The Bible not only outstrips all other writings and copies printed and distributed no other writing even comes close. And while its unparalleled printing and circulation does not prove the Bible to be the Word of God, it certainly is a formidable evidence for it. After all, isn’t that what one would expect if it is in fact God´s Word? Does it not strike us as expected for the very God of the universe to have authored a book, and then to have it on the world’s perpetual bestseller status?
In their 1976 textbook, Geisler & Nix report the Bible had been translated into more than 1,100 languages and dialects representing more than 90% of the world’s population. By 1966, combined Bible societies had distributed 87 million copies each year – a cumulative total surpassing 2 billion portions of Scripture. By the year 2000, the united Bible societies distributed over 633 million Scriptures worldwide, an amount exceeding 10 times the number just 25 years earlier. The Gideons alone distributed 56 million copies, without charge, every year, all over the world, in multiple languages. Truth be told, the total of all copies of God’s Word distributed is simply beyond calculation. No one, no matter how hard or opposed to the Bible he may be, can possibly deny the unparalleled numbers associated with the Bible in terms copied, printed, its multiple languages, and worldwide circulation. Shakespeare, Milton, and all the other ancient classic works combined do not begin to equal the numbers posted by the “Good Book.”
As stated at the outset, while this unequalled success in printing and circulation does not by itself prove the Bible to be the Word of God, it assuredly is an obvious indicator pointing in that direction. To deny this, one needs to be embarrassingly biased against the Bible. And to such an one, we could only ask, “What has the book of God done to you, other than to tell you the truth – truth about God, truth about man, including you?” It may be that therein lies the rub. There’s a safe prayer, even for the unbeliever. He can pray telling God that, “If the Bible is true, I am willing to be shown.” And then, start reading and prepare yourself to weigh and carefully evaluate what you read. Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer founder and first president of Dallas Theological Seminary made this careful observation: “The Bible is a book such as man would not write if he could, nor could not write if he would.”
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