Reasons for the Epidemic of Biblical Illiteracy

Dr. Gary Burge is a New Testament professor at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. For years, he has found biblical knowledge to be severely lacking among incoming freshmen. Two examples: half didn’t know Matthew’s Gospel contained an account of Jesus’ birth, and a third couldn’t locate accounts of Paul’s journeys in Acts. Dr. Kenneth Berding of the Talbot School of Theology at Biola University cites four reasons for this famine of knowing God’s Word.

First, distractions lure us away from the Bible—distractions we allow because we enjoy them.
Second, our priorities are misplaced. How much time do we spend in God’s Word compared to time invested in TV, social networking, and video games?
Third, we are overconfident, saying things like, “We already know more than we apply.”
Finally, we think we’re too busy—but how can we really be too busy to listen to the living God?

Charles R. Swindoll, Hope for Our Troubled Times, (Plano, TX: Insight for Living, 2009), 8-9.

http://magazine.biola.edu/article/14-spring/the-crisis-of-biblical-illiteracy/

This is part 2 of a 4-part series. Part 3 is available here.