A love for God’s word propels one of Liberty’s first students into a lifetime of collecting rare Bibles
For over 40 years, Liberty University alumnus Gene Albert (’75, ’77) has used his passion for preserving some of the world’s oldest Bibles to share the powerful message of the Gospel written within the ancient pages.
Growing up Lutheran in Hagerstown, Md., Albert has always had an interest in the Bible’s teachings. He grew up listening to visiting evangelists and local preachers. Despite his interest in the Scriptures, the Word of God did not become real to him until college.
Albert attended Mount St. Mary’s University, a private Catholic college near his home. Through his courses, he developed a strong appreciation for the Bible. But soon, college party life and smoking marijuana became a habit. He knew he needed to do something different with his life and contacted a local pastor who shared with him that the Rev. Jerry Falwell had just established Lynchburg Baptist College (now Liberty University) and would be opening it the following year. He visited and was accepted.
Only a few weeks into classes, one Wednesday night, God spoke to Albert through one of Falwell’s sermons and he accepted Christ as his Savior, likely becoming the first student to accept Christ under the school’s ministry.
Gene and Darlean Albert
Because of his newfound faith, Albert said his classes became new to him — and so did the Bible. What was once just a fascination turned into a deeper appreciation for God’s Word.
He credits his relationship with former Lynchburg Baptist Theological Seminary professor Dr. Carl Diemer as influential in developing his passion for church history.
“He made those stories come alive about the old, Christian heroes of the faith — Tyndale, Luther, Calvin, and many others,” he said.
Albert graduated with his undergraduate degree in religion in 1975 as a member of the school’s first four-year graduating class. In 1977, he followed with his master’s degree in Christian education and church history. He spent two years in Dallas, Texas, working alongside a pastor helping to transport native missionaries from other countries to local churches for speaking engagements. When the ministry’s donations decreased, he went back to Maryland and started a real estate business.
As his business thrived, Albert began to collect Bibles and other artifacts. The first item he purchased was a letter written by Charles Spurgeon in Georgetown (Washington, D.C.). Albert later gave that letter as well as a letter signed by D.L. Moody to Falwell, who hung them in his office.
Albert has collected many Bibles that have been signed or previously owned by famous individuals.
Soon, Gene was traveling the country to attend annual book shows to add to his collection. In total, Albert has collected and sold over $9 million worth of Bibles and items from church history. His collection at one point contained such rarities as a parchment certificate of ordination signed by Martin Luther.
Eventually, his collection grew enough that he wanted to display it, which sparked the birth of the Christian Heritage Museum in Hagerstown, Md. Fifteen years after founding the museum, Albert decided to sell a large portion of his collection and return to Liberty where he served as the curator of the Rawlings Scriptorium, which opened in 2018 at the base of the Freedom Tower. Albert was involved in planning the scriptorium’s space and helped secure a number of items for the university, which included an 1860 first edition Cherokee Native American Bible, notes from Spurgeon, and a page from the 1455 Gutenberg Bible (first Bible/book printed on a movable type press.)
Last summer, Albert and his wife, Darlean, moved to Pigeon Forge, Tenn., to open the Tennessee Bible Museum. The museum features seven different rooms filled with rare Bibles and many other items of church history. Exhibits include an 1850 Hebrew Torah Scroll from Germany written on vellum, an original 1480 Latin Vulgate, and hundreds of 16th- and 17th-century Bibles. It also includes a Bible that stopped a bullet from hitting a soldier during the Civil War, a “nano Bible” etched on a microchip, a collection of infamous misprint Bibles, such as the 1795 “Child Killer’s Bible” (printed Mark 7:27 with “killed instead of “filled”), and Bibles signed by famous people like evangelist Billy Graham, Dr. Jerry Falwell, Mother Teresa, Elvis Presley, former presidents Donald Trump and George W. Bush, and many others.
The collection includes a Bible that once belonged to Elvis Presley.
While the museum enables Albert to encourage Christians who visit the museum, it is also a ministry to nonbelievers. After hearing the stories of the martyrs, many visitors have expressed their appreciation by having a desire to read their Bibles more. Others come in asking for prayer.
“All of us, from my wife and me to our volunteer staff, are more than willing to share their burdens and pray with them. It is truly an honor and a blessing,” Albert said.
“What’s Christianity without Scriptures?” he added. “Jesus of course is the Living Word, but it’s the written Word. (Just as) you can’t separate my words from me, you can’t separate God’s Word (from God).”
