Biblical Illiteracy: What are the signs, symptoms, and solutions? w Allen Parr - Podcast Episode 57

Biblical Illiteracy as a Widespread Problem in the Church

On today's episode. We're going to be discussing biblical illiteracy. Our guest today is Alan Parr. He's the host of the Beat podcast and YouTube channel, and we'll include some links to those in the show notes, in the description field on YouTube, and also at podcast .gotquestions .org so you can learn more about Alan and his ministry.

So, Alan, welcome to the show.

Shay, thanks so much for having me here. Excited to share with the GotQuestions community. Love what you all are doing. I've used you all's information and resources for many, many years, and super excited to chat with you all today.

That's awesome. So, Alan, at GotQuestions, and I know your ministry is similar in that a lot of people ask you questions. And to me, that's a major way of detecting biblical illiteracy and that people say, I've been a Christian my whole life.

And then the question they ask, and it's like, how in the world could you have been a Christian for this long, and you have never known this? And not in any sense to belittle them for asking the question, but that's what we do, and that's what we love to do.

But it's like, why in your experience is biblical illiteracy such a rampant problem in the Christian community?

Yeah. I think that there's a lot of reasons why, and then of course, I know later we'll get into the dangers in terms of how does that affect your life. But I think one of the reasons is that, I don't want to slam the modern church or anything, but whenever I was growing up, we had to go to Sunday school.

We had to learn the stories of the Bible. We had to know certain things. And it seems like a lot of preachers were much more committed to the basics of the faith. Hey, church service is going to be about praise and worship, and we're going to get into the Bible.

But since the emergence of the contemporary church, it seems at least from the surface, and obviously there are many, many phenomenal Bible teachers out there, but unfortunately, there's too many that don't use enough Bible in their sermons.

And then there's not enough focus on Christian education and coming up with programs to make sure that when somebody is a new Christian, that they have what they need. They go through a program where they learn the basics of the Christian faith.

They learn about theology. They learn about doctrine. They learn about how to share their faith and basic apologetics and things like that. And then just like I said, people are moving away from the church.

A lot of people aren't going to church anymore. And then the people that do go to church, sometimes they're not hearing much Bible from their sermons. And then there's not an opportunity for them to really kind of learn it elsewhere outside of Sunday morning.

So it's no surprise that we have a generation of Christians who really not only don't know the Bible very well, but they also don't really see a need for it. And they don't really see how the Bible is going to be relevant to their life and how it's going to add.

The Dangers of Biblical Illiteracy: False Teaching, Weak Discipleship, and Loss of Confidence

Any major value to their life. Yeah, for sure. And that would be our experience that got questions as well. Just not so much a disinterest in that most Christians, and praise God, still recognize God's word as the authority and they want to understand it, but just have never been exposed to someone teaching it in a solid way or never teaching them how to study God's word for themselves.

So why is biblical literacy so dangerous in the body of Christ? And what are some of the symptoms that you were seeing beyond what you've shared already? Yeah, that's such a.

Loaded question. So there's so many reasons why it's dangerous. I'll start with the obvious, which is just being more susceptible to false teaching. And I think that you could probably echo my sentiments here that if there's one thing that I've seen more than anything else, it's just that there's so much false teaching going on.

And if you don't know the word of God for yourself, if you don't have solid theology, sound doctrine, as we call it, you're not going to be able to be equipped with the knowledge to be able to discern truth from error.

You're going to be so susceptible to just whatever sounds good, whatever makes logical sense, whatever feels good, whatever's coming from somebody who has a charismatic personality. And I say that word charismatic, not necessarily from a doctrinal perspective, but just somebody who's got a lively personality, who is a great communicator.

You're just going to assume whatever they're saying is true, rather than having those spiritual biblical antennas that go up that say, wait a second, that might sound good, but that's not biblical. That's not what the Bible teaches.

And we don't have enough Christians that can discern truth from error. But another danger is that if you really don't know the Bible that well, you really can't fulfill the great commission the way God intended, which is to make disciples because you can only teach people what you know.

So there's going to quickly, you're going to quickly experience a certain ceiling, if you will, to where you don't really know how to share your faith and how to really make another disciple, because based on basically all you can do is just share your experience or your testimony with them or what God has done in your life, but you really can't teach them much because you don't know a whole lot.

So that's another thing. And then, you know, it's also important because we live in a world of skeptics. People are skeptical about Christianity in general. And I know GotQuestions, you guys can appreciate this being not just an apologetic organization, but we have a lot of people that have questions about the Christian faith.

They are skeptical. They don't believe. So if you don't know what you believe fully, then not only are you susceptible to false teaching, you're also susceptible to being taken away from the faith. And you're also not in a position to actually truly defend your faith to other people who either A, are skeptical or B, just might have genuine questions about your faith.

So it's very, very problematic that people are biblically illiterate today. It's a huge problem.

It sure is. A good friend once kind of described what GotQuestions does, and then I think it applied a lot of what do you do at The Beat. And that we're, in a sense, we're like firefighters and that all these fires are popping up questions.

People have issues that are raised. We're putting them out, which is very, very necessary. But what people need is someone to teach them how to not start fires. How to recognize someone who's about to start a fire for themselves so they can put it out.

And so part of that comes back to what we're talking about, the lack of understanding of God's word. So what in your experience is the reason people struggle with studying God's word for themselves and even beyond studying it, understanding it for themselves?

Why Christians Struggle to Study the Bible for Themselves

Yeah. Yeah. So I think one of the main reasons is that we've never been taught, we've never been coached. And so it's so interesting that in just about every other phase of life, we appreciate and we embrace teaching.

We embrace coaching, whether it's for our children's golf lessons or swimming lessons or tennis lessons or anything that we do, we embrace and we understand coaching. But when it comes to studying the Bible, and I know this very well because I actually have a course where I teach people how to study the Bible, but it's not a free course.

It's a paid course. And people, they will complain about paying to learn how to study the Bible. And I try to explain to people, I say, hey, look, tell me one investment that would be greater to invest in than your own spiritual life, investing in something that's going to literally help you not just for today, but five, 10, 15, 20 years from now.

And that's not to say that people have to pay in order to understand how to study the Bible. They can learn from someone else. Hey, if we're doing the body of Christ, if the body of Christ is operating correctly, then we should be able to teach other people just through the discipleship process.

So I think that people are not being taught how to study the Bible. And so as a result, they don't feel as though that they can do it. And then another thing I think is that people just assume that deep study of the Bible is reserved for the preachers, the pastors, the spiritual people, the leaders.

But for us regular lay people, then it's not a big deal. And so I think that's another reason why people struggle. They don't have a plan in place. They're not being taught. And then as I alluded to earlier, a huge part of it is that the local church in many respects is not emphasizing the importance of it.

We're emphasizing small groups. We're emphasizing building campaigns. We're emphasizing conferences, programs, leadership development, all of which is important. But it's almost like studying the Bible is just kind of old school.

It's like, ah, it's kind of an old school thing they did in the 80s and 90s. But right now it's all about small groups. It's all about this and.

That. And I just think we've gotten away from it. Yeah. I just look back in different small groups or community groups I've been a part of over the years and trying to get people to want to actually do a study of a book of the Bible rather than something more topical.

And not that there's anything wrong with occasionally doing a topical, but if Sunday mornings when your pastor's preaching, if that's the only time you're hearing or being taught God's word, try to use that to combat all the other things we're bombarded with throughout the week.

I mean, it's not a fair fight for our minds. And so just getting people to recognize the importance of it. Would you say are some other effects of biblical literacy perhaps maybe on Christians individually?

The Personal Effects of Biblical Illiteracy on Christians

Yeah. Well, I think there's a feeling of insecurity. I think there's a feeling of guilt. I think there's a feeling of embarrassment because inwardly, most Christians know that they should know more than they do.

For instance, for a perfect example, if you have somebody who's a senior in high school and they still have to count on their hands, what's negative five plus 10 and they have to count on their hands, they know inwardly, I should know more than that.

Like I should be at a place. I see other people get to the answer quickly. I should know more. And I think a lot of Christians, they may not admit it, but inwardly they feel embarrassed. They feel insecure.

They feel guilty. And so they know that they should read their Bible, but it's not a pressing need. There's nothing that's like, there's nothing in their life that's kind of crumbling because, or at least they don't realize that there's nothing in their life that's really crumbling because they don't know the Bible.

So there's that emotional aspect of things that can hurt a believer emotionally and spiritually. But another thing is that we just don't have the necessary wisdom from God in order to make solid biblical godly decisions in life.

Whenever I started studying the Bible, 26, 27 years ago, my life changed because now every decision that I had and every temptation that I faced, a new verse would come up in my spirit, something that I'd read, something that I'd studied, and God, the Holy Spirit would bring it to my remembrance as the Bible says that He will do.

And, and as a result, I now had God's perspective on that particular decision, that temptation, whatever it is I was going through. And just that perspective, for instance, I'll just give you a perfect example, right?

You know, the Bible says, be slow to speak and slow to become angry for anger does not produce the righteousness of God. Just that one verse, whenever you're talking to your spouse, slow to speak, slow to become angry, right?

The Bible says in Proverbs 15, 1, a soft answer turns away wrath. So that means that whenever I'm in a heated conversation, I need to remember to give a soft answer to somebody and not you know, get so riled up and so angry.

It's those millions, not millions, but I guess it's those thousands of scriptures that I have taken the time to implant in my spirit, that the Holy Spirit brings up to my remembrance at the appropriate time so that I can respond the way God would want me to respond based on His word.

Little things like that, which really aren't that little, are what many Christians are missing out on because they're biblically illiterate.

Yeah, for sure. Several times when I'll go present, got questions at a church or a conference, or just be talking with someone individually, and they'll ask me, how do you do that? And by that, they're asking, know what to say or have a scripture at the ready when someone asks.

It's like, one, through the power of the Holy Spirit, but also just through having done questions for so long, studying God's reformed self, memorizing scripture, important scriptures that have impacted my life, and then through that, I can impact others.

And it just blows my mind, some of the other than like a John 3 .16 or a Philippians 4 .13, so few people have any scripture memorized. So what are some ways, maybe first steps, if someone recognizes that they are to a certain degree, biblically illiterate, what are some first steps to help them to get out of.

That funk? Yeah. Well, I think you hit the first step is that they have to recognize it. They have to recognize that they are at a spiritual deficit. But the second thing that I would say, it's similar to any sort of health and fitness journey or weight loss journey or something.

You've got to buy in. Until you mentally buy in to the importance of this, how this food that you're eating is affecting your health and why it's important to get enough sleep, why it's important to run and walk and do these things and exercise and whatnot, until you buy into it, it's just going to be more of a desire.

Like, oh man, I really want to lose weight. Or I really want to know the Bible better. Until you buy into the reasons why it's important. It's not just to know more Bible, right? That's not why we're saying you need to study the Bible.

It's because this is God's word to you. This is God's love letter, and it's meant to transform your mind. As Romans 1 says, it says, hey, that we should be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Romans 12, 1 and 2.

So, I just think that one of the ways we can do this is to understand the importance of it. And then also find a biblically based church. That's the first step. Find a church where the pastor is actually using the Bible.

Can you imagine that? Using the Bible in his sermons, not just reading it at the beginning of the sermon and then as a springboard to then talk about whatever he wants to talk about. And not just referencing a verse and here and there.

That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about expository preaching where that pastor talks about the context of the passage. They go verse by verse. They break down that verse in their sermons.

So, that's another thing they can do. Another thing they can do is really, you know, find some online resources, right? You've got GotQuestions. You've got Karm. You've got MyChannel. You've got a host of other channels.

Like, take the time to make this a priority and, you know, listen and consume from as much as you can from online Bible teachers that you respect. And I'm sure you all could give, you know, a list of some that you all recommend in the show notes or whatever.

But that's the next thing. And then the final thing is just to be honest with all those things are great, but I truly grew spiritually whenever I just started reading the Bible every day. That's really what it comes down to, right?

I mean, and I say that and I tell people that they have to, they're going to come across portions of Scripture that are seemingly boring, seemingly like, okay, this, you know, why am I reading this genealogy?

This isn't going to, you know, why am I reading about these offerings and sacrifices and stuff in the book of Leviticus? I get that, but you really have to buy in and you really have to just do the due diligence of actually studying the Bible for yourself, just reading it first and.

Foremost, and then learning how to study it. Yeah, for sure. So what you just said brings up a question to me that we get a lot that it's not a difficult question to answer, but it's an answer where there's no definitive right or wrong answer.

So if someone were to ask you, where should I start reading the Bible? What would you say?

Where New Believers Should Start Reading the Bible

Yeah, yeah. You know, I would say, I would probably say, I normally direct people to start in the gospels, probably in the gospel of John. I love the gospel of John because I think that gospel more than any of the other gospels really gives you a clear picture of who Jesus is and what Jesus did, right?

The gospel of John is centered around, I will honestly say it's seven signs and eight I am statements. I may have them reversed. It might be eight I am statements. I think you're right. I think you're right.

I don't know, but you know, the signs tell you what Jesus did, and then the I am statements tell you clearly who Jesus was. And so I would say, pick a translation that's easy to read. I would say, start in the gospel of John and then, you know, kind of move, you know, through the New Testament in that way.

So, yeah. I remember when my dad became a believer shortly before he passed away and never in his life really read the Bible. And my uncle just handed him a Bible and told him to start reading. And so I remember watching him starting in Genesis and going from there.

And I don't remember how far he went, but now looking back, I was like, that was, I would never say reading any book of the Bible is poor advice, but in terms of a brand new believer who'd never been exposed to God's word before, telling someone to start in the Old Testament without any clarification of how the Old Testament is set up and structured, it's actually not the greatest advice ever.

So that's a question we always want to take carefully. We usually start with John or one of the other gospels and then point to one of the epistles, like a James, something that's really practical for Christian day-to-day living, so forth.

A lot of people will want to jump right to Revelation, which is a lot of fun, interesting stuff, but it's like, no, let's focus on some of the core issues of the faith before you jump into what happens in the end.

The Role of Church Leadership, Teaching, and Discipleship

So you talked a little about this earlier, the importance of church and community in overcoming or avoiding biblical literacy. So talk a little bit more about that and your experience, how important it is for not only just a pastor who teaches God's word, but a church that emphasizes the instruction and teaching.

Of God's word. Yeah. Well, it's huge because anything that happens in the church happens from the top down. And we all know that. So if the leader, the leadership of that church places a huge emphasis on biblical literacy, then the members are going to follow.

If they see that that leader is saying, Hey, this is important. And to show you how important it is, we're investing money into this. We're going to get resources. We're going to allocate staff to be able to help.

We're going to hire people, whatever we need to do, because this is important. When the leadership makes that type of commitment to it, then the members are going to see the value and they're going to follow.

So that's the first thing. The leadership has to be first fully committed to understanding the importance of biblical literacy. Now, the next thing is that there needs to be some programs in place. I mean, being committed to it is great, but you know, there needs to be more of a focus on that than just community and just small groups.

Now, like I said, those small groups are great. And my wife and I, we're in one and we love that. But, you know, if the small group just gets together to encourage one another and talk about life and marriage, that's great.

But where, I guess my question is where in the church do people who actually want to read and learn to study the Bible and go deeper than just a surface understanding, what programs are in place in order to make that happen?

And sadly, for many churches, there are no programs in place. There's just a Sunday morning service, a Wednesday evening Bible study, praise and worship, small groups, and that's about it. There is no equipping center.

There is no sort of Bible institute. There's no sort of track that, okay, hey, start with New Testament and then go to the Old Testament. And we all understand that just knowing the Bible is not enough, right?

But it's part of it. It's part of it, and we need to be committed to it.

The Beat Ministry and Closing Encouragement

Yeah, absolutely. So this is the God Questions podcast with Alan Parr, the host of The Beat, the podcast and video YouTube channel. I highly recommend you to go there. And again, we'll include links so you can learn more about Alan and his ministry.

But Alan, why don't you just tell our listeners a little bit about the ministry God's called you to, what The Beat is, and how.

They can get plugged into that. Sure thing. So The Beat is an acronym that I feel like God kind of laid on my heart seven years ago. It stands for Biblical Encouragement and Truth, The Beat. And so basically that's what we're all about.

We're about being biblical. We're about using the Bible to encourage people, and we're about helping people discover the truth. And so it just fit. And so that's what we're about. We do all sorts of things similar to God Questions where we answer a lot of questions that people have, but we also do overviews of certain books of the Bible.

We do live streams. We talk about relationships from a Christian biblical perspective. We do end time events. We do interviews of people who have amazing testimonies of what God has done in their life and a host of all sorts of other exciting topics on the channel.

So if people are interested in supporting us, they can go to YouTube and they can search for The Beat with Alan Parr, or they can just go to youtube .com forward slash The Beat AGP, which are my initials, and they can find us there, or they can just go to my website, alanparr .com.

It's awesome. So again, for our listeners, I'm a huge fan of Alan. I really just discovered his ministry earlier this year. I have no idea where I was for the previous six years, but I've become a huge fan in a short amount of time.

So Alan, thank you for being on the show today. Great discussion on biblical illiteracy, how big a problem it is and a few practical steps on how to overcome that. So thank you for being on the show today.

Absolutely, Shay. It's my pleasure.

And I'd love to come back anytime in the future and hang out again. It was great. Thanks so much.

I will definitely hold you to that. So got questions? Bibleize answers. We'll help you find them.