Bible Reading Is on the Slide

Gary: Now, Religion in the News…. This week’s item is from the Associated Press, December 2000: “Bible reading is dropping off. Americans who read the Bible at least occasionally have dropped from 73 percent in the 1980s to 59 percent in a new Gallup Poll. Those saying they read the Bible weekly or more often dropped only slightly, from 40 percent in 1990 to 37 percent. Gallup reported 65 percent of Americans still say the Bible answers all or most of the basic questions of life. Fourteen percent of Americans reported weekly participation in a Bible study group. Among Republicans, 47 percent said they’re Bible readers compared with 32 percent for Democrats. Women and non-whites are more frequent readers than other Americans. The favored books in order: Psalms, Genesis, Matthew, John, Revelation, and Proverbs.

Tom: Dave, you know, on the one hand, you could say, “Well, this is just one poll, and maybe they really didn’t get to all the people that they should have, and I’m sure there are people out there who read God’s Word every day and have a heart for it and are just growing in the faith.

On the other hand, this seems to be symptomatic of what we talked about earlier in the show. When you begin to look to supplements for God’s Word, then why read through the book? It’s a big, thick book, lots of words in it, and if I can get it in a capsule form, or get it by somebody who really knows, who really understands, who has training, and so on—what have we done? We’ve turned to men, and we’ve really rejected, in terms of understanding and learning, the Spirit of truth. I’m talking about believers who have sort of gone this route. It’s sad!

Dave: There are a lot reasons, I guess, for it, Tom. It’s a busy world. I know that you and I have often said, “Where does the time go?” It seems like ten years ago we had more time than we have now. We’re getting busier and busier. The world moves at a faster and faster pace. People don’t have time for the Bible. Don’t have time to spend…be alone with God in prayer. So that’s part of it.

Another part of it, I guess, is just as you said, the spirit of the age in which we live. If all truth is God’s truth, and we can get some of it from some other source that’s a little bit more palatable, it builds up my self-esteem, it makes me feel good about myself instead of being corrected by the Bible, then we have a tendency to go to those sources. They’re easier. This is one of…a real burden on my heart, Tom, because, again, I don’t want to seem to be criticizing publishers—Christian publishers—but the idea today is, “Let’s put together some Sunday School material. Make it as entertaining as possible; as interesting as possible.”

It’s not the Word of God anymore. It’s watered down, it’s filtered through so many different filters. It’s repackaged in order to make it appeal to children in Sunday School or whatever. And we think if we can make it appealing, sugar coat it and so forth, then, we’re really getting the Word to them. But we’re not!

So, instead of studying the Bible—and there are many courses like that, study books.  I write books (ha, that’s maybe a tragedy—so many people read my books instead of reading the Bible. I certainly don’t want them to.) But, we’re losing the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. We are doctoring and watering and perverting the pure Word of truth. And this poll indicates that people have lost interest in the Bible.

Look. If I really believe that this is my life—Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.” This is how a man lives. The psalmist said, “The entrance of Thy words bringeth light.” Jeremiah said, “Thy words were found and I did eat them. They were to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” “Thy Word is lamp unto my feet and a light to my path.”

Now, if we really had that conviction, people would be reading! But apparently we don’t know that. We don’t believe that anymore. And it’s just kind of a religious duty. It’s a tragedy.

Tom: There’s another aspect to it. We’ve talked about God’s Word as being His love letters. It’s a direct communication between God and me, and I have His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ within me to help me understand. Now, I’ll give you an example. Suppose—you and Ruth have been married for how long?

Dave: Fifty-some years…

Tom: Fifty-some years. Suppose I said, “Hey, Dave, I’ve got an idea for you. How about if I become a proxy—kind of a teacher. And if you ever…if you wanted to get to know Ruth better, you come to me, and I’ll tell you about Ruth and so on….” I mean, that’s ridiculous!

Dave: Yeah.

Tom: But that’s what’s going on here. We are allowing something to stand between us for the sake of either getting it quicker, getting it faster, understanding it better…  We are really displacing God’s Holy Spirit and the direct relationship—intimate relationship—that we can have with Christ.

Dave: Amen. So, Tom, we would say to people out there, please, don’t look to us. We're trying to encourage you. We’re trying to stir up your interest in the Word of God. But get back to the Bible and study it for yourself on your knees and in prayer and ask God to really speak to you through His Word.

Tom: Yeah. See, what we want to do, we want to enjoy God’s Word together with our listeners!

Dave: Amen. Mm-hmm.

Tom: We don’t want to be their gurus. We can’t be. It would be counterproductive to what we’re all about. And it’s just dead wrong.

Dave: Mm-hmm.