Biblical Illiteracy, even among self-identified, church-attending Christians is rampant.

Christians say the Bible is God’s Word, but even among Protestant churchgoers only a third spend time reading it every day.

Few Protestant Churchgoers Read the Bible Daily by Aaron Earls

       

     

      

10 Reasons Not To Read The Bible

   

What’s Yours?

   

1. I’m not sure I believe any of this Christianity stuff. Why should I read about it?

 

How do you know you don’t believe if you haven’t checked it out?

What if what you’ve heard about Christianity isn’t true Christianity?

What if what you’ve heard about Christianity isn’t true Christianity?

 

It’s ok to doubt, if you check it out!

Try this:

• Give Christianity the benefit of the doubt. 
• Read and study the Bible for yourself. 
• Ask questions.
• Get answers. 

Go ahead.

Ask, Seek, Find. 

⁹ “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.¹⁰ “For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.                                                          Luke 11:9-10 NASB

 

Ask your questions in the comment box. (The only stupid question is the one you don’t ask!)

I will try to answer them or show you the way to check it out for yourself.

     

 2. I don’t have time to read the Bible.

      

The Problem: The tyranny of the Urgent vs leaving the Important undone 

Everyone knows the solution to this one: (I resemble this remark.)

• There’s always time for whatever you hold to be important. 
• Each choice sets your priorities. 
• Each decision reinforces those priorities. 

 

Are You Living an Important or an Urgent Life?

With an urgent life, you have so many deadlines to meet. You (feel) don’t have enough time to spend, you’re always busy, and you wish you had 48 hours a day. It’s hard for you to adjust when some “surprising incidents” happen, even it will only take up 2 minutes of your day. You’re extremely inflexible with your time.

On the other hand – the important life, you feel productive. Most of the time, you plan for things to happen, you understand the importance of every single thing you are working on. You have priorities for each task on hand. You want to make it the best without chasing on a deadline. And you always have time to reassess yourself.

Dean Yeong

   

If you need help setting priorities try using the Urgent/ Important Matrix, also called the Eisenhower Principle.

   

Tasks are divided into four categories:

 

Not Important but Urgent: Interruptions

Many times these tasks are for other people. Do they truly need action by you?

Try this:

• Delegate tasks.
• Reschedule activities.

 

Not Important and not Urgent: Distractions

Avoid these tasks/ activities, if possible.

Try this:

• Set limits on time. (“Not now.”)
• Set boundaries on the demands of others. (“No, I can’t.)
• Say “No,” even if it’s to yourself. (i.e., time spent on social media)

 

Important and Urgent: Critical Activity or Crises

Things that could have been foreseen and those that could not be foreseen.

Try this:

• If things that could have been foreseen, be proactive and plan a response.
• If things that could not have been foreseen, leave some time in your schedule available, or reschedule tasks to the new priority.

 

Important but not Urgent: Goals and Plans

These are usually personal and professional life goals and the action plans to achieve them.

These tasks need purposeful intention to be and remain a priority, because they are easily postponed.

These tasks need to be scheduled and regular action taken.

Try this:

• Seek outside accountability.
• Set an artificial deadline.

 

Your body naturally craves food, water, and sleep. These are the body’s priorities. 

So what are your soul’s priorities?

Try this:

• Pray
• Pray for a hunger for God’s Word.
• Pray for a starving, above all other needs, hunger for the Bread of Life. 
• Pray for a thirst for knowing God.
• Pray for a dry mouth, parched lips, an urgency for Living Water. 
• Pray for the sleep of the righteous.
• Pray for the deep, restoring sleep, found in the “being with,” not in the “doing for,” God. 

⁶ “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.                                                     Matthew 5:6 NASB

     

     

3. I don’t want to read the Bible. It’s too hard to understand 

    

In today’s sound-bite, bullet-pointed, nano-memory, digital-based communication it’s not going to be easy to read and understand the Bible.

It’s going to take effort and intentionality. 

   

Try this:

• Baby Steps

Do you know about the primary people of the Bible?

Do you know about the main events in the Bible?

If not, begin with a children’s book of Bible stories. 

 

• Learn about Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob/Israel, Moses, Samson, Jesus, His disciples, Paul, etc. 

 

• Read about the sin of Adam and Eve, the plagues in Egypt, the spies and the Promised Land, the parables of Jesus, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the promise of salvation, and more. 

 

• Then you can move to reading a Bible, such as the New Living Translation Life Application Bible. I found the NLT Life Application Bible to be very helpful as I moved from a “pew-warmer” believer to a disciple of Christ. 

 

• After you have read the NLT: LAB several times, check into other translations, study Bibles, guides on how to study the Bible.

    

      

4. I don’t need to read the bible. How could reading about people thousands of years dead and buried help me today?

    

              

People are people, then and now.

Unfortunately, the nature of humanity hasn’t changed through the millennia. 

People still lie, cheat, blame, hurt, hate today as they did throughout biblical times. 

 

Fortunately, however, people also trusted, helped, supported, encouraged, and loved others then even as they do today. 

 

Try this:

• Empathize.
• What is a situation today that is similar to that situation in the Bible?
• How would someone today react to a similar situation?
• How would you respond?

      

       

5. I don’t need to read the bible. The Bible is all myth.

   

Well, maybe. 

But what if it’s not?

Even if so, what can we learn from the story?

What can we learn from how the people responded to their circumstances compared to similar situations today?

 

You know, something doesn’t have to be “true” in order to teach “Truth.”

For example, Aesop’s Fables, The Fox & the Stork.      

 

Yes, we know animals don’t talk.

Yes, we know the story didn’t really happen. 

But, the adage given at the end is a “Truth.” 

It is a piece of wisdom worth living by. 

It is “true” even though it comes to us via a “myth.”

 

The Moral of the story is

“Do not play tricks on your neighbors unless you can stand the same treatment yourself.”

Compare this “Truth” to

¹² “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.                                                        Matthew 7:12 NASB

 

Try this:

• Suspend disbelief. 
• Read the Bible from the point of view that there is something of value in it.
• What “Truth,” can be learned from the narrative, from the behavior of the people, from something someone thought significant enough to be written down? 

     

 

6. I don’t need to read the bible. My preacher tells me all I need to know. 

     

Great! Then I’m from Nigeria and I want you to send me your bank account number. 

 

Really? What else do you take solely on the word of someone else?

Do you see something and immediately go out and buy it?

Do you hear something and immediately believe it?

 

Or are you discerning?

Do you check it out?

Do you see what other people have to say about it? 

Do you find out both the good and the bad?

 

Social Proof Statistics: Building Trust

• 87% of buying decisionsbegin with research conducted online before the purchase is made.
• The average consumer reads 10 online reviews before making a purchase decision.
• 88% of consumers trust user reviewsas much as personal recommendations.
• 82% of Americanssay they seek recommendations from friends and family before making a purchase.

    

Do you check out something before you buy it?

But not check out something before you believe it?

 

Try this:

• Believe, but Verify. 

Take what your preacher says, but check it out for yourself. 

I think many preachers try to “teach with authority,” as Jesus did (Luke 4:32 NASB).

But, hey, guess what? They’re not Jesus! 

 

And a little searching will show other, often conflicting, interpretations held by respected biblical preachers, teachers, and scholars. 

 

• Pray for the Holy Spirit to reveal true understanding.

¹³ “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.                                                     John 16:13 NASB

He is the One who can “teach with authority.”

     

     

7. I don’t need to read the Bible. Just tell me what I need to do to get to heaven and I’ll do it. 

     

This is the question of Legalism vs Living Faith. 

Christianity is not a set of “doings” needed for salvation. Salvation cannot be earned through actions. 

Christianity is a state of “being” – being in relationship with God, being in alignment with His will, being in agreement with His purpose.

 

Try this:

• Seek relationship with God.
• Read the Bible to learn about God. 
• Speak to God (this is all that praying is) about yourself, your cares and concerns, your worries and wishes, your dreams and desires. (Don’t forget to listen!)

Sure, He knows. But when you articulate your thoughts and feelings you know as well.

And He knows you know. 

 

Knowledge is the beginning of understanding. 

Understanding is the beginning of wisdom. 

 

¹⁰ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.                                                               Proverbs 9:10 NASB

 

    

8. I don’t want to read the whole Bible. The Old Testament is about a mean, vengeful God. That’s not my God.  My Jesus is loving and forgiving 

    

 

Justice or Mercy?

Mercy or Justice? 

Punishment or Absolution?

Forgiveness or “an eye for an eye”?

 

Which do you want?

⁷ But God is the Judge; He puts down one and exalts another.                                                           Psalm 75:7 NASB

 

¹⁸ Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in unchanging love.,                                                         Micah 7:18 NASB

 

Remember, God is God; and we are not.

⁴ “Do not say in your heart when the LORD your God has driven them out before you, ‘Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’ but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is dispossessing them before you                                                            Deuteronomy 9:4 NASB

 

For further reading re the killing of the Canaanites by Joshua in the Old Testament see

• Old Testament Mass Killings by Paul Coulter
• Slaughter of the Canaanites by Dr. William Lane Craig
• Why Did God Order the Destruction of the Canaanites? by Don Stewart

 

Most times we want others to be brought to justice; but, we want mercy for ourself. 

 

God sees the heart.

God knows our motives.

God knows the basis for our thoughts and actions.

 

This is what He judges, not merely the outside, what others see. 

⁷ But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”                                                 1 Samuel 16:7 NASB

 

Try this:

Consider: 

• How can love be shown through Mercy?
• How can love be shown through Justice?
• Under what circumstances should love be shown through Justice?
• Under what circumstances should love be shown through Mercy?

    

     

9. I start to read the Bible and I get bored with all the talk about the Law. Christians don’t need to know anything about any of the Law of the Old Testament. The Law is just for the Jews.

    

   

On a basic level, the Torah, “the Law,” describes what YeHoVaH defines as the right relationship between Himself and His people, and the right relationships among His people. 

“The Law” is the God-given guidelines for humanity to live by, as well as, the consequences of not living in accordance with them. 

 

On a prophetic level, the Torah, the Instructions, sets up or foreshadows what is to come – the Father’s plan for reconciliation and restoration through His Son, Yeshua. 

 

Try this: 

• Can you connect the Old Testament with the New Testament?

²⁵ And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶ “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”  ²⁷Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.                                                        Luke 24:25-27 NASB

 

• How does the sacrifice of the Passover lamb inform our understanding of the sacrifice of Jesus, the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29 NASB)?

    

      

10. I don’t need to read the bible. Salvation through Grace is a free gift. I don’t have to do anything except accept it. 

     

Is this what the Bible really says?

Is accepting Salvation by Grace all you need to “do”?

 

Consider these verses:

Work out your salvation

¹² So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³ for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.                                                   Philippians 2:12-13 NASB

 

Faith without works is dead

¹⁴ What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?

¹⁷ Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

²⁰ But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? ²¹ Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? ²² You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; ²³ and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,” and he was called the friend of God. ²⁴ You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

²⁶ For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.                                                        James 2:14-26 NASB

   

For further reading see my series on Faith and Works:

1 By Faith or by Works? That is the Question

2 What Does the Bible Say About Faith and Works?

3 Reconciling Paul and James on Faith and Works

4 Can Paul and James Be Reconciled?

5 The Response to Salvation: Faith AND Works

6 Can There be Life-Changing Faith Without Visible Works?

7 Faith and Works Through the Power of the In Dwelling Holy Spirit

8 Transforming Faith and Works in the Power of the Spirit

 

Grow into maturity, learning the solid food of the Word of God

¹¹ Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. ¹² For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. ¹³ For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.                                      Hebrews 5:11-14 NASB

 

Try this:

• Seek relationship, not religion 
• Christianity is based on Relationship. 

 

There’s so much more available to being a Christian Believer.

You owe it to yourself to check it out!

 

So, how’s your love life?

The love of the Word of God, that is.

 

Use the comment box and let me know if you “resemble” one of these reasons!

Or give me tips on how you don’t have any excuses. (Inquiring minds want to know!)

 

Blessings,

 

TLThomas