When Sanath came home from work that evening, Vasana told him all the things that Anushka had shown her. Sanath thought it was interesting, but he had heard others talk about different pathways to peace and happiness, so he was a little skeptical. Still, he decided that he would talk about this with Buddhika. The next Saturday, he did just that.

“Yes, the book is called the Bible,” Buddhika told Sanath. “I have been reading it, and I am fully convinced that it is accurate and reliable.”

Sanath told Buddhika about his doubts. “We can all see that there is no end to the poverty and misery around us, and people of all races and nations are affected,” he observed. “What is more, there are so many religions and philosophies that claim to be the true pathway, yet none of them have solved the problems of war, bad government, racial hatred, and poverty. Why would what this book says be any different from all these religions and philosophies?”

Buddhika showed Sanath something from the Bible that really surprised Sanath. He showed him that the Bible says: “Man has dominated man to his injury” and “it does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.” Sanath agreed that no one could deny the truth of those words. They were realities of life in Sanath’s own country as well as in Western lands.

 Buddhika further explained to Sanath that he could put confidence in the Bible for many other reasons. “The Bible not only provides sound guidance for everyday life, such as the points Anushka showed Vasana,” said Buddhika, “but it also clearly identifies the cause of the problems facing mankind.” He added: “You know, Sanath, the Bible is also scientifically accurate.”

Sanath was still doubtful. “How could such an ancient book as the Bible be relevant to present-day problems and be scientifically accurate?” he asked. He also wanted to know who wrote this book.

“The Bible was not written by one man,” Buddhika explained. “It is actually a collection of 66 small books written by more than 40 different men over a period of about 1,600 years, which ended around 1,900 years ago. Even though these writers had limited scientific knowledge, they wrote about facts that became known only thousands of years later. For example, one Bible writer stated that the earth is ‘hanging upon nothing,’ and another described the earth as a circle, or sphere. These facts were not generally known at the time of the writing but were proved true by scientists only in relatively recent times.”

“That is fascinating,” said Sanath. Buddhika wanted to show Sanath another equally fascinating point.

“About 200 years in advance, the Bible predicted the fall of a major world power called Babylon.” Buddhika said. “The Bible described how Babylon would be conquered, and amazingly, it even mentioned the name of the conquering king long before he was born! Actually, there are hundreds of prophecies in the Bible.”

 As Sanath was pondering all of this, Buddhika said something that Sanath found even more amazing. “Do you know that the hardships that you and I and others are facing today were predicted 1,900 years ago in the Bible?” He read this passage to Sanath from the Bible:

• “Know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self-assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal, having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power.”

Buddhika told Sanath that other parts of the Bible foretold that there would be troubles all over the world, including wars, diseases, famines, earthquakes, and lawlessness.

Sanath was surprised to see that many of the problems that he and Vasana were experiencing had been accurately described so long ago in the Bible.

“How extraordinary!” Sanath exclaimed.