, he was constrained to construct an ark, in his case Orthodoxy, wherein his Church could survive through the dark days that lay ahead.Thanks largely to Augustine, the light of the New Testament did not go out with Rome's but remained amidst the debris of the fallen empire to light the way to another civilization, Christendom, whose legatess we are.
Thanks for sharing.