The Greatest Book Ever Written
by Fulton Oursler
Copyright © 1951,1959,1976
Summary Copyright © July 1, 2023 by
Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.
All Rights Reserved.
The following summary is for fair use and educational purposes only.
Introduction
In April of 1976, at the age of 27, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior. Although I had read selected scripture verses from the Holy Bible since I was old enough to read, I made the decision in 1976 to read the entire Bible from cover to cover. When I was finished I was ashamed of myself because I had not taken the time to read the entire Bible when I was younger. Instead of reading the Bible I had read hundreds of other books including fictional novels and "how to" books.
After reading the entire Bible I realized that there was some repetition in the different books in the Bible, and that the events described in some of the books overlapped with the events described in other books. Although I had a reasonable understanding of what I had read I wanted to be able to better understand the sequence in which the history of mankind was recorded in the Holy Bible. Therefore I read an illustrated Bible that had been written for young children and that significantly enhanced my grasp of the exact sequence in which the historical events actually occurred.
In 1976 I was working every other week as an engineer on the island of Puerto Rico. But my Spanish was not good enough for me to understand people when they spoke at their normal speed in a normal conversation. Therefore I bought books written in English at the airport in Miami so that I would have something I could read in the evenings at the motel in Puerto Rico. One of the paperback books that I found in an airport bookstore was "The Greatest Book Ever Written." I was thrilled when I found it and I bought it and I began reading it on the flight to Puerto Rico. And I continued reading it in the evenings at the motel after work each day. As I read the book I was blessed with all the following:
- My understanding of the sequence of events in human history as documented in the Holy Bible was significantly improved.
- My appreciation of the emotions that may have been felt by the heroes of the Holy Bible became very real to me.
- My faith in the God of the Holy Bible increased exponentially.
I was so profoundly influenced by that book that I have taken it with me everywhere I have lived since 1976. The picture of the cover of the book that appears below is a scan of the cover of the actual book that I bought in 1976. One day I hope that one of my children, or my grandchildren, will accept the book when I offer it to them with the condition that they take the time to read the entire book and not simply put the book on a shelf, or in a box, or in a drawer.
Although I do not know you personally, I suggest that you obtain a copy of this book and that you read it if you wish to experience the above three blessings that I experienced.
However, this book should never replace the Holy Bible. Please invest a few minutes each day reading the Holy Bible if you wish to please your heavenly Father and if you want to experience the true depth of His Eternal Love for you. If you will invest a few minutes each day reading the Holy Bible, starting on page one and gradually reading to the end of the Holy Bible, then you will discover that God loved you as an individual before God created the heavens and the earth.
May God Bless,
Grandpappy.
July 1, 2023.
A Few Brief Extracts from "The Greatest Book Ever Written"
Preface (Page vii):
The Holy Bible is still the best-selling book of all time and in all countries, yet surprisingly few of the new generation seem to be familiar with its contents. I have retold the stories of the Old Testament in this volume with the same hope which impelled me to write the story of the Gospels -- that readers might be filled with a desire to read the original message for themselves. With all my imperfections on my head, I have tried, through narrative and quotations, to give some foretaste of the water of life that rises from that deep well of Truth that is the Book of Books.
"It is impossible to rightfully govern the world without God and the Bible," said George Washington, and John Adams called it "the best book in the world," while Lincoln said ". . . Take all of this book upon reason that you can and the balance by faith and you will live and die a better man."
In our century of disillusion Woodrow Wilson declared: "The Bible is the Word of Life: I beg that you will read it and find out for yourself." And Theodore Roosevelt added: "Almost every man who has by his life work added to the sum of human achievement of which the race is proud, almost every such man has based his life-work largely on the teachings of the Bible."
END OF PREFACE
* * * * * * *
Chapter Four: The Tallest Building in the World (Pages 32 to 35):
In a kind of frenzy the pride of the descendants of Noah now decided to build a structure that should pierce the sky and show the rest of the world how great they were.
They would make for themselves a ziggurat, which in the Sumerian language spoken by everyone in those days meant a pinnacle, the very, very highest.
The memory of the flood would not down; it haunted men's dreams, even though they jeered and scoffed mockingly when awake. Why, some added, not build a shrine so high that it would stand, dry and safe, above all the flooding seas, if such a deluge rose against them? That was one reason behind the new plan. Others argued that since the gods they worshiped lived behind and beyond the clouds the tower would, in a way, make a bridge between earth and the sky, so that the gods could come down and visit men -- and by the same first skyscraper men could walk up into heaven whenever they felt like it.
Human wisdom had never fallen so low as when the Tower of Babel began to rise so high. Nothing, it was clear, would curb mortal arrogance unless its present course was interrupted.
One blistering hot afternoon the blow fell. The bare backed workmen were sweating up and down the ladders carrying their hods of tiles and buckets of mortar, others with aching thighs and swelling throats dragged huge stones up the wooden ramps; hammers rang, bosses screamed orders and curses, every muscle was strained and every breath was labored, as the whole task was driven forward -- until suddenly, instantly, without a moment's warning, all work came to a halt. Every voice was silenced, every hand was stilled.
An overseer had yelled a command to two workman to turn a stone slab over. They had stared at him blankly and not moved. Again he cried with bloodcurdling oaths, but one of the sweating men, shivering as with a sudden chill, merely shook his head. The other opened his mouth and seemed to ask a question. But now the overseer stared in silence. What was it the man had said? The overseer knocked him senseless with a short club in his hand, breaking the fellow's skull. But violence did not help. The other workmen fell on his knees and whined words that also had no meaning for his master. Neither could understand the other. And no one else could understand the man next to him. So it was everywhere, on scaffolding, walls, ramps, and crossbeams, among these thousands of laborers -- a confusion of tongues. This man, that man, and the other man, each forgetting the language he was born to, suddenly cursed and entreated a new vocabulary, a new grammar, a new idiom which no one else seemed to know.
Within five minutes the whole task force of the tower was a whirlwind of incoherent voices, betrayed into panic, helpless to go on.
"Behold, the people is one," the Lord God had meditated, "and they all have one language -- and this they begin to do. Now nothing will be restrained from them. ... Let us go down and there confound their speech that they might not understand one another's speech."
And therefore it was that by an unexpected act of the divine will the unfinished Tower of Babel had to be abandoned, a broken dream of pride and the birthplace of the basic languages which ever since have separated the thoughts and deeds of people and filled the minds of their neighbors with misunderstanding, suspicion, fear, and therefore dislike, all the result of pride.
Now each group must begin all over again to find its destiny. Would new friends of God appear among them, seeking to find Him, pray to Him in various languages, learn His will and perform it?
There would be a few such among multitudes of hardened men, but enough to save us all from annihilation.
The first of these servants of the Lord was one of the greatest men in history. His name was Abraham.
END OF CHAPTER FOUR
Conclusion
Only a very small sample of Fulton Oursler's first book is included above. If you enjoyed reading the above extracts then please purchase a copy of "The Greatest Book Ever Written" and read the entire book. If you will do this then it is my opinion that you will experience a significant growth in your Christian faith regardless of how long you may have been a Christian.
Grandpappy's e-mail address is: RobertWayneAtkins@hotmail.com