Mississippi: 180-year-old Bible survives total destruction of historic church

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – A 180 year-old church Bible has survived an August 13 fire that destroyed the historic College Hill Presbyterian Church in Lafayette County, Oxford, Mississippi earlier this month, CBN News reports.

The College Hill Church in Lafayette County, Oxford, was built in 1844.

In a press release about the fire, Lafayette Fire Department said: “First units arrived on scene at 11:04 pm [on August 13] to find the rear of the structure fully involved. LCFD Engine 10 stretched a line to the rear to begin a fire attack. A second handline was stretched to the front door to begin an interior attack. Interior crews found the fire had spread to the attic space of the structure.”
In addition to burning down the building, the fire destroyed all of the church’s original pews, pulpits, and stained glass, CBN said.

However, while College Hill members mourn the loss of their building, they have taken comfort knowing that their church Bible, which dates back to the time of the church’s founding, survived in sound condition, CBN News said. The Bible has been preached in the church for nearly 200 years, and has dated inscriptions in its margins. The Bible was normally open on the pulpit but was shut shortly before the fire and was thus protected.

“We are a Bible-believing church, and we believe that that is the word of God, and that is sustaining,” Church elder Doug Paul told WATN-TV. “And so the idea that essentially nothing in this church survived but the word of God — that’s not lost on us.”

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