Book Review: Little Black Books: The Bible

“How can you trust the Bible?”, “The Bible always contradicts itself” and “Science completely disproves Christianity” are phrases I often hear during every Christian studies lesson at school from people in my class who keep trying to prove that God isn’t real and that the Bible isn’t true. It’s made me wonder what I could say to them. Enter this really useful book, The Bible by Scott Petty.

The Bible by Scott Petty is a Little Black Book that discusses the importance of the Bible for Christians. It covers the following topics:

• What the Bible is;
• Why we should read it;
• Why we should believe it; and
• Common questions about the Bible.

Petty begins by looking at how the Bible is God-breathed and focussed on Jesus, and comes from within God. He says, “The words of God are right and righteous, they give guidance (light to the eyes) and joy the heart, and they are more precious than gold and sweeter than honey” (p. 12). I loved this description of how precious God’s words are. Petty also says that the Bible is special, because it reveals God’s character and why he did things, so we must treasure it.

Chapter 2 was helpful in answering the common questions about the Bible, such as:

• “Is the Bible trustworthy?” (Petty examines the many historical documents proving the Bible’s accuracy.)
• “The Bible contradicts itself.” (Petty then discusses how the Bible sometimes seems contradictory, but when you look closely, there’s actually reasonable explanations for what it says.)
• “Science disproves Christianity.” (He looks at how science and the Bible don’t disprove each other, because science addresses ‘What?’ and ‘How?’ questions, but cannot explain ‘Why?’ questions.)

Chapter 3 then talks about what God wants us to believe. It explores four areas that people base their decisions on:

1. Tradition
2. Reason
3. Experience
4. Feeling

But as Christians, these areas shouldn’t determine our actions; the Bible should. The ‘four areas’ were helpful in showing me the problems with forgetting what the Bible says.

In chapter 4, Petty says the Bible has everything we need to know and is very relevant because it gives us knowledge of God, escape from death and guidance in how to live godly lives. He says, “If you actually want to know God, you will need your Bible open” (p. 49). Petty concludes by saying that the Bible is the best thing to base our lives upon.

I like this book because it reminds me why reading my Bible is so important. It encourages me to keep reading my Bible, even though I don’t always feel like it, because God’s word is precious and guides me to live a godly life. This book also reminds me that my decisions should always be based on the Bible, instead of what I feel like. It reminds me that even though the Bible might seem irrelevant sometimes, because it was written so long ago, it’s actually the most important book for me to read.

This book is encouraging and answers many common questions about the Bible. I definitely recommend it, because it’s a reminder of how important the Bible is and why we need it. It’s easy to read, short and gets straight to the point.

To anyone who sometimes loses motivation to read their Bible everyday or has questions about the Bible, The Bible from the Little Black Book series by Scott Petty is the perfect book to read. It was also the perfect book with which to answer my classmates’ questions, and it encouraged me to read my Bible more. I definitely recommend it to everyone.