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Special Report
Crisis in America’s Churches:
Bible Knowledge at All-Time Low
by Michael J. Vlach, Ph.D. [*]
A crisis of basic biblical and theological knowledge
exists in America’s churches, and church leaders must do all they can to
address this growing problem, so say experts monitoring the beliefs of
people in Christian churches across the United States.
“The Christian body in America is immersed in a crisis of biblical
illiteracy,” warns researcher George Barna. “How else can you describe
matters when most churchgoing adults reject the accuracy of the Bible,
reject the existence of Satan, claim that Jesus sinned, see no need to
evangelize, believe that good works are one of the keys to persuading
God to forgive their sins, and describe their commitment to Christianity
as moderate or even less firm?”[1]
Other disturbing findings that document an overall lack
of knowledge among churchgoing Christians include the following:
• The most widely known Bible verse among
adult and teen believers is “God helps those who help themselves”—which
is not actually in the Bible and actually conflicts with the basic
message of Scripture.
• Less than one out of every ten believers possess a biblical
worldview as the basis for his or her decision-making or behavior.
• When given thirteen basic teachings from the Bible, only
1% of adult believers firmly embraced all thirteen as being biblical
perspectives.[2]
Gary Burge, professor of New Testament at Wheaton College in Wheaton,
Illinois, asserts that biblical illiteracy is at a crisis level not just
in our culture in general but in America’s churches.
“If it is true that biblical illiteracy is commonplace in secular
culture at large, there is ample evidence that points to similar trends
in our churches,” he says.[3]
Burge points to research at Wheaton College in which the biblical and
theological literacy of incoming freshmen have been monitored. These
students, who represent almost every Protestant denomination in the
United States from every state in the country, have returned some
“surprising results”:
• One-third could not put the following in order: Abraham,
the Old Testament prophets, the death of Christ, and Pentecost.
• Half could not sequence the following: Moses in Egypt,
Isaac’s birth, Saul’s death, and Judah’s exile.
• One-third could not identify Matthew as an apostle from a
list of New Testament names.
• When asked to locate the biblical book supplying a given
story, one-third could not find Paul’s travels in Acts, half did not
know that the Christmas story was in Matthew, half did not know that the
Passover story was in Exodus.[4]
Like Burge, George Lindbeck, the famous Yale theologian, has commented
on the decreasing knowledge of Scripture from a professor’s perspective.
“When I first arrived at Yale, even those who came from nonreligious
backgrounds knew the Bible better than most of those now who come from
churchgoing families,” he says.[5]
This is also the view of theologian and author David Wells.
“I have watched with growing disbelief as the evangelical church has
cheerfully plunged into astounding theological illiteracy,” declares
Wells in his book No Place for Truth.[6]
Biblical illiteracy is not just a problem for American churches. A
scientific survey called PISA (Program for International Student
Assessment) tested the knowledge of people in thirty-two industrialized
countries. The results of the study show an “insidious biblical
illiteracy” even in Christian circles, says Volker Gaeckle, dean of
studies at Albrecht Bengel Center in Tuebingen. “Churches should heed
the PISA warning that text comprehension is a major problem.” [7]
Theological Illiteracy in Christian Denominations
Barna has gone to the heart of the matter by researching the beliefs
of churchgoing denominational members in America. The results are
shocking—a profound lack of belief in essential Christian doctrines.
In his study of the beliefs of mainline Protestants (including
Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians), Barna
documented a rejection of key Christian doctrines. Only 35% of mainline
Protestant church members believe Christ was sinless; 34% believe the
Bible is totally accurate; 27% agree that works don’t earn heaven; and
20% believe Satan is real.[8]
Denominations which are more evangelical report higher levels of
commitment to key theological truths than their mainline counterparts,
but large percentages of people in these more theologically conservative
churches still deny essential Christian doctrines.
Of Baptists (any type) in America, only 34% believe Satan is real. Only
43% believe that works don’t earn heaven. Although most Baptists affirm
that Christ was sinless and that the Bible is totally accurate, the
majority is not strong. Only 55% affirm that Christ was sinless, and 66%
hold that the Bible is totally accurate.[9]
Of nondenominational Christian churches, Barna reports that 48% believe
Satan is real; 60% say works don’t earn heaven; 63% affirm the
sinlessness of Christ; and 70% believe the Bible is totally
accurate.[10]
According to Barna, the denomination with the highest commitment to
essential Christian doctrines is the Assembly of God denomination. In
the AOG, 77% believe the Bible is accurate; 70% believe Christ was
sinless. Yet only two-thirds (64%) affirm that works don’t earn heaven.
Only 56% believe Satan is real. So even in the most theologically
committed denomination, large percentages of people still deny essential
Christian doctrines.[11]
Barna is particularly concerned with the number of people in Christian
churches who deny one of the most essential of all Christian
doctrines—the sinlessness of Christ.
“Literally millions of Americans who declare themselves to be Christians
contend that Jesus was just like the rest of us when it comes to
temptation—fallen, guilty, impure, and Himself in need of a savior.”[12]
Whatever Happened to Theology?
Why is belief in important Christian truths and doctrines at such a
crisis level?
First, as Burge has explained, there is a general failing of the church
to transmit our religious culture to the next generation. This includes
an overemphasis on personal experience to the exclusion of serious
Christian education.
“In short, the spiritual life has become less a matter of learning than
it is a matter of experiencing,” he says. “This has resulted in
Christian ministries that put less premium on education than they do on
personal development and therapeutic wholeness.”[13]
This emphasis on personal development has affected what is coming from
our pulpits, according to Burge.
“Thus sermons become more therapeutic and less instructional; and the
validity of what we do on Sunday morning is grounded in what we feel,
not in what we think.”[14]
Second, many Christian churches have abandoned serious Bible exposition
and theological teaching. Burge points out that historical exegesis is
becoming a “lost art” in the pulpit.
“Rather than explaining the historical setting of a passage, texts
become springboards for devotional reflection,” he notes. “Biblical
passages are taken out of context as the preacher searches for those
stories that evoke the responses or attitudes desired.” As a result,
“The heart of a ‘good’ sermon is fast becoming the ‘emotional work’ that
can be done in 20 minutes preaching time.”[15]
Burge also found that church leaders often find it difficult to find
time for serious discussion of theology and the Bible. When asking
several youth leaders about whether they addressed solid theological
categories or Bible stories, the typical response according to Burge
was, “It is hard to find time. But I can say that these kids are truly
learning to love God.”[16]
Burge sees this attitude as part of the problem.
“That is it in a nutshell,” he says. “Christian faith is not being built
on the firm foundation of hard-won thoughts, ideas, history, or
theology. Spirituality is being built on private emotional
attachments.”[17]
A third reason for biblical and theological illiteracy today is the
tremendous influence unbiblical philosophies and worldviews are having
on churchgoers. Liberalism promotes that the Bible is a human construct
and not a divine document. In doing so, it continues to assail the
traditional Christian views of the inerrancy of the Bible, deity of
Christ, reality of Satan, substitutionary atonement, and other key
doctrines of the Christian faith. Existentialism and its emphasis on
human experience has people looking to themselves, not God or Scripture,
for truth. Postmodernism has convinced many that there are no universal
truths. According to Barna, “A minority of adult and teen believers
contends that absolute moral truth exists.”[18] Only 32% of born-again
Christians still believe in the existence of absolute moral truth.
Many Christians accept elements of these unbiblical worldviews without
even knowing it. Because of this, Barna and Mark Hatch have noted that
“we cannot really call the faith of American Christians a Bible-based
faith. It is a synthetic, syncretic faith.”[19] According to Barna and
Hatch, Christians today have accepted and combined so many ideas from
other worldviews and religions that they have created their own faith
system.
“The average born-again, baptized, churchgoing person has embraced
elements of Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Mormonism, Scientology,
Unitarianism and Christian Science—without any idea they have just
created their own faith.”[20]
What Is the Solution?
“In many ways, we are living in an age of theological anarchy,” says
Barna. “The church is rotting from the inside out, crippled by abiblical
theology.”[21] But what can church leaders do about this crisis?
Experts who have addressed the crisis have suggested five solutions.
First, church leaders need to be aware of the crisis. “Let’s
acknowledge that we are in a state of spiritual anarchy,” says Barna.[22]
Only by being alert to the problem can church leaders seriously address
the problem. Sadly, Barna has reported a less than positive response by
church leaders with whom he has shared his information.
“When I first conveyed this message [about theological syncretism among
church members], most church leaders smiled and shook their heads,
rejecting the possibility that such silliness would occur on their
watch.”[23]
Second, pastors and church leaders need to evaluate what their people
know and believe. Whether through personal interaction with the
flock or through more formal means of evaluation such as doctrinal
questionnaires, church leaders need to find out what their people know
and believe. A questionnaire about the basics of Bible and theology
given to the people would reveal important information. Churches need to
ask questions such as, “Do you believe Jesus lived a sinless life?” or
“Do you believe Satan is a real person?” It can no longer be assumed
that the people in the pews “know the basics.” Many do not.
The results of such questionnaires and personal contacts will reveal to
church leaders where weaknesses in their congregations exist. These
findings may also help identify people who reject or do not comprehend
enough essential Christian doctrine in order to be a Christian. Fruitful
evangelism, then, may result from such evaluations.
Burge, who himself has created a simple 25-question test, believes such
a method will give “unparalleled insight” to church leaders and will be
helpful to the people. “It is like taking a treadmill test and then
talking about your fitness plan,” he says.[24]
Third, church leaders must use powerful ways to instruct their people
in the truth. “It may well be, too, that to usher in an era of
theological sanity we will have to adopt new approaches to educating
people about God’s Word and new tools to facilitate growth,” says Barna.
This includes a well-planned systematic approach to biblical truth.
“Rather than giving people disjointed morsels of spiritual truth each
week, we must have a systematic method of enabling people to buy into a
biblical worldview that transforms their life.”[25]
This systematic approach to teaching truth must start with the pulpit.
In his book, Where Is Theology Going?, Millard Erickson notes
that decreasing literacy among people has probably influenced many
preachers in the direction of including less biblical content in their
messages.[26] The opposite must become the case. The lack of biblical
literacy today makes systematic Bible teaching from the pulpit even more
necessary. Perhaps more pastors should emulate the Swiss Reformer Ulrich
Zwingli who forsook the common preaching methods of his day to
systematically teach the Bible verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter, and
book-by-book, paying attention to the historical and grammatical
contexts of the passages he was expounding.
The time has also come for pastors and church leaders to address
essential Christian doctrines from the pulpit. If Barna is correct that
millions of people in Christian churches, even conservative evangelical
churches, do not believe Jesus was sinless, then the time has also come
for church leaders to address the doctrine of the person of Christ and
other doctrines from the pulpits.
Church members should also be introduced to basic courses in Old
Testament Survey, New Testament Survey, Basic Christian Doctrines, and
How to Study the Bible. These courses are required at most seminaries
and viewed as vital to the ministry of those who attend seminaries. Yet,
this basic understanding of Bible, theology, and hermeneutics is often
not transmitted to the people in the pews. There is a large gap between
the important truths taught in seminaries and what is being taught in
our churches. The time has come for these basic truths to be conveyed to
all of God’s people.
Teaching solid doctrine, though, must not stop at the classroom level.
Dr. Brant Pelphrey in his article, “Learning the Language of God:
Overcoming Theological Literacy,” suggests that teachers must get
involved in the lives of the learners.
“Americans will have a better chance of becoming theologically literate
when we replace the paradigm of theological study as intellectual
exercise, with that of the worshipping community in which students and
mentors work together,” he says.[27]
Fourth, church leaders, including pastors, must alert their members
to the unbiblical worldviews and philosophies that have crept into the
church. False teachings have subtly infiltrated our churches, and
church leaders must combat these destructive errors and heresies. This
will require not only a clear presentation of Christianity but also a
specific description of how Christianity differs from the liberal,
existential, and postmodern views that are being promoted today.
Finally, we must encourage diligent and gifted teachers in the church.
As Burge states, “We need to identify young men and women in the church
who have gifts of teaching and intellect and encourage them to pursue
their gifts.” As we esteem the gift of teaching and those who teach
well, we will “help bring about the rebirth of biblical literacy and
informed faith in North America.”[28]
Long-Term Effort
Experts do not expect the trend toward biblical illiteracy in
churches to change. This does not alter, though, the responsibility of
church leaders to do all they can to reverse this dangerous trend. The
church is called to be the “pillar and support of the truth” (1 Tim.
3:15). And those who are its leaders must follow the apostle Paul in
proclaiming “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27).
Turning things around will take “a massive, concerted long-term effort,”
says Barna. But we must try. “We must pray for God’s guidance and power
to bring about the reformation that He undoubtedly desires for
America.”[29]
[1] Barna Research Online, “Religious Beliefs Vary Widely by
Denomination,”
www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PagePressRelease.asp?PressReleaseID=92&Reference=B,
June 25, 2001.
[2] Barna Research Online, “Discipleship Insights Revealed in New
Book
by George Barna,”
www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PagePressRelease.asp?PressReleaseID
=76&Reference=E&Key=bible%20knowledgeNovember 28, 2000.
[3] Gary M. Burge, “The Greatest Story Never Read: Recovering
biblical literacy in the church,”
www.christianitytoday.com/ct/9t9/9t9045.html.
[4] Ibid.
[5] George A. Lindbeck, “The Church’s Mission to a Postmodern
Culture,” Postmodern Theology: Christian Faith in a Pluralist World
(San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers, 1989), 45.
[6] David F. Wells, No Place for Truth or Whatever Happened to
Evangelical Theology? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), 4.
[7] “Biblical Illiteracy Spreading Among Christians,”
http://news.crosswalk.com/
partner/Article_Display_Page/0,,PTID74088%7CCHID194343%7CCIID1138212
,00.html.
[8] Barna Research Online, “Religious Beliefs Vary Widely by
Denomination.”
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Burge, “The Greatest Story Never Read.”
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Barna Research Online, “Discipleship Insights Revealed in New
Book by George Barna.”
[19] George Barna and Mark Hatch, Boiling Point: It Only Takes One
Degree (Ventura: Regal, 2001), 187.
[20] Barna and Hatch, 187.
[21] Ibid., 202.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Burge, “The Greatest Story Never Read.”
[25] Barna and Hatch, 202–03.
[26] Millard J. Erickson, Where Is Theology Going?: Issues and
Perspectives on the Future of Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994),
100.
[27] Brant Pelphrey, “Learning the Language of God: Overcoming
Theological Illiteracy,” Boston Theological Institute Newsletter,
vol. 27, no. 25, March 25, 1998.
[28] Burge, “The Greatest Story Never Read.”
[29] Barna and Hatch, Boiling Point, 202.
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