(Christians Please) Why do so many Christians neglect studying the bible and church history?

Question

The sad fact is that many, many Christians of all denominations, cultures, and degrees of liberality/conservativeness/fundamentalism, are horrifyingly uneducated about their own religion...

Atheists love and abuse that fact and do their best to keep it that way. Why? Because the people you said "Knowelege is power" were right! Knowelege of the bible, what it says and how it has been understood throughout the centuries, and the history of both the church and the cultures surrounding it arms us against being swayed by pointless and feeble arguments from atheists, false churches/teachers, and people of other faiths who would like us to join theirs. When you know a topic, any topic, inside and out, at lease when it comes to that topic you can recognize truth from falsehood. What Christianity around the world needs, more than anything in this age where the culture is moving in a direction away from it, is the witness of thinking, intelligent, knowelegable lay people. So why, in some many places where it is needed most, are we failing at this?

As a kid I barely went to church, Sunday school was a constant round of the same couple dozen bible stories, I hardly knew anything, then I grew up and I studied this stuff for myself and it made me a better and more devout Christian and a better person

Answer 1

Simply: most Christians are not interested in doing so. Even some very devout Christians are not the "studious sort" and dislike to study anything they do not have to study.



In Christianity, at least, that is not necessarily a shortcoming. A Christian can be a very sincere and devout Christian without having studied such things. Indeed: a Christian can be a very sincere and devout Christian **even if the person is illiterate**.



Are the sorts of study you mention beneficial to Christians? Of course. Are they necessary for Christian salvation or Christian living? Of course *not*!

Answer 2

There are some people who thrive on ignorance and discourage people reading on their own other mistakenly think they can't find ways to present history in a interesting way- and fail to understand even showing photos of the Holy land can bring a connection to the events.

Answer 3

Sadly your attitude towards other Christians is why Christianity has been split into over 39,500 different denominations, sects and cults setting Christian against Christian and Christians against everyone else!



God's work? Hardly!



"Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. -Mat 6:1

Answer 4

it starts with the parents and their parents who are supposed to teach their children what God is like from their experience of knowing Him! They are also to have taught them what God said in His word! God said He's going to hold the parents responsible for whether their children worship Him or not!

Answer 5

i think in this day & age most churches dont want to talk about the main thing in the bible cuz they're afraid. what we need to be focusing on is the end time prophecies. pastor david asscherick on youtube is great for this. check him out..especially his 'discover prophecy' series.



another thing is..most people just go to church cuz they've been trained to but do they really believe it? a lot of people need actual proof & when they're given nothing...they stop caring.



but there is proof & some of it has to do with.....well end time prophecies.



the blood of jesus has only 24 chromosomes. 23 human from mary & 1 unknown dna not seen anywhere else & this one makes him a male. it is all down the crack by the crosshole on calvary hill at jerusalems gate...now a busy bus depot...also on the front lines of battle at the moment.



under that hill is a network of tunnels & a chamber directly under the crack. the ark of the covenant that moses built...not the heavenly one..this is moses's one...is under there & the blood is gone all the way down onto the seat as well. the throne is out of the stone box jeremiah put it in & is ready to come out any time.



the jews have the priests garments made, the harps strung & everything else ready to set up once the temple is rebuilt...& that hour is sooner than later.



now you know why rockets wont hit israel to much. just like in the bible, the throne is blocking the warring side!



http://www.wyattnewsletters.com/ArkCov/bldark.htm



this one explains how the throne is now out of the box...& the tablets are out of the throne on a ledge. (my family knew this guy personally).



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pqa-Jd5bkQ



hope that helps...

Answer 6

The neglect in the West is not due to lack of Bibles, or being threatened with execution by ISIS, or by lack of education so that personal study is not possible. In the West the lack is due to utter laziness and self-sufficiency. We live in a sound-bite generation that likes to be spoon-fed drips and drabs of sugary sweet treats; to be entertained; to be sated with material possessions and self-promoting lives. Today's generation can hardly concentrate more than two minutes on any subject before getting bored with it and switching to another tit-bit. Witness the many brief, unthinking comments on here in response to serious questions. (I expect you to get a fair dose of that with your question.)



Such intellectual laziness gives cultists and atheists a field-day - they take full advantage of the many Christians who never really study the Bible, or who know nothing about Church history. Witness the urban myths they spawn on here. Even when they state truth about either the Bible or Church history, many responders completely fail to expose their twisted conclusions by showing them how other truths give the balance and the complete picture.



Well, I just answer by saying the reason is that many professed Christians think of Christianity as some kind of spiritual insurance policy - they have 'taken one out' by registering as a Church member, going occasionally to church, and because they can keep living a materialistic life-style here in the West as well, they think no more of their faith. Jesus spoke of such ones in His parable of the seed that grew up in different soil - Luke 8:5-15.



"Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have o root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.

The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature."



It is not that God will judge as as not being Christians if we neglect Bible study and Church history. Our salvation does not depend on either. But who wants to be ashamed before God, as not having handled His Word of Truth aright, when they could have done so, for God's glory? Who wants to discover that they fell under the influences of a pseudo-Christian group for lack of knowing Church history? And when we see our brothers and sisters who suffered faithfully for Christ even though they had no Bible in their native tongue, or who had no education to study, or books to read, yet Jesus praises them for being good and faithful servants... well, who wants Jesus to compare them as being lazy and profligate? AiH

Answer 7

"Atheists love and abuse that fact and do their best to keep it that way." I take issue with term abuse. Try "educate" them about what is laid down in their own book. Are they afraid to read it? Lazy? For most of last 2,000 years most people couldn't read, so had to rely on "authorities" to tell them, which of course led to selecting certain passages and ignoring others. Now most people have ability to read. I've read bible, done some looking into church history and I'm not even a Christian.

Answer 8

"Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived." — Isaac Asimov

Answer 9

Because the fact is, not many Christians really believe what they profess to believe. They say they believe the Bible because of social pressure.



If Christians really believed the Bible, their lives would be different. Very few genuinely believe it. Most just affirm what the people around them believe but can't be bothered with a consistent practice of what's in there. Nor can they be bothered with understanding why different Christian sects believe different things, nor can they be bothered with learning theological niceties.



The overwhelming, vast majority of Christians in industrialized nations are hypocrites. And the ones who really, truly believe are often scary zealots.

Answer 10

I wholeheartedly agree about everything you just said, and I think what you're saying is true is because a lot of Christians rely on church to teach them. I know church is good but it seems you and I know better than to rely ONLY on the teaching from our churches. I guess all we can do is pray and continue trying to better ourselves, live as examples and show others the way to actually make others' faith their own. Some churches' members are hive-minded. I think we should change that. Do you?

Answer 11

Read it like a book

Answer 12

Too busy.



Don't see the relevance.



Don't care enough.



I think that at least covers most of it.



A lot of Christian denominations would die if people only took the time to study more.

Answer 13

I just heard a speech on the usefulness of the word of God today. Just a short excerpt. And I totally so agree with Annsan_In_Him



But then we're looking at this second statement, "All Scripture is useful...useful, profitable," to produces these five things. According to verse 15 it can make you wise unto salvation and according to verse 16 it is profitable, or useful for doctrine, reproof, correction and training and is the only thing needed and the only thing able to make the man of God perfect, equipped for every good work.



Now, beloved, that's another statement like Psalm 19 on the sufficiency of Scripture. What this says to us is the Scripture is comprehensively sufficient to produce men of God for every good work. It knows no limitation. It has no weakness. Nothing is left out. Nothing can be added to it. Such an attempt, by the way, according to Revelation 22 winds up with a warning, if you add anything to this, so shall be added to you the plagues that are written in it. The Bible is not to be tampered with, it is not to be distorted, it is not to be corrupted, it is not to be manhandled for your own purposes and it is not to be added to.



Now let me say it as simply as I can. When it comes to spiritual life, when it comes to a person's relationship to God, the Bible is all that is necessary for proper instruction to make the man of God complete and capable of every good work. It is not the Bible plus anything. And that is why we are so committed to the systematic ongoing teaching of God's Word, because of what it does.



Now we've entitled these five things "the work of the Word." What does the Word do? First of all, remember in verse 15, it is able to make you wise unto salvation. The Word has the power to save. The Word of Christ is that which is necessary for salvation, Romans 10 says. It is the Word of God, 1 Peter 1, by which you are begotten again. It is the Word which brings the gospel. It is the Word which in the power of the Holy Spirit brings new life. It is the Word which saves. And so last time we said above all things we must be committed to the proclamation of God's Word to the lost, for the Word is able to make them wise unto salvation.



Secondly, and coming in to verse 16, he says it is useful for doctrine or for teaching. And I pointed out to you that here he has in mind not the process of teaching but the content. It is profitable to give you the necessary body of divine truth to live a godly life. That's what he's saying. The Bible provides for you what Paul calls to Timothy the deposit. It gives you the truth, the deposit of truth to be guarded, 1 Timothy 6:20 and 21, 2 Timothy 1:13. It is God's revelation of truth. And it provides for you the substance to be believed...doctrine, the body of content upon which...mark this carefully...every thought and every action is to be built. Did you get that? The Bible provides for us the body of truth upon which every thought and every action is to be built. So it is profitable for content. It gives us the truth. John 17:17, "Thy Word is truth." If you're looking for a foundation to build your life on, it is this book. It provides the principles that are to operate in the life of every individual at every point of need and demand, thought and action. It's comprehensive. Every single thing you will ever deal with in your spiritual existence is covered one way or another in the Scripture, probably many more than just one time. It is replete with instruction for life...life in the way that God has designed it.



So, it is profitable and useful to provide for you the body of divine doctrine. And as I said last time, as you study the Word of God and begin to accumulate its principles, you begin to build that strong foundation which then becomes the foundation on which every thought and every action is built. Biblical ignorance is the grave tragedy of all tragedies in the church because what you don't know you can't build your life on. So it ought to be then the pursuit of every believer to know the Word of God, to as much as is possible master the Word of God. (John MacArthur on 2 Tim. 3:16 1988)