WARNING‼️‼️‼️TOO MANY BIBLICALLY IGNORANT CHRISTIANS‼️‼️‼️😟
Posted : 2 May, 2025 07:25 AM
Are We More Biblically Illiterate than Ever?
Joe Holland
Are We More Biblically Illiterate than Ever?
4 Min Read
For most Christians with any knowledge of the people who live and work in their community, the answer to the question “Are we more biblically illiterate than ever?” seems obvious: of course we are. You may not know that statistical evidence backs up your anecdotal belief. Surveys are helpful in potentially increasing our already firm conviction and providing a deeper understanding of growing societal unbelief. That is precisely the aim of this brief article, which will examine a few more extensive surveys that chart and track biblical literacy over time for both the US populace and professing evangelicals as a demographic.
One thing to note about our titular question is that everyone has a different definition of biblical literacy. Is it reading the Bible a few times a year? Is it knowing Bible facts? Is it knowing how someone can be saved by grace through faith in Christ? Is it professing the fundamental doctrinal truths Christians have professed for hundreds of years? Even polling organizations don’t have a single definition. To summarize some of the statistical data, we’ll define biblical literacy in two ways: biblical knowledge and theological accuracy.
Biblical Literacy as Biblical Knowledge
In 2024, the American Bible Society partnered with the Barna Group to conduct the “State of the Bible: USA 2024” survey. An interesting aspect of this survey is that they tracked results over three groupings of people: Scripture Engaged, Movable Middle, and Bible Disengaged. They observed that this Movable Middle “lost four percentage points in the last year. This represents more than 10 million people who dropped into the lowest category, the Bible Disengaged.” In other words, when it comes to just reading the Bible, Americans are reading the Bible less.
When we turn from examining the frequency of reading the Bible to a basic knowledge of the content found in the Bible, we find that evangelicals do not fare well. In 2019, the Pew Research Center published survey results titled “What Americans Know About Religion.” When examining evangelical knowledge of the Bible, they found:
Only 66 percent of evangelicals knew that Jesus was from Nazareth, while 86 percent knew that Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt.
Only 69 percent of evangelicals knew that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount, while 91 percent knew that David killed Goliath with a stone.
25 percent of evangelicals thought the Golden Rule was one of the Ten Commandments.
These results are interesting for two reasons. First, many evangelicals lack a basic factual knowledge of the Bible. Second, they know less about the New Testament than the Old Testament, which is deeply concerning. The New Testament serves as a hermeneutical grid for understanding the Old Testament. While a factual knowledge of the Old Testament is good, without a thorough understanding of the New Testament, a person’s theology can quickly trend toward moralizing Old Testament narratives.
Biblical Literacy as Theological Accuracy
If we move beyond defining biblical literacy as reading the Bible and knowing answers to basic factual questions and turn instead to defining biblical literacy as an understanding of and belief in the doctrine contained in the Bible, we find similar discouraging statistics. Since 2014, Ligonier Ministries has conducted its “State of Theology Survey.” It is by far the most robust longitudinal study of Christian beliefs among Americans and evangelicals.
One way to fight biblical illiteracy is to attend a faithful church and invite others to attend with you.
In 2022, Ligonier found that US adults increasingly view the Bible as not literally true. When asked whether they agreed or disagreed with this statement, “The Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is not literally true,” 53 percent of American respondents agreed. Since 2014, this marks a 12 percent increase in the number of adults who do not believe in the veracity of the Bible. The study emphasized this finding: “This is the clearest and most consistent trend revealed by the State of Theology survey since it began in 2014.” When this same question was asked of US evangelicals, the 2022 survey results reported that 26 percent agreed that the Bible was closer to being a helpful account of ancient myths than true history (a 9 percent increase since 2016).
Ligonier found other concerning trends as well. When asked to agree or disagree with this statement, “God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam,” 56 percent of evangelicals agreed, up from 48 percent in 2016. Also, from 2020 to 2022, there was a 13 percent increase in the number of evangelicals who agreed with the statement “Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God.”
The Pew Research Center survey cited earlier confirms Ligonier’s findings. Pew found that only one in five Americans know that Protestantism (not Catholicism) traditionally teaches that salvation comes through faith alone. This survey and others mentioned consistently find the same thing: not only are Americans (and professed evangelicals) reading their Bibles less, but they are also losing a comprehensive understanding of the Christian faith taught in the Bible. This is doubly concerning.
So, how will we answer the question “Are we more biblically illiterate than ever?” Both anecdotally and statistically, the answer is yes—profoundly and discouragingly yes. But there was one bright spot in the statistics. The Pew study found that church attendance significantly increased biblical knowledge. One way to fight biblical illiteracy is to attend a faithful church and invite others to attend with you. And we pray for Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest (Matt. 9:38) who will teach others to observe all that Christ has commanded (Matt. 28:20).
Joe Holland
Rev. Joe Holland is professor of Christian ministry at Grimké Seminary in Richmond, Va., managing editor of Sola Ecclesia, and a teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America.
WARNING‼️‼️‼️TOO MANY BIBLICALLY IGNORANT CHRISTIANS‼️‼️‼️😟
Posted : 2 May, 2025 08:04 AM
Another well written article seemed to state that one of the main reasons Christians are so ignorant has to do with the fact that modern Christianity stresses “peace and unity” over doctrinal truth‼️‼️‼️
But did Jesus or the prophets or the apostles teach “peace and unity” over doctrine (truth) ⁉️⁉️⁉️
WARNING‼️‼️‼️TOO MANY BIBLICALLY IGNORANT CHRISTIANS‼️‼️‼️😟
Posted : 2 May, 2025 08:17 AM
Luke 12 Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: 👉👉👉“Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy👈👈👈. 2 There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 3 What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.
4 “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5 But I will show you whom you 👉👉👉should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him👈👈👈. 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
8 “I tell you, whoever 👉👉👉publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God👈👈👈. 9 But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God. 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
11 “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”
The Parable of the Rich Fool
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your 👉👉👉guard against all kinds of greed👈👈👈; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves 👉👉👉but is not rich toward God.”👈👈👈
Do Not Worry
22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life[b]? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
27 “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! 29 👉👉👉And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things👈👈👈, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 👉👉👉👉👉👉But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well👈👈👈👈👈👈.
32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 👉👉👉For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also👈👈👈.
Watchfulness
35 “👉👉👉👉Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning👈👈👈👈, 36 like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. 39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 👉👉👉You also must be ready👈👈👈, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
41 Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?”
42 The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43 👉👉It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns👈👈. 44 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45 But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. 46 The master of that servant 👉👉👉will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware 👈👈👈of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.
47 “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, 👉👉👉much will be demanded👈👈👈; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
Not Peace but Division
49 “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! 51 👉👉Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division👈👈👈. 52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
Interpreting the Times
54 He said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. 55 And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. 56 👉👉👉👉Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?👈👈👈👈
57 “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? 58 As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled on the way, or your adversary may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. 59 I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”
Luke 12:1 Or speak to his disciples, saying: 👉👉👉“First of all, be…👈👈👈
