The Associated Press has a story about the “Ann Arbor News”, the only daily newspaper of the hometown of the University of Michigan. Today marks the last day this 174-year-old newspaper will be published as a daily edition. Print editions will come out on Thursdays and Sundays and an online version will be updated daily. But there will be no more newspapers pitched onto the porches of Ann Arbor subscribers. It’s a day few would have predicted just a few years ago.
This is not an isolated event. Readers of newspapers all across the nation have watched the size of their hometown publications shrink as cost-cutting measures are imposed. The daily paper my mother receives in Eastern Kentucky recently dropped its Monday edition, going to a six-day-per-week format. The national news magazine to which I’ve subscribed for years stopped weekly publication months ago. The “Daily” on its masthead is now a misnomer.
Most analysts point to the rise of the Internet as the reason for the decline of newspapers. There are dozens of sources for news that can be found, most of them free for anyone with Internet service. The younger generation sees little reason to sign up for home delivery. Not one of my three children, all now living on their own, receive a newspaper. For those of us who are older, sitting down to read our newspaper is a ritual. We may not always like what we read, but we want to be informed of what is happening down at city hall as well as in the White House. To think that newspapers and news magazines may disappear entirely is unsettling.
Will this trend spill over to the Bible? Will there come a time when Bibles are no longer printed and copies cannot be purchased? There have been those who expected the Bible to disappear. Voltaire’s (1694-1778) prediction is perhaps the most famous: “One hundred years from my day there will not be a Bible in the earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity seeker.” Such skeptics view the Bible as outdated and are certain that it will one day go the way of all old books.
The Bible, however, is not like any other book. Paul stated that Scripture “… is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16). That means that God “breathed” His message into those who wrote it down. Peter affirmed this view of the Bible: “For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). The source of the Bible is God, not man. Jesus spoke of the durability of God’s word: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” (Matthew 24:35). One might also add newspapers to that list of things that will pass away. But God’s word is here to stay.
There is one more statement by Jesus on this subject that must be observed: “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him – the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). It’s in our best interests to get familiar with the Bible. It’s the standard against which our lives will one day be judged. Come to the light God offers! Study His word, the Bible. Worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:24). Get in touch with us if you’d like to discuss these ideas further.