The Apollo 8 Crew’s Message from the Moon... Heard by 1 Billion People: 100 Bible Verses That Made America

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Try a little bit of everything, every week. Say free this week into your Xfinity voice remote. Music This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. And we love to hear from you and your stories. Send them to OurAmericanStories.com.

They're some of our favorites. If you want to know about the history of America, it's imperative that you know the role that the Bible played in the shaping of our country. Our founding fathers, both Christian and non-Christian, were heavily influenced by the Bible. Here to share another story is Robert Morgan, who is the author of 100 Bible verses that made America, defining moments that shaped our enduring foundation of faith.

Take it away, Robert. Music I vividly remember Christmas Eve of 1968. I was a high school student preparing for college in troubled times. The Vietnam War was ripping America to pieces. Campuses were battle zones, cities burned from race riots, and the land was violent.

I registered with the local draft board and worried about my future. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy had been slain. Lending Johnson, abandoned hopes for re-election, the Democratic National Convention in Chicago was engulfed in tear gas, and in November, Richard Nixon won the presidency. But the Soviet Union was threatening America, both on Earth and in space. On December 21, a Saturn V rocket lifted off with Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders strapped into a small capsule known as Apollo 8. Three, two, one.

All engines running. Launch commit. Many within the NASA community wondered if they would ever return. Experts gave the mission a 50-50 chance of success.

And Frank Borman's wife, Susan, prepared his eulogy. Some officials worried openly that if the astronauts perished in lunar orbit, no one would ever look at the moon or at Christmas in the same way. But John F. Kennedy had set a deadline to take men to the moon by the end of the decade, and NASA was determined to keep it. The astronauts traveled faster and further than anyone before them in history.

And we effectively won the space race as Americans. As Frank Borman gazed out the window at the receding marble of Earth, he thought to himself, this must be what God sees. Robert Curson wrote in his book, Rocket Men, To Anders, Earth appeared as a Christmas tree ornament, hung radiant blue and swirling while in an endless black night.

From there it was no longer possible to pick out countries or even continents. All a person could see was the Earth and it occurred to Anders in this last week of 1968, this terrible year for America and the world, that once you couldn't see the boundaries, you started to see something different. You saw how small the planet is, how close all of us are to one another, and how the only thing any of us have in an otherwise empty universe is each other. On Christmas Eve, we all stopped our suppers and celebrations and gathered around our television sets for one of the most extraordinary moments in television, a worldwide broadcast from lunar orbit. No one knew what the astronauts would say, not even mission control. But at 8.30 central time, the American networks interrupted their programming as grainy black and white images appeared on the screen through the static of space. Borman said, This is Apollo 8 coming to you live from the moon.

We all heard that, though we could hardly believe it. The men aimed their camera at the moon, at the Earth, and at the stars as they described their sights and their sensations. Then Anders said, We are now approaching lunar sunrise and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you. There was a pause, and then he began reading from Genesis 1. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

One by one, the astronauts passed a fireproof copy of Genesis chapter 1 taken from a Gideon Bible, and they read the creation account. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good, and divided the light from the darkness.

And God called the late day, and the darkness he called night, and the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament, and the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so. And God called the firmament, and the evening and the morning were the second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one plate, and let the dry land appear, and it was so.

And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters called these seas. And God saw that it was good. Well, after Borman finished verse 10, he ended the broadcast saying, And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth. In Mission Control, scientists and engineers openly wept.

We all wept. An estimated one billion people in 64 countries had heard the message. And all around the world, men and women and children went outside and gazed into the sky, wondering at the words and signs we had just witnessed from 240,000 miles away. And a terrific job on the production and editing by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to Robert Morgan, who's the author of 100 Bible verses that made America, defining moments that shaped our enduring foundation of faith. The story of Apollo 8 and the special Christmas Eve rendering of Genesis, is here on Our American Stories.

That's OurAmericanStories.com. and educate others about this rare condition. Listen to find strength and community on the MG journey on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Malcolm Gladwell. I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm a car nut. And I will do anything to keep my cars happy, to make sure they stay running smoothly. I look for those things at eBay Motors. With eBay Guaranteed Fit, when you see the green check, you know that part will fit. Get the right parts at the right prices. eBayMotors.com. Let's ride. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.