Why give the Bible a shot?

The Bible is the most unique book ever written. Of all the world’s religious writings, only the Bible offers a comprehensive understanding of human history. Only the Bible starts with creation and traces the story of humanity all the way to its consummation in new creation. And it is only the Bible that tells a story of good news for all the nations of the earth.

The Bible is also unique in that while it is written by different authors over a fifteen hundred year time span from different continents and cultures, it shows a remarkable coherence in its parts. The probability that all these authors would have no disagreements on major issues of biblical doctrine is virtually nil.

As another reflection of its uniqueness, the Bible has been translated, retranslated and paraphrased more than any book in history. It has also been read and translated more than any other book. Despite all attempts to eradicate it the Bible has not only survived, it has thrived because it meets the insatiable need in the human soul to know how to have a personal relationship with God.

The Bible is unique in that in no other religious writings do you have the phenomenon of the fulfillment of prophecy. Multiple biblical prophecies foretell the coming of people, nations and events that have come true in real history. Most important of these prophecies is the prediction of a Savior for the world. In Hinduism there is no Savior. There is nothing in Buddhist writings that foretell the coming of the Buddha. There is nothing in the Koran that foretells the coming of Mohammed. There are no Mormon prophesies about the coming of Joseph Smith, no predictions of the coming of Mary Baker Eddy in Christian Science nor Taze Russell for Jehovah’s Witnesses. Only the Jewish Scriptures foretell the coming of the Messiah. Unfortunately the majority of Jewish people have rejected Jesus as the Messiah predicted in these Scriptures—but even this phenomenon the Bible predicts and promises that there is coming a day when the Jewish eyes will be opened to embrace the one crucified on their behalf.

This brings us to another aspect of the uniqueness of the biblical story. Other world religions address the great gap between God and humanity by saying that one can either escape or transcend the transience of life by doing certain things, or that one can earn eternal life by the accumulation of good deeds. The problem is that there is no real assurance of a blissful afterlife in these systems. Only the Bible tells the story of a humanity that is saved from the despair of never knowing if we have done enough and offers assurance of a happy future. And how is this so? Only the Bible tells the story of a God who actually leaves his celestial home to become a human being to fix the gap for us. World religions are based on works that people do to earn their way into God’s favor while the Bible declares the impossibility of such works. Only in the Bible do have the story of a God who sees our plight and works for us and not the other way around. This is why the story the Bible tells is called “good news.”

For all these reasons it is clear that the Bible is unique in history and deserves our serious attention. Even if someone doesn’t agree with the Bible, its uniqueness calls for a deep respect and at the very least deserves an honest reading.

Unfortunately, postmodern culture has rejected any idea of a grand narrative so we now find ourselves in the most biblically illiterate generation in Western history. What people do think they know about the Bible is culled from popular culture that repeatedly demonstrates an inability to understand how the story works. Even conservative Christians show an increasing lack of depth in their comprehension of the biblical narrative.

To address this problem we have launched this website to present Bill Jackson’s NothinsGonnaStopIt!, a six hour telling of the biblical story. Because the Bible is such a unique book and because most people don’t really understand how the narrative works, it is our hope that people from any faith from all over the world will give the Bible a shot by listening to Bill’s “Cliff Notes” rendition of the story. We want everyone to have a sense of the whole so they can know how to interpret the parts.

On the site you can listen to clips of the story to get a feel for what it’s like or you can listen to the whole thing by clicking on the links or by downloading the MP3s to your iPods and iPhones. You can even download written notes to help you dig in. If the story impacts you there is a Forum where you can share your thoughts and stories and even enter into dialogue about how the story works. For those of you who want to teach NothinsGonnaStopIt! we hope to be able to offer you a steady stream of resources on the site to help you do the best job you can.

Whatever your reason for visiting the site, we hope you have a great time reading and understanding the Bible because it tells a story that nothing can stop. Perhaps the grand narrative of the Bible will help those of you from different faiths understand how your people and culture fit into the great drama of human history.