A museum employee shows how a Johannes Gutenberg replica printing press is used at the "Book of Books" exhibition in the Bible Lands Museum on October 23, 2013, in Jerusalem, Israel. The exhibition contains more than 200 of the rarest Biblical manuscripts, including original fragments from the Septuagint and the earliest New Testament Scriptures. This exhibition opened in Israel before heading to the Vatican and ends in Washington, D.C, where it will be permanently displayed. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
Kay Arthur trembles as she contemplates the impact the Bible has had on her life.
At age 83, she is in her fifth decade of teaching multitudes how to study God’s Word through inductive studies, books, and television and radio programs.
“I have been absolutely transformed, and I am being transformed,” she says. “I know that I know truth, and I know God. I understand His character, I understand His ways, I understand His power, and I understand His love and grace because I’ve studied His Word. I love and totally believe Matthew 4:4, when Jesus turned to Satan and said: ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’
“The Bible gives me peace in fear, calm in crisis, power and strength in weakness and light in darkness.”
—Kay Arthur
Arthur recalls the life-giving truth she gleaned from reading Romans 9:25 at age 29, shortly after leaving an immoral lifestyle to receive Jesus as her Lord and Savior: “He called her [His Bride] ‘beloved’ when there was nothing lovely about her.”
Through trials like the recent death of her husband, Jack, to Alzheimer’s Disease, and the shock of her daughter-in-law’s unexpected death at age 48, Arthur has been upheld by the God she has come to know through the pages of the Bible.
“The Bible gives me peace in fear, calm in crisis, power and strength in weakness and light in darkness,” she said. “I know God is sovereign. I don’t question Him. I don’t raise my fist at Him, and I don’t scream at Him. I bow before Him. I know what He has purposed will surely come to pass. I know what He has planned no man can thwart, as it says in Isaiah 14 [verses 24-27].”
Decision interviewed Arthur and three other widely respected Bible teachers—Tony Evans, David Jeremiah and Michael Brown—about the impact of the Scriptures on their lives and on humanity throughout world history.
“It’s not only information about God; it’s the voice of God in print,” said Evans, author and pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas. “It should lead to worship of its Author, not the Book apart from its Author.
“It shapes how I look at anything and how I view everything. It’s the grid through which I evaluate the good, the bad and the ugly in my life and in my surroundings. It has been the foundation of my ministry, so I am totally consumed with its truth, its power and its Author.”
“It’s not only information about God; it’s the voice of God in print.”
—Tony Evans
Jeremiah, author and pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, Calif., marvels at how the Bible’s 66 books—written by many authors over a span of centuries under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—cohesively fit together.
“The Old Testament prepares you for the New, and the New explains the Old,” said Jeremiah, who published a study Bible in 2013 that has been distributed around the world. “Jesus is the subject and is basically the red line, the crimson line of blood, that runs throughout all of its books. He’s really the message of the entire Bible—not just the New Testament.”
From beginning to end, the Bible reveals God’s glorious plan of salvation for sinful mankind through the life, death on the cross, and the burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Scripture makes it abundantly clear that He provides the One Way to eternal life, and that we are to repent of our sins and to receive by faith His grace and forgiveness as our Lord and Savior.
“God sent us His Word to bring us to Hi
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