Is there a famine of Biblical knowledge among the people of God?
Charles Colson has a new book out called ‘The Faith - given once, for all.’ It is a primer on orthodoxy, brief but powerful. One of its central premises is that their is a staggering decline in Biblical literacy among Christians. There is statistical evidence that as many as 60% of ‘born-again’ Christians do not believe in the concept of ‘absolute truth.’
In the book, Colson tells a story of a course that was being taught in a public high school (after school, in compliance with Equal Access laws) on Christian Worldview. When it came to the 10 lesson in the course on comparing Islam, Buddhism and Christianity the teacher reported that the kids in the class ‘went nuts’ over the claim that Christianity was true. Seven of the eight ’serious’ Christians students chosen as group leaders refused to teach it. When they met again some days later in preparation for the next week’s session, all eight leaders informed the teacher that they had consulted with their parents and some of their youth leaders. They were concerned that they might offend other children. The argument was so fierce that in the end they decided to cancel the lesson. Colson wonders -’is this any indication of the state of the Church?’I wonder this as well. Can we possibly hope to hand on the faith, ‘given once, for all’ with so much ignorance of basic Christian teaching? Reflecting upon this has caused me to seek the Lord and a clearer sense of what my response to this should be. One of the things that I believe He has shown me is that those who aspire to lead in the church must be grounded in the essentials of Christianity. There is a core of Christian truth that those who lead must know and be able to teach others. This core of Christian truth, sometime referred to as ‘orthodoxy’ isn’t just for leaders, it is for every Christian. But in order to be faithful to pass it along it must be mastered by those with the responsibility to pass it along to others.
Therefore I am proposing that we as a church begin a regular pattern of teaching aimed at imparting this ‘core’ to everyone, and especially to those who aspire to leadership. I believe we can find a regular pattern (perhaps once a month) in which we gather together for the purpose of going deeper in our understanding of Christian truth. I think it is so important that we as a church need to provide child care so that everyone who wants to come is able to come. Colson on his book jacket writes: “Christians must see that the faith is more than a religion or even a relationship with Jesus; the faith is a complete view of the world and humankind’s place in it. Christianity is a worldview that speaks to every area of life, and its foundational doctrines define its content. If we don’t know what we believe - even what Christianity is — how can we live it and defend it? Our ignorance is crippling us.”
Quoting once more from Colson: “The faith once for all handed down to the saints has been faithfully preserved by them from age to age, so that any reliable assertion of Christianity today, or in any age, must be able to demonstrate its continuity with the ancient past and the ongoing tradition of the faith. At the same time, in every age it is the task of theologians and thinkers to restate the ancient faith in contemporary terms.” May Christ the fountain head of truth be our motivation for commitment to learn and to teach the faith ‘given once, for all.’
March 15th, 2008 at 4:10 am
I agree. Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to our religious beliefs. We need to be able to respond when non-Christians question us. We need to respond correctly and to the word of the Bible. Without that we are nothing. We are not true Christians without the word in our lives, our souls, and our minds.
Vicki
PS Thank you Patty for teaching me the word. And thank you Pastor Scott for putting Patty in my path.
March 15th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
One church of which Katie and I were once members regularly repeated the core teachings (what people had to sit through to become members) as sermons. These core teachings weren’t necessarily heavy duty theology, but were simply basic catechism stuff: Apostles Creed, Lord’s Prayer, Ten Commandments, Baptism, and the Eucharist. Every year the long-time members could expect to hear a series of sermons on one of these topics, so that every five years everyone re-heard the core membership teachings. I found this pattern to be extremely helpful, as it kept me from drifting. It was a regular reminder to me that these were the truths that my church held to be of the highest importance.
I know that what you have in mind is perhaps a step or two above such core membership teachings, but sometimes it’s worth considering the foundations before building the walls.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Answering the title of this blog, YES, there is a famine of biblical knowledge among the people of God. I can totally see this lack of biblical knowledge or familiarity with the bible itself (from simply locating a book or the bible even knowing that the book of study even existed) in my generation from my youth group days to youth bible studies.
Somewhere along the line Christian educators (pastors/teachers) got wrapped up in a progressive/romanticist way of feeding the sheep. “The sheep will find their food, you don’t need to show them, or after one sheep falls off the cliff the others will learn not to go by the cliff” NOT! Sheep our foolish and need to be shown the way by their shepherd.
It became puritanical to preach the basics and insist that young children memorize scripture and fundamental truths. We got so involved with flashy media, seeker sensitive, and “the need to be seen by the world as “tolerant”" mumbo jumbo.
While cult groups the like Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons are ahead of the curve, equipping their young with biblical untruths who can easily scripture twist and confuse your regular church attendee.
Core teachings are important because they are foundational and help people to better understand the tougher biblical issues and not only that how to make good daily life decisions.