As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“The research reveals some troubling and concerning trends, which I will share in an upcoming post, but the research also provides many reasons to be encouraged – both as a ministry leader and as a Christian who reads the Scripture.” - Geiger
“Second, we can strive to use the Sunday school hour fully for Bible teaching. In many adult classes announcements, prayer time, and discussion of community events takes up much of the teaching time. Third, we can emphasize Bible reading plans.” - SBC Voices
“According to Lifeway Research, more than 1 in 4 Protestant church attenders fail to read their Bible at least once a week. Less than half say they read their Bible more than once a week. In our society of literacy and Bible accessibility, this Bible neglect is concerning.” - F&T
“If a person doesn’t realize that their understanding of the Bible lacks appropriate context and depth, they end up navigating the stormy cultural waters in whatever way happens to make sense to them based on what they think the Bible says.
“The bill approved by the House on Tuesday … would require a public school to offer the academic study of the Bible if at least 15 students request one. The course would be taught in what the legislation calls a ‘nondevotional manner with no attempt made to indoctrinate students.’” - Fox News
“A movement to start Bible classes in public schools is gaining ground. Seven states already recognize these classes and six more could soon follow….the same schools teaching their kids about sexuality and science would now teach them the Bible.” - CBN
“The Bible literacy classes under discussion are public school elective courses that teach the books of the Bible from the perspective of history and literature.” - TGC
Bibles in Iowa schools sparks outrage, but this Iowa City class takes Bible learning in stride
From Think on These Things, March 2017; used with permission.
I concluded my article titled “Biblical Illiteracy” with these words:
Biblical illiteracy is well recognized today. There are many reasons why not only the general population but also the evangelical church has little understanding and knowledge of Scripture, and I have tried to identify some of these in the body of this article. With all of the attacks on the trustworthiness of Scripture, coupled with general lack of biblical knowledge and apathy toward what it proclaims, it would be easy to despair for the future of the Scriptures.
But God’s Word always accomplishes that which it is sent forth by the Lord to accomplish (Isa 55:1) which is to teach, reprove, correct and train His people in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16). We have the promise of Jesus that His Word will never pass away (Matt 24:35). Rather than despair we should make every effort to pass along the Lord’s truth to the next generation (Deut 6:4-9; Psalm 145:4). At this point we need to consider some means to do so. What can we personally, and corporately as the church, do to address the issue of biblical illiteracy?
It is to this subject we now turn.
Reasons for biblical illiteracy are many: lack of emphasis and teaching of the Bible in our churches, youth programs that major on entertainment rather than the Word of God, Bible colleges and seminaries that prepare ministers to be CEOs rather than shepherds who feed the flock a rich diet of Scripture, confusing MTD for biblical Christianity, and simply laziness and distractions resulting in neglect of personal reading of the Bible. But one other culprit surely is the increasing challenge to biblical inerrancy. If Christians do not believe in the inerrancy of the Scriptures then by default they believe the Bible contains errors and, therefore, cannot be trusted.
If this is the case then why bother reading it? Major attacks on the truthfulness and reliability of God’s Word have been prolific from the New Atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, and skeptics such as Bart Ehrman. But, sadly, theologians closer to the core of the faith are also adding fuel to the fire.
Discussion