The importance of Bible literacy is a fair debate. Even the Bible itself tells us that knowledge, just for the sake of knowledge, can be detrimental—it puffs up and leads to pride (1 Cor. 8:1). And if Bible knowledge runs the risk of making us prideful (and in turn, self-righteous), why not simply focus more on the Bible’s ultimate message of love and then live in obedience to that message? I mean truly, if the ultimate goal of Bible knowledge is obedience, why not just start with obedience and skip the hard, risky part?
It’s a reasonable option, and one I’ve actually considered putting into practice. But as I play that option out, the importance of knowing God’s Word bubbles to the top. So, here are four reasons why not to skip the hard, risky part.
Bible literacy matters to God
But the reason it matters to God is because He knows it will benefit us. We’re told in 1 Corinthians 10:11 that events happened in Israel’s history and were written down so that we who live today can be forewarned. In Romans 15:4 we’re told that “everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.” God made sure that spiritual history was recorded so that we can be warned, encouraged, and given hope. We miss out on a ton if we don’t know that spiritual history.
Bible literacy is a by-product of deep seeking
Granted, Bible literacy should not necessarily be pursued simply for the sake of literacy. The Bible is not solely an informational book, but rather an experience of love that is to be engaged and internalized in a way that personally exposes us to the redemptive, unconditional love of God. As we embrace God’s love for us and exhibit our love for God, the things that are important to God become important to us. We begin to realize that if we don’t know whether Abraham comes before Samson (and many don’t), then we don’t know God.
The Bible’s transmission process is under attack
Textual criticism, the discipline of looking critically at the Bible’s formation, is nothing new and is not to be feared. God’s Word and His message can withstand the rigors of scholarly scrutiny. But for decades, the popular press has accepted premises of this scrutiny without challenge. Find the Easter issue of Time or Newsweek magazine over the past years and you’ll see things like the gospel of Thomas carrying the same authority as the gospel of Matthew. But the criticism now has a more sinister bite. The cover story of a recent issue of Newsweek, “The Bible: So Misunderstood It’s a Sin,” opened by calling believers “God’s frauds” and “cafeteria Christians” who pick and choose what Bible verses they want to heed. It went downhill from there. The author sought to show that the compiling of the New Testament is simply too fraught with human and political influences to be trusted as a divine book. The article was a hit piece, and the hits are going to keep on coming. Biblical illiteracy combined with the intentional undermining of biblical authority is a recipe for rampant biblical apathy, or worse, widespread unbelief. When we know the truth of God’s Word and know that it works, we are not easy prey to pop culture’s war on the Bible.
Bible literacy is a form of trust
We’re told in Hebrews 11 that God rewards the diligent seeker. Further, we’re told that it is impossible to please God without faith. God gave us a holy writ. Of all the centuries that Scripture spans, the events and teachings between Genesis and Revelation are what God wanted to be sure we got. This is what’s important. When we engage God’s Word we are doing an act of trust that says, “This is real. This is important.” I’m thinking God likes that.
Where we are
In a recent Bible literacy “pop quiz,” youth workers (staff and volunteer) were asked to place eight key Bible people in order, each person representing a specific era of God’s revelation. (In fact, the list of people is the image at the top of this post.) Only 17 percent could place the people correctly. As you can see, the Bible people in the quiz were not obscure people. Their names are famous. Of course, the goal isn’t to memorize the correct order. The goal is to seek God deeply and embrace His love, to pay attention to what’s important to Him, and to trust that God’s Word is what it says it is and can do what it says it can do. When we approach the Bible this way, and the literacy that ensues, we’ll find that it’s neither hard nor risky. It works.
(Wanna try the quiz? Click here to download a PDF of the quiz and an “open book” exercise.)
Where we need to go
We need a Bible engagement tsunami on all levels. Whether it’s a “tree top” reading plan overview, or a drill-down on a single book of the Bible, we need teens, youth workers, parents, college age, pastors and all other life categories adopting an approach that fits their interests and learning styles.
InWord is glad to help any way we can, whether through our Bite-Sized Chunk of God’s Word teen devos or our inductive small-group studies We are committed to developing materials that trust God’s Word to be what it says it is and that it can do what it says it can do.