The Effect of the Bible

The Bible started out looking like this fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls, but more pristine.   In other words, before we called it the Bible and used it in the modern book form, it was scriptures copied by scribes on scrolls of parchment.   It became perhaps the most influential books ever.   For hundreds of different reasons, people all over the world have come to be familiar with its stories and truly love this remarkable collection of sixty six books.



Last Sunday was Bible Sunday and all over the world there would be services prepared around this amazing and captivating book.   At my church I happened to be the preacher and so I used the whole service to highlight this wonderful publication.   We had a dramatic sketch courtesy of Bible Society.   In it we imagined what might have been said by and to King James I who authorised it for use in churches 400 years ago.   The hymns were about the Bible - "Lord thy Word abideth etc".   Of course, the sermon was very much about the Bible.

I started by telling my congregation about a day I spent at Caernarfon Airport last year.   A number of light aircraft and their pilots were pressed into service to give pleasure flights to disabled children and young people.   I was there to represent Mission Aviation Fellowship who fly light aircraft in developing countries to promote the gospel and provide for the needs of otherwise helpless people in far flung places.   Two others were there as representatives of The Gideons International and they ensured that each youngster who flew received a Gideons Bible (New Testament and Psalms) to commemorate their flight.   I too was presented with a Gideons Bible, even though I had remained earthbound.   This book is now a prized possession!   It looks beautiful and in the earlier passages there are recommended passages to read in a number of given circumstances, good or bad.   This is very useful for the days when life becomes very difficult and you cannot see the way forward.

For Bible Sunday it was suggested to use Nehemiah 8 as a passage for development.   This caused me to read this Old Testament book for the very first time.   Chapter 8 was about the day when the remnants of Israel who had returned to Jerusalem and, under Nehemiah's guidance, had rebuilt the walls of the city.   Crowds of Israelites had gathered before a platform on which Ezra the priest and scribe stood and read the entire five books of the Pentateuch.   The crown went mad as Ezra opened the scrolls.   Having returned to Jerusalem and restored its walls, they now wanted to be taught the Law of Moses and what it meant to them.   I have preached the Gospel for fifty years but I cannot say I have ever preached before a crowd so "up for it" in relation to the Bible!

It was during the Second World War that Pastor Martin Niemoller was imprisoned for his preaching in Germany.   He is famous for the following statement with reference to the indifference showed by intellectuals under Nazi rule:

First they came for the Communists,

And I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

And I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,

And I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for me,

And there was no one left to speak out for me.

As a young teenager I went with a friend and his family to hear him speak at the Municipal Hall, Colne, Lancashire.   I can remember only one thing which was that, when he was imprisoned, he counted the doors that slammed shut between him and "the book".   He was referring to the Bible.   This reminds us how important this book is to a Christian.

Johanna-Ruth Dobschiner was a German Jew who moved to Holland to escape the Nazis.   Let's call her by her familiar name, Hansie.   Incredibly. she managed to escape from transportation to the death camps four times.   Eventually, she was advised to go "underground" which meant hiding in the house of a man she knew as Domie.   Domie was an evangelical Lutheran Pastor who helped a good many Jews at that time.   Sadly, he was executed by the Nazis for his work.   During the time she was in that house she was given a Children's Bible.   She was amazed to read about Jesus, whose name she had never heard before.   She found it amazing that during her education she had not heard of Jesus.   Later she got hold of a Dutch Bible which she kept all her life.   Jesus became a hero to her.   One day she asked if she might be baptised and this was agreed.   Now she was a Messianic Jew or Jew turned Christian.

She never forgot those days or the people who had helped save her life.   Interviewed in her latter years, she had a radiant smile as she spoke about her experiences in Holland.   Put her name up on YouTube and find the interview for STV.

How can we, therefore, say the Bible is not an influential book?   Hansie died in her seventies in 2002 in Scotland where she had met and married her husband.   Her book, "Selected to Live", is still in print and well worth buying.   Like Hansie, many others have read the Bible and then started on an amazing faith journey.   Inspired by God, it speaks to us today just as powerfully as when people read it during the days of the early church.   We all need encouraging in our journey through life and the Bible is the book that does it!