Gary D. Collier

"People in my church are so illiterate about the Bible that I change things from it all the time, and they never know the difference!"

That's what the minister said.  I was stunned!  Everyone else in my discussion group on Homer's Odyssey laughed and nodded their heads.  But I was simply struck dumb by the insolence of this man who made no pretense about victimizing his hearers. 

A Growing Problem

The sad part was, he was telling the truth!  Biblical illiteracy among Christians is a growing problem.  Personal Bible study has been in decline for years.  Many do not even know the Biblical books!  Some churches, once hungry for the Scriptures, are now made up of people who are either completely apathetic about the Bible, or who feed mainly on pop-Christian books and TV or radio programs.  The latter are not necessarily bad in themselves, but they have often become substitutes for honest Bible reading. 

There are many reasons for this illiteracy.  First, there have been many changes in society in general.  The days of leisurely visits by unexpected company, of quiet evening strolls, and of time just spent together with family in conversation and shared activity are vanishing.  The quiet times spent alone with a good book are disappearing.  "Leisure" is something that now must wrestle its way onto the schedule, somewhere between putting the kids to bed, paying the bills, and finishing the project that had to be brought home from that second job or night class.  Reading—reading anything!—should now be placed on the "Ten Most Endangered Activities" list, as we turn to television and DVD players for easy information and entertainment.  The very idea of Bible study seems either wearisome or perhaps a "luxury" we can no longer afford.

Second, we have taken direct hits from secular society which declares the Bible and its followers as antiquated relics of a bygone era, out-of-step and out-of-touch with the needs of present reality.

Third, Christians can also blame themselves.  Past debates over the Bible and religious “hot topics” have focused on technical matters or fine points of somebody’s interpretation, Such childish wrangling has simply turned a lot of people off.  Christians sometimes beat on each other about who is really right and who is really wrong.  "Issues" sometimes have been more important than people.  And so, in many cases, studying the Bible has become associated with rigid thinking and heated arguments.  And who needs that?

Finally, in the name of being more spiritual, a widespread tendency is to read the Bible only superficially.  In this case, the Holy Spirit is invoked as the authoritative and indisputable guide.  And so, there has been a move from focusing on detailed questions about the Bible to living in the Spirit.

Now who would deny the importance of the Holy Spirit?  Not I, certainly.  But that isn’t really the point.  The problem is the presentation of a tug-of-war between the Spirit and the Bible. 

Let me illustrate.  For fifteen years, I taught Biblical literature and languages at three different seminaries and universities in Los Angeles, Denver, and Indianapolis (specifically: Fuller Theological Seminary, Iliff School of Theology, and Martin University).  In all three schools, I would routinely receive students each semester who came from churches that emphasized the importance of the Holy Spirit in reading the Bible. That in itself was not bad. The problem was that in many cases the students were satisfied that their “Holy Spirit interpretation” was sufficient and that no further examination of the Bible was even necessary.  Their positions were both safe and unchallengeable. 

What they had failed to consider was the possibility that what had been taught to them as a “Holy Spirit interpretation” might be a well-intended tradition handed down from their church.  Then, when they examined a particular Bible text more closely for themselves, they would sometimes be disturbed to learn that their “Holy Spirit interpretation” did not stand up to close scrutiny. On some occasions, a student would stubbornly assert: “ I don’t care what the Bible says, I know what it means.”

Now, quite honestly, in these cases I did not have to say anything to the class at all. Everyone else would simply look at them in disbelief.

Again, this is not an anti-Holy Spirit statement.  Certainly, the Holy Spirit has a vital place in every aspect of our lives, including our readings of the Bible.  But I’m talking about an unhealthy trend in which Christians know less and less about the Bible.  It has been very much like a pendulum swinging from one over-emphasis to another.  While Christians have focused less on the letter and more on the Spirit, we may question whether it is the Spirit of God or the spirit of laziness that drives some of the ways the Bible is read.  The sad truth is, many have become more ignorant of the Scriptures, even approaching Biblical illiteracy. 

Some, it seems, want to replace the Scriptures with the Spirit.  During my lifetime I’ve heard the following statement numerous times:  "I have already learned more Bible than I will ever need.  It isn't the Bible I need, it's the Spirit."  Surely, such statements grow out of deep frustration with a religious systems that have often quenched the Spirit of God.  But is the answer to stop reading the Bible?

Frankly, neither individual Christians nor churches can survive long on such superficiality.  For the Spirit of God will not lead us away from the Scriptures of God.  Instead, life in the Spirit and life in the Word are inseparable, a twin necessity for our life in the world.

Finding Direction

Life in the world:  such a simple phrase, such a complex assignment.  Gay rights, nuclear war, drugs, AIDS, SARS, stress, abortion, broken families, computer technology, space exploration, and more:  it all seems so far away from the world of the Bible. 

How do we bring the Bible to bear on such a distant and alien culture as our own?  This question is the central question of an entirely new project that is beginning with this column. The project is called, “The Online Bible Class” and has three components:

The goal of this new project is to use all three components to pursue one major concern: the use of the Bible in the hands of Christians.  (For complete details about the goals and approaches of this new project, please go to the website and click on the appropriate button.)

Obviously, this is a huge topic.  Is there any one right approach or opinion about how Christians should use and read the Bible?  Well of course, there are as many answers to this question as there are people.  Everybody has his or her own opinions about religion, politics, and every other subject.  Even people who do not go to church often have strong opinions about how to read the Bible. 

I am under no delusions that this project will once and for all answer such a perennial question.  However, I do believe it is extremely valuable for careful thinking and discussion to take place on subjects like this one.  That, at least, will be my attempt in this multifaceted project.

My suggestion will be that we will find a tremendous amount of help on this topic—how to read and apply the Bible today—by watching Jesus as our mentor.  Far from being a simple way around careful readings of the Bible, this approach will demand our very best efforts.  To that end, I will develop an extended case that the Bible itself tells us how to read its pages, how to listen to its laws, how to apply its precepts, how to understand its stories.  And it does so through the person of Jesus as our mentor.  This concept will be fully developed in subsequent articles.

Christians and Scripture

The notion that we may be so ignorant of the Bible that we are oblivious to being victimized by the spirit of our age, or even by some who would be our teachers, should both offend and motivate us.  Biblical literacy is not just for preachers and teachers;  we must all take the Bible seriously.  And although we live in the Spirit, we must not use the Spirit as a place to hide from the Bible.  What is it the Psalm says?  “Open my eyes, so that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”