The Bible was American children's first textbook.

And most textbooks for centuries after were Bible-based.

In fact, in this age where many think that the Founding Fathers wanted a high wall of separation between church and state, it's surprising to see how much the Bible was at the root of almost everything that made America free, well-educated and prosperous.

Right from the start of America's history, the Bible has been in the thick of things.

Stephen McDowell from the Biblical Worldview University, said, "The Bible was the most central influence in the beginning, birth, growth and development of the United States -- in education, government, law -- in every area."

McDowell and Mark Beliles of the Providence Foundation co-authored America's Providential History, where they present the facts of this overwhelming influence.

The authors say that the Founding Fathers found knowledge of the Bible absolutely vital.

Beliles said, "Many, in fact, who were lawyers actually first went and got theological degrees, because they understood the need to know biblical ideas of law."

"The very laws and constitutions were written and drawn from the Scriptures," said McDowell.

Patriot Patrick Henry stated, "the Bible is a book worth more than all the other books that were ever printed."

Congress found the Bible so important, it even printed it for the American people back in 1782.

When George Washington was inaugurated, he didn't just swear on the Bible.

"But he actually kneeled before it and kissed it," said Beliles.

Thomas Jefferson these days is seen as a Deist who wanted to erect a high wall between church and state.

But Beliles said that Jefferson filled The Declaration of Independence with biblical concepts.

"He refers to our Creator as the source of our rights and liberties," Beliles explained.

Beliles and McDowell took us to the courthouse in Jefferson's hometown, Charlottesville, Virginia, where the young lawyer helped set up a church right inside that government building in 1777.

"Thomas Jefferson himself called it 'the common temple,'" said Belilies

President Jefferson jotted down notes that he thought would be helpful to convert Indians to Christianity.

And he commanded that federal resources be used in that effort.

It's also evident that Jefferson wasn't afraid to mix religion and state as you walk the grounds of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, a college designed by Jefferson himself.

Even there, at the center of one of America's most prominent public universities, inscribed on a building, are the biblical words: 'The truth shall set you free' -- a concept of particular significance to the Founding Fathers.

That's because they believed that no one could be truly free without knowing the God who makes men free.

Beliles said, "And they understood that where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

"The founders of America realized that true religion was the foundation for liberty," said McDowell.

The founders believed that the Bible laid out most clearly what's right and wrong, and with that moral foundation, a people could govern themselves.

Without such self-control, their freedom would have to be curtailed and government would need to control them.

"The principles of the Bible are the groundwork of human freedom," stated newspaper publisher Horace Greeley.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court wrote in 1824, "No free government now exists in the world unless where Christianity is acknowledged and is the religion of the country."

McDowell says that even America's prosperous economy can be traced to the Word.

"Our economic philosophy, principles of individual enterprise, benefiting from the fruit of your labor and the concept of wanting to labor hard," McDowell said, "all are rooted in the Bible."

Charles Carroll, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, explained that Christianity gave men a sublime and pure morality and that "without morals, a republic cannot subsist any length of time."

That's why Benjamin Rush, another prominent signer of the Declaration of Independence, wrote "the only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty."

And that's why American education began with the Bible.

The colonists believed that Satan wanted to keep people ignorant of what's in the Scriptures and how it could set them free. So to battle that, the colonists passed what's called "the Old Deluder Law" of 1647, establishing the first common schools.

And at the start, the Bible was the only textbook, since it was the only book every home and school were sure to have.

Then the Pilgrims and Puritans began to print for students what are known as "hornbooks."

McDowell said, "And what it has is an alphabet around the edges, some syllables, then the invocation of the Trinity: 'In the name of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, Amen,' and then the Lord's Prayer."

In 1690 came the first printing of The Primer, a school book some call the most influential in American history, because it shaped the thinking of the Founding Fathers.

And you can see how Bible-based it was just from the way it taught the alphabet:

"C: Christ crucified for sinners died.D: the Deluge drowned the earth around, and on and on," said McDowell.

Then came Noah Webster, most famous for Webster's dictionary, but also enormously influential in education because of his Blue-backed Speller.

From 1783 on, Americans bought more than one hundred-million copies of the little book, which contained sentences like:

"God governs the world in His infinite wisdom. The Bible teaches us that it is our duty to worship Him," explained McDowell.

But after that came the school books that would dominate the nation almost up to the modern era --The McGuffey Readers, with 122 million copies sold across 75 years, from the 1800s into the 1900s.

For this, William McGuffey was dubbed "the Schoolmaster of the Nation."

We met with McDowell right outside the Virginia school building where McGuffey taught for decades.

He told us that McGuffey leaned heavily on the Scriptures to shape the minds and character of generations of young Americans, as McGuffey himself mentioned in the preface to one of his readers:

McDowell read, "From no source has the author drawn more copiously in his selections than from the sacred Scriptures."

McDowell also showed us the first history book used in the schools, published in 1818. Its author, Frederick Butler, wrote in it, "What is the use of history? To expand the mind of man and to lead it up to God as the great Author, Preserver and Governor of all things."

Today, almost all this has been stripped away from the public schools.

And now, much of the country's youth are biblically illiterate.

One out of 10 think that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife.

Only one out of three can name the four Gospels.

And 50 percent of today's high school seniors think Sodom and Gomorrah were a married couple.

And with secular beliefs replacing scriptural doctrines, today it's widely assumed that man stands atop the evolutionary ladder, proud master of his own fate -- free from having to answer to anyone.

Many Americans today seem to think that the path to freedom is to be free of God and the command of His holy Scriptures.

But the Founding Fathers believed that the only true freedom comes from knowing this God and knowing His holy Word.