"Love for a Bible Not Read: A Call for Biblical Literacy"

Al Mohler calls for the church to wake up to the danger of biblical illiteracy in this Southern Seminary Magazine article, "Love for a Bible Not Read: A Call for Biblical Literacy."  It's fairly brief, so I've posted the entire article below:

While America’s evangelical Christians are rightly concerned about the secular worldview’s rejection of biblical Christianity, we ought to give some urgent attention to a problem much closer to home: biblical illiteracy in the church. This scandalous problem is our own, and it’s up to us to fix it.

Researchers George Gallup and Jim Castelli put the problem squarely: “Americans revere the Bible — but, by and large, they don’t read it. And because they don’t read it, they have become a nation of biblical illiterates.” Researchers tell us that it is worse than most could imagine.

Fewer than half of all adults can name the four Gospels. Many Christians cannot identify more than two or three of the disciples. According to data from one research group, 60 percent of Americans can’t name even five of the Ten Commandments. Americans may demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in the courthouse, but they seem unable to remember what exactly they are.

According to 82 percent of Americans, “God helps those who help themselves,” is a Bible verse. Those identified as born-again Christians did better — by one percent. A majority of adults think the Bible teaches that the most important purpose in life is taking care of one’s family.

One poll indicates that at least 12 percent of adults believe that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife. Another survey of graduating high school seniors reveals that more than 50 percent thought Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife. A considerable number of respondents to one poll indicated that the Sermon on the Mount was preached by Billy Graham. We are in big trouble.

How can a generation be biblically shaped in its understanding of human sexuality when it believes Sodom and Gomorrah to be a married couple? Many who identify themselves as Christians are similarly confused about the gospel itself. An individual who believes that “God helps those who help themselves” will find salvation by grace and justification by faith to be alien concepts.

Christians who lack biblical knowledge are the products of churches that marginalize biblical knowledge. Bible teaching now often accounts for only a diminishing fraction of the local congregation’s time and attention. The move to small group ministry has certainly increased opportunities for fellowship, but many of these groups never get beyond superficial Bible study.

This really is our problem, and recovery starts at home. Parents are to be the first and most important educators of their own children, teaching them the Word of God. Parents cannot franchise out their responsibility to the congregation, no matter how faithful it may be.

Churches must recover the centrality and urgency of biblical teaching and preaching.

We will not believe more than we know, and we will not live higher than our beliefs. The many fronts of Christian compromise in this generation can be directly traced to biblical illiteracy in the pews and the absence of biblical preaching and teaching in our homes and churches.

This generation must get deadly serious about the problem of biblical illiteracy, or a frighteningly large number of Americans — many church members included — will go on thinking that Sodom and Gomorrah lived happily ever after.

Mohler's Reflections on the 2012 SBC in New Orleans

Al Mohler offers his reflections on last week's Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans, organized around eight areas of importance:

1. The importance of meeting in New Orleans
2. The importance of electing Fred Luter as President
3. The importance of leadership
4. The importance of our name
5. The importance of doctrine
6. The importance of our mission
7. The importance of the total event
8. The importance of getting to work

To read the details and see his reflections in their entirety, click here.

Mohler - "On Getting Boys to Read"

Al Mohler offers further reflections on Thomas Spence's article, "How To Raise Boys Who Read," in The Wall Street Journal. Here's a brief excerpt:

The most direct enemies of reading in the lives of today’s boys are video games and digital media. These devices crowd out time and attention at the expense of reading. Spence cites one set of parents who tried to bribe their 13-year-old son to read by offering video games as a reward. Spence is exactly right — don’t reward with video games. Instead, take the games away. If parents do not restrict time spent with digital devices, boys will never learn to read and to love reading.

Read the entire thing here.

Addressing Two Difficult Topics

Tim Challies provides helpful overviews of two recent talks given at the 2010 Ligonier Ministries National Conference, both of which address difficult topics.

• "Why the Universe Looks So Old" by Al Mohler

• "How God Could Command Holy War" by Derek Thomas

They're both worth reading (the audio is not yet online).

Confidence in the Bible, Not in Remnants of Ancient Timber

Al Mohler's article today on "Relics, Gopher Wood, and the Sufficiency of Scripture" is a helpful corrective for evangelicals who get more excited about suspicious archaeological finds than they do the Bible itself. Of course, he also reminds Roman Catholics that their fascination with relics both confuses the gospel and subverts the Bible's sufficiency. It's a worthwhile read.

NPR on Historic Christian Orthodoxy and "A New Kind of Christianity"

NPR's "Morning Edition" did an interesting story this past Friday on an event hosted by the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary to discuss Brian McLaren's recent book, A New Kind of Christianity. Professors from SBTS (including the President, Al Mohler) rightly question McLaren's view of Christ crucified. While McLaren still wants to hold on to the labels of Christian and evangelical, it is abundantly clear in this most recent book that he has departed from anything close to what can be considered historic Christian orthodoxy. His view of the cross fails to understand the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, and the triune nature of the Godhead (among other things). Ironically enough, his "new kind" of Christianity sounds a lot like something we've heard before - it sounds like twentieth century theological liberalism dressed up in postmodern clothes. And in the words of Southern professor, Jim Hamilton, "It is a new kind of Christianity that is no Christianity at all."

On the whole, NPR covers the story with a fair degree of accuracy and balance (though they appear to be sympathetic to McLaren's viewpoint, even calling the Southern professors "angry").

You can both read the story and/or listen to it here.

HT: Church Matters

Falling on Deaf Ears

Al Mohler's recent article explores why so many churches hear so little of the Bible. Here is an excerpt:

Indeed, in many churches there is very little reading of the Bible in worship, and sermons are marked by attention to the congregation's concerns - not by an adequate attention to the biblical text. The exposition of the Bible has given way to the concerns, real or perceived, of the listeners. The authority of the Bible is swallowed up in the imposed authority of congregational concerns.

...In many churches, there is almost no public reading of the Word of God. Worship is filled with music, but congregations seem disinterested in listening to the reading of the Bible. We are called to sing in worship, but the congregation cannot live only on the portions of Scripture that are woven into songs and hymns. Christians need the ministry of the Word as the Bible is read before the congregation and God's people -- young and old, rich and poor, married and unmarried, sick and well -- hear it together. The sermon is to consist of the exposition of the Word of God, powerfully and faithfully read, explained, and applied. It is not enough that the sermon take a biblical text as its starting point.

How can so many of today's churches demonstrate what can only be described as an impatience with the Word of God? The biblical formula is clear -- the neglect of the Word can only lead to disaster, disobedience, and death. God rescues his church from error, preserves his church in truth, and propels his church in witness only by his Word -- not by congregational self-study.

Read the whole article here.

Mohler on Why Moralism Is Not the Gospel

Al Mohler has a great article on his website today on "Why Moralism Is Not the Gospel."

The deadly danger of moralism has been a constant temptation to the church and an ever-convenient substitute for the Gospel. Clearly, millions of our neighbors believe that moralism is our message. Nothing less than the boldest preaching of the Gospel will suffice to correct this impression and to lead sinners to salvation in Christ.

Hell will be highly populated with those who were "raised right." The citizens of heaven will be those who, by the sheer grace and mercy of God, are there solely because of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Moralism is not the gospel.

Read the whole thing here.

Conventional Thinking Blog

Al Mohler has restarted the Conventional Thinking blog - a blog dedicated to the issues of importance for the Southern Baptist Convention and its churches.

Here is the post that contains the video of his recent address, "The Future of the Southern Baptist Convention."

And here is a post on the news story that Baptist Press ran about that address.

For those of you who are Southern Baptists (and for those who aren't but still find interest in the goings on of the SBC), this will be a good site to check from time to time.

Marriage, Sex, and the Christianity Today Cover Story

If you haven't seen it yet, the cover story for the most recent issue of Christianity Today is Mark Regnerus' article, "The Case for Early Marriage." The gist of Regnerus' argument is that too many American evangelicals have delayed marriage, which has resulted in so many examples of Christian young people being unable to refrain from premarital sex. Here it is in his own words:

Evangelicals tend to marry slightly earlier than other Americans, but not by much. Many of them plan to marry in their mid-20s. Yet waiting for sex until then feels far too long to most of them. And I am suggesting that when people wait until their mid-to-late 20s to marry, it is unreasonable to expect them to refrain from sex. It's battling our Creator's reproductive designs.

I encourage you to read both Regnerus' article as well as Al Mohler's thoughts about early marriage in his most recent blog post.

Al Mohler on the Scandalous Loss of Doctrinal Conviction

Al Mohler's thoughts on Richard Holloway, an agnostic bishop of the Scottish Episcopal Church, and what such a lack of doctrinal conviction means for the Church.