Tragically, many Christians living in developed countries, or at least those who identify as Christians, are giving up the Bible. The Bible is the cornerstone of the Christian faith. Without it Christians have no defense against secularism. And they are giving it up without a whimper of protest.
A recent Church of England survey says that 60 percent of the members of the Church of England “never” read the Bible. Another survey of Brits in general reveals that 77% never read the Bible. Merely 9% of Brits read the Bible weekly, and one third of them never pray. Therefore it is little wonder that so many churches there are dying. Only the Bible challenges the claims of secularism.
In an everyday sense, reveals another opinion poll, one interpretation could be that Christianity is becoming de-coupled from the holy book on which it is founded. This process, mirroring declines in other religious indicators, is attributed to the waning influence of three principal agencies of religious socialization (church/Sunday school, state school, parents), which formerly underpinned the Bible’s role in faith and society. While there is plenty of scholarly scrutiny of the Bible, its principles and life guidance does not appear to influence society with religious beliefs, practices, and attitudes in modern Britain. Brits mostly do not know what the Bible says.
According to researchers George Gallup and Jim Castelli, biblical illiteracy is rampant in America too. Fewer than one in two adults can name the four Gospels. Many Christians cannot name more than two or three of Jesus’s disciples. They say America is “a nation of biblical illiterates.”
Fewer than one in four Americans (24%) now believe the Bible is “the actual word of God, and is to be taken literally, word for word,” similar to the 26% who view it as “a book of fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by man.” This is the first time in Gallup’s four-decade trend that biblical literalism has not surpassed biblical skepticism. Meanwhile, about half of Americans — a proportion largely unchanged over the years — fall in the middle, saying the Bible is the inspired word of God but that not all of it should be taken literally. Although biblical literalism now ties with biblical skepticism nationally, these views vary somewhat across different segments of the U.S. population.
However, within the broad group of Christians, Protestants (including those who generically refer to themselves as “Christian”) lean toward the literalist view, while Catholics divide evenly between seeing the Bible as the literal word of God and saying it is a book of stories. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of those with no religious affiliation fall into the skeptics’ camp.
No wonder our culture is awash in confusion. What Amos wrote (8:11) centuries ago is just as true in our day: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.”
We miss out on so much when we fail to tap the Bible’s power. Charles Spurgeon once said, “If you wish to know God you must know his word; if you wish to perceive his power you must see how he worketh by his word; if you wish to know his purpose before it is actually brought to pass you can only discover it by his word.”
In this, the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation—which gave the Word of God back to the people, proclaimed it as the final authority in the Christian life, and unleashed its liberating power in society—it is a scandal that so few Christians read it.