If you were looking for reasons to suspect that things are looking better in the United States or that revival is around the corner, there might just be data to back that up. Whereas Baptisms can be manipulated, church attendance misleading, and church plants farcical, Bible sales do not lie. And a 22% increase in Bibles being sold is a reason to praise God, and furthermore that this is driven by first-timers.
According to the Wall Street Journal who reported this story:
Hallelujah! Bibles are a bright spot in books this year.
Worries about the economy, conflicts abroad and uncertainty over the election pushed readers toward the publication in droves. Bible sales are up 22% in the U.S. through the end of October, compared with the same period last year, according to book tracker Circana BookScan. By contrast, total U.S. print book sales were up less than 1% in that period.
In 2023, Bible sales reached 14.2 million copies, a significant increase from 9.7 million in 2019. By October of this year, 13.7 million copies had already been sold, with an entire quarter and Christmas season to be counted.
God is on the move.
