Why is Christianity the dominant force in the world? One more reason--The Worldwide Distribution of Scripture



When I was a professor at the University of Colorado every spring the Gideons would distribute New Testaments around campus to everyone who would take one. I often had comments and discussions in my classes about the practice. Most students shrugged their shoulders and said, “Whatever.” A few, unaware of the First Amendment, would say they didn’t have the right to distribute the Bibles. But none of them paused to ask the most important question, so I asked it for them. “Why do those old men do that? Why do they go to the trouble and expense to pass out the little green Bibles?”

Students had no idea. I then asked a follow up question, “What do those old men think they are accomplishing?” Sometimes a student would figure it out. They would answer, “Maybe they think the Bibles will help somebody.” Ah. Yes, the Gideons think their Bibles will help somebody.

And boy are they right. The translation and distribution of Scripture has been one of the most powerful cultural and spiritual forces of all time.

This is almost exclusively the province of Protestant Evangelicals. If you hand a Bible to someone with no Christian background and they read it carefully and honestly, they often become Christians, and Christians very much like ourselves.

A person reading the Bible only would never become a Mormon. Mormonism’s elaborate belief system simply isn’t in the Bible. And Mormons do not distribute Bibles, nor are they involved in translation work. The same with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. And the Roman Catholics as well. The Catholics believe in the authority of the Bible but they have added so much religious scaffolding to its contents, no one reading the Bible and nothing else would become a Catholic of any kind—Roman or Eastern.

But Protestants have gigantic Bible distribution ministries. The Gideons alone have distributed more than 2 billion copies of Scripture. Not just to schools but hospitals, the military, motels, hotels, and in a host of other places you will open a drawer and see a Gideon Bible.

Not only do Evangelicals lead the world in Scripture distribution, we lead in translation ministries as well. Giant missionary groups are dedicated to one thing—the translation of the Bible into a person’s native language. Wycliffe Bible Translators alone have translated a least a portion of the Bible into 3,000 languages and dialects.

We should add here that the most watched film of all time, The Jesus Film, has been dubbed into over 2,000 languages. It is based on one portion of Scripture—the Gospel of Luke. The distributors of the film have called on the Bible translation people to help them with this giant task of making the film available to people in their own language.

As a result, hundreds of millions of people have embraced the gospel and the spread of the Bible has been one of the most powerful forces for changing history that has ever existed. The Jesus Film Project says that 633 million people have indicated they have received Christ after watching the film.  That’s nearly the United States times two. For just that one film.

If you invite a Gideon to speak to your church he will tell amazing stories of people coming to Christ by reading a Bible or Testament.

I have some of my own. A number of years ago I had been invited to speak at a retreat for a church in Arizona. I gave several messages and during a break a man approached me, saying he had some questions about the Bible. I asked him how he had become a Christian. He said he had been a member of the Outlaw motorcycle gang. One night he had reached the end of his rope and decided to take his own life. He reached into his saddlebag to take out a pistol. But by mistake he reached into the wrong pocket and took out a New Testament his grandmother had given him. He read it. Instead of taking his own life he gave it to Jesus Christ and had become a delightful person and an aggressive evangelist.

And my favorite Bible translation story. I was speaking at a missions’ conference in Nepal when one of the Nepali nationals who was in translation work told me this story. They had finished a New Testament in a local tribal language and were distributing it in a marketplace at the foot of the Himalayas. A person from a distant tribe was there that day and took a copy of the Testament and returned with it to his village deep in the world’s highest mountain range. He said a few years later he and some of his coworkers managed to get to the village and they found that everyone had come to Christ through the reading of the one copy of the New Testament. That has happened many, many times in the history of translation work. But then the villagers asked him a question. “We are so thankful God sent His Son to die on the cross to save us, but why did he have to die four times?” Of course, these villagers came from a culture that believed in reincarnation. When they finished Matthew they thought Jesus was starting over in Mark. They did not understand the concept of the Gospels covering the same ground four different ways. But you have to admit, they took the Bible very seriously. Christ changed their lives and their village.

As Christians we need to rejoice in what God is doing through His Word all over the world. Read the Bible yourself and encourage others to do the same. May the God who inspired the Bible bless you this day in a mighty way.

More: Your Awesome Bible: The Most Powerful Book in Human History https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL8qkPk3H0k

One of the most influential people of all time: “The woman who gave the world a thousand names for God”: https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2022/october/linguist-katharine-barnwell-bible-translation-jesus-film.html?utm_source=CT+Daily+Briefing+Newsletter&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_term=722630&utm_content=10966&utm_campaign=email

The special role of women in Bible translation: https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2017/april-web-only/how-single-women-became-unstoppable-force-in-bible-translat.html

The Jesus Film website: https://www.jesusfilm.org/dev/nda/grants/jesus-film-project-branded-jf/

Wycliffe’s website: https://www.wycliffe.org/wordgivers?gclid=CjwKCAiAt5euBhB9EiwAdkXWO0KzTK4UpbZvtRjuLGGueHtkMUfKPYwodAZJ15aMg39at-bTkFipgxoCld0QAvD_BwE