The Greatest Book
By: Melissa Cook

There are a lot of people who would probably be offended by my essay. To those people, I can’t be sorry if I’ve offended you, for this is what I believe. If I were sorry, that would entail that I’m not truly satisfied with who I am and what I believe. These are my beliefs.

            I believe that there is one book everyone should read. One book that everyone should look to for answers and guidance. If you are in a time of sorrow, this book will teach happiness. If you are struggling with anticipation, this book will teach you patience.

Parents can use this book to help raise their children in the way they should. To teach their children about the love the author has for everyone on the earth. Even the ones that don’t care about him. This book is actually made up of 66 little books. Every one of these books talks about something different with different stories, but still manages not to contradict itself.  This book will tell you exciting stories about how a river once split in half just by faith, and the raising of a special man’s hands. “But if thou lift up thy rod, and stretch thine hand over the sea...Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea” (Exodus chp.14). Or the one about how a bush burst into flames all on its own and didn’t even burn up. “And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and behold, the bush was not consumed” (Exodus chp.3). It talks about an earth that used to be perfect, but got tainted by the disobedience of one single person. To correct this imperfection it rained for 40 days and 40 nights until the earth was completely flooded. Everyone and everything died except for 8 people, who by faith lived in a huge boat the whole time with two of every animal there ever was. I don’t want to tell you the whole story and ruin it for you though. You can read it yourself in the book of Genesis chapters six through nine.

            Although this is a wonderful book it has sad stories in it too. Some that can maybe even cause you to question yourself and your lifestyle. One of the main stories is about a little boy who actually is the son of the author. This little boy is conceived by a virgin and grows up being perfect and truly holy. He can heal anyone who touches him. He can raise people from the dead. Although this sounds wonderful, it seemed to cause a lot of problems with the unbelievers. It turns out that there were a lot of people who thought he was a horrible person so they had a trial and hung him on two pieces of boards shaped like a cross by nailing his hands and feet, leaving him there to die. They spat on him and made him drink vinegar to quench his thirst. They stuck a crown of thorns on his head and slammed it down until if pierced through his skin and blood was draining out of his body and falling to the ground. Although he was perfect and he could have easily gotten himself off that cross, he instead humbled himself to all of those hateful people. You see he was dying to pay the cost of all the wrong things anyone had ever done. This was the ultimate sacrifice. The only one that was powerful enough to cleanse every one of their sins. Don’t worry though it ends happily. Although the son ends up dying, three days later he comes back to life. He lives! I’m telling you the truth, he lives! And the best part is, he promised to come back and take everyone who believes in this story with him back to heaven. If you want to be part of this great new beginning you have to truly believe that The Son died for you, me, and all of the other millions of people on this earth. He died so we could live. He’s giving us a free gift. All we have to do is believe. “But we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved...” (Acts chp.15 vs11)

Have you figured out what this book is yet? This book is the Bible.