The billion gold pieces Book

Many years ago when I came to repentance and joined a small church, the people told me to read the Bible.  I duly bought a Bible and began to read.  When I think back it would have greatly shortened my learning curve if they told me what a precious book the Bible is.  The Book itself tells us about its worth,    

‘The Law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.’  Psalm 119:72

That statement caused me to think long and deep because we all know how much gold is worth.  However I also realised it is not only about my love for Scripture and faith in God.  If I don’t persevere and overcome, I might miss those promised thousands of pieces of silver and gold.  God revealed,

‘He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white.  I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and His angels.’  Revelation 3:5

John also reported that the billions of dollars (or whatever currency) begins when he,

“…heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them.  They will be His people [those whose names are written in the Book of Life] and God Himself will be with them and be their God.’  Revelation 21:3

Just think, the New Jerusalem will be a cube with dimensions of 2,200 kilometres or 1,400 miles, 

‘…and the city [is] of pure gold, as pure as glass.’  Revelation 21:18b

That is big money and it is up for grabs for anyone who is interested.  The generosity of our great God is marvellous and His miraculous book reveals it all.  Wow!

Why don’t they read their Book?

Guy Harrison asks the question: ‘Why don’t they read their Book?’ ¹  He explains that the Bible is the

most important book of all time for Christians, but very few of them take the time to read it from cover to cover.

 

We cannot deny that he is right.

• Survey after survey shows that people who believe their lives are formed by the Bible, know very little about it. According to George Barna, the level of Bible reading in the United States is an embarrassment and a crisis among people who profess faith in Jesus. Christians are Biblically illiterate.
• The trend is that the younger people are, the less they understand the Christian faith. It is true. The Biblical illiteracy among youth who are supposed to be churched and know the doctrines of the Bible, is very low. The problem is that they are the target of atheists. No matter how friendly atheists purport to be, we should understand that they have an agenda. It is to turn people from faith in God to become committed atheists.
• Guy intimates it: atheists confront youth with issues about the Bible, like the murder of babies, tips on how to be a good slave and an even better slave owner, or the execution of homosexuals. Christians generally cannot answer these accusations. Worse yet, young people are often persuaded that God is a moral monster or a Cosmic Tyrant and that the Bible condones unspeakable atrocities. They have never been taught that there are answers, perfectly logical, reasonable answers.
• The average Christian, and especially the youth, probably don’t realise that the questions from atheists are ‘loaded.’ They have been designed to mislead. One example that Guy mentions is the rape of female captives. Now, anybody who knows the Bible, will immediately put a question mark over it. Can God allow the rape of virgins, when He forbids it in the covenant He had with the Israelites (see ‘2 Reasons that God do
  es not condone rape’)?

 

To conclude. We cannot deny Guy’s claim that Christians generally don’t read the Bible. Yet we live in a time that it is becoming very important to know the Bible. It is not only to retain our own faith, but also to help our children, who will eventually venture outside the protective environment of their homes. They need to, ‘Be self-controlled and alert. [Their] enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.’ ² Unfortunately, many are slain. We need to answer the questions, so that the youth know the answers.

 

The next blog is: How to read the Book.

 

References

1. Kindle location 1100 – 1165 of 5739
2. 2 Peter 5:8