- Why did the Gutenberg Press change the entire known world in one year?
- Why did Tyndale burn at the stake because he printed the Bible in English?
- Why do we still buy books by writers from 500 years ago?
- Why do 95% of all travelers put a book in their carry-on to read on an airplane?
- Why have we created Kindles, Nooks, and iPads to read more books?
The importance of the written word in the history of the church is difficult to overstate. Whether it’s the canon of the Holy Scriptures, the writings of the early church fathers, or the pamphlets of the Reformation, God has used text as a vital means of building his church. By God’s design, books continue to be one of the most effective vehicles for passing on truth to the next generation. Where books are lacking, believers are subject to false teaching, undermined doctrine, and weak living.
Christians in the West are privileged to have had abundant access to good literature, in the form of printed books, for hundreds of years going back to the Gutenberg press. In modern times, access to the written word has only increased with the advent of computers and the Internet.
And yet, still to this day, the church in the Global South often suffers from a famine of Biblical resources. There are still many people groups without the Scriptures in their language, and more who have no Christian literature to equip pastors and elders to lead their congregations. This gets to the core mission of Desiring God International Outreach and is the reason why we made this video about our One Percent Campaign.
When we think of missions, most of us typically have in mind the classic missionary crossing cultures for the sake of the Gospel. This is a vital part of God’s plan as we consider the more recent emphasis on From Everywhere, To Everywhere. But, many are not aware of the vital role that literature and the written word have played in spreading Truth to the nations.
To grow in our understanding of the power of the written word in the cause of missions, here are seven important quotations.
1. The Spreading Capacity of Books
If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country, I do not know what is going to become of us as a nation. If truth be not diffused, error will be; if God and His Word are not known and received, the devil and his works will gain the ascendancy; if the evangelical volume does not reach every hamlet, the pages of a corrupt and licentious literature will.
2. The Essentiality of Books
C.H. Spurgeon on 2 Timothy 4:13—
Paul is inspired yet he wants books: he has been preaching nearly thirty years, yet he wants books: he has a wider experience than most people, yet he wants books: he has been caught up into heaven and heard things which it is unlawful to utter yet he wants books: he has written the major part of the New Testament, yet he wants books.
3. The Continuity of Books
There are two things in the entire history of missions that have been absolutely central. One, obviously, is the Bible itself. The other is the printed page. There is absolutely nothing else, in terms of mission methodology that outranks the importance of the printed page. Meetings come and go and personalities appear and are gone. But, the printed page continues to speak.
4. The Versatility of Books
Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe—
…printed books are more portable than pulpits, more numerous than priests, and the messages they contain are more easily internalized (169).
5. The Penetration of Books
The printed page is a missionary that can go anywhere and do so at minimum cost. It enters closed lands and reaches all strata of society. It does not grow weary. It needs no furlough. It lives longer than any missionary. It never gets ill. It penetrates through the mind to the heart and conscience. It has and is producing results everywhere. It has often lain dormant yet retained its life and bloomed years later.
6. The Transcendence of Books
C.S. Lewis—
Those of us who have been true readers all our life seldom fully realize the enormous extension of our being, which we owe to authors. We realize it best when we talk with an unliterary friend. He may be full of goodness and good sense but he inhabits a tiny world. In it, we should be suffocated. The man who is contented to be only himself, and therefore less a self, is in prison. My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others. Reality, even seen through the eyes of many, is not enough. I will see what others have invented….
In reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.
7. The Sanctifying Power of Books
[I do not] want to leave the impression that reading many books is important. Reading great books and reading them well is what is important. Meditative reading, reading which stops and ponders, reading which sees deep into reality - that is the kind of reading which profits. That kind of reading should never end for you. Growth and stimulation and transformation will never end for you. You will be in the company of the greatest minds and hearts for the rest of your life, and you will become their peers if you read for understanding and for life.
Learn more about our One Percent Campaign and our mission of theological famine relief for the global church.