Several years ago I made an attempt to write an in depth blog post about how reliable the bible is. It was simply titled “Is the Bible Reliable?” It’s been a commonly viewed post over the years but like many of my older writings I feel that the writing and organization of many of the posts are poorly written and not well thought out. I’ve since decided to rewrite a series about the bible that briefly explains why I don’t take it seriously as divine scripture or history.
The bible has often been called the “best selling,” yet, “least read” book of all time. Judging from the vast majority of Christians’ lack of biblical knowledge I’d say this is a very accurate statement. According to a 2009 Barna Group study,
Barna’s findings related to Bible knowledge and application indicate that little progress, if any, is being made toward assisting people to become more biblically literate.
“Bible reading has become the religious equivalent of sound-bite journalism. When people read from the Bible they typically open it, read a brief passage without much regard for the context, and consider the primary thought or feeling that the passage provided. If they are comfortable with it, they accept it; otherwise, they deem it interesting but irrelevant to their life, and move on. There is shockingly little growth evident in people’s understanding of the fundamental themes of the scriptures and amazingly little interest in deepening their knowledge and application of biblical principles.
Barna noted that some of the critical assumptions of many preachers and Bible teachers is inaccurate. “The problem facing the Christian Church is not that people lack a complete set of beliefs; the problem is that they have a full slate of beliefs in mind, which they think are consistent with biblical teachings, and they are neither open to being proven wrong nor to learning new insights. Our research suggests that this challenge initially emerges in the late adolescent or early teenage years. By the time most Americans reach the age of 13 or 14, they think they pretty much know everything of value the Bible has to teach and they are no longer interested in learning more scriptural content. It requires increasingly concise, creative, reinforced, and personally relevant efforts to penetrate people’s minds with new or more accurate insights into genuinely biblical principles. In a culture driven by the desire to receive value, more Bible teaching is generally not viewed as an exercise in providing such value.” (accessed 12-20-11)
With this new series I hope to spread numerous facts about the bible that many believers are likely not aware of. I will cover several subjects, such as its conception, historical accuracy, and its supposed moral teachings.
