This shouldn’t be a difficult concept for the Christian to grasp. But alas, here we are. As a young pastor and seminary student there are many things that I just assume people understand. For instance, whenever I discuss the Bible with anyone, I assume that they understand the text itself. Yes, I recognize that there will be differing opinions on specific doctrines and issues, but in that case there is still a basic level of biblical comprehension. However, the more I interact with people the more concerned that I am becoming for the lack of Biblical understanding within the Church.
Ask anyone that has sat in a pew for any length of time how one gets to heaven and you will be met with more answers than you want to admit. Ask anyone what happens when they die and you will likewise be met with a variety of responses.
Don’t believe me? How many of you, or your grandparents, have said “so and so got their angel wings today” when they passed? Do you know what a biblical angel is? It is not Granny floating around.
The fact that so many people in the church have such poor theology is a glaring indictment on the reading habits of the believer. I am not telling you to grab a book on systematic theology and dive into infralapsarianism. I am simply saying that if you want to have a basic level of understanding when it comes to the Bible then you might want to at least read it first.
This is nothing new, and we see this in our daily lives all the time. People don’t want to bother reading so they get the headlines. We do this with news articles all the time and are misled by clickbait titles that are designed to draw our attention. The same thing is happening within the Church. Too many people are getting their theology from blue checkmarks on Twitter who haven’t actually read the Bible but instead get their theology from other blue checkmarks and bumper stickers.
And where does that get us? It leads us to a Church that allows for same-sex marriage, transgender identity, and abortion. All of this is cool because we have taken the God of the Bible, removed all the bad stuff, and placed the “god of Love” on the shelf where we keep the rest of our idols.
If you want to have a solid grasp of who God is then you need to read your Bible. If you want to be able to defend the faith then you need to know the faith to begin with, and that starts with reading your Bible. If you want to be able to make disciples, then you need to be a disciple yourself. You cannot do that if you’re not reading your Bible.
Get off of Twitter. Get off of TikTok. Get off of Facebook. And read your Bible.
This is not a hard concept, and I cannot believe that people find this to be tough. Read your Bible and you will be amazed at what you believe to be absolute garbage.