How many people have come to know salvation just by reading the Bible alone?
The teacher has been aware of only one or two people who claim to have come to a knowledge of the plan of salvation by themselves, simply by reading the Bible. One example is a man snowbound in northern Canada at about age nineteen, who read only the Bible and came to salvation. Otherwise, a human instrument is normally needed.
Les explains that God did not leave His Word under the control of angels or highly educated seminarians, but placed it in the hands of every person who wants to handle it, with the Holy Spirit's leading. For those who will be made aware of the plan of salvation, God does not send an angel or a super-educated person; He uses common, ordinary people. Les has watched and listened over the years and has only been aware of one or two people who claim to have come to a knowledge of the plan of salvation by themselves, just by reading the Bible. One was a gentleman who later became highly educated and an author. He had become snowbound one winter when he was about nineteen years old in northern Canada. In that little hut he had nothing to do but keep his fire going, something to eat, and nothing to read except the Bible. After coming through that winter of isolation, reading the Scriptures, he came to a knowledge of salvation. Les says that is one of only a few he has ever read of. Otherwise, it always takes a human instrument to lead someone to a knowledge of salvation, as with Philip, who was the human instrument for the Ethiopian eunuch.