President Defends Use of Scriptures

WASHINGTON — President Reagan, who two weeks ago invoked the Scriptures in arguing for his defense buildup, said at his news conference Thursday night: “I’ve found that the Bible contains an answer to just about everything and every problem that confronts us . . . . “

Defending his earlier use of the Scriptures, Reagan said he has never used the Bible to further political ends but added that theologians with whom he checked his interpretation “seemed to think it was perfectly fitting, yes. It was a caution to those people in our own country who would, if given the opportunity, unilaterally disarm us.”

On Feb. 4, Reagan told a convention of religious broadcasters that no Lord who has lavished blessings on America “intends for us to have to someday negotiate because of our weakness.”

He cited a passage in the Book of Luke in which Christ asks whether a king preparing for battle “will not first sit down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with 10,000 men to encounter the one coming against him with 20,000.”