More Bibles, less Bible knowledge
Ward Gasque, a founding member of the faculty of Regent College, is English Ministries Pastor of Richmond Chinese Alliance Church in British Columbia, Canada.
He also runs Koinos Seminars (‘Good Theology Doesn’t Just Happen’), part of the KOINOS Certificate in Christian Foundations. The goal of the certificate is to make the essential tools of serious biblical and theological study available to busy adults. more info here
He wrote an article on September 19, 2008 entitled: The Multiplication of Bibles and the Decrease of Bible Knowledge.
I have thought this same thing quite frequently… though, probably not as in-depth as Ward has written. Myself, I have 3 Bibles: a NIV Study Bible, a NCV Daily Bible and a NLT Read though the Bible in a Year Bible!
Ward mentions a Gallup poll in 2000 where people were asked to name the Gospels and less than half couldn’t name one! Asked for the 10 commandments and only 42% could name 5! I started to sweat a bit when I tried to list the 10 Commandments myself, and didn’t get very far… Ward is right, becuase we own so many Bibles, many of us think we are better informed than our ancestors, when the opposite is true.
Ward has his reasons for this decline in Bible knowledge:
- The influence of TV (I would also add the Internet to this)
- The decline of expository preaching in favor of relational preaching.
- The decline of both the Sunday evening service and adult Bible classes.
- Small groups ‘Bible study’ has very little ‘study’
- The deluge of contemporary translations and editions.
