Have Confidence In Your Bible 2

“The unfolding of Your words gives light.”

Psalms 119:130

How is it that every book you see these days is a number-one bestseller? Some books have been very popular, I’ll grant you that, but they can’t all be number one.

No one disputes that with an estimated 5 billion copies sold the Bible is the best-selling book of all time.

The Bible has been translated into many more languages than any other publication. 451 languages have the complete Bible, 2,500 of the world's estimated 6,500 languages have at least part of it and more than 90% of the world’s population have the Bible in a language they can understand. We are within a generation of seeing the Bible become the world's only universally translated text.

The Bible has been, and remains, a source used in the development of social programs and legal codes (think of the influence of that alone) and the teaching of ethics across the world.

No other book has impacted world language and literature like the Bible. Phrases from the Bible have become so much part of our daily language that we have forgotten where they came from: the apple of my eye, the salt of the earth, a little bird told me, eat, drink and be merry, old wives' tales, a wolf in sheep's clothing, can the leopard change its spots, escape by the skin of your teeth, pride goes before a fall, go the extra mile.

No other book has spawned so much writing. Commentaries; books of sermons; works on theology, philosophy of religion, history, apologetics and biblical languages; textbooks of religious education; hymnbooks and novels have all been derived from the Bible.

Religious writing aside, the Bible has been a source of inspiration to countless authors. It contains superb poetry and prose which many have sought to emulate. It addresses the whole range of human emotion and experience — love, jealousy, joy, sorrow, good, evil, success, suffering — in tales that stir the heart: tales a reader can readily identify with. It is a writer’s treasure house of themes and characters. The Bible’s influence is so great that to study the English language or English literature without at least some knowledge of it would be to leave a gaping hole in one’s literary education.

Yes, the Bible has been and is very influential. Of course, that doesn’t prove that every word in the Bible is God’s word, but you do have to agree that the Bible is unique: there is something very special about it. And if you add that to all the other evidence we have yet to consider… You can have confidence in your Bible.

Adapted from Evidence That Demands A Verdict by Josh McDowell. Available to purchase at ICM Books.