Have you read, Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone? Some 107 million copies were printed!
What about, The Little Prince, 142 million copies of this novel was printed! Have you perhaps read The Lord of the Rings or A Tale of Two Cities, here 150 and 200 million copies, respectively, have been printed. However according to Wikipedia and the Guinness Book of Records, the novel, Don Quixote, stands amongst the top world sellers of all time, with sales of about 500 million copies. These figures can be compared with 590 million copies of the Gideon Bibles which have been distributed worldwide and the 800 million copies of the Quran that have been printed. These are tremendous and impressive numbers indeed, but just consider this; have you read the book which sells on average 250,000 copies a day and an average annual sale of 20 million just in the USA alone, and commands the top selling position, world-wide, with more than 5 Billion copies having been printed? The Bible!

So appealing, important and meaningful is The Bible, on an international scale, that to date the full Bible has been translated into 704 different languages and the New Testament has been translated into 1551 languages. This work continues with the aim of one day reaching every language group in the world.

Why does the Bible continue to be the “best-selling” book of all time? Because no other book even remotely approaches the Bible’s power to satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts. When life seems to make very little sense, or when we feel lonely, empty, or we just have the need to know that someone cares about us, then this is the book people turn to. The Bible is absolutely true and trustworthy because it is the “inspired word of God.”
In the book of 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 we read, “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (NIV). The content of the Bible came to us through God speaking to the various authors of the books contained in the Bible. 2 Peter 1:20-21 says “ … but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (NIV).

The Bible has stood the test of time, with the Old Testament section being able to be traced back to about 300BC. It was translated from the Hebrew language into Greek, the popular language of the time, in 200BC.
The Old Testament was in existence during Jesus lifetime and He made many references to it in His teachings, and when the New Testament was canonized during the 1st or 2nd century AD it quoted and made reference to over 300 Old Testament passages, thus providing us with a unity of God’s word. All this and many other factors not listed here point to the incredible truth, miraculous preservation and the inspired spiritual content the Bible offers to those who choose to read and study it.

The prophet Isaiah, when bringing a word of hope to the nation of Israel, in chapter 40: 8 says, “Yes grass withers and flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever.” The Bible tells us all about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, His gift of Salvation, His graciousness to forgive us our sins, His love for us, and His willingness to accept us as His children.

What better book could we ever read than the Bible!