Today the Bible—God’s written Word—is so widely available, it’s hard to understand how rare it was in the past, or how scarce God’s Word might be in the future. What should we do to prepare for what God calls a coming "famine of the Word"?
by Mike Bennett
Throughout history, God's Word has been under attack by many enemies.
"In all the great and dreadful Jewish persecutions from Antiochus Epiphanes downwards, the chief aim of the persecutors has ever been to destroy the Book that made the Jews what they were. Infidels also have from time to time spent their strength in trying to destroy the Bible, while Rome has done her best to burn it and its readers out of existence" (Sidney Collett, All About the Bible, 1962, p. 61).
Until a few hundred years ago, economics and even the religious establishment kept the Bible out of the hands of the vast majority of people. But today, when it is widely available, its enemies have found new ways to discredit it in people's eyes or to just make it seem irrelevant.
Today many homes in Western nations have a Bible somewhere, mostly gathering dust. Few read it, and fewer still understand its meaning and apply its principles in everyday life.
A rare and precious book
Before the invention of the printing press, only a very few could own their own copy of even part of the Bible. Some estimate that it took a skilled and rapid writer 10 months to make a copy of it, and a finished and bound copy was worth the price of a landed estate!
Yet Christ told His followers to live by every word of God (Matthew 4:4). And Paul reminded Christians that the Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise to salvation, and are given by inspiration of God to teach us, correct us, instruct us and thoroughly equip us for every good work (2 Timothy 3:15-17).
God's people have always loved God's Word. Even if they could not own a copy, Christians throughout the ages found ways to hear it read often and even memorized portions of it.
