The Patmos Initiative is a treasure trove of useful information based as it is on extensive interviews with some 90,000 people in 85 countries.

As I’ve said before it makes it very clear that for most people God is a reality and strongly rebuts the widespread assumption that religious faith is a declining influence in peoples’ lives. But it also uncovered some fascinating statistics about the use of the Bible.

Among other things it revealed that Bible use among Christians is highest in places where they are a minority, and lowest in the secular West. Shockingly, it seems, nearly a third of Christians worldwide do not see the Bible as relevant to them personally, although again, this is more pronounced in the West where less than half of all Christian respondents said they use the Bible on a weekly basis.

I was deeply disappointed to discover that, and I couldn’t help contrasting our attitude in the West with what I’ve been told is happening in Iran, a country that is surely one of the toughest places in the world to be a Christian. In fact, if my information is correct, it is actually illegal for the Farsi speaking Muslim majority to embrace Christianity.

This is so sad because no one should be coerced into embracing any faith. We should be allowed to choose our own understanding of God - or even of no God! That is a basic Baptist conviction which is why we choose to baptise believers rather than children with no understanding. As one former Baptist leader said religious liberty must surely be the greatest of all human rights.

But in spite of all the pressures it would appear that there could be up to a million Christians in Iran and the country’s rapidly growing evangelical churches are full of people who have come to faith.

One Christian leader there has gone so far as to say that even the government admits that Christianity is growing, and that persecution has made the church stronger with the result that a new translation of the Bible in modern Farsi has been produced to meet the needs of these new believers.

But why should anyone take the time to read this ancient book? I would suggest that we should do so for several good reasons. Firstly, it is incredibly reliable. I can argue that with conviction because I did my best to discredit it and ended up doing a complete about turn.

Secondly because it claims to be inspired and offers us a worldview that makes sense of life. It tells us who we are, why we are here and how we can discover a satisfied mind, a satisfied spirit and a satisfying life.

That is surely worth trying. Above all though, it assures us that this world will not end in a ‘bang’ or a ‘whimper’ but with a trumpet blast announcing the arrival of the King of Kings as He prepares to renew the whole of creation.