Where has all the Biblical knowledge gone?

As a pastor, I’m finding one thing irks me above all other problems that I find in the church today.  That problem is a lack of biblical knowledge.  This problem is not just found among the ranks of young Gen X’ers who are undisciplined and are more into feelings rather than truth.  This problem plagues godly saints who have been in the pews for forty and fifty years as well.

To illustrate my point, take a look at how many denominations there are, all under the umbrella of Protestant Christianity.  You have major ones such as Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopalian, and Methodist.  Then you have hundreds of smaller denominations and thousands of independent churches.  Why can’t we all just call ourselves Christians and follow Christ?  It’s because we don’t all believe the same things.  Why don’t we all believe the same thing if we read the same Bible?  There is a serious lack of biblical knowledge today.

Let’s face it, we can’t all be right.  The Bible can’t both accept divorce and condemn divorce and remarriage as adultery.  Homosexuality can’t be both a disease someone is born with and a sin condemned by God.  Someone at the top of our churches has made the decision that these things are either right or wrong.  And you were either born in this denomination or you joined it from the outside.  Whatever the case may be, you either accept your church’s position on these issues or it doesn’t bother you enough to find another church.

But the real question is, do you know why your church takes the stand that it does on these issues.  I’d venture to say that most Christians can’t cite Bible passages to support what they believe – they’ve just always been taught that way. 

The lack of biblical knowledge doesn’t stop here however, and this is where I get concerned.  There are plenty of issues of interpretation that I disagree with other pastors on and I’m capable of agreeing to disagree.  There is a sheer lack of knowledge of general Bible stories.

On this website there is a trivia section.  I thought it would be fun to add.  However, the results have been shocking.  The questions aren’t easy but I didn’t think they were obscure either.  The questions are multiple choice, so you have a 20% or 25% chance of guessing the right answers.  Almost one in four people scored 30% or lower.  Now these results aren’t scientific and they may be skewed slightly, but I did take the time to throw out the results of everyone who wasn’t interested enough to finish the quiz. 

The question that people have scored the best on still was only 80% correct.  And this was a question based on a song children used to sing – I don’t know if they still do or not.  “Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he.  He climbed up in a Sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see.”  What type of tree did Zacchaeus climb up in?  A trivia quiz on the books of the Bible brought about similar results.

Now I am making a new quiz.  I won’t even call it trivia because it will be simple and I would expect any child who has spent two years in Sunday school to be able to get the answers right.  I hope that Christians don’t let me down.

If Christians want to be taken seriously in the world, they need to know what they believe and why they believe it.  If they want to know why they believe something, they need to have an understanding of the Bible.  It is my prayer that Christians would get back to studying the Bible and really know what it says from cover to cover.  Only then are we going to be able to stand firm and against the Devil’s attacks.