Bowker reports that 1,052,803 books were published in the U.S. in 2009, which is more than triple the number of books published four years earlier (2005) in the U.S. (Bowker is the world’s leading provider of bibliographic information). In 2013, there were 28 million books in print in English. Truly, if Solomon were living today, he could still write: “of making many books there is no end” (Ecc. 12:12). Yet, in much of the world, the words “The Book” identifies but one book, the Bible.
It is the Bible that answers the questions which no other book can answer. We are still learning about the universe in which we live, but what was its beginning? “The Book” still reads in its opening statement: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Gen. 1:1). The question that generally comes before us: “How can something come from nothing?” Here is how one person deals with this subject: “One such religious notion is the story of creation: once upon a time there was nothing, and then, miraculously, there was something. But is that the only possibility? Why couldn’t there always have been something? If there never was a transition from nothing to something, it follows that there was no creation and, therefore, no creator—personal or otherwise.” (Did the Universe Come from Nothing? Reality Check – Victor Stenger, Vol. 20.4, Dec. 2010). As a matter of fact, the opening statement of “The Book” reveals that there has always been “something,” that “something” is God! There was a “transition,” but it was from God, the Creator, to the creation. Thus, all that exists, all that may be identified by the five senses, is the result of creation and creation is the result of the action of God: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” “The Book” has the answer to questions which scientists and philosophers are unable to answer without the Bible.
The second question, where did man come from? Man gives us three general views: 1) The Recent African Origin Model; this model was given a huge boost in 1987, when a paper published in the scientific journal Nature, Mitochondrial DNA and Human Evolution, rocked the palaeoanthropology world. It showed that part of our genome, inherited only through mothers and daughters, derived from an African ancestor. This female ancestor became known as Mitochondrial Eve. 2) The Multiregional Model, puts forward the parallel lines of evolution in each inhabited region of Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia, glued together by interbreeding across the human range. And 3) The Assimilation model, under this view, Neanderthals and archaic people like them were assimilated through widespread interbreeding. This meant that the establishment of modern human features occurred via a blending of populations rather than a rapid replacement. It is seen that no agreeable answer is forthcoming through Human Science, but “The Book” answers that God made man in “our image, after our likeness” and then revealed more: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul…. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man” (Gen. 1:26; 2:7, 21-22). Then, in harmony with man’s beginning, “The Book,” reveals man’s end: “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (Ecc. 12:7).
Yet, strikingly “The Book” reveals that man is responsible to his Creator! As Solomon summed up life, he wrote: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Ecc. 12:13-14). Then, Jesus said to those who lived during the “age of Christ,” even those who reject him, are yet answerable: “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48).
The created is answerable to the Creator! “The Book” answers questions that cannot be answered in any of the many books written by man, out of the mind of man! It is good that the Bible is the most sold book, as a conservative estimate is that in 2005 Americans purchased 25 million Bibles! Yet these questions come face to face before us; how many read it, how many really study it, then, how many really obey it?
Sadly, only few obey the word of God! Only those who abide in “the teaching of Christ” are truly abiding in Christ (2 John 9). My friends are you abiding in “the teaching of Christ?”
— Frank R. Williams