The Importance of Knowing the Bible
Over the last two years, more than 875,000 Bibles have been funded through our One Million Bibles Initiative. By God’s grace, 656,000 Bibles have been distributed to ministry partners in 27 countries throughout the Global South, with the remaining 219,000 copies in the process of being distributed. For many recipients, this will be their first opportunity to read their own Bible. These Bibles have richly increased engagement with the Word of God in churches like Pastor Dilip Chetty’s in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The Bibles we’ve received are so important because a lot of Christians speak about Christianity without quoting from Scripture and without understanding the Bible. It’s important for them to have a Bible so that when they speak about God, they can speak from the Bible. The Bible is the all-sufficient and authoritative Word of God. If you’re going to be speaking about Christ or the church, then the basis of your discussion should come from the Bible.
We celebrate the many Bibles that have been distributed and praise God that even now, lives are being changed around the world! We have nearly reached our goal of distributing one million Bibles, but our work is not quite finished. There is still a great need and, therefore, an opportunity to provide Bibles to believers who may otherwise not have access to read the Bible for themselves.
The Life-Transforming Power of God’s Word
By the power of the Spirit, lives are being changed through the reading of God’s Word. A faithful ministry partner serving in India provided this recent encouraging report: “I’ve known people who have come to know Christ just by reading the Word of God. I’ve known people who have received a Bible and have had no other understanding of the gospel. Nobody has preached the gospel to them. They’ve just read the Bible and come to know Christ.” We believe that God will continue to do work in this way as Bibles from this initiative are distributed.
We fully believe in the power and work of the Holy Spirit, and understand the important role that pastors and church leaders play in providing helpful direction and interpretation of God’s Word as they shepherd their congregants. This is why we are focusing our distribution efforts around the ESV Global Study Bible for this last phase of the One Million Bibles Initiative, with many of these Bibles being directed toward pastors and church leaders.
Even in the metropolitan city of Johannesburg, Pastor Dilip explains, pastors don’t have access to study Bibles: “when it comes to pastors, a pastor needs a good study Bible.… But good study Bibles for pastors are unreachable.” By God’s grace, donors to Crossway can help meet this need.
We Invite You to Respond to the Need
This example of a lack of Bibles among pastors in Johannesburg represents a sad reality plaguing countless churches around the world. Nearly 70% of the world’s evangelical Christians living in the Global South do not have easy access to a copy of the Bible, whether digital or physical.1
Mario Maneville pastors an urban congregation in one of the roughest and most dangerous neighborhoods of Cape Town, South Africa, where most people do not have a Bible of their own. As he explains: “Today, you won’t find Bibles in the houses of our church members.… Bibles are expensive—our community is a poor community. They’re not going to invest in the Bible because in comparison to other things, it’s not precious to them. What they need is money to put food on the table, or in many cases to get a [drug] fix. So you don’t find Bibles in our streets, in our homes.”
Without direct access to the Word of God, brothers and sisters in Christ in Mario’s church and around the world are faced with great difficulty in understanding who God is. Without Bibles of their own, believers are unable to read God’s Word for themselves and are unable to hold their leaders’ words up to the light of truth (Acts 17:11). For churches and communities in the Global South to flourish spiritually, Christians need direct access to God’s Word. Through the Bible, Christians grow in their understanding of God and salvation and are equipped to share the good news with others.
We invite you to partner with us in completing the goal of distributing one million Bibles around the world. These Bibles are being freely provided to Christians in places of great need. By partnering with churches, ministry networks, and other organizations in the Global South, our goal remains to provide the Word of God to one million Christians who otherwise would not have access to their own Bibles. Every $4 you give will support the printing and distribution of one Bible. Would you consider joining us today to give the gift of a Bible to a believer in need?
Notes:
- Johnson, Todd M., and Gina A. Zurlo. 2020. World Christian Encyclopedia, 3rd ed. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press), 4.
