The Divine Power of the Bible

It is easily demonstrable, through practical experiment, that the power of God in promoting growth is found in the Bible as it is in no other book, nor in all other books combined.

Everyone who has tried it has found in the Bible milk for babes and meat for those who are mature, the finest of wheat and honey from the rock. A Christian who neglects the Bible, regardless of what else he may read, can no more grow as he ought than a babe can grow without proper nourishment. On the other hand, anyone who has been born again and daily, prayerfully, and obediently studies the Bible will grow in grace, in the knowledge of God, and likeness to God, even if every other book is neglected.

The Bible possesses divine power to make those who rightly study it wise.

Anyone can find clear and conclusive evidence that where God’s word, as found in the Bible, comes in, it gives light to individuals and nations. Ps. 119:130. Who has not known a poorly educated man or woman of rare wisdom? When the solution to this mystery was sought, it was found that, although these men and women had not enjoyed the advantages of reading many books, they had pondered much on the one book. It is indisputable that there is more real and eternal wisdom in the Bible than in all the literature of the ages. The man who knows his Bible is well-educated, and the man who neglects the Bible is not well-educated, no matter what else he has studied.

The one who thoroughly studies his Bible, even if he does not study any other book, will know more real wisdom—the wisdom that counts for eternity as well as time, wisdom that this perishing world needs to know, wisdom for which countless hungry hearts are starving today—than the man who reads all other books and neglects the Bible. How often in history have men of culture, science, philosophy, and genius sat at the feet of the man of one book, the Bible, and learned wisdom from him. The greatest man in the religious world today, the man who wields the mightiest influence, the man before whom theologians, ecclesiastics, and metaphysicians have to give way, the man who exerts mighty influence even in educational circles, is a man utterly unversed in the wisdom of the schools but who knows the Bible.

The Bible possesses a power that is altogether unique and manifestly divine to make men wise.

The Bible possesses divine power to bring peace to conscience-stricken, anguish-riven, and care-burdened hearts. The true God is “the God of peace.” He alone can give peace that is deep, abiding, real, and eternal. There is one chosen instrument by which He works His wondrous peace in the soul; that instrument is the Bible. Jesus proved that His voice was divine by saying to tempest-tossed Galilee, “Peace, be still,” and there was a great calm.

The Bible proves that its voice is divine in a similar way. It says to the raging heart, “Peace, be still,” and again there is a great calm.

Nothing in human experience is more certain than that the Bible has a power, peculiar to itself, of imparting peace to the heart of man. Who that has dealt with people cannot give many instances of this? One verse of the Bible brought peace to a woman who for fourteen years had been hunted by an anxious conscience and haunted by remorse. Another woman, burdened by such cares and broken-hearted over such sorrows as come to but few, found peace in a moment’s time through another verse of Scripture. A man of exceptional education and brilliant abilities but tortured with an anxiety that had driven him to attempt suicide five times, found through another verse of Scripture a peace so wonderful that this peace has been overflowing ever since to many others. These are but a few of countless illustrations in the experience of the writer in applying the Bible as a medicine to tormented hearts. Nothing from Emerson, Carlyle, Ruskin, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Seneca, Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed, or anyone else would have produced an effect like this. There is one book that has the power to produce peace in any heart that will listen, believe, and obey: that book is the Bible.