The Bible Nerd

I am supposed to be moving on now to the third and final “mystery of the faith” or “apparent paradox” of the incarnation of Christ.  But before we get to that, I have just got to give a plug for a book that every Bible nerd should read.  Also, I just flew about 4,000 miles (not me personally, but the airplane) to get somewhere, and my brain is way too mushy to be diving into deep, theological waters.  Don’t you love it when people start out a teaching, preaching, or post with an apology?  “I am really jet lagged right now, so I am not sure what’s going to happen this morning”, or “My kids kept me awake all night long, so I can’t think straight.”  Talk about taking all your motivation to listen right out from the beginning!  What you really mean is, “I am afraid my teaching is going to stink this morning, but if I warn you beforehand, it’s not my fault you stayed and listened.”  Public Speaking 101 please.

Vishal Mangalwadi’s book “The Book that Made your World:  How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization”  is by far one of the best books that I have read this year.  It instantly makes the list of books that not only every Bible nerd should read, but anyone in Christian ministry (which is every Christian…).   In his work, Vishal sets out to show how the Bible is the key foundational source for the advancements of Western civilization.  He debunks current, secular myths that many of these advancements came from socio-political factors or Greek civilization.

Vishal puts into words what I have been thinking about for years now.  I was in a discussion with someone, and asked them what country would they want to live in that IS NOT  “Christianized”  or has been seriously influenced by a Biblical worldview.  This was a woman with a teenage daughter, so all the Muslim nations quickly dropped out of her options.  All of her options outside of the US were all in Europe.  Even had she mentioned a few select places like Japan, who have prosperity and freedom but isn’t a “Christianized” nation,  most of those advancements in Japan are due to their adopting the principles from the West.

Then, I had a discussion with my Bible study in Taiwan, where I challenged them with the thought that there is nothing inherently good with the West.  Without the influence of the Bible, there would be no advancements in Western civilization.  We would still be Vikings raping and pillaging, or running around the forest with paint on our face building Stonehenge.  There are concrete reasons why Taiwan has prospered in ways that China has not, even though they share the same language, culture, and history.  Taiwan’s close ties with the United States brought in Western influence and concessions (like democracy).  Yet, those alliances and influences would not have existed without the Biblical worldview that was utilized in the founding of America.

Thankfully, Vishal is way smarter than me and has spent a lot of time researching this.  I guess this is what you have to do in order to write a book.  Sigh!  I am quite sure that Vishal was not jet legged when he wrote this book, and it needs no apologies before you begin.  If you wonder why we love the Bible so much, why we go to the ends of the earth to teach it, and why we should thank God every day for this book, Vishal’s work will be the encouragement you need to press on.