With the reading of Revelation 22: 21 at 2:34 a.m. Thursday, the participants in the 2009 Bible Reading Marathon succeeded in reading the Holy Bible from beginning to end.

The reading began with Genesis 1:1 at 6 p.m. on Sunday, May 3 at the Gabezo on the square in downtown Troy and officially ended at noon on Thursday, the National Day of Prayer.

With time remaining before the official end of the Bible Reading Marathon, the readers began reading again from the New Testament with Matthew 1:1. Troy Mayor Jimmy Lunsford was the last to read and read from Acts 10.

At noon, the Rev. David Zorn, pastor of Goshen Baptist Church, spoke to those who gathered “in his name.”

Zorn quoted Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian and political scientist, who said “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America ceases to be great.”

“Alexis de Tocqueville also said that America’s fire is found in the pulpits of its churches,” Zorn said. “And, Psalms 33:12 says, ‘Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.’ America was founded upon the principles we find in the Bible. We are blessed that we have the freedom to worship as we choose or not to worship if we so choose.”

Zorn said those who are saying that the United States is not a Christian nation and that God’s word is fiction are telling lies.

“We cannot ignore God’s word,” he said. “We love America, and we love the Constitution, but no manmade document can supercede God’s word. Thomas Jefferson made it clear that our Constitution was not written with the intention of keeping the church out of government. It was written with the intention of keep the government out of the church.”

Zorn said that, in spite of its flaws, America is still the greatest nation that God has allowed to stand.

“John F. Kennedy said that freedom has a high cost and the Americans have always paid the price,” he said.

“We have never chosen the path of surrender or submission. That should be the battle cry of Christians today—that we will not choose the path of surrender or submission. We should praise God today that we live in a country that allows us to gather here on this public square and worship. And, all God’s children said ‘Amen.’”