This writer has now spent more than forty-five years of his life studying the Bible. He does not feel that he knows all there is to know about the great and grand book, but with each year of study his love and appreciation for the sacred volume has grown. One of the things that disturbs people who have studied the Bible over a long period of time is the fact that it is no longer the center of study and discussion, even for religious people, in our time. There was a time when almost every politician, when making speeches, would make references to the Bible. Sometimes these references were taken out of context, yet the Bible was held in reverence and was respected as the source book for religion and morals. But that time no longer exists, and we have such hard and callus organizations as the ACLU who work actively to remove every vestige of the Bible from anything that has anything to do with the political in the U.S. Many children are growing up today having never seen the Book of Books. For this reason we think that it is appropriate that we look at some simple facts about the Bible.

The Bible is not a textbook on science, yet when it speaks scientifically it does so in a very accurate way. For example, when Jesus told the story of the good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37, he mentioned almost in passing that the man who was robbed went from Jerusalem down to Jericho. Jericho actually lay to the north and east of Jerusalem, so why did the Lord not say that the man went from Jerusalem up to Jericho? Because when one stands in the city of Jerusalem he is standing on a high mountain, and though he is traveling north in going to Jericho he is actually descending so far as sea level is concerned! So, the scientific truth of the matter is that one goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho! There are dozens of other instances in the Bible that show equally well that the Bible is scientifically correct though it is not a textbook on science.

A second example may be found in the 17th chapter of the Book of Acts. Here the Apostle Paul delivered an address to the Areopagus on Mars Hill in Athens. He was speaking to the most elite philosophers in the world at that time. Among the many things that Paul had to say to these men regarding God was that "...He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth..." Since it was not until the first third of the 20th Century that men learned that the blood of all human beings is alike, and that it is different from the blood of animals so that cross-transfusions between men and animals cannot take place without death resulting, how does one explain the Bible truth that there is but one blood for all the men of the earth? Blood transfused from the body of one man who is of one race does not in any way interfere with the race, capabilities or characteristics of the person receiving the blood. Why is that true? Because human beings are all of one blood which when properly typed and cross-matched can be transfused into another human without fear of damage, unless, of course, the blood is contaminated. When the Bible speaks scientifically, its words are scientifically accurate.

By the same token, the Bible is not a handbook on history, although it contains a great deal of history of how God has dealt with his people down through the ages. When it speaks of historical events, it does so in a very accurate way. In the portion of the Bible called the Old Testament, we find listed, sometimes according to Hebrew spelling, the names of various kings and emperors of the world outside the country of Israel. When we find the Bible using these names, such as that of Nebuchadnezzar and Evil-Merodach, we find the Bible assigning them to the times in which they really lived, not any earlier and not any later. When the archeologists do their work in digging in the ruins of the civilizations of the near-eastern world they find secular records that prove to the secular mind that these kings and emperors, such as the ones mentioned, were where the Bible says they were when the Bible says they were there. The Bible is historically accurate!

Secular "scholars" do their very best to discredit the Bible historically, but to this very date they have never been able to do so. Every evidence that comes to light upon which the Bible has anything to say is evidence which says, "The Bible is right." Why, then, do men continue to criticize the Bible  and ridicule it? Because, if the Bible is what it claims to be, it has the right, because it is the Word of God, to regulate the life of every person upon the face of the earth. Many people do not wish to have anything or anyone around to tell them what they must do, but the day is coming when they must answer for what they have done in this life.