another one of Challies’ Wednesday links was to this article.
Ray Ortlund discusses some statistics detailing the shockingly high levels of biblical illiteracy in the general population and among christians. he then gives six excellent suggestions for dealing with this huge problem.
an example of the statistics:
According to 82 percent of Americans, ‘God helps those who help themselves,’ is a Bible verse. Those identified as born-again Christians did better–by one percent. A majority of adults think the Bible teaches that the most important purpose in life is taking care of one’s family. . . .
one of Ray’s suggestions for fixing this problem:
4. Preach from the Bible, and from the Bible only. Again, does this need to be said? One thing’s for sure. The Bible is fascinating, disturbing, offensive, sweet, alarming, comforting, stretching, shocking, controversial, caressing, strengthening. No way are you and I that interesting. Let’s put the Bible front and center and let it be itself and do its thing, whatever the impact. Submerging the Bible for the sake of our cool personas isn’t really cool at all. It’s a way of avoiding risk, chickening out.
Go read the rest of Ray Ortlund’s post.
As you know if you have spent any time at all reading my blog, this particular topic is a passion of mine.
the second post and the very first substantive post on this blog was about the importance of actually reading the Bible. (this was the first post)
God breathed out a book for us. A book that is promised to make us complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work. Do we really believe that? or is just something we say?