Have you ever read the Bible? The whole Bible? Most Christians have not. One survey found that only 1 in 5 Christians have read through the whole Bible. Another found that same amount—1 in 5—have never read the Bible. Here’s the starling fact according to an article from Christianity Today:
A recent LifeWay Research study found only 45 percent of those who regularly attend church read the Bible more than once a week. Over 40 percent of the people attending read their Bible occasionally, maybe once or twice a month. Almost 1 in 5 churchgoers say they never read the Bible—essentially the same number who read it every day… LifeWay Research found that while 67 percent of Americans believe heaven is a real place, 45 percent believe there are many ways to get there—including 1 in 5 evangelical Christians. More than half of evangelicals (59 percent) believe the Holy Spirit is a force and not a personal being—in contrast to the orthodox biblical teaching of the Trinity being three Persons in one God. As a whole, Americans, including many Christians, hold unbiblical views on hell, sin, salvation, Jesus, humanity, and the Bible itself.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Here’s another fact: half of the books of the Bible can be read in ten to forty-five minutes each and many of them can be read in less than twenty. The entire Old and New Testaments can be read aloud slowly and with expression in less than seventy-one hours.
The problem is that people don’t know the Bible. They don’t know the word of God. Therefore, they’re ignorant of what it says and what it means. On the most basic level, if we are ignorant of what it says, then we can’t be influenced by it.
Every year, Berean Home Fellowship encurages its members and other believers to read through the whole Bible together as a church. Join us this year as we read through the whole Bible. Just go to our Facebook page and “Like” it. Every morning, you’ll get the Bible reading for the day. Post comments and questions that you may have.
Don’t be so concerned with Bible study as with Bible reading. Just read it. God will speak to you what He wants to speak to you. You will get out of it what you need to get out of it. Just read it. You’ll be blessed and enriched for the effort.