LisaTX wrote:
I'm far more disturbed by the rampant twisting and flat out ignoring scripture because you don't like what it says, than I am by someone not knowing the names of the disciples. Not that Biblical literacy is unimportant, but there's no point in reading the Bible over and over if your eyes are closed to what it says and you're interpreting it all through the filter of what everyone around you says, instead of letting God speak for Himself. I should know. I did it for many years. I read the Bible through from cover to cover, more than once, and I was completely blind to what it was saying. Drilling Bible facts into people won't save them, only God can open their eyes to His truths, even when it's clearly spelled out in the Bible. Not that it's bad to drill Bible facts. I do think the connection between the OT and NT needs to be more clearly taught. There were several things in the OT that pointed to Jesus, that I didn't see until a few years ago, and I felt robbed.
I'm not surprised by the Bible illiteracy. People don't read their Bibles because they love themselves and hate God, plain and simple. And that includes most church going people who call themselves Christians. As Paul Washer says, "American christianity is not Christianity" and as my pastor says, the churches are filled with goats. True Christians may go through struggles with reading their Bibles, even my pastor says he does, but I distrust a person who says they love God and His word, but live a life contrary to that and rarely open their Bible. It's a little fishy how well "Christians" fit in with the non-Christian's these days, they even have similar Bible reading habits, which is rarely or not at all. Yet the Bible paints a much different picture of the differences between believers and unbelievers. I guess people just ignore or twist those verses because they don't like what they say.
The biggest problem with people twisting the facts to themselves is how they grew up. 99.9% of kids that are raised in a "Christian" home, whether it be Catholic, Protestant, or other do not read the Bible for themselves. The attitude is, "My parents' church is 100% correct in their teaching of the scriptures. I will simply follow what I have been taught all my life and will not change or study the scriptures, myself nor challenge it, either." Every denomination believes they are the "true" church and everyone else is "wrong." I hate to break it to these folks, but no one is 100% right. We are all growing and learning something different every day or we should be. If you are not and are just depending on someone else to "feed you" then you are in the wrong. Like it was already mentioned here and all of us have experienced it, every time we read the Bible, something new should "pop out" to us that we never thought about before. I have a Bible series on CD in my car and play it whenever I am on the road. Even if it is just 15 minutes. I will admit, I have never read the Bible all the way through, but it is something I plan on doing this year.