Bible sales are brisk.
New sales data from Circana BookScan shows Bible sales through October of this year were up 22% compared to the same period last year, reported The Wall Street Journal
reported. Americans purchased 13.7 million Bibles in the first 10 months of this year. This means Bible sales are on track to surpass last year's 14.2 million copies sold.
Here's why it's important: Over the same period, print book sales increased by less than 1%.
The fact that Bible sales outpace other printed books by a significant percentage raises an important question: What is driving more Americans to buy Bibles?
More importantly, the WSJ reported that first-time buyers are largely contributing to the surge in Bible purchases. Why are non-Christian Americans turning to the Bible at this particular moment?
According to the Wall Street Journal, the answer lies in the Bible, as more Americans turn to God's Word for hope in a chaotic and disorderly world. It means that there is.
“People are experiencing anxiety themselves or are worried about their children and grandchildren. … It's related to artificial intelligence, it's related to the election cycle … and all of that is about saying we're going to be okay. It fuels a desire for certainty,” says Jeff. Crosby, president of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, told the Journal.
“They're looking for hope in the current state of the world, and what they're looking for is the Bible,” Christian bookstore manager Bethany Martin said of first-time Bible buyers.
The Bible paints a very specific picture of what the good life is, which is the exact opposite of the “good life” that modern Western culture promotes.
But it's deeper than fear or a desire for hope.
I think many Americans, especially young people, are struggling with the rotten fruits of a postmodern, progressive, liberal culture in which every person essentially becomes their own god.
This is what American culture says today. “You are the designer of your own life.'' You choose your identity. You can be anyone or anything you want to be, and your desires are not bound by the limitations of reality or truth. In fact, there is no truth at all. The only truth that exists is the one you decide for yourself: your truth.
Of course, relativism is not limited to our cultural philosophy.
Over the past few generations, morality has become completely subjective. Our culture no longer believes in transcendent moral principles. Today, the prevailing moral framework can be summarized in the cry for abortion: “My body, my choice.”
America because the rotten fruits of broken families, addiction, mental health epidemics, hyperindividualism, a culture of death, consumerism, tribalism, loss of the sacred, and busyness abound all around us. Man is the word of God as an antidote to anti-human living.
That's because the Bible tells a completely different story.
In the Bible, God the Creator is the God of all creation, that is, of all that exists. The Bible says that objective truth exists and that God is the arbiter of it. The Bible states that humans have a specific role and function in the world, and deviation from that mission will lead to chaos and destruction. Furthermore, the Bible provides specific moral guidelines for humans. Any deviation from these principles espoused by Jesus will lead to chaos and destruction.
Overall, the Bible gives a very specific picture of what the good life is, which is the exact opposite of the “good life” that modern Western culture promotes.
In other words, the liberal cultural experiment is failing. Americans have come to rely on the Bible and God. Because I have learned that whatever gift certificates modern culture sells, they do not lead to a good life.
Now they are looking for true life – and they know where to find it.
