Ashley Beach-Author and Storyteller

Have you ever thought about the miracle of what the Bible is? I mean really thought about it? Here in America, I feel we greatly take the Bible for granted, but I was reminded this past week of how remarkable the Word of God truly is and the miracle of it’s existence and longevity and consistency through the centuries.

I’ll start by sharing that an event popped up on my Facebook several weeks ago for a mobile Bible exhibit that was going to be in Colorado. I’ve included a link to their website below. It talks about their mission and shares where they’ll be next. Because of my interest in the Bible and the history it holds not only for personal enrichment, but because that’s the center of my Heart of God series, I was very interested in checking out this little Bible exhibit. I told my mom about it but it was only at a church in Colorado for a week. Life got busy and we didn’t end up making it there. By God’s grace, another event popped up on my Facebook for another location in Colorado last week at a church that was five minutes from my house. You can’t get much better than that. My mom and I went last week and were truly amazed by the exhibit. Truth be told, we didn’t know what to expect. I was sure whatever information or artifacts they had in their little exhibit would be interesting, but how much can you fit into a converted semi-truck trailer in the parking lot of a church? Well, we discovered a wealth of information and many various artifacts that showcased different aspects of the viability and importance of the Bible and were pleasantly surprised by our informative and interactive guided tour of this little exhibit. We were both so impressed and impacted, I put together a post to share on all my socials as well as sharing with friends and family. The exhibit is truly incredible and I’m so glad God provided another opportunity for us to go see it. We even had the privilege of going again last night with my dad and we got the perspectives of the other 2 guides that are on this particular tour of the mobile Bible exhibit, which made it even more interesting to hear what different things impact each of them and what each of them like to share about. Seeing the exhibit not once, but twice, inspired me to share some of my thoughts of things I was reminded of about the Bible as well as new things I learned about this incredible book, so here are my takeaways from the exhibit.

The Bible is the oldest known piece of literature in the world. It contains 66 books, all authored by about 40 different authors who lived in different time frames, empires, cultures and spanned centuries. The incredible part about these facts is not that these 66 completely different books were written by many different authors from many different backgrounds (shepherds, kings, fishermen, prophets, poets, laymen, religious leaders) that spanned centuries of history. The fact that makes the whole of the Bible unique and unlike any other book ever written is the consistency and unity of what was written by those 40 authors living in completely different times, places, and cultures. The Old Testmant (the first part of the Bible written before Christ’s birth), was written in Hebrew which was the most distinct written language of the day. The hieroglyphs and other pictoral languages of the day had the ability to be easily misinterpreted and had the possibility of different meanings attached to the different characters making the fact that the Hebrew text was so meticulously written down and passed down generation to generation without change so incredible and points to supernatural backing. There are also almost 64,000 cross references within the Bible validating the information within its own pages more than any other book written in history. Even more incredible, the famous Dead Sea Scrolls were manuscripts of the Bible found in caves that date back 3,000 years before Christ’s birth with the entire manuscript in tact for the book of Isaiah. That’s pretty incredible to find something like that so preserved and in tact centuries later, but if there were a level of incredible beyond that, the manuscripts found match the modern day text of our Bibles almost 100% word for word. The marginal differences are only due to translations from the ancient Hebrew text to our modern day English. The fact that Hebrew is still an active language today and that the original language of the Bible is not a dead and buried language that no one knows how to interpret is also amazing, giving us direct access to translate our modern texts from the original and still be accurate. The Greek and Aramaic languages used in the New Testament can also be directly translated today, leaving little to no room for misinterpretation of the texts. These facts alone show how incredible the Bible is, just as a book. No other book in history has been around as long as the Bible or remained so consistent and unchangeable through the centuries of translation and human handling. That alone should show how amazing a book like this is and make people want to read a book like this.

Another thing they talk about in the tour of the mobile Bible exhibit the attempts to get rid of the Bible through the centuries. The ministry is based in Russian, Slovak, Ukranian churches and so they talked a lot about the persecution of Christians in the USSR and how people had to be creative in how they printed Bibles or had Bibles in their homes or even obtained Bibles while being imprisoned just because a Bible was found in their home. Many of the stories they share come from real people who have been on their tours throughout the years and show the reality and power of the Bible even still today in our modern world. People have been trying to get rid of the Bible and those who follow God for centuries. The Egyptians enslaved God’s Chosen people Israel for several hundred years. The Romans persecuted Christians mercilessly, placing them in the gladiator rings to be killed by fellow humans or animals and burned many Christians alive just because they believed in God and His Word. The Nazi regime tried to wipe out the Jews during World War 1 and World War 2. Persecution still exists today in many countries and countless people are brutally murdered every day just because they believe in God and the Bible. People would not be willing to die for something if they didn’t know and believe in their hearts that the words written in the Bible are true. People stand up for what is written in the Bible because it’s true. Other religions and people try to snuff it out and destroy it because they know it preaches the truth– One true God who created the universe and is the moral compass for life itself on this planet– but it’s because those truths go against selfish desires and our own pride that people try to destroy it and anything that goes with it. Remarkably, no matter how many times people have tried to silence those who follow God or destroy His Word, it has never been snuffed out yet. Other people groups and cultures have risen and fallen throughout the history of the world, but nothing has stood the test of time like the Bible.

One of my favorite verses that was displayed on a part of their exhibit that shows how the Bible is likened to basic necessities in life–bread, water, milk, honey, etc.– was Hebrews 4:12. “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” This verse encapsulates some of what the Bible is. Living and active. No other book in history can transform a person’s life the way this book can, making it unique in that aspect as well. Books and the written word can impact people to a point, but the words written by man alone can only go so far. When you have a book written by the hand of God Himself, your life can’t help but be changed by reading it. People read and live by the religious texts of other religions, but they follow them more out of fear of the consequences of what would happen if they didn’t follow the rules set up by these man-made gods and not out of the love and respect and passion for something that so inexplicably changed and transformed their lives like the Bible. People can deny the Bible, they can disagree with the Bible, they can live their lives in complete rebellion to the Bible, but that will never change the power and constancy of the Bible.

Prayer and the Bible used be allowed in public schools. Many of our founding fathers and influential people that have lived in our country and other countries around the world have believed unwaveringly in the power of the Bible. When the Bible and prayer was a relevant presence in schools, the problems schools faced was relatively low. Since prayer and the Bible have been taken out of schools, the problems schools face has become unimaginable. We have so many school shootings and violence in general in our schools today. So many kids have severe mental and emotional problems and can’t handle even the smallest things in life. Bullying and outright abuse is also rampant in schools today and these issues carry over into the work place as these children enter the adult world. I believe the Bible is the truth Word of God, which is my right and freedom to believe that, and I believe it is necessary to live a moral and upright life. Whether you believe that or not, there is no denying that even if you don’t believe the Bible or disagree with it completely, it sets the moral compass by which everyone lives their lives. We base our justice system off of things like murder and stealing and lying being wrong. It is wrong to be unfaithful to your spouse and go after another person’s spouse. It is better to show love and kindness and patience and goodness than anger and hatred and doing good to others gives you more fulfillment than doing things selfishly for yourself. These are all principles founded in the Bible and people that follow these principles, generally live happier and freer lives than those who follow their own moral laws. Unfortunately, we’ve developed a bad habit in recent decades of only believing certain parts of the Bible and taking out the things that offend us or we don’t want to listen to. Another interesting thing we found out when we went through the Bible exhibit was that Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, literally went through his Bible and cut out the parts that he didn’t like, leaving him with only 64 pages left of the Bible. That may seem crazy, but we do the same exact thing in our culture today. We cut out certain parts that offend us because it points out how we are not living moral and upright lives and we preach acceptance as the Gospel instead of the truth of the sacrifice of Christ’s death on the cross that was meant to cover our sins, but if we take out the offense of our sins against God and accept everything, then Christ’s death and resurrection are rendered completely meaningless. Christ loves everyone. There is no doubt about that. But we too often mistake His love as acceptance of our sin and selfish, prideful choices. If there was no need to change and it was ok for our lives to remain the same and God just accepted everyone as they are, everyone would be going to Heaven free and clear. There would be no need for a justice system, no need to differentiate between murderers and pro-life activists. No need to do anything outside of our selfish intents. But, those selfish intents and desires are exactly what make our need for a Savior so relevant. Our pride and selfishness is what brings so much hatred and dissent and chaos to our world. By elevating ourselves to the position of god of our lives, we remove the base for morality and goodness in the world. Focusing on ourselves removes thoughts of kindness and compassion and blurs our vision so we no longer see people as fellow living, breathing human beings who have value and purpose on this earth. Our differences cloud our judgement and become the focus of our thoughts until we can no longer see how hate-filled and unfeeling our views of the world truly are.

The Bible is Light. Without it, we are left with darkness in the world. The Bible is Hope. Without it, we have nothing to live for. The Bible is Eternal. Without it, we have nothing to hold onto. Many have set out to disprove the Bible and do you know what happened when they started researching and delving deep into the words penned in the Bible? Their hearts and minds were completely transformed because they started reading about a God who took the time to carefully craft each living being in the Universe and breathed into every living thing the breath of life. They started to see how the stories told in the Bible were not just stories of fairy tale and myth, but that there was countless historical and scientific evidence in our world that aligned with the texts from the Bible, showing their accuracy and validity. And then, they started to see the story of how much this God who created and preserved every living thing in the Universe, including His Words penned miraculously in this book compiled of truths and bases of how to live life loved not only the whole of the world, but them as individuals.

Whether you believe the Bible or not, you can not deny how remarkable it is as a book. It is still the most widely read and distributed book in the world and there’s a reason it has remained unchanged by time and translation over the centuries and why it still impacts people’s lives today. When you read it, you will discover truths that you can’t deny. You will gain understanding and insight in humanity and the world around us and discover that nothing is new under the sun. You will find meaning and purpose for your life and find out that there is a God who loves you too much to leave you where you are. If you’ve never read the Bible and that feels overwhelming to you to open such a vast book, reach out. I would love to walk alongside you as you discover the beauty written within the pages of this miraculous book. There are countless resources available to help you navigate this book. So many testimonies of how this books transformed so many lives and continues to transform people’s lives every day.

“The Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

I pray you give this incredible book a chance. And, if the Bible has been a part of your life for a long time, I pray your belief in it is refreshed and that it continues to be living and active in your life.