UNIQUE IN IMPACT

The Bible has influenced civilization more than any other literary work in history. It is the most widely distributed work ever written and has a foundational role in the advent of western civilization.[1]

Unique in its circulation and translation

The Bible surpasses all other literary works in production and circulation. The number of sales reaches into the billions![2]

Most books are never translated into another language, and if they are then it is usually published in two or three other languages. Very few books are available in more than ten languages. The Bible, however, or portions of it, has been translated into 2,883 of the world’s 6,901 known languages, covering 80% of the estimated 7.26 billion people worldwide.[3] In addition, the You Version digital text Bible app has been translated into 799 languages and downloaded over 200 million times.[4]

No other book comes close to the Bible in its distribution and translation.

Unique in its survival and resiliency

No other written work has been so attacked, scrutinized, and persecuted as have the canonical books of the Bible[5] yet there is no indication that the desire for or distribution of the Bible is waning.[6] It has survived through persecution:

“Diocletian became Caesar in the year 284. For the first 19 years of his reign Christians had rest from persecution. . . . Then, under the influence of his cruel son-in-law, Diocletian issued four harsh edicts. The first called for the destruction of all places of Christian worship and the burning of all Christian books. This order also stripped Christians of all honors and civic rights. The second called for the imprisonment in chains of pastors and church officers. The third, issued on the eve of Diocletians’s 20th anniversary as emperor, offered a cruel kind of amnesty. The Christian prisoners would be released if they would sacrifice to the Emperor and other Roman gods. The fourth, issued in AD 304, ordered every person in the Empire to sacrifice and make offerings to heathen gods, or suffer torture and death. Churches were destroyed all over the Empire. All Bibles and writings of the church fathers that could be found were burned in public gatherings. Christian men, women, and children were tortured, thrown to wild beasts, and burned to death. Diocletian had a monument erected at the site of one Bible burning, bearing the inscription, Extincto nomine Christianorum—“ Extinct is the Name of Christians.” . . . . Communism came to dwarf all other foes of the Bible. Lenin and Marx both predicted that the Bible would become only a relic in a new classless, atheistic society. Adjoining countries were annexed into the Soviet Empire, religious freedom denied, missionaries banished, Bibles confiscated, and churches turned into museums or closed. Millions of citizens, including many Christians, died in Stalinistic blood purges in the 1920s and ´ 30s. In village after village, residents were called to mass meetings and asked, “Are you with the Marxists or the believers?” Those who said “believers” were shoved into cattle cars for shipment to Siberia. . . . Millions perished in Communist countries other than the Soviet Union. Here too, Bibles were destroyed. It was a rerun of the hate-filled persecutions under the old Roman emperors, except that many, many more have died for the Christian faith and an authoritative Bible in the 20th century than in all of the bloody vendettas by the Caesars of Imperial Rome. (Pudaite and Hefley, GBEW, 47– 48, 55– 56)[7]

It has survived through criticism:

“A thousand times over, the death knell of the Bible has been sounded, the funeral procession formed, the inscription cut on the tombstone, and the committal read. But somehow the corpse never stays put. No other book has been so chopped, knived, sifted, scrutinized, and vilified. What book on philosophy or religion or psychology or belles lettres of classical or modern times has been subject to such a mass attack as the Bible? with such venom and skepticism? with such thoroughness and erudition? upon every chapter, line and tenet? (Ramm, PCE, 232– 233)”[8]

Unique in its impact on western civilization

No other book has influenced western civilization as much as the Bible.

“Almost all of the good things of life that we take for granted bear the stamp of the Bible’s influence – marriage, family, names, calendar, institutions of caring, social agencies, education, benefits from science, uplifting books, magnificent works of art and music, freedom, justice, equal rights, the work ethic, the virtues of self-reliance and self-discipline.” (Pudaite and Hefley, GBEW, 114)[9]

• Government and law

“(1) individual autonomy and the democratic process, (2) a separation of secular government from the religious institution, and (3) the maintaining of a system of justice.”[10]

The Bible has also informed both the substance and framework of modern legal structures. Steve Jeffery, Michael Ovey, and Andrew Sach demonstrate how the biblical principle of retributive justice is still the only form of jurisprudence that is truly “just”[11]

• Science and education

The rise of science was not an extension of classical learning, it was the natural outgrowth of Christian doctrine…[12]

• Art, literature, and music

The Bible has been a fundamental source for nearly every genre of art and literature.[13] The Bible has impacted some of history’s greatest minds.[14] The Bible has affected some of the greatest musical composers.[15]

• Societal norms and values

The Bible has shaped more social morality than any other book. For example, Christian theology led fervent believers to the conclusion that slavery is reprehensible and should be abolished.

[1] McDowell, Josh; McDowell, Sean. Evidence That Demands a Verdict (p. 46). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

[2] Ibid, 47

[3] Ibid, 47

[4] Ibid, 48

[5] Ibid, 48

[6] Ibid, 49

[7] Ibid 49-51

[8] Ibid, 50-51

[9] Ibid, 50-51

[10] Ibid 51

[11] Ibid 53

[12] Ibid 55

[13] Ibid 56

[14] Ibid 57

[15] Ibid 58