The Most Important Book on Earth

There is a trend today to get away from the Bible. Yet no other book has ever matched the demand for the Bible. There of course is a reason for this. There is not another book on the face of the earth that offers the comfort and hope that the Bible does. To get away from it is like giving up good healthy food in favor of junk food that will destroy your body. No wonder it has had 3.9 billion copies printed. No others book can match that.

It was Bacon who said;

"There never was found, in any age of the world, either religion or law that did so highly exalt the public good as the Bible."

The Bible makes it simple for you. It is not like a lot of these sham scientist who are constantly guessing what might have been and in the process contradict even themselves. Through the Bible God makes it simple. He tells you where you came from, why you are here, and where you are going - if you obey him, or don't.

The Bible tells you how you can get to know God as a personal constant friend.

Romaine said;

"The longer you read the Bible, the more you will like it; it will grow sweeter and sweeter; and the more you get into the spirit of it the more you will get into the spirit of Christ."

If you will read the Bible and pay attention to it - it will change your life. It can take your worries away, help you in your troubles and give you that peace that you have longed for so long.

"I believe a knowledge of the Bible without a college course is more valuable than a college course without a Bible." - William Lyon Phelps.

Keith L Brooks observes that "No book has led to the writing of so many other books, pamphlets and articles."

Why is this? Where did the Bible come from?

The Bible it's self tells us where it came from.

"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16,17 NASB)

It is God inspired. Not the work of any man. But written by men as God moved upon them.

"...for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." (2 Peter 1:21 NASB)

Even better the Bible is not the property of any one church, denomination or religion. But it is God's letter of encouragement and instruction to all of mankind.

True, God worked primarily through the Jewish race. But one reading through the Bible will show that His intent is for the entire human race.

President Theodore Roosevelt said, "If a man is not familiar with the Bible, he has suffered a loss which he had better make all possible haste to correct."

And the great Wm. E. Gladstone stated, "If I am asked to name the one true guide of life, I must point to what, in the words of a popular hymn is called: 'the old, old story' in a very old Book."

A study into history will show that though hand printed or copied, the Bible was given much greater accuracy in detail than the printed material of today. The Jewish doctors of tradition called the "Masorites" went into such care in copying the originals that they even counted the words and letters of a book to see it they had copied correctly. And if by chance one of those old boys made a mistake, he did not do like you or I and cross it out or erase it - but instead he would throw the entire papyrus or skin away and start all over.

Consider another aspect of the Bible's preservation. There never has been a book that has had so much hatred concentrated against it as the Bible. Through out the ages it's enemies have tried in vain to destroy it. And, they do yet. But it still stands.

The infidel Tom Paine in his "Age of Reason" stated: "Fifty years hence this Book will be obsolete and forgotten." What a laugh. The very press that was used to publish Paine's book was later used to print Bibles for many years.

Another infidel, Voltaire boasted that it took 12 men to start Christianity, but he would destroy it. Another good laugh. Later in that very room the Foreign Bible Society used it to store Bibles.

Another one. Bob Ingersoll claimed his ability to put the Bible out of business. But, just as you would expect by now, a Bible teacher by the name of Bob Garry came into possession of Ingersoll's desk. And he wrote hundreds of Bible lessons on Ingersoll old desk.

GOD HAS A SENSE OF HUMOR.

Consider that the Bible is constantly being proven to be correct. Over the last few decades Archaeology has been turning up evidence of the historical accuracy of the Bible. You do not hear much about it because the world at large does not want to know. It destroys their theories. And even worse in their mind, tells them how bad they are.

It would take a book to begin to tell about all these discoveries. But let me just share a personal one with you. I own a small piece of property in the Ozarks.

It is almost all woods. The elevation on this property is 2000 feet above sea level and it is possibly 500 miles from the nearest ocean. But there are sea shell fossils scattered all over those woods. They are just laying on the ground. I have picked them up by the dozen. Proof of Noah's flood, or the deluge if you prefer. You can read about it in the Bible in Genesis chapter 7.

Or consider the prophecies of the Bible. They come true whether we like it or not. There are (were) around two hundred prophecies in the Bible about the coming of Jesus Christ. Every one of them were fulfilled with his first coming. We do not have the time or space to go into them.

But consider some of the prophecies that you are seeing with your own eyes that are fulfilled today. These are not in order. They are only listed as they popped into my head.

Jesus said, "You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes." (Matthew 24:6,7 NASB)

Well! Look around you. Listen to the news.

Another. Jesus was being taken to be crucified and women were all crying about it. Then Jesus said to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed." (Luke 23:29 NASB)

Again. What is the current attitude toward children now by millions of women? There is more to this prophecy in the next verse. And the rest of it will come soon. If you understood what the rest of it is saying you would spend the rest of your time begging God to save you from it.

One more and I will stop. God revealed to the apostle Paul what people would be like in the last days,

"But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious, gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power;.." (2 Timothy 3:1-5 NASB)

That is the age and culture you and I live in.

I know. It would be foolish for me to undertake to tell you total purpose of the Bible. But being oversimple:

It tells us about God.

It tells us how we got here.

It tells us why we are here.

It tell us how God wants us to act.

It tells us where we are going.

Perhaps it could best be summed up by quoting the apostle John.

"...but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you ma have life in His name."

(John 20:31 NASB)

Pick up a copy of the Bible and enjoy.