BIBLICAL ILLITERACY

“The Christian body in America is immersed is a crisis of biblical illiteracy.” George Barna. “George Barna is the founder of The Barna Group, a market research firm specializing in studying the religious beliefs and behavior of Americans, and the intersection of faith and culture. He also serves as the chair of Good News Holidays, a media distribution outlet.”
Wickipedia encyclopedia.
As evidence, Barna notes; “How else can you describe matters when 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 our sins, and describe their commitment to Christianity as moderate or even less firm.” [Barna Research On Line, “Religious Beliefs Vary Widely by Denomination.” June 25, 2001
I would insert that another indication of biblical illiteracy is inherent in the concern for “commitment to Christianity” rather than commitment to Christ on the part of Christian leaders such as George Barna.
Dr. Michael J. Vlach lists, as evidence of this problem, the following, in his Special Report for Theological Studies.org; 1) “The most widely known Bible verse among adult and teen believers is “God helps those who help themselves,” 2)When given thirteen basic teachings from the Bible, only 1% of adult believers firmly embraced all thirteen as being biblical perspectives.
In the same report, Vlach notes that Gary Burge, professor of New Testament in Wheaton College has pointed out that biblical illiteracy is at a crisis level not just in our culture in general but in American churches. Burge is quoted as saying, “If it is true that biblical illiteracy is commonplace in secular culture at large, here is ample evidence that points to similar trends in our churches.” Burge points to research at Wheaton College in which biblical and theological illiteracy of incoming freshmen have been monitored. These students, who represent 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 one of the apostles from a list of New Testament names. When asked to locate the biblical book supplying a given story, one-third could not find Paul’s travels in Acts, half did not know that the Christmas story was in Matthew [which it isn’t since the Christmas celebration itself is of pagan origin and not mentioned in the Bible.], half did not know that the Passover story was in Exodus.
Dr. Vlach quotes George Linbeck, the famous Yale theologian’s comments on the decreasing knowledge of Scripture from a professor’s perspective; “When I first arrived at Yale, even those who came from nonreligious backgrounds knew the Bible better than most of those now who come from churchgoing families.”
Author and theologian, David Wells is quoted, from his book, No Place or Truth, by Vlach as saying, {“I have watched with growing disbelief as the evangelical church has cheerfully plunged into astounding theological illiteracy.
Volker Gaeckle, Dean of Studies at Albrecht Bengel Center in Tuebugin, referring to a scientific study called PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) has written, “Churches should heed the PISA warning that text comprehension is a major problem. PISA’s assessment showed that people in thirty-two industrialized countries show an “insidious biblical illiteracy” even in Christian circles.
George Barna reports that examination of the heart of the matter shows shocking results indicating a “profound lack of belief in essential Christian doctrines. In his study of the beliefs of mainline Protestants (including Methodists, Lutherans, and Episcopalians) Barna documents a rejection of key Christian doctrines. Only 35% believe Christ was sinless, 34% believe the bible is totally accurate, 27% agree that works don’t earn heaven; and 20% believe that Satan is real.
Of Baptists (any type) in America, only 34% believe that Satan is real. Only 43% believe that works don’t earn heaven. Although most Baptists affirm that Christ was sinless and that the Bible is totally accurate, the majority is not strong. Only 55% affirm that Christ was sinless, and 66% hold that the Bible is totally accurate.
Of nondenominational Christian church, Barna reports that 48% believe that Satan is real, 60% say that works don’t earn heaven; 70% believe the Bible is totally accurate.
According to Barna’s report, the denomination with the highest commitment to essential Christian doctrine is the Assembly of God [AOG]. 77% believe the Bible is totally accurate, 70% believe Christ was sinless. Only 64% affirm that works don’t earn heaven. Only 56% believe that Satan is real. Even in this most theologically committed denomination, large percentages of people still deny essential Christian doctrines.
Concerning Theology, Barna returns to Gary Burge. Burge has explained that here is a general failing of the church to transmit our religious culture to the next generation. This includes an overemphasis on personal experience to the exclusion of serious Christian education. Burge is quoted as saying, “In short, the spiritual life has become less a matter of learning than a matter of experiencing. ..This has resulted in Christian ministries that put less premium on education that they do on personal development and therapeutic wholeness.”
Burge notes that this emphasis on personal development at the expense of learning has produced the following: “Thus sermons become more therapeutic and less instructional; and the validity of what we do on Sunday morning is grounded in what we feel, not what we think.”
Simultaneously with this trend from substance to feeling, many Christian churches have abandoned serious Bible exposition and theological teaching “Historical exegesis,” according to Burge, “is becoming a “lost art” in the pulpit.”
“Texts become springboards for devotional reflection…Biblical passages are taken out of context as the preacher searches for those stories that evoke the response and attitudes desired.” As a result, “The heart of a ‘good sermon’ is fast becoming the ‘emotional work’ that can be done in 20 minutes preaching time.”
Further, Burge also found that church leaders often find it difficult to find time for serious discussion of theology and the Bible. When asking several youth leaders about whether the addressed solid theological categories or Bible stories, the typical response was, “It is hard to find time. But I can say that these kids are truly learning to love God.”
Burge sees this attitude as part of the problem of Biblical illiteracy. “That is it in a nutshell…Christian faith is not being built on a firm foundation of hard-won thoughts, ideas, history, or theology. Spirituality is being built on private emotional attachments.”
According to Barna, Burge believes there is a third reason (in addition to the failure to transmit Christian culture and the abandonment of serious Bible exposition and theological content in preaching) for biblical and theological illiteracy. “It is the influence of unbiblical philosophy and worldviews being accepted by churchgoers. These continually assail the traditional Christian views of the inerrancy of the Bible, deity of Christ, reality of Satan, substitutionary atonement, and other key doctrines of the Christian faith. Existentialism and its emphasis on human experience has people looking to themselves, not to God or Scripture, for truth. Postmodernism has convinced many that there are no universal truths. According to Barna, “A minority of adult and teen believers contends that absolute moral truth exists.” Only 32% of born-again Christians still believe in the existence of absolute moral truth.
Barna and Mark Hatch have noted that “we cannot really cal the faith of American Christians a Bible-based faith. It is a synthetic, syncretistic faith…Christians today have accepted and combined so many ideas from other worldviews and religions that they have created their own faith system. The average born-again, baptized, churchgoing person has embraced elements of Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Mormonism, Scientology, Unitarianism and Christian Science – without any idea they have created their own faith.”
Barna’s investigation of the problem of Biblical illiteracy at is sources and practices have led him to some viable conclusions concerning the solution to the problem. He says “In many ways, we are living in an age of theological anarchy. The
church is rotting from the inside out, crippled by abiblical theology…but what can church leaders do about the crisis?” He lists five solutions suggested by some he calls “experts.”
[It may be a good idea here to remember that “an expert is a little “spert” away from home with a briefcase!]
First, church leaders need to be aware of the crisis. “Let’s acknowledge that we are in a state of spiritual anarchy.” Only by being aware of the problem can church leaders seriously address the problem. Barna has reported a less than positive response by church leaders with whom he has discussed this information.
He says, “When I first conveyed this message, most church leaders smiled and shook their heads, rejecting the possibility that such silliness would occur on their watch.”
Second, pastors and church leaders need to evaluate what their [own] people know and believe. “Whether through personal interaction with the flock or through more formal means of evaluation such as doctrinal questionnaires, church leaders need to find out what their people know and believe. A questionnaire about the basics of Bible theology given to people would reveal important information. Churches need to ask questions such as ‘Do you believe that Jesus lived a sinless life?’ of ‘Do you believe that Satan is a real person?’ It can no longer be assumed that the people in the pews ‘know the basics.’ Many do not.”
The results of such questionnaires and personal contacts will reveal to church leaders where their weaknesses exist. These findings may also help identify people who reject or cannot comprehend enough essential Christian doctrine in order to be Christians. Fruitful evangelism may result from such evaluations.
Burge believes that such a method will give “unparalleled insight” to church leaders and will be helpful to the people. “It is like taking a treadmill test and then talking about a fitness plan,” he says.
Third, church leaders must use powerful ways to instruct their people in the truth. “It may be well, too, that to usher in an era of theological sanity we will have to adopt new approaches to educating people about God’s Word and new tools to facilitate growth. This includes a well-planned systematic approach to Biblical truth. Rather than giving people disjointed morsels of spiritual truth each week, we must have a systematic method of enabling people to buy into a biblical worldview that transforms their life.”
This systematic approach must start in the pulpit. Millard Erickson, in his book, Where Is Theology Going, points out that decreasing literacy among the people probably influenced many preachers in the direction of less biblical content in their messages.[This is a vicious circle with each of two sources of influence feeding on one another].
Fourth, church leaders, including preachers, must alert their members to the unbiblical world views that have crept into the church.
Finally, we must encourage diligent and gifted teachers in the church. Burge states, “We need to identify young men and women in the church who have gifts of teaching and intellect and encourage them to pursue their gifts.”

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In addition to the opinions and advice of the above sited experts, I would include a statement made a few years ago by Dr. Henry Webb, professor of History in Milligan College and Emmanuel: “The root of the problem is that no theology is being taught in our Bible Colleges!” No one, preacher, teacher or leader, can teach what (s)he does not know!