“Excuses are the cradle…that Satan rocks men off to sleep in.” – Dwight L. Moody

“When it comes to excuses, law enforcement officers tend to have heard them all. But recently two drivers came up with some novel excuses. When a driver in Western Australia was pulled over for driving 10 miles per hour over the speed limit, he told police, ‘The wind was pushing me.’ The comment didn’t amuse the officer, or prevent him from writing a $150 ticket.

“Then in the Chicago area, a 25-year-old woman was pulled over by police around 4:15 a.m. after officers watched her vehicle cross the center lane and the double yellow line. When officers pulled the vehicle over, the woman told them she was coming from a bar and ‘was doing nothing wrong,’ according to authorities. Then she told police she was driving to White Castle so she could ‘sober up.’”¹

A common question we Christians receive is, “What about those who have never heard the gospel?” or maybe it is worded differently, like, “How could God condemn people who have never heard?”

Granted, sometimes these questions come from a sincere interest or desire to know the answer, but often they come from those looking to make excuses for themselves or others who they suspect or know never believed the gospel or feel as if God has not sufficiently revealed His existence. Though the person asking may not intend to suggest this, these questions and those like them have at least two underlying false premises: that it is God’s responsibility to do something more than He has already done, and two, mankind cannot or should not be guilty as long as they are in a place of ignorance.

In reality, not only do unsaved men and women have no excuses for rejecting God and His Word, regardless of what time period they lived in, but God has made this fact abundantly clear. Thus, mankind is once again without excuse!

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

“For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:18-20).

Good News or Bad News First

My wife and I have a running joke because I routinely ask her, “Do you want the good news or the bad news first?” Making the situation even funnier (at least to me) is that sometimes I say this even if I have no good news, only bad.

When one considers the manner in which Paul introduces the gospel and other doctrines to the church in Rome, it is interesting to see that he doesn’t follow the pattern or flow that many may think or often employ themselves: Paul brings the bad news first, and he does so very bluntly.

Today, we often see a desire to “spare people” the harsh realities of the doctrines of Scripture without first making them feel good or comfortable. After all, “we don’t want to scare them away, right?” is the usual logic behind this approach. This was not the apostle Paul’s method, though.

Before getting to the wonderful news that Christ “was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification” in Romans 4:25, or that “being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” in chapter 5, Paul chooses to explain instead the bad news and harsh realities of man’s situation: God’s wrath is upon all mankind because of man’s ungodliness and unrighteousness (1:18).

In fact, verse 18 marks the beginning of a long section in which Paul will spend the rest of chapters one and two and the majority of chapter three laying the whole ugly truth on the table before ever giving the good news about a means to receive God’s righteousness in place of ours. There was no attempt to sugarcoat the situation or tone it down. There was no beating around the bush. There were no apologies, no carefully crafted illustrations to make a connection with those he was trying to share the truth with.

In essence, one might say Paul’s approach was, “I have great news, but first, let’s be clear about the bad news.” He then proceeds to prove that regardless of who you are (Jew or Gentile), “There is none righteous, no, not one” (3:10). This is very bad news indeed when one realizes that God will be judging man for unrighteousness.

It is not until Romans 3:21 that Paul changes direction by using those two beloved words, “But now,” and points out that God’s righteousness is upon all who believe. We, mankind, have no righteousness and are thus under God’s wrath, but we can have God’s righteousness if we believe the gospel, the right gospel specifically. It doesn’t get better than that because it doesn’t get more secure than that.

If salvation depends on my righteousness, then I am lost and always left in a state of wonder and insecurity. But by having God’s righteousness in place of mine, nothing can diminish my standing with Him, which is why Paul later concludes that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (8:39). Being “in Christ Jesus” means we are secure (eternally saved).

However, the means by which we can acquire God’s righteousness is up to God and not man. As much as mankind would like to impose or demand that God forgive and save all, no such reality exists.

The Justifiable Wrath of God

When Paul says the gospel is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” and “the just shall live by faith” (1:16-17) he has dispelled any idea that believing the gospel is optional. He has removed any notion that the gospel is okay for some, but it’s alright to conclude, “I’m okay right where I am.” A person may choose to reject the gospel, but they most certainly are not okay where they are. They are lost, and as Paul lays out in these first three chapters of Romans, God is rightfully angry at man’s pride and arrogance.

Not the kind of anger that we so often demonstrate. God is not bad-tempered, mean-spirited, fitful, or irritable. God is not like man in that He becomes so offended that He becomes biased and does not think clearly. No, He simply warns mankind of the natural consequences of their actions, all the while desiring for “all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4).

Though He is offended and will someday bring His wrath upon those who, by their own choosing, remain alienated from Him and refuse to acknowledge the truth, He welcomes all who humble themselves, become thankful, and approach Him in faith. Of course, that faith must be in what God has said and is applicable to us and not in what we choose. In other words, we don’t dictate to God what we are willing to have faith in and expect Him to comply, even though many act as though they can. Faith is not enough if that faith is not in the right thing.

God is rightfully angered at man’s repeated rejection of Him, what He has said, and man’s refusal to be thankful to Him. His anger is the inevitable reaction of a righteous Almighty God toward sin. It is the proper reaction to the “ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (Rom. 1:18).

His is not an emotional reaction but a rational one. Four times in the Book of Acts, Luke tells us that Paul “reasoned” with people when confronting them with the truth. God’s words and expectations are valid and reasonable, and man’s rightful response is to say, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” (cf. Acts 9:6).

To the Roman governor, Felix, Paul “reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come,” causing him to tremble (Acts 24:25). Felix is the regrettable example of so many who have been exposed to the truth, but because it is not a “convenient season” (v. 25) and because they “mind earthly things,” they reject and turn aside even though that end is destruction (cf. Phil. 3:19). This includes both general and special revelation.

The Fool

He who thinks half-heartedly will not belive in God; but he who really thinks has to believe in God.” – Sir Isaac Newton

Mankind has continually rejected God’s rule and authority and instead lives as though God does not exist. This is not a case of ignorance, for all mankind has the knowledge of God, “because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them” (Rom. 1:19), even “the invisible things” of God (v. 20). Not only has God revealed Himself to all, we read in verse 20 that His “eternal power and Godhead” are “clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.”

Man chose to forget God, as stated in verse 21: “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations.” Man moved from knowing God to rejecting God to vain imaginations. They replaced God with vain or worthless and empty thoughts. This was in the form of idolatry. Making matters worse, they did this while professing to be wise.

Instead of acknowledging God as God, man chose to change “the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things” (v. 23).

The people didn’t stop worshiping when they chose to forget God; they merely changed what they worshiped (cf. v. 25). They gave the glory that should only be given to God to themselves and other created things. The world ooh’s and aah’s at Egyptian pyramids and Myan temples as symbols of man’s intelligence; in truth, they are nothing more than the testimony and evidence of people “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (v. 22).

Interestingly, the Greek word used for fools in verse 22 (maraino) is the word we derive the word moron from. Refusing to acknowledge God as God leads to becoming a moron; it makes you a fool (Psa. 14:1; 53:1). Consider the question and answer posed by Job: “Where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?” (Job 28:12), it is not “found in the land of the living” (mankind or creation) (v. 13), but rather it is found in God because “God understandeth the way thereof, and He knoweth the place thereof” (v. 23).

The Invisible Things of God are Clearly Seen

“Acknowledging the Creator is the first step in trusting the Redeemer.” – Warren Wiersbe

How can “invisible things” of God be “clearly seen” (Rom. 1:20)? God’s power and divinity are clear and on full display through creation. It is commonly taught that we do not need to try and prove God’s existence because God Himself doesn’t do so. This is technically not true. God did set out to prove His existence through creation, which is why it says, “God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them” (v. 19). Creation is a public announcement that there is a Creator.

Why does this matter? God’s eternal power and authority are fully displayed for all to see “so that they [all who reject this truth] are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20). The fact is, God has made Himself known to all. There is no one to whom God has not made Himself known. Atheism is a choice and is inexcusable because of the testimony provided through creation.

We are all stamped with an awareness of God, and rather than acknowledging the obvious, men and women suppress the truth. Those who refuse to acknowledge the existence of God are refusing to accept what they know to be true, regardless of what they admit.

It’s been said that agnosticism is worse than atheism because it says there isn’t sufficient evidence for God to come to a conclusion. This belief does no less than call God a liar, and that is precisely how we should look at it.

Christianity and creation are not based on emotions, superstitions, or groundless belief. God does not ask us to believe the unbelievable or to check our brains at the door. The evidence for God through the study of creation can be easily verified using the tool of science. The sheer complexity and perfection required for life to exist demands there be a creator.

The amount of information in DNA, as well as the perfection of its structure, leaves no room for chance development. According to information scientist Dr. Werner Gitt, “From an engineering point of view…the code system used in living organisms…is the best of all possible codes….This testifies to purposeful design.”² Dr. Gitt gives the following examples to illustrate this efficiency:

• DNA the size of a pinhead contains as much information as 25 trillion 189-page paperback books. A pile of these books would stretch 920 times the distance from the earth to the moon.

• If you were to stretch out one milligram of a double helix strand of DNA material, it would almost stretch from the earth to the moon.³

He further states, “The basic flaw of all evolutionary views is the origin of the information in living beings. It has never been shown that a coding system and semantic information could originate by itself [through matter]…. The information theorems predict that this will never be possible. A purely material origin of life is thus [ruled out].”⁴

In other words, the information necessary for life to exist does not allow for evolution and proves beyond any doubt that there must be a Creator. Information can only come from pre-existing information. This is a fact that any adult and most children can recognize. Nobody looks at a painting or a computer and thinks it happened by chance and without a maker.

The Wrath of God is Revealed

As Romans 1 describes the devolving of the human race, we should know that creation is not the only example of God making the truth known so that man has no excuse. It is noteworthy that Romans 1:18 doesn’t say the wrath of God was “revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” It says it “is” revealed.

Though creation still testifies to God’s power and authority, so, too, do other things. While in Lystra, Paul said that God “left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:17).

But when it comes to a witness to God’s wrath upon ungodly men, nothing compares to the Flood. When honest men and women look at the scars upon this earth, it is undeniable that what God said He did, He did. From the carving of the Grand Canyon to the ocean life found atop the earth’s tallest mountains, the evidence for a global flood is everywhere.

Another less thought-of example of God’s wrath still being openly displayed for the world to witness is Sodom and Gomorrah. According to Peter, “turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly” (2 Pet. 2:6).

Jude verse 7 says, “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”

The first-century Christian Apologist Justin Martyr speaks of the witness of Sodom and Gomorrah being still evident in his day when he says, “Those who so desire may view their whole countryside even now desolate, scorched, and sterile.”⁵

Even today, the destruction of these cities acts as a witness to God’s wrath against ungodliness. The ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah have been discovered in the region south of the Dead Sea and visitors today can see the evidence of their destruction for themselves. The destroyed buildings are “clearly seen” (cf. Rom. 1:20), and so, too, is the remaining brimstone in the form of balls of sulfur still capable of being lit on fire. Remarkably, the sulfur found here has been scientifically determined to be some of the purest on the planet.

While the world imagines every excuse possible for denying God His due recognition, the truth is that mankind has been justly denied any and every excuse. God has clearly demonstrated His existence, divine attributes, and His complete and total authority “so that they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20).

“What if God, willing to shew His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?” (Rom. 9:22-24).

In 1964, the American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel released what would become an iconic hit and #1 song, “The Sound of Silence.” The song is told through the eyes of someone who views the silence in their life as a place of safety while also seeing it as a symptom of a significant problem in society and ultimately longing to see the silence come to an end. Art Garfunkel described it as “a song about the inability of people to communicate with each other.”

But silence isn’t always the result of an inability to communicate or as haunting as this tune presents. Sometimes, silence is the quiet before the storm, the peace before the inevitable turmoil. Sometimes, silence is, in fact, a gift.

In his book The Silence of God, Sir Robert Anderson said, “A silent heaven is the greatest mystery of our existence.” Anderson’s point is not, nor mine here, that God is entirely silent today, for as long as His Word is preached, taught, and read, God is actively speaking to the World. He has not gone by the wayside or abandoned this world. To be clear, God still has much to say today, but to hear Him, man must go to His Word, the Bible!

According to the Guinness World Records, “the best-selling book of all time is the Christian Bible. It is impossible to know exactly how many copies have been printed in the roughly 1500 years since its contents were standardized, but research conducted by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 2021 suggests that the total number probably lies between 5 and 7 billion copies.”

According to their calculations, “2,458,000,000 Bibles were printed between 1815 and 1975,” and “in the 21st century, Bibles are printed at a rate of around 80 million per year.”¹

Indeed, each and every day, God is using His Word in a mighty way to be His instrument to reach a world that desperately needs to hear what He has to say. God still desires for all “to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4), and while the opportunity exists, the world had best redeem the time.

But there is a silence that all would do well to recognize. There is a silence from God that goes unacknowledged by unbelievers and unnoticed by many believers, even though both have benefited greatly and continue to benefit from it daily, and that is The Silence of Grace.

Over the years, it has been my experience that one of the most misunderstood doctrines of Scripture has to do with how God is and isn’t judging the world today. This is true for those who recognize the day of grace we now live in, as well as those who do not know of the distinctive nature of this time.

A World Calling for Judgment

“Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord…” (Psa. 114:7).

Generally speaking, most people want judgment to be swift and decisive—that is, as long as it’s someone else who receives that judgment. Few would show the same grace and mercy toward a stranger as they would themselves or their child or friend. Instead, most are like James and John, whom the Lord surnamed the “Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17). These two Apostles to Israel wanted to “command fire to come down from heaven, and consume” those who rejected Christ (Luke 9:54). They desired to see the immediate and harsh judgment of God.

There is no shortage of evil in this world, and seldom, if ever, is there a day that we don’t learn of a new event that displays how depraved man can be, and, ultimately how depraved man truly is apart from Christ and the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. Any example provided here, surely, could be quickly replaced with another closer to home. Often, Christians are mocked and ridiculed for their belief in God because of the amount of evil in this world and God’s willingness to allow it to continue. “How can God exist when there is all this evil,” they exclaim!

To them, we reply, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed…” (Lam. 3:22) or “despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Rom. 2:4-5).

There is no argument that judgment is deserved, but do people truly understand what they are asking for? If God were to judge one for their actions, should He not judge all? “For there is no respect of persons with God” (v. 11). When Judgment Day arrives, He will “render to every man according to his deeds” (v. 6). A scary proposition indeed, and every unsaved man and woman should tremble at the thought of appearing before a righteous God.

As the writer of Hebrews so succinctly said, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). Psalms 97:4-5 provides a glimpse into the future judgment and says, “His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.” Many may claim they want God to bring judgment to this world, and they may even be sincere about it, but when the time comes for God to put an end to the evil of man, only the saved will be heard rejoicing.

Judgment Postponed

“But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth” (Psa. 86:15).

One of the great advantages of rightly dividing the Scriptures is knowing that we live in the dispensation of grace, but to fully grasp our situation, we need to know what that truth means in relation to God’s judgment. God is dispensing grace today, not judgment. Rightly dividing is not simply about what we have been given—a new heavenly hope, a new gospel, a new commission, or even a new Apostle, but also what we were not and are not being given—God’s judgment!

Judgment is precisely what the 12 apostles expected to come soon after Pentecost. In fact, Peter, in the third chapter of his second epistle, had to explain to his readers, the little flock, that God’s judgment was put on hold. He said, “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men….The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (vv. 7,9).

If you were to ask most believers what God removed at the onset of the day of grace, most, I dare, would say the Mosaic Law. No longer are we bound to the Law or its curses. As accurate as this is, there is still something else that God removed the moment He set Israel aside and ushered in that mystery “kept secret since the world began” (Rom 16:25 cf. Eph. 3:1-9), and that was His impending judgment.

If not for God temporarily setting Israel aside and instituting a new dispensation, all the events we see written in the Book of Revelation would have begun after the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7.

Grace is not only what God gives us believers. God’s grace is also in the fact that He stopped the day of judgment and His wrath in its tracks. Man was at the precipice, the edge of the cliff, with the tribulation ready to begin, “but God” saw man’s need and gave us what we did not deserve—grace. God postponed His judgment and gave man another chance. Anyone who has put their faith in the finished work of Christ should rejoice in the truth of Ephesians 2:1-7:

“And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

“Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”

We were all “children of disobedience” at one time, and wrath awaits those who remain so (cf. Col. 3:6). We have all missed the mark and come short of the glory of God (cf. Rom. 3:23). We were all on the “course of this world,” or following the age of this world, which is another way of describing the world system and is a course headed for judgment and destruction because this world runs counter to the ways of God. Man deserved God’s judgment and wrath then and deserves it now.

“But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
“And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come “The silence of grace says as much about the love of God as anything else He has ever done for mankind.” He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”

As the world mocks God for His lack of judgment, the believer can praise Him for the “exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (v. 7). We rejoice in His longsuffering, grace, and mercy. The silence of grace says as much about the love of God as anything else He has ever done for mankind.

Why Understanding the Silence of Grace Matters

“Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:20-21).

But what are the practical implications that grace reigns today, and what do we gain by knowing that God is not judging nations or people for their sins like He has in the past and will again in the future?

Many years ago, I worked as a machine operator for a company that electro-polished tubing for the medical industry. It was essential that these tubes were stripped of anything that could contaminate the gases that would eventually flow through them when they reached their intended destination and were installed.

My job was to take twenty-footlong steel tubing and hook them up to a machine that used acid and electricity to smooth out the inside of the tubes to the point they shined like a mirror. When done right, they looked better than any chrome bumper you could ever imagine.

I’d have to set the speed of the electrode that was slowly drawn through the tube and the speed at which the acid would run through. The process was slow and generally took over an hour once they were all hooked up and the machine started. All I could do was wait and wonder if my settings were good. It was always an anxious time of waiting, not knowing what was currently taking place. Did I set the draw speed too slow, or was the acid going too fast? Truly, not knowing was the worst part of the process.

That’s how people generally respond to the unknown; they become anxious. The same is true for people unsure about the world in which they live. People get anxious when they don’t know what’s going on in the world. Is God causing that hurricane because of humanity’s sin? Is God going to overturn the nation because of the corruption of the politicians? Did God cause me to lose my job, my house, or have that flat tire?

All these questions and other concerns can be put to rest when we understand how God is dealing with the world today—through grace because grace reigns today.

No longer should we see a natural disaster, foreign invasion, or any difficulty we face as the judgment of God. These methods were used in the past, and they will be again in the future, but they are not how God works today.

For one, God is not dealing with nations but solely with individuals. By setting aside His nation, Israel, God has effectively stopped judging all nations. Instead, God works corporately through the Body of Christ and individually through the members thereof. God is not trying to reach the unsaved world through a nation but through His new creature (creation) (cf. Gal. 6:15), the Church, the Body of Christ, which is made up of people of all nations.

Additionally, as the Apostle Paul addressed those individuals at the Areopagus (Hill of Ares) or Mars’ hill (cf. Acts 17:19,22), he warned those listening then, and it serves as a warning to all who reject the gospel today, that God now commands “all men every where to repent: Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained…” (vv. 30-31).

God has appointed a day, a future day, to judge. That day is not today, for this day is the day of grace, not the day of judgment. The world does not need to live in fear that God’s judgment is upon us; instead, we should look on in awe and wonder at how great His mercies are. We should all be astonished by His long-suffering love and desire for all to be saved. For over 2000 years, His grace has stood; the heavens have been silent, judgment postponed, and man granted yet more time and another opportunity to turn to His maker and cry out to his Savior. Simply believe the gospel, and thou shalt be saved from the wrath to come (cf. 1 Thes. 1:10; 5:9).

There’s no telling when the silence of grace shall end. We are not promised tomorrow; now is the day of salvation, for truly, judgment day approaches. God’s future judgment is certain, “…for He cometh to judge the earth: He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth” (Psa. 96:13), because “true and righteous” are the Almighty’s judgments (cf. Rev. 16:7).

If you hate the evil of this world and long for God to set things in order, take comfort in knowing that we do not need to avenge ourselves. Neither is God mocked; “…for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Gal. 6:7). We can be sure that “the judgment of God is according to truth” (Rom. 2:2). “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Eccl. 12:14).

No wonder then that our Apostle Paul instructs us that “the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will” (2 Tim. 2:24-26).

Though the world may scoff at us and say, “Where is now their God?” (Psa. 115:2), let us reply, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth’s sake” (v. 1).

God will be glorified both by the saved and the unsaved; nothing and no one shall prevent that. When God finally does bring judgment, His righteousness will be on full display for all to see.

^{1. “Best-Selling Book.” Guiness World Records, https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/best-selling-book-of-non-fiction. Accessed February 26, 2024.}