A recent poll said that only 17% of Christians in the US indicated the Bible as the primary influence on their perspectives about the current war in Israel against Hamas (Survey). This was a distant second to the media (44%). Another poll from stateoftheology.com for 2022 indicates that among those who identify as evangelicals, 77% agree that the Bible is 100% accurate in all that it teaches and 80% believe it has the authority to tell us what we must do. However, despite this apparent high view of the Bible, 33% of the same group believe gender identity is a matter of choice, 38% indicated faith is a matter of personal opinion instead of objective truth, and 26% believe the Bible is not literally true. There is clearly a lot of confusion among evangelicals about the basis of their faith which is the Bible.

This explains the impact of the media on our worldview and exposes the biblical illiteracy and unbelief of Christians in the West. It’s no wonder I hear the shocking things coming from Christians these days. As a result of the data and how prominent Christians represent themselves in the media, I must conclude that American Christians don’t know their Bible. Why is that? Well, it is certainly in line with biblical end times prophecy.

Won’t God give justice to his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay long to help them? I tell you, he will give them justice speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?

Luke 18:7-8

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

2 Timothy 4:3-4

Now regarding the arrival of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to be with him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to be easily shaken from your composure or disturbed by any kind of spirit or message or letter allegedly from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not arrive until the rebellion [apostasy] comes and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.

2 Thes 2:1-3

Like I’ve said before, we were warned. But people are unaware of the warning because they do not know the scriptures or they hold a low view of the Bible so as to not believe.

Is the church deliberately or inadvertently discouraging people from trying to understand the scriptures themselves? Maybe another element is the reticence and complacency of Christians to invest the time needed. It’s likely a mix of all those things but churches and individual believers need to redouble their efforts to not only teach the word but to teach people how to properly read and understand it themselves. It’s the only defense against the demonically energized deception we now face. It’s the only way to recognize error and get back to the truth.

Cultic Control

How do we come to understand intended meaning from the Bible? God went to a lot of trouble to ensure we have His Word, but do we need some central authoritative council or special anointed person to properly interpret the Bible for us? The cults sure think so. The Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church, Ellen White for 7th Day Adventist, the Watchtower Society for the Jehovah Witnesses, the Living Apostle of the Mormons, and many mega churches that have produced false prophets and false apostles don’t want you seeking your own understanding of scripture. They believe they are the final authority on what the Bible really teaches. No need for you to read and study for yourself. Just put your Bible down and listen to them.

Some go as far to subordinate the Bible to their own random, crowd controlling whims, publicly disparaging the Bible and elevating their own demonically inspired teachings. Sadly, millions of their followers accept that without question. Are these people, these organizations, the source of truth as they claim? What did Jesus ask the Father to do for those who would become his true followers:

Set them apart in the truth; your word is truth.

John 17:17

But how do you know about what Jesus prayed for if you don’t know your bible? From the standpoint of false teachers, individual Christians could not possibly understand the Bible and it’s dangerous for us to think so. As a former Catholic, biblical literacy through personal study was not encouraged.

Other church leaders wring their hands over the possibility that people who interpret the Bible on their own might get into heresy. And yet, it is the religious organizations and big time personalities who propagate error on a grand scale, not the individuals who diligently study their bible.

Cults claim inerrancy, not for the Bible, but for themselves, even when the organizational interpretations across the cults vastly differ. So the very organizations that lead people astray on such a large scale are concerned about “personal interpretation”. Kind of ironic. But they are only concerned about that insofar as people start to understand the truth and depart their cultish organizations.

The point here is that the errors made sometimes by an individual in a poor interpretation of a Bible passage, have limited effect and are easy to correct. On the other hand, errors of interpretation (sometimes intentional) made by religious organizations or other false teachers cause pervasive damage across sometimes millions of people and there is no interest in correction since their alleged inerrancy doesn’t require it. After all, they are the authority and what they say is from God…right?

One thing is for sure regarding the track record of these organizations – their doctrine is really bad. It’s filled with distortions and other doctrines created out of thin air – doctrines of demons. When I read the Bible and then examine some point of their doctrine, it’s like…”huh? The Bible doesn’t say that”. They claim to be final authority to keep the peeps under their iron fisted control.

Traditions

Over time, these deceivers begin to rely more on their own authoritative pronouncements than on the Word of God itself. Interpretations often become encoded in traditions which then nullify the Word of God.

Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like this.

Mark 7:13

Traditions become sacrosanct and an effective mechanism for power and control. Sometimes authoritative interpretation progresses beyond tradition to extra-biblical revelation. “Thus saith the Lord…” someone says from their own mind. Since the people don’t know their bible they listen and obey. The Bible becomes irrelevant, subordinated to the mere teachings and pronouncements of men.

Another thing I see happening is culture driving belief. Many prominent church leaders, including the pope, believe it is necessary to update faith and church expression to align better to the culture. And so ungodliness creeps into the church and we have what we see today: popular, large, very rich and well attended churches where Jesus and the Bible have been kicked to the curb. Many churches have departed the teachings of the Word and have adopted ungodly teachings that appeal to the masses and the culture. We were warned.

But false prophets arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. These false teachers will infiltrate your midst with destructive heresies, even to the point of denying the Master who bought them. As a result, they will bring swift destruction on themselves. And many will follow their debauched lifestyles. Because of these false teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words.

2 Pet 2:1-2

I have to believe there are still a few good, healthy, bible teaching, bible believing, spirit filled churches. But I live in arguably the most churched city in America and I have not been able to find a decent church after searching for almost 18 months. Such churches are fewer and their congregations have dwindled to a fraction of what they were. Could a lack of a personal understanding of the Word of God be to blame? There are a number of contributing factors but I think that’s part of it. (In my opinion the root problem is the western church has an increasingly unbiblical model for church.) Notwithstanding, if God’s people knew their bible then it would be the false teachers and ungodly churches that would have dwindling congregations.

What can we do to encourage a return to the Word of God at a personal level? Part of what leaders, pastors, elders can do is equip people how to properly approach and interpret the Bible. More in the next post.