AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY

Too many of us have neglected to lend a helping hand to the American Bible Society. Logic would demand that we of the Churches of Christ would be most enthusiastic about the work of this Society, for its sale purpose is to distribute the scriptures to all the world. We have diligently proclaimed that all men need to do is to “Take the Book” and learn the simple gospel. And the American Bible Society has been equally diligent in seeing to it that the Bibles they distribute are without explanatory notes just the text of the Bible itself.

It is doubtful that we really believe in the sufficiency of the Bible alone, for we go to all sorts of trouble to see to it that it is explained—as we see it. Hardly ever are we content simply to read the scriptures to an audience. We want one of our men there to interpret it. We have shown little interest in distributing the Bible itself, though our missionaries throughout the world are now numbered in the hundreds. It seems that we trust men to present our message more than the Bible itself.

It is easier to raise money among Churches of Christ to send one of our preachers to an African nation than it is to raise funds to ship Bibles to that nation, even when the Bible is in the language of that African nation.

It is just possible that we are fearful that people will not quite learn the truth if they simply read the Word of God. They need one of our men there to make sure they understand it the same way we do!

I will not dispute the fact that the Bible is a book that needs to be taught, while at the same time allowing that one can make his way through it without a teacher. I am only suggesting that we be more critical of some of the things we have been saying, such as the remark that “The way of truth is so simple that even a fool can understand it,” which reminds me of another Old Testament passage that we have long misapplied, and such tripe as “Anyone can understand it if he’ll just read the Bible for himself.”

The fact is that many people read the Bible and come up with ideas different from our own. We do not let that end the matter”—A simple reading of the Bible” does not bring them around to our way of thinking—so we proceed to educate them in our own catechism of interpretation.

We may suppose this is all right. But we ought to quit talking about how simple “the truth” is and quit being amazed that everyone doesn’t see the Bible the same way we do. The truth is that “the simple gospel” is not so simple after all, and that the Bible is a difficult book to understand.

Still I am in favor of the American Bible Society distributing the Word of God far and wide, without notes and in many translations. It is altogether possible that a heathen in Africa is just as well off with the Bible in his own language on the table before him as he is to have a Church of Christ missionary sitting at his side. We might not get Churches of Christ in Africa that way, but the heathen just might learn about Christ that way.

However this may be, the fact remains that our people have been less than enthusiastic about distributing the scriptures to the world. We have everything from seminaries to missionary societies, with one kind of a name or another, but nothing resembling a Bible-distributing society. That is a curious fact about a people who say so much about the sufficiency of the scriptures. Perhaps we are uneasy when people have the scriptures only, and we feel an urgency to be there to make sure they understand it correctly. Then do we really believe in the sufficiency of the scriptures? Do we not really believe that it takes the Bible plus the Church of Christ to save the world?

We can be thankful that the American Bible Society has not yielded to the demand for all sorts of denominational Bibles. The Society even offered to send hundreds of thousands of copies of a Roman Catholic translation of the scriptures if the hierarchy would agree to omitting the explanatory notes. The Roman church refused to delete the notes and the Bibles were not sent. Still others, such as the Southern Baptists and the Seventh-Day Adventists, would be fearful that they would never have any churches in foreign lands if only the Bible were sent.

So each denomination sends its own missionaries along with the Bible, and thus there are all sorts of churches as a result. Suppose that only Bibles were sent, without notes—fresh translations in the vernacular of the people, to be sure, but only the scriptures—how many denominations would arise as a result? And let’s be honest enough to ask how many Churches of Christ there would be if the uninitiated had only the Bible to read?

We may be a bit hypocritical along these lines, for it is doubtful that we believe in the Bible as much as we claim. To say the least we are not happy about the situation when the people have only the scriptures as a gift from the American Bible Society. We are willing to spend a lot of money and go to a lot of trouble to see to it that they have one of our preachers too. Then we can relax and our editors can add another nation that now has the gospel. With the Bible only it did not have enough, and apparently did not even have the gospel—not until one of our men got over there!

If we are willing to examine these rather curious notions of ours, we might decide to give the American Bible Society more assistance, which up to this point has been nil. Their address is 1865 Broadway, New York 10023.

Last year alone they distributed 70 million copies of the scriptures throughout the world. That is right, seventy million copies of the Word of God or portions thereof. Their most recent translation, Good News for Modern Man, which was issued only two years ago, has already reached 12 million copies. It sells for only 35 cents, and it makes the scriptures as relevant as the morning newspaper.

Is this not worthy of our support, a Society that so profusely diffuses the very Book that tells about our religion and our church?

How about joining me in “Missing-a-Meal” and sending a donation to the American Bible Society?—the Editor