Bible Substitutes
I'm following up on a previous post dealing with the fact that Christians don't read their Bibles. In fact, now there is an even greater danger, substituting other books, tapes, internet articles etc., in place of Scripture. Joel Belz writes a good article about this idea and you can read about it here.
Even Bible studies are being replaced by book studies. Famous authors are being studied with no real effort being made to understand the context of the writer's worldview or any of the Scriptures quoted within their texts.
Some would rationalize that since people don't like to read the Bible because they find it boring, they don't have time, or they have difficulty understanding it, that books about the Bible will eventually draw people into reading Scripture. But the trend is moving in the oppposite direction. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, he defeated Satan by quoting Scripture. Can we hope to do the same by quoting Stanley, Swindoll, or Lucado?
Even Bible studies are being replaced by book studies. Famous authors are being studied with no real effort being made to understand the context of the writer's worldview or any of the Scriptures quoted within their texts.
Some would rationalize that since people don't like to read the Bible because they find it boring, they don't have time, or they have difficulty understanding it, that books about the Bible will eventually draw people into reading Scripture. But the trend is moving in the oppposite direction. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, he defeated Satan by quoting Scripture. Can we hope to do the same by quoting Stanley, Swindoll, or Lucado?
posted by jawbone at
10:22 AM
1 Comments:
Most of my friends are involved in "book studies" or "author studies". While these can be beneficial, it disturbs me that this is only type of study in which they are involved. It is unnerving that we consider the Bible "boring" or, my least favorite word, "irrelevant". In like manner, I saw a billboard the other day that said, "This is church?", in reference to a new church plant. While I understand that this church is attempting to steer people away from their disappointed and disillusioned views of bad churches and unholy Christians, it makes me very sad that we have allowed the word "church" to be overtaken by the negative. Now it is relevant to study Christian authors instead of the Bible and go to a church that is un-"church-like". What is next? What is the next wave of "relevance"? If it were not for the hope of God I would be very worried for my generation.
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Anonymous, at 1:27 PM
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