What no one ever says today.

Thankfully.

This racist organization has been so successfully and rightly stigmatized that anyone boasting of membership would be immediately ostracized and isolated.

But we’re moving rapidly towards the day when “Hello, I’m an evangelical Christian,” will have the same consequences.

This tragic development in our culture has a context though, a back-story that’s been developing for decades, and it’s ignorance of the Bible, even among Christians.

Biblical Illiteracy
In Muslims and Jews Know Their Sacred Texts: Why Don’t Christians? Roman Catholic journalist and author, Christian Odone, bemoans the widespread ignorance of the book that has done so much to shape our culture and language.

A recent survey found that only one in 20 people could name all ten commandments, and that 62 per cent of respondents did not know the tale of the Prodigal Son.

Odone basically counsels the Church of England to abandon their proposed remedy of inviting adults to enrol in a “Pilgrim” course, a kind of Sunday School for grown-ups, because the only people who’ll come are the elderly who already know their Bibles.

Instead, Odone calls the church to invest in Christian schools by teaching all grades the Bible’s stories and morals, and to fight back against those who want to shut down Christian schools as “divisive,” or dilute the teaching to avoid being “exclusive.”

Biblical Backbone
Without this backbone of biblical knowledge, “Christians will become a community filled with ignorant and therefore insecure men and women. They will feel threatened both by secularists and the followers of other religions.”

Odone contrasts the ignorance of Christians with the Muslims and Jews who do know their Koran and their Torah, thus strengthening their sense of identity. She concludes with this rallying cry:

For too long, Christians have been on automatic pilot: they were the majority, that’s all they needed to know. Well, they have been proved wrong. Their way of thinking and their way of life is now under threat everywhere. In the Middle East and Africa, they face vicious persecution, as we have seen with the recent tragedies in Nairobi and Peshawar. But in the West too, as I argue in my e-book, “No God Zone,” they face discrimination. Laws and social stigma are used against them. It’s time to fight back – by reclaiming our heritage, including above all the Bible.

Defeatism 
Although writing in a UK context, most of what Odone says is relevant in the USA too. I disagree with her defeatism about reaching the Moms and Dads of today and focusing instruction and evangelism only on their kids. Let’s continue to believe in the power of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Bible to reach and transform even the most untaught and unholy. From what I’ve seen, evangelism that bypasses parents has limited and short-term effects. Without parental interest, support, and commitment, child evangelism’s effects last only as long as childhood.

She’s right, though, that the “Pilgrim” course is not the best vehicle for reaching the masses (the name is a marketing disaster for a start – probably designed by an aging hippy bishop), but other “stepping-stone” courses such as Christianity Explored have been very successful in bridging the gap between the church and our secular culture, and communicating the content and message of the Bible in an accessible way.

Discrimination 
In addition to widespread biblical illiteracy, I believe that the increasing discrimination that Odone identifies at the end of her article is the greatest barrier to the future spread of Christianity in the West. She’s right, laws and social stigma are being used against us in an unprecedented way. I don’t think many Christians yet realize the extent to which the gay hobby has managed not only to de-stigmatize homosexuality, but also to stigmatize Christianity and Christians in the process.

Via education, politics, judicial decisions, movies, TV sit-coms and chat-shows, the rising generation are being gradually but powerfully persuaded to view evangelical christianity with the same horror that we would rightly associate with joining the Ku Klux Klan.

Which is not dissimilar to the stigma the first Jewish converts faced when turning to Christ as Savior. These were the worst of times, but also the best of times for the Christian church.

May God give us apostolic courage and faith, and above all an outpouring of the Spirit of Pentecost that we may not only spread the truth but stand for it regardless of consequences.

Nope, none of these things. According to a recent study, it’s their parents cellphones! Kare Anderson, one of the researchers, comments:

Those kids clearly understood what held their parents’ attention — and they wanted it too. Cell phones were enticing action centers of their world as they observed it. When parents were using their phones, they were not paying complete attention to their children.

Among Anderson’s conclusions are:

1. Giving undivided attention is the first and most basic ingredient in any relationship.
2. Whatever we pay attention to has a huge effect on how we see the world and feel about it.
3. Others know what’s the center of our attention and thus what controls our life.

I have very little memory of my grandmother on my Dad’s side, but the one thing I do remember from my vacation visits to her home in the Scottish Highlands, and from her year of staying with us in the lowlands, is that a large black book had her full attention.

When my kids look back on my life I hope they see that what had my attention and controlled my life was a black book. Not a black phone.

This week’s single reading plan for morning or evening in Word and pdf.

If you want to start at the beginning, the first 12 months of the children’s Morning and Evening Bible reading plan in Word and pdf.

And here’s the first 12 months of the Morning or Evening Bible reading plan in Word and pdf.

And here’s an explanation of the plan.

The Bible does not give specific or detailed guidance on every moral and spiritual dilemma and issue. If it did, instead of having one book we can carry with us, we would have a library of volumes that we could never read in a lifetime. This is why the God’s Word gives general principles and guidelines for us to apply to our specific situations. The Westminster Confession (and the Baptist Confession of 1689) summarizes the Bible’s teaching about itself:

The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture (WCF 1.6).

What this means is that while we may not find a specific verse about our specific problem or need, we will always find a principle or guideline, which we can apply to our situation. However, rigorous thought and prayer are necessary. We must not just sit around waiting for a voice or a vision. We must read Scripture prayerfully, seek the relevant principles, and by “good and necessary consequence,” not by leaps of logic and irrationality, apply them to our situation.

For example, take the question “Whom shall I marry?” The Bible does not tell any of us the specific answer to this. There are general principles for the Christian to follow. It must be “only in the Lord.” Christian patience must be exercised. Your husband or wife should be willing to accept the roles and responsibilities that Scripture outlines. By “good and necessary consequence,” by prayerful reasoning with these principles you can find the answer.

What about the Church? There is much the Bible explicitly tells us about order in the Church. There is much we can work out or deduce by prayerfully reasoning with biblical principles. However, there are some things that God has not said anything about in His Word, either explicitly or implicitly. For example, the Bible does not give us plans for building churches. It does not tell us how many services to have, when to have them, or how long they should be. It does not tell us how many times we should sing, pray, or read from the Bible. The Westminster Confession (and the Baptist Confession of 1689) puts it like this: 

There are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and government of the Church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed (WCF 1.6).

We decide these things using sanctified common sense, always acting under the general rules of the Word (1 Cor. 14:40).

It is in this latter area that I believe some sincere believers are going wrong. Over-reacting to attacks on the sufficiency of Scripture, they are going to an unbiblical extreme sufficiency position, claiming for the Bible what it does not claim for itself, and thereby denying themselves many of God’s riches. The sufficiency of Scripture does not mean that we should shun every non-biblical source of knowledge or wisdom, not even in some areas of worship and church government. John Piper works this out in his article Thoughts on the Sufficiency of Scripture:

The sufficiency of Scripture does not mean that the Scripture is all we need to live obediently. To be obedient in the sciences we need to read science and study nature. To be obedient in economics we need to read economics and observe the world of business. To be obedient in sports we need to know the rules of the game. To be obedient in marriage we need to know the personality of our spouse. To be obedient as a pilot we need to know how to fly a plane. In other words, the Bible does not tell us all we need to know in order to be obedient stewards of this world.

 The sufficiency of Scripture means we don’t need any more special revelation. We don’t need any more inspired, inerrant words. In the Bible God has given us, we have the perfect standard for judging all other knowledge. All other knowledge stands under the judgment of the Bible.

John Calvin used the illustration of spectacles to explain this (Institutes 1.6.1). He said that the Bible is not only what we read, but what we read with. We use its pages as spectacles to view and read the world and the knowledge God has distributed throughout it. He developed this further in Book 2 of the Institutes:

The human mind, however much fallen and perverted from its original integrity, is still adorned and invested with admirable gifts from its Creator. . . . We will be careful. . . not to reject or condemn truth wherever it appears (Institutes 2.2.15).

If we regard the Spirit of God as the sole foundation of truth, we shall neither reject the truth itself, nor despise it wherever it shall appear, unless we wish to dishonor the Spirit of God. Shall we say that the philosophers were blind in their fine observation and artful description of nature? . . . No, we cannot read the writings of the ancients on these subjects without great admiration. But if the Lord has willed that we be helped in physics, dialectic, mathematics, and other like disciplines, by the work and ministry of the ungodly, let us use this assistance. For if we neglect God’s gift freely offered in these arts, we ought to suffer just punishment for our sloths (Institutes 2.2.15-16).

Regarding salvation, it is expressly set down in Scripture. Regarding sanctification, it is expressly set down or may be deduced from Scripture. Regarding knowledge in this world, it must be checked by Scripture, or read through the lens of Scripture. It is in these senses we have “everything pertaining to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3).

For example, the Bible has some explicit instruction on eating and some principles that we can deduce. But the Bible does not tell us all we need to know about eating. So we learn from nutritionists (even non-Christian, evolutionary nutritionists) about how to eat in ways that will improve our physical, mental, emotional, spiritual well-being. We read this knowledge through the lens of the Bible. The Bible is sufficient to keep us from falling into error as we read this world.

Same goes for time-management. We are given some principles in the Bible about time, some of which are explicit and some of which are deduced. But we can be greatly helped to redeem the time by reading modern books on time-management and organization. Again, never leaving our spectacles off, but rather reading and checking this knowledge with the Bible.

The same goes for counseling. Some problems are, of course, entirely spiritual in nature and can only be solved by the Bible. But often the problems we face in counseling are such a mixture of the spiritual, the mental, the relational, the social, the financial, and the physical. In some cases the Scriptures will be explicit. In others we can deduce helpful principles. But in some areas we need to use our Bible as spectacles to read and learn from the knowledge God has distributed and deposited in the world.

The Bible is like a map. It tells us where we have come from, where we are, where to go, and all the essential markers to get us there. But there are details along the way, which we may read through the lens of Scripture to benefit us on our journey, as long as we do not leave the Scriptural path.

Picture: 2007 © Michale Flippo. Image from BigStockPhoto.com