Last month I read an article in The Christian Post (Dec 3, 2020), entitled “Biblical Illiteracy Utmost Problem Facing Global Evangelicalism.” Leah Klett’s article summarized an interview with Thomas Schirrmacher, the new secretary-general of the World Evangelical Alliance. Schirrmacher stated, “Our biggest problem is that Bible knowledge is fading away. This is the utmost problem we have beyond all theological differences, and political questions.” His statement surprised me. I thought he would mention resurgent Islam or human trafficking or world hunger. Instead, he focused on biblical illiteracy. He went to say that biblical illiteracy is a problem for laypersons and church leaders alike.
Lay Persons
In her article, Leah Klett cited the Barna Group’s annual State of the Bible Report for 2020, which is also sponsored by the American Bible Society. According to the report, the percentage of adults in the USA who claim they read the Bible daily declined from 14% in 2019 to 9% in 2020. The 9% figure is the lowest reported in the ten-year history of the report.
At our church, only about 50% of our members come to Sunday school. So, half of our members receive no other biblical instruction than they receive during the worship service. Sure, I realize they could access good Bible teaching on the internet or radio, but I’m supposing that they do not.
As a seminary professor, I mainly taught missions courses, but I often referred to the Bible. Sometimes, I would ask my students a Bible question, and they would just look at me blankly. One day I scolded them and challenged them to read the entire Bible. Over the years, I’ve conducted an informal poll of seminary professors who teach the introduction to the Old Testament and Introduction to New Testament courses. These courses are required for all students. I asked the professors how well their students know the Bible. They all responded that most students begin seminary with little Bible knowledge. One professor said, “I assume they know nothing, and that is usually correct.” I believe one reason for this is that we get a lot of seminary students now who professed faith in Christ while in college. So, they did not benefit from years of teaching in Sunday school, as I did.
Though I attended Sunday school every Sunday (unless I had a fever), I did not understand the sweep of Bible history. I knew the stories of the Bible–Moses in the bullrushes and Daniel in the lion’s den—but I did not know how all those stories fit into God’s plan of salvation. Thankfully, when I went to college, I learned biblical history in Old Testament survey class, and I finally understood the eras of the Bible and where biblical characters fit into the timeline.
Church Leaders
Schirrmacher also expressed concern about untrained pastors. In fact, he described the problem of insufficiently trained pastors a “crisis.” He emphasized pastoral training as a priority for the World Evangelical Alliance: “This is just one thing we do, but it’s extremely important. Because if evangelicals don’t know the Bible any longer, it doesn’t make any sense that we a Bible movement. We have nothing else. We have no pope; we have no structure that keeps us together, no matter what we believe. We need to sit down and study the Bible, know the Scriptures, and be properly equipped for ministry.” Now, you might think: Sure, this is a problem for churches overseas, but it is not for us Southern Baptists.” Well, I can tell you that some years ago the IMB gave the new missionaries at its International Learning Center a test on Bible and doctrinal knowledge. The results we so bad that the IMB added a week of biblical and doctrinal instruction to its training program for new missionaries.
What can we do to address the problem of biblical illiteracy? First, we can reemphasize Sunday school and/or small groups. All our folks should be studying the Bible. 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. There are lots of read through the Bible in one-year plans. We should promote those. Finally, we should offer instruction that teaches the members the sweep of biblical revelation. Bruce Wilkinson’s Walk Through the Old Testament and New Testament addressed this need, and their popularity proved that our members are hungry for this. Lifeway’s Gospel Project and other curricula provide this type of instruction.
So, let me pose two questions to our Voices readers.
- Do you agree that biblical illiteracy is the biggest problem facing the church?
- And, what can we do to provide biblical instruction in our churches?
This is a problem that has been growing for a long time. In the early 2000s I wrote two articles that talked about this and presented a paper on this topic to the Saskatchewan Baptist Association Annual Meeting in 2002. I have found many church members believe what they think the Bible says and whatever makes them feel comfortable. Once a quoted a Bible verse verbatim to a church member on a topic only to be told “That’s not what I believe.” So yes, this is a large problem within the church at large.
Mark, I am proud to sing in your choir as you preach on this subject. The last time I checked, “teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you” is still a part of the Great Commission. The genuineness of one’s conversion is displayed in the discipleship process (think of the parable of the sower and soils). I teach Christian Worldview in our college program, and I have noticed that nothing affects our worldview into being “Christian” more than knowing what God has said in His word. It is hard to think and act biblically unless we know biblically. So… Read more »
Biblical Illiteracy certainly would be One of the problems the Church has today.
I agree with you that many inside and outside the church are unfamiliar with the Bible. Regarding the unchurched, the newly saved, and the saved, sometimes it is just telling people how to use the “Table of Content” and “Index.” Simple as that. Years ago while attending a Baptist college as an unchurched non-Baptist and newly saved person, I was trying to read my New Testament college textbook and was completely baffled. I was failing the course, so I went to talk to my professor. Come to find out, the required reading did not call for us to ‘buy’ or… Read more »
I love this. Thank you for sharing, and for the encouragement. Church leaders, please please listen to new believers who are asking and seeking. Don’t leave them at a complete loss. What irony, to think of a new adult believer, hungry, expected to “plug in” and thrive, but with no obvious next step – not even an expectation to have a Bible. New adult believers are so refreshing, a joy to feed! Almost any church could offer one or more of: – A Bible, and how to use. – A Bible overview class, emphasizing God’s loving plan in Jesus (NOT… Read more »
It’s an epistemological problem that the average person in the pew would never frame as such, but it’s a reality for them thanks to the internet. Take any verse of significance and you can instantly find dozens or hundreds (thousands?) of interpretations. If there’s 10 ways to see a verse it might have meaning, but it looks like a dart board. Then one sees academics speaking on a whole other level using jargon to disagree, and understanding scripture looks to be an impossible job. If you manage to get a Christian to read the Bible at home in private time… Read more »
Christian preaching, teaching, leadership and church’s activities must not insult other people in sexually, financially, physically and mentally in order to fullfil great commission and godly church.
At church building, every child, woman and man alikes are to be safed. God blessed. Thank you.
Many Christians don’t know and/or are not faithful to what the center of their faith is which is the Gospel and what the Gospel encompasses. That is a basic teaching of the Pastoral Epistles, 1 & 2 Tim. and Titus to not deviate from the fundamentals of the Gospel. If Christian knew and are faithful to that Gospel they couldn’t help but ‘grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.’ At the Center of the Gospel is the Cross and the Cross is offensive to the world and sadly that includes many believers. That is in Scripture, 1 &… Read more »
I agree that Bible illiteracy is a major problem in the church. I do not think all the blame is with the person in the pew. Many preachers’ sermons are nothing more than stories and jokes lacking any real Bible content.
And many sermons are lots of content with no interesting illustrations to help people understand the content! and no application to help them understand what to do with the content.
I think biblical literacy is an important issue but not the most important issue. I think if I had to choose the most important issue right now I would say it is the lack of emphasis on personal holiness. I don’t think it is solely a lack of biblical literacy that is contributing to this lack of personal holiness. I think that it is so much focus on that we can’t earn salvation (which is true) that there is erring to the other side in that we give license to not live holy. There’s sometimes this belief that if you… Read more »
I think Kimberly is hitting at the right points. Biblical illiteracy is a huge issue in the church but the reason for it is the problem that needs to be addressed. It isn’t about access. Google has made all knowledge accessible. But, why should one study? The Gospel is the great news that God loves us and wants to be in a relationship with us. Most folks do not not understand that God desires to communicate directly with them in an intimate relationship. He communicates in many ways but the main way is through His written word. He speaks through… Read more »
I used to teach an older women’s Sunday School class in a Baptist church. At some point, I asked permission not to order Sunday School material anymore, and just use the Bible. Every week we read Jeremiah, without omission, stopping occasionally for us to discuss & apply the passage. They thought this was wonderful teaching. But it was simply the power of the living word, read without omissions.
Even better is personal eyes-on, which how I’ve seen God use Bible Study Fellowship to transform lives. BSF has consistently improved Biblical literacy for 50 years.
If a believer has no desire to study the Bible, that is a symptom of spiritual illness. So, Kimberly and Strider make a good point. To Tony and Scott, I reply that my point is that listening to a 30-40 minute sermon each week is not enough Bible intake. Believers need to also study the Bible in their personal devotions and in a small group setting (Sunday school class/small group). Yes, many sermons are shallow and deliver little biblical/doctrinal teaching. On the other hand, a commitment to expository preaching (some now call it text-driven preaching) does not give the preacher… Read more »
Mark, I agree. I hope my comment did not imply that I thought the only Bible a person needed was on Sunday morning. I just think if the people in the pew hear a sermon that is text driven and well crafted, then they will be challenged to go home and dig deeper in the Bible for themselves. This is what happened with me as a young believer and 39 years later I am still making an attempt to study and rightly divide the word (2 Tim 2:15).
Totally agree with Kimberly. Thought experiment: who in your church loves His word and delights in it? To whom would you send a question-filled new believer, trusting that person for gentle, sound guidance? Who welcomes natural discussion of God’s word – and who balks at it? If you can only think of 1 or 2 reliably knowledgeable believers, or maybe just the pastor, that’s a problem. It’s not about knowing everything. It’s about the attitude – the lifelong seeking and joy and privilege of knowing Him, His character and plan. To share that love with one another, and build up… Read more »
I think spiritual empowerment is the biggest problem in the church. Biblical illiteracy is connected to that. And I don’t want to sound cynical, but I was in Sunday School from the time my mother first took me to the nursery and with very few exceptions, all of the teachers I had were more focused on pushing their own beliefs and interpretations than they were in actually facilitating a genuine study of the scripture. Most of what I learned wrong about the Bible came from a Sunday School class.
My answer to your question is simple… NO!
I think the problem is the “WHY?” there is biblical illiteracy.
Ok, I’ll bite. How do you answer the “why” question.
Wow. Not really looking for bites but that’s fine. I was thinking of our out of place love for God. We don’t love Him first so the other things like illiteracy of scripture are a result.
If it’s not the biggest problem it’s very, very close. Thanks for this post!