A Survey of the Evangelical Battle Field: Biblical Illiteracy
As we survey the battlefield, it’s clear that Biblical Illiteracy is enemy number one.
Regarded as some of the bravest men in World War 2 combat, Easy Company of the 101st Airborn Division fought heroically at Brecourt, Holland, and the Battle of the Bulge. Much of their success, however, was credited to Captain Herbert Sobel. Before Normandy, Sobel was assigned command of Easy Company. He trained the men at an incredibly extreme, often dangerous rate to push their limits and harden them. Though responsible for making them the most competent and disciplined of all the companies, Easy despised Sobel. He had a reputation for horrible treatment, insecurity, and poor leadership.
Worst of all: Sobel couldn’t read a map.
While training in Europe, Sobel, once again, misread his map and got the company lost on a tactical run. Capitalizing on the mistake, George Luz mimicked a higher-ranking officer’s voice while at a distance. He commanded the insecure, panicking Sobel to cut a barb wire fence, releasing cattle from a neighboring farm. The failure humiliated Sobel, and it ultimately led to his removal from the Company. Easy Company was relieved—failure of this magnitude could cost lives in actual combat.
Biblical Illiteracy Kills
Like map-reading in combat, Biblical literacy is a matter of life and death. Our understanding of the Bible determines whether or not we’ll be useful to the Kingdom of God. Correctly interpreting the Bible —its narratives, commands, and implications—protects Christians from dangerous false doctrine. Meanwhile, the Biblically Illiterate, naive and susceptible, wander into enemy territory, unaware of the dangers all around them. Like Sobel and his maps, those who don’t understand their Bibles will fall for anything.
This series on current, Evangelical battlefronts must start with the painful truth that very few professing Christians “study to show [themselves] approved to God.” Few rightly handle the Word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15). As the pulpit goes, so does the church. The failure of local churches to equip their people to personally and faithfully study the Word of God at home is the root cause of the other five significant battles Evangelicals face today: Wokeism, Elitism, Safeism, Feminism, and Deconstructionism.
Real Talk
“The Christian body in America is immersed in a crisis of biblical illiteracy,” warns researcher George Barna. “How else can you describe matters when most churchgoing adults reject the accuracy of the Bible, reject the existence of Satan, claim that Jesus sinned, see no need to evangelize, believe that good works are one of the keys to persuading God to forgive their sins, and describe their commitment to Christianity as moderate or even less firm?”
Other disturbing findings that document an overall lack of knowledge among churchgoing Christians include:
The most widely known Bible verse among adult and teen believers is “God helps those who help themselves”—which is not actually in the Bible and actually conflicts with the basic message of Scripture.
Less than one out of every ten believers possess a biblical worldview as the basis for his or her decision-making behavior.
When given thirteen basic teachings from the Bible, only 1% of adult believers firmly embraced all thirteen as being biblical perspectives.
Gary Burge, professor of New Testament at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, asserts that biblical illiteracy is at a crisis level not just in our culture in general but in America’s churches.
“If it is true that biblical illiteracy is commonplace in secular culture at large, there is ample evidence that points to similar trends in our churches,” he says. Burge points to research at Wheaton College in which the biblical and theological literacy of incoming freshmen have been monitored. These students, who represent almost every Protestant denomination in the United States from every state in the country, have returned some “surprising results”:
One-third could not put the following in order: Abraham, the Old Testament prophets, the death of Christ, and Pentecost.
Half could not sequence the following: Moses in Egypt, Isaac’s birth, Saul’s death, and Judah’s exile.
One-third could not identify Matthew as an apostle from a list of New Testament names.
Few know the Bible, why it was given to us, and what it reveals. This puts people in grave danger. The Biblically Illiterate are easy pickins for Satan and his purposes. As J.C. Ryle proclaimed, “Ignorance of the Scriptures is the root of all error.”
Darrell Harrison notes,
…the study of God’s Word takes effort, and much of that effort involves understanding how to properly interpret the biblical text. It is in that regard that I believe many Christians are immature.
I don’t say that to be condescending or disrespectful in any way. Nevertheless, the reality is there are many in the church today who are hesitant to study the Scriptures for themselves (Acts 17:11) because they’ve deemed the Bible too difficult to understand.
It was the “prince of preachers,” Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who said: “If you wish to know God you must know his word; if you wish to perceive his power you must see how he worketh by his word; if you wish to know his purpose before it is actually brought to pass you can only discover it by his word.”
A Post-Modern Hermeneutic
Many professing Christians have abandoned a literal, historical, grammatical approach to Scripture, an approach supported by the prophets, the Epistles, and Christ Himself. Interpretation centered around the author’s intent seeks to understand the Biblical writers’ original intention in the words and grammar they chose (by inspiration of the Holy Spirit), considering the historical context. Meaning, therefore, in this approach to Bible, is stable. The Bible can’t mean now what it never meant then.
Rather than surrendering to the literal truth of God’s Word, many pastors, lay-persons, and opportunists see the Scriptures like an open world full of possibilities. Like Legos or Minecraft, the Bible is a platform to create meaning. The Woke see the Bible through the lens of oppression. According to Pastor Tom Buck, a Woke approach to Scripture teaches “that we can best arrive at the meaning of biblical text by listening to the voices of people from different races and genders.” Two implications come out of this strategy of reading the Bible, 1) no one can truly understand the Bible without listening to a minority’s point of view, and 2) the meanings of words and sentences are unstable and fluid. Meaning changes over time as point-of-view changes.
The creator of Woke Preacher Clips provided The Official TheoBros with this helpful example of Wokeness’ effect on Biblical Literacy,
The entire issue of Woke Hermeneutics is sacralizing covetousness by redefining wealth disparities as oppression. As Phil Vischer once said to AD Robles, it's not covetousness if you're "coveting justice." That is, one demographic has taken wealth from another demographic. The Woke aren't coveting wealth, they're demanding restoration of what has been stolen. However, Scripture does not support this position. Civil judgments in the Mosaic law require a specific plaintiff and defendant, both of whom have rights in the dispute. If that due process cannot be upheld, then no justice can come from confiscating and redistributing possessions. If no such case can be made, then the Bible has much to say about remaining content rather than coveting others' wealth, even as it seems unfair. Psalm 37:16, Luke 12:15, Colossians 3:5, James 4:1-2, 1 Timothy 2:6-8, not a single woke preacher I have encountered tempers their message of redistributive "justice" with these.
Feminists view the Bible as a weapon to overthrow “the Patriarchy,” and Evangelical Elites view the Bible as a means to accrue influence within the academy. Whatever political or personal agenda one might have, be it Socialism, Immigration, or gay rights, the Bible provides the language and basic authority to build a case within the Post-modern paradigm. Rather than discovering the truth of God’s Word and adjusting accordingly, a relativist uses personal experience, feelings, and opinions as the grid through which to interpret the Bible.
In summary: a literal, grammatical, historical approach to interpreting Scripture is God-centered. Post-Modern Hermeneutics is man-centered.
Striking Back
The best way to war against Biblical Illiteracy is to fight it yourself. I’ve heard it said that to be spiritually mature and stable, a Christian must read his or her Bible at least five times. Consistent and repeated Bible reading is the only cure. As you grow in your knowledge of God and the Bible, seeking to understand the author’s original intention, you will become more and more useful to the Kingdom of God. Pastor Tom Patton puts it this way,
Once Josiah possessed the Word of God, he realized the Word of God must now possess him. He set out to change his entire world, starting with the world within himself (2 Kings 23:3).
Our day is like King Josiah’s. We have lots of Bibles, but the Word of God has been virtually lost to our society. Even in many churches, the horrible truth is that the Scriptures have been missing from the pulpit for a very long time. The terrifying agony of Josiah’s day can be seen in our day as well.
Yet the story of Josiah gives us hope. Though the Word of God had been lost in the Temple, it was also found there too. Like Josiah, we must all come face to face with the Book — to rediscover it once again, to tear our clothes in repentance, and to restore it to its rightful place in our hearts, homes, and churches. That’s what it means to treasure God’s Word.
Protect yourself, your family, and your church from the Enemy: equip yourself with a MacArthur Study Bible and Nate Pickowicz’s book, “How to Eat Your Bible.” Open your Bible and follow J.C. Ryles Seven Rules for Bible Reading:
1) Read the Bible with an earnest desire to understand it.
2) Read the Scriptures with a simple, childlike faith and humility.
3) Read the Word with a spirit of obedience and self-application.
4) Read the Holy Scriptures every day.
5) Read the whole Bible and read it in an orderly way.
6) Read the Word of God fairly and honestly.
7) Read the Bible with Christ constantly in view.
As we survey the battlefield, it’s clear that Biblical Illiteracy is enemy number one. When the people of God know and cherish God’s Word, false teaching like Wokeism, Feminism, Safeism, Elitism, and Deconstructionism is unable to thrive and break through the lines.