Nov/Dec 2004
COMMON GROUND
by Joseph Tkach
Some time back, a bookstore in Boston put on a big Bible sale. Customers were lured by a clever bit of poetry on a sign in the window.
The verse read: Holy Scripture, Writ Divine/At a dollar forty-nine; Satan trembles when he sees Bibles sold as cheap as these.
A cute bit of verse, but is it true? Does Satan tremble at the thought of cheap Bibles? Or might the easy availability of Bibles actually have the opposite effect?
The fact is that many people today take owning a Bible for granted. Surveys show that fewer than half of Americans can even name the first four books of the New Testament!
It wasn’t always that way. In an age when Bibles are widely available, it may be hard for us to picture a time when simply owning a Bible was a capital crime— as it was in some European countries during the Middle Ages. Or to picture men and women giving their lives to preserve and disseminate the Scriptures, as the great Bible translator William Tyndale did. He was burned at the stake in 1536.
Ironically, history shows that the value placed on the Bible is inversely proportional to its availability. But you can buck the trend!
If you’re not a Bible reader, pick up a modern English translation— one without all those “thees” and “thous” and archaic words that mean nothing to us today. I guarantee you’ll be surprised at what you find.
The words of the Bible are of no value as mere letters on paper. They must live in the hearts and minds of people. And when they do, a new life— a life lived in and through Jesus Christ— is the result.