Have We Moved Past The Bible?
We have largely lost the ability to read the Bible and less and less people are engaging it on a regular basis. For young adults, the statistics on Bible reading are dismal. In this episode, we examine why it appears that we are going back to being a Medieval church, where only the religious professionals read and interpret the scripture for us, and we only engage the scripture for a few minutes on a Sunday morning. Meanwhile, so many others take Bible verses out of context or use them for purposes outside of their actual meaning or pass them around as memes taken out of their context.
After identifying the issues that are keeping people from reading the Bible, we share a number of helpful steps that we might take to recover the ability to engage the scriptures and to rebuild our muscle in this area. In the end, our contention is that we cannot follow Jesus apart from hearing his voice and knowing him from the pages of scripture, and that any other source will likely lead us to a highly enculturated version of the Christian faith.
Discussion Questions:
Is it true among your peers that there is less familiarity with the Bible? Is that true for you? Are your peers reading books in general? Is there something about the Bible that makes it less likely that someone would read it?
Do you find it strange that in such an information age, other people have to read and interpret the Bible for us, and that we’ve lost the ability to do it for ourselves? Is that a consequence of having lost the desire to read the Bible, or has reading the Bible always been a challenge for every generation?
What are some of the reasons you’ve observed that lead you or others you know to have an aversion to the Bible? Which of those reasons might be legitimate? Are there steps we can take to overcome that aversion, or to test if our assumptions are correct? Is Wisdom correct that the Bible has in some cases become more of a symbol than scriptures that we actually engage?
Is there a way to actually follow Jesus without engaging the Bible? Do you see people around you trying to do that, and are there pitfalls that arise when we are trying to live the Christian life apart from the scriptures?
If an increasing number of people are not engaging the Bible, or do not have the skill to do so, where are people turning to find guidance for how to live? Do you agree that people are more guided by what they read and engage on social media? Does the American culture have more of an influence on our faith, even for those who claim to follow Jesus, when our faith is being formed apart from the guidance of scripture?
Have you had the experience of having someone spend time with you to guide you in how to read the Bible? If so, are those skills that you would be willing to pass on to others? If not, are there resources you might engage that will help you to grow in this ability?
