Kenneth Briggs in his book, The Invisible Bestseller: Searching for the Bible in America, records his pilgrimage in search of biblical literacy. Remarkably, he says he found the most intimate familiarity with God’s Word, not in the hundreds of churches he visited, but in a prison!
The general decline of biblical literacy in the Western world is old news. But what’s new is that research conducted by Barna and LifeWay indicates that American Evangelical Christians have a failing grade when it comes to common knowledge about God’s Word.
There also seems to be a correlation between the size of a church and biblical literacy. Briggs says that the faith he finds in “mega-type churches” is a “Bible-less … alternative version of Christianity.” In other words, the larger the church the more likely it is for the Bible to be “a museum exhibit, hallowed as a treasure but enigmatic and untouched.”
I’m guessing, in the absence of similar research elsewhere, that the state of Bible literacy in other parts of the world is similar to the USA. That’s why I’m advocating for “Bible-more.” The Bible should be more than a lucky rabbit’s foot, more than a talisman to ward off evil, and more than a good book on a shelf in a home.
Why does this matter? Because when we’re Bible-less, the lies of the devil enslave us. But when we’re Bible-more, the truth sets us free!
In the subduction zone of nominal Christianity succumbing to the tectonic influences of postmodernity, Bible-less faith needs to be called out for the hollow sham that it is. Biblical illiteracy should never be tolerated in any church for any reason. To build a new generation of earthquake resistant Christians we must be Bible-more focused in every facet of everything we say and do.
Let’s give ourselves a kick in the pants! There should be no excuses for being Bible-less. We should be red-faced concerning our biblical ignorance … but then move on from our embarrassment by doing something about it … by determining to be Bible-more.
Will you help shake things up? The modern world was created because the Bible helped Western civilization discover how reading and thinking is grounded in the fact that truth is knowable. The postmodern world could likewise benefit if Christians became Bible-more … if Christians, through knowing and living out God’s Word, helped postmoderns discover the truth that sets them free.
© Scripture Union Canada 2018
2 Corinthians 4:5