The Bible is not just another book – it is a unique book! As I hope to show in this devotion as well as in many future devotions there is no book like it from a 1,001 different perspectives. For example the Bible has been on the best seller list for 2,000 years – that’s 100,000 weeks! No other book can make this claim. And consider the following:
The Bible is the only book you will find with a whole section devoted to it in a bookstore (whether Christian or secular) – not a section devoted to books about the subject – The Bible – but to the Bible itself! There are so many different translations (King James Version, New American Standard, New International Version, The Amplified Bible, The Message, The Living Bible, etc.), sizes (the entire Bible, The New Testament, pocket editions, large-print editions), and materials (hardcover, paperback, leather bound) that in many of the larger bookstores an entire section is reserved for this one very special book.
Not only has the Bible been the inspiration for transforming the lives of countless millions down through the centuries but it has spawned an amazing amount of literary works and religious themes.
Bernard Ramm, a twentieth century Baptist theologian and apologist, has forcefully demonstrated this claim when he stated: “From the Apostolic Fathers dating from A.D. 95 to the modern times is one great literary river inspired by the Bible—Bible dictionaries, Bible encyclopedias, Bible lexicons, Bible atlases, and Bible geographies. These may be taken as a starter. Then at random, we may mention the vast bibliographies around theology, religious education, hymnology, missions, the biblical languages, church history, religious biography, devotional works, commentaries, philosophy of religion, evidences, apologetics and on and on. There seems to be an endless number…”[1]
With credentials like these is it any wonder the Bible, down through the years, has withstood the test of time.
[1] The Forerunner: https://www.forerunner.com/orthodoxy/X0003_2._Authority_of_Scri.html