The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. Isaiah 40:8
Haldor Lillenas wrote both words and music to this song (below). It presents the Bible as God’s word of enduring eternal truth inspired by a divine author – the Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth. It is true. It will stand. We should stand upon it.
Lillenas was born November 19, 1885, at Stord Island, Norway, to Ole Paulsen and Anne Marie Lillenas. The family came to the United States around 1886. Haldor Lillenas was raised as a Lutheran, but later became a Church of the Nazarene minister. He married Bertha Mae Wilson on October 4, 1910, and they had two children. Wonderful Grace of Jesus, copyrighted in 1918, is likely his best-known song.
The Bible Stands was probably written circa 1916-17. It was copyrighted 1917 by Charles M. Alexander. The song’s first publication may have been as number 79 in Tabernacle Hymns, No. 2 in 1921 (Paul Rader, George C. Stebbins, Lance B. Latham, Tabernacle Publishing Company Chicago, Illinois). However, I have not confirmed this. It is the earliest printing of the song I have found, but it may have appeared in an earlier song book since it was copyrighted by Alexander in 1917.
Haldor Lillenas died August 18, 1959. He and Bertha Mae are buried at Forest Hill Cemetery, Kansas City, Missouri.
’Mid the raging storms of time;
Its pages burn with the truth eternal,
And they glow with a light sublime.
Chorus:
The Bible stands tho’ the hills may tumble,
It will firmly stand when the earth shall crumble;
I will plant my feet on its firm foundation,
For the Bible stands.
2. The Bible stands like a mountain tow’ring
Far above the works of man;
Its truth by none ever was refuted,
And destroy it they never can. (Chorus)
3. The Bible stands and it will forever,
When the world has passed away;
By inspiration it has been given—
All its precepts I will obey. (Chorus)
4. The Bible stands ev’ry test we give it,
For its Author is divine;
By grace alone I will expect to live it,
And to prove it and make it mine. (Chorus)
5. The Bible stands in the King James Version;
There it’s been preserved for me.
God’s word in English and without error,
And my final authority. (Chorus)
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