The Apollo 8 Christmas Eve Message That Stopped the World

On this episode of Our American Stories, before Neil Armstrong ever stepped on the Moon, the Apollo 8 crew made history. More than one billion people listened as Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders took turns reciting the story of creation from the Bible. It was the first time human beings had traveled that far from home—and the first time they had seen the whole planet suspended in darkness. Robert J. Morgan, author of 100 Bible Verses That Made America, shares the story of one of the most powerful broadcasts in history.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
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 story.
Send them to our American Stories dot com. There's 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.

(00:33):
Our founding fathers, both Christian and non Christian, were heavily
influenced by the Bible. You to share. Another story is
Robert Morgan, who's the author of one hundred Bible verses
that made America. For finding moments that shaped our enduring
foundation of faith, take it away, Robert.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
I vividly remember Christmas Eve of night teen sixty eight.
I was a high school student preparing for college in
troubled times. The Vietnam War was ripping American pieces. Campuses
were battle zones, cities burned from race riots, and the
land was violent. I registered with the local draft board

(01:17):
and worried about my future. Martin Luther King Junior and
Robert F. Kennedy had been slain. Lending Johnson abandoned hopes
for re election that Democratic National Convention in Chicago was
engulfed in teargas, and in November Richard Nixon won the presidency,
but the Soviet Union was threatening America both on Earth

(01:40):
and in space. On December twenty one, a Saturn five
rocket lifted off with Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill
Anders strapped into a small capsule known as Apollo eight, who.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Running.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Many within the NASA community wondered if they would ever return.
Experts gave the mission a fifty to fifty 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

(02:22):
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 at the window

(02:45):
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 knight. From there, it was no longer

(03:07):
possible to pick out countries or even continents. All a
person could see was the Earth. And it occurred to
Anders and this last week of nineteen sixty eight, this
terrible year for America and the world, that once you
can see the boundaries, you started to see something different.
You saw how small the planet is, how close all

(03:29):
of us are to one another, and how the only
thing any office have in an otherwise empty universe is
each other. On Christmas Eve, we all stopped their suppers
and celebrations and gathered around our television sets for one
of the most extraordinary moments in television, a worldwide broadcast

(03:55):
from lunar orbit. No one knew what the astronauts would say,
not even mission control, but at eight thirty Central Time,
the American networks interrupted their programming as granny black and
white images appeared on the screen through the static of space.
Borman said, Apollo coming to you live the boon. We

(04:18):
all heard that though we could hardly believe it. The
men aim their camera at the moon, at the earth,
and at the stars, as they described their sights and
their sensations. Then Anders said, where.

Speaker 4 (04:34):
Now booking letter ran, and for all the people back
on earth the pearl of Apollo, and we would like
it then to you.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
There was a pause, and then he began reading from
Genesis one.

Speaker 4 (04:51):
In the beginning God created and the earth, and the
earth was without form and avoided. And when upon the
made the theme.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
One by one, the astronauts passed a far proof copy
of Genesis chapter one, taken from the Gideon Bible, and
they read the creation account.

Speaker 4 (05:14):
And God said, let there be light, And there was light,
and God though the light. They went good and divided
the light.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
From the darkning. And God called the late day, and
the darkness he called. And then the morning with the
bird day.

Speaker 5 (05:36):
And God let them of the water, and let the
divide the water from the water. And God made the
perm and divided the water which were the the word
which grew.

Speaker 4 (05:51):
And God called, And then in the morning with the second.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Day, and God let the lot of them to heaven
be gethered together at one point, and let the dry
land appear, and it was so, and God called the
dry land Earth and the gathering together of the water
and colleen same, and God.

Speaker 4 (06:16):
Thought that it was good.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
Well. After Borman finished verse ten, he ended the broadcast saying,
and from the grove the boy.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
We called with good night, good luck a Mary Griffin,
and God by all of you, all of.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
You on the good Earth, and mission control scientists and
engineers openly wept. We all wept, And estimated one billion
people in sixty four countries had heard the message. And
all around the world, men and women and children went

(06:55):
outside and gazed into the sky, wondering at the words
and sides we have just witnessed from two hundred and
forty thousand miles away.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
And a terrific job on the production and editing by
our own Greg Hangler, and a special thanks to Robert Morgan,
who's the author of one hundred Bible verses that made America,
defining moments that shaped our enduring foundation of faith, the
story of Apollo eight and the special Christmas Eve rendering
of Genesis. Here on our American stories, Leehabib Here, as

(07:31):
we approach our nation's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, I'd
like to remind you that all the history stories you
hear on this show brought to you by the great
folks at Hillsdale College, and Hillsdale isn't just a great
school for your kids or grandkids to attend, but for
you as well. Go to Hillsdale dot edu to find
out about their terrific free online courses. Their series on
Communism is one of the finest I've ever seen. Again,

(07:54):
go to Hillsdale dot edu and sign up for their
free and terrific online courses