Rustler Article for 3.31.11

I’ve become interested in Biblical literacy lately as a part of my dissertation, and have been thinking about just how much Bible the people in our churches know. There has been an assumption, at least since World War Two, that people today don’t need to be taught the stories of the Bible; they have been so saturated by those narratives at home and in culture that to preach or teach on the basics of Scripture would be boring and redundant.
Thanks to some brave and helpful friends I’ve lately learned that we can assume no such thing about the people in our churches. Biblical literacy, something that I consider a necessity for a disciple of Jesus Christ, has fallen on such hard times that many can’t even identify the four Gospels in the New Testament! Add to this the plethora of books and broadcasts that present themselves as “biblical” and we wind up with a gaggle of would-be disciples who know less than their parents did about the very basics of our faith!
We must address Biblical literacy in our homes, and if not there, in our churches. It is the lack of Biblical knowledge in our congregations that has convinced me of the importance of Sunday night and Wednesday night Bible studies when many churches have let such events fall from their weekly schedules. It is important that we know the Word of God so that we may hear and obey what he says. Shame on us if we rant and rave about the godlessness of our culture or un-Christian principles of a person or organization without knowing the Bible first.