New book aims to help Christians ‘feed themselves’ from the Bible
By D.H. Benson
In the summer of 1975 I opened the Bible for the first time and my lifelong adventure with God’s Word began.
I grew up attending church, but not one where the Bible was opened very often. Neither did it encourage personal engagement with Scripture. I knew the stories, like David and Goliath and the Ten Commandments (according to Cecil B. DeMille), and I knew that Jesus loved the little children. But that was about it.
As a young adult, after I stopped going to church, I read a lot of philosophy and books about other religions. I even practiced some of them. But I had never read the Bible. Then one day I thought I owed it to myself to do so if I wanted to consider myself an educated person. So I started in Matthew and by the end of chapter 7, where the Sermon on the Mount concludes, my life was changed forever.
The Bible and Jesus were different from any other book and any other teacher, I had ever read or heard. I realized that if people followed Jesus’ teachings, the world would be a different, and a far better, place. It wasn’t just about me feeling or being better. It was about being a different kind of person, the kind of person that would have an impact on this messed up world. But it didn’t take long for me to realize that it’s impossible to live the way Jesus said we should. It’s a daily battle to live like that, a battle that can’t be won.
Then that October a new friend, Dave, explained to me the gospel, or the Good News, the Best News Ever. He explained that Jesus paid the penalty for my failures and, like a gift, all I had to do was accept his offer of salvation from my the consequence of my sins and he would empower me to be the person he (and I) wanted me to be.
That’s when my adventure with the Bible really started.
A Normal Bible ‘Culture’
Dave and other new friends as part of a church community helped me develop the habits of daily Bible reading, daily Bible memorization, meditating on Scripture and incorporating it into my prayer life. They taught me the story the Bible tells and how to use tools like concordances and cross references to help me understand what I was reading. We didn’t just listen to sermons. We talked about the Bible together over coffee and in small groups, we checked on each other on how we were doing with our reading and memorization.
I thought it was the normal Christian life.
It wasn’t until my wife and I moved away from that church and that culture some years later and went church shopping that we discovered it’s not normal in most churches, at least not to that degree.
I’m not the only one who has noticed.
Research shows biblical illiteracy is a growing problem in American churches and consequently, because a knowledgeable Christian witness is so lacking, in America as a whole.
A Biblical Illiteracy Epidemic
In his “State of the Bible 2021,” researcher George Barna and the American Bible Society reported that fewer than half of Americans are Bible users (48%, a ten-year low), comically defined as individuals “who read, listen to, or pray with the Bible on their own at least three or four times a year outside of a church service or church event.” That’s even though a slight majority of Americans, 54%, believe the Bible “contains the keys to living a meaningful life.” In 2020, 68% of Americans believed that.
Every few years, the Gallup organization conducts a survey of religion in America. In 2022, it found that only about 20% of Americans considered the Bible to be the “literal word of God,” a record low.
“Meanwhile, a new high of 29% say the Bible is a collection of ‘fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by man,’” the report said. It was the first time that group significantly outnumbered those who believe the Bible is the literal word of God.
Other findings:
● Fewer than half of all adults can name the four Gospels.
● Most Christians cannot identify more than two or three
of the disciples.
● 60% of Americans can’t name even five of the Ten Commandments.
● 81% of people who identify themselves as born-again Christians believe the phrase “God helps those who help themselves” is a Bible verse.
● Most adults think the Bible teaches that the most important purpose in life is taking care of one’s family.
● About 12% of adults believe that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife.
Biblically Malnourished
As the data indicate, it’s not just new believers who don’t know their Bible. I’ve met many long-time churchgoers who are biblically malnourished. They’ve attended church regularly, listened to hundreds of sermons, and even participated in some form of Bible study or small group. Yet their familiarity with the Bible extends no further than a few verses that have helped them feel better on their bad days, but they may not know where they are in the Bible, their context, or whether the verses even apply to them. They may know some of the stories, but they don’t know how those stories fit into the larger arc of the story the Bible is telling. They may feel they love Jesus, but is he the same Jesus who is revealed in the Bible, being that they haven’t read it? They may feel confident that Jesus died for their sins and feel that they are going to heaven, but they can’t explain to others why they need him or how he’s different from someone’s favorite self-help guru.
There are consequences to our ignorance.
When Christians aren’t well-acquainted with God’s Word, they are more susceptible to false teaching, are ill-equipped to help or encourage other believers, or to “give an account of the hope that is in them” (1 Peter 3:15) to unbelievers.
Biblical Meat Eaters
I’m not a Bible scholar. I don’t have an advanced Bible degree. I would be hard-pressed to explain the intricacies of reformed theology or the differences between pre-, post-, and amillennialism. Systematic theology is not my thing.
But I have habits of engaging with Scripture that the Bible says should be normal for believers to have. So over the years I have made it my “ministry” through small groups and other means to help people develop these same habits. To help other believers be biblical meat eaters.
To that end, my book, “Feed Yourself: Learning to Feast on the Riches of God’s Word,” is not a book on how to study the Bible. It’s about helping others develop those habits we have discussed. It’s a six- to eight-week journey, time enough to form those habits and includes chapters on the different ways to read the Bible, how to memorize Scripture, how to meditate on Scripture, how to pray Scripture and how to use concordances, cross references and commentaries. There’s also a section on the differences between the various English translations. (There’s even a brief Bible shopping guide.)
Inspiration for the book!
In 2021, my wife and joined a new church and it seemed there might be a need for such a class – sort of a Bible 101 – in that church, although its congregation is more biblically engaged than many other churches. Talking to a friend about perhaps pitching such a class to one of our pastors, he said, “That’s a book. You should write a book on that subject.”
I talked to a couple other pastors and they agreed that there was a need for such a book to address the creeping problem of biblical illiteracy The fact that I’m a layman and not a scholar actually lends the book credibility since the goal is not for the reader to be a scholar but, like me, to be an everyday devotee..
Further Thoughts…
At the end of each chapter there are discussion questions, tasks to complete and room for jotting notes. It’s suitable for individuals, families or small groups.
In addition, be on the lookout for my upcoming journal, “Morning, Afternoon & Evening: A Journal Companion to ‘Feed Yourself: Learning to Feast on the Riches of God’s Word,” available to download as a .pdf at http://www.feedyourselfbible.com and as a paperback on Amazon. It’s an all-day, every-day one-year journal that includes bible-reading, devotional and memorization plans and is based on the pattern of Psalm 55:17: “Evening, and morning, and at noon will I pray and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.” For more information, follow me on Facebook at Feed Yourself Bible.
Bio of Dan H. Benson
D.H. “Dan” Benson is a journalist living in Wisconsin with his wife Vicki. He attends Lakeside Alliance Church in Port Washington, Wis. “Feed Yourself: Learning to Feast on the Riches of God’s Word” is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle at the discounted price of $5.99 and $3.99, respectively, through Feb. 13,
