(Being a series of studies in the Scriptures, made for broadcasting in America.

and are an attempt to present the Truth of the Scriptures in the simplest possible way.)

We wish to write about the greatest Book in the world. We wonder what your

estimate would be; what do you think is the greatest book in the world? The answer is

surely the Bible. We realize, of course, that people regard the Bible in all sorts of ways.

Some think it is dry and boring and uninteresting so they never read it. Others say it is

quite incomprehensible if you do read it, that nobody can really understand it, so they do

not read it either. And yet there are people who find this book intensely fascinating, the

most interesting and vital of all books. And not only that, but in past history some have

even been willing to die for it and have given their lives gladly!  There must be

something about this Book then, that makes it absolutely outstanding. We want to give

this a further consideration.

The Bible took something like 2,000 years to write, and since its completion nearly

another 2,000 years have gone by, yet it is not only still here but is the world's best seller.

That is an extraordinary fact, but it is true. The next thing to note is this, that it is the

Textbook of the Christian profession. Now every profession has its textbook, one or

more, and of course, if anyone wants to be proficient in their particular profession then

they must have the textbook or books at their fingertips; they cannot afford to ignore

them. Without doubt, the Bible is the textbook for all who profess the Name of Christ. If

we are at all interested in Christianity, or if we are searching for truth (and we believe

many are), then we just cannot ignore the Bible, if only for the reason that Christianity

means Christ. If we could sanction the pronunciation of it as "Christ-ianity" and the

word "Christian as "Christ-ian", it would be a very good thing, because it would remind

us that a Christian obviously is related to Christ, and yet how often is that word used

without Christ personally being thought about. There is something radically wrong with

this. Christianity must relate to Christ. Now the only book that makes Christ known is

the Bible. If we have a closed Bible we shall never know anything about the Lord Jesus

Christ: and that is why all the various denominations, the churches and the chapels, must

finally come to terms with this Book. This does not mean to say, of course, that they all

interpret it in the same way or put the same value upon it, but they certainly cannot afford

to ignore the Bible. It makes stupendous claims, and one of the most stupendous is this,

that it is the Word of God although it was written by the pens of men. In the O.T., those

who gave it spoke with Divine authority and they could say "Thus saith the Lord". If

only we had a revelation like that today, if only people could speak in this way! Should

we not have something secure to rest our faith on? This is the greatest need of our age;

we need authority, we need something secure upon which we can place our faith and that

is exactly what the Bible was to the early Christians.