The Bible​—Do We Need It?

“IT IS impossible to rightfully govern the world without God and the Bible.” So stated George Washington, first president of the United States. Do you agree? Consider what is happening around you.

Inflation: Since the start of World War II the buying power of the currencies of many lands has wasted away, as you may be painfully aware. According to U.S. News & World Report, “inflation’s toll on the dollar has driven up prices by about 579% since 1939.”

War: The two world wars of this century cost tens of millions of lives​—both of soldiers and of civilians. From 1945 to 1978 twenty-five million soldiers were killed in about a hundred and fifty wars. Currently, the nations spend more than $500 billion a year on military activities, or about a million dollars a minute!

Divorce: In Japan there is a divorce every four minutes. In the United States one marriage out of two ends in divorce. In the Soviet Union it is 30 out of 100. These are but an indication of a worldwide trend.

Crime: Violent crime is soaring in country after country. As just one example, in the United States one violent crime is committed every 24 seconds. There is a murder every 23 minutes, a rape every 9 minutes, a robbery every 58 seconds. And crime seems to pay, for only 19 percent of these crimes are solved and the criminals arrested.

Food shortage: Although world food production has steadily increased for the last 30 years, there are currently more people crippled by hunger than ever before. About five hundred million people​—or one out of every nine—​suffer from serious malnutrition; the problem exists even in “advanced” nations.

All these problems exist and grow despite the efforts of economists, politicians, marriage counselors, psychiatrists and numerous other experts. Is it not evident that we personally, and the world in general, need guidance from a source higher than man?

The Bible claims to provide such guidance. “The spirit of Jehovah it was that spoke by me,” stated the Bible writer David. (2 Samuel 23:2) Biblical prophets “spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit,” added the apostle Peter.​—2 Peter 1:20, 21.

You may realize, of course, that the fact that a book claims to be from God does not prove that it is. So you should consider: Is there proof, satisfying proof, that the Bible really is from God?