Is THE BIBLE out of date in the Space Age? Most people seem to think so.
Yet the Bible seemed very up-to-date to the crew of Apollo 8 as they began their last swing around the moon.
Awestruck by what they saw, astronauts Borman, Lovell and Anders were moved to read
the Biblical account of creation to the entire world!
Meanwhile, back on earth, an incensed atheist couldn't bear to hear these brave men read God's Word from the moon. She even tried to legally BAN prayer and Bible reading from outer space!
Ignored by Most Christians
But paradoxically, most people — including professing Christians — have already voluntarily banned all personal Bible reading here on earth.
Here is an eye-opening example of the appalling ignorance of the Bible among professing Christians today, as related by a startled newspaper reporter:
"Some months ago, a Protestant pastor administered a Bible quiz to members of his congregation. The questions were very simple. Anyone with a general knowledge of the Bible should have been able to answer all of them easily.
"The results staggered the pastor!
"Only five percent of his flock made a commendable grade on the test. Fifteen percent failed to give a single correct answer. Sixty percent were unable to name the four Gospels. Seventy-five percent could not identify Calvary as the place where Jesus was crucified.
"Some congregations might do better than that. But not many. The vast majority of Americans today are Bible illiterates! They simply have never read the book which they profess to regard as the 'Word of God.'" (By Louis Cassels, Courier-Times, Tyler, Texas)
"Can't Understand It"
This same newspaper reporter continued to explain why most professing Christians do not read or study the Bible.
"A great many people have turned away from the Bible because, when they do try to read it, they find they cannot understand it. . . . To the modern reader, it has a remote and antiquarian flavor. It is likely to leave him with the impression the Bible is an ancient history book that has no real relevance to his life here and now."
Another survey made a few years ago by the Canadian Council of Churches asked 6,500 ministers to name the chief reason for this failure to read the Bible. Almost 30 percent thought non-readers consider the Bible irrelevant; 26 percent thought that the people could not understand it; 24 percent felt people find the Bible uninteresting.
Paradoxically, this Biblical ignorance is considered "respectable" today. "It is one of the curious phenomena of modern times," reports J. B. Phillips in The Young Church in Action, page six, "that it is considered perfectly respectable to be ABYSMALLY IGNORANT of the Christian Faith. Men and women who would be deeply ashamed of having their ignorance exposed in matters of poetry, music, or painting, for example, are not in the least perturbed to be found ignorant of the New Testament." (Emphasis ours)
And so the Bible has become little more than an obsolete "sacred book" to which most of its devotees pay lip-service, but which they practically never read, study, or understand!
The true reasons for such widespread Biblical ignorance and lack of understanding will astound you.
How Theologians View the Bible
You would expect atheists and agnostics to deny the divine origin of the Bible. But today leading ministers and theologians are foremost among the critics of the Bible!
One such minister of a very large church denomination said recently: "No mainstream Christian Church accepts the Bible as the literal interpretation of the Word of God. Some of it is folklore, some legend, some tribal history."
How does he know? Answer: He doesn't! He has accepted as true the theories and hypotheses taught in the graduate schools of theology.
Now listen to these words of another well-known minister: "We know now that every idea in the Bible started from primitive and child-like origin . . ." and that it is an "impossible attempt to harmonize the Bible with itself, to make it speak with unanimous voice, to resolve its conflicts and contradictions. . . ."
What a PARADOX! This man was looked up to as a minister of God. Yet he attempted to discredit the very Book he was supposed to uphold and teach. Branding the Bible as the vain efforts of men, he called it a book of fables and myths, instead of the INSPIRED TRUTH OF GOD ALMIGHTY!
In the introduction to a well-known modern translation of the Bible, the author summarizes his ideas in the claim that many books of the Bible are "notes by disciples, worked up into literary papers which have been repeatedly edited, sometimes by pious collectors."
This very learned scholar thought that the earlier portions of the Bible stem from "the natural desire to gather up the primitive traditions of the people." He took for granted, and without proof, the false assumption that God had nothing to do with its inspiration!
Another theologian summed up the modern trend this way: "We must take the Bible seriously, but not literally"!
With statements such as these ringing in their ears, is there any wonder why hundreds of ministers publicly confess — and thousands privately admit — that they themselves can't understand or believe the Bible?
Statements such as these by well-known ministers, theologians and Bible scholars are DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for discouraging the average person from trying to understand, or even read the Bible!
Confusion Begins With the Pulpit
A minister of one respected large church denomination told his congregation one Sunday that the Genesis account of creation "should not be taken literally."
Yet the account was very real to Astronauts Borman, Lovell and Anders while in lunar orbit. Perhaps this minister would change his "views" if he were sent to the moon someday!
After the service about 200 parishioners gathered in a basement hall to talk with this minister about his sermon. One of them commented:
"I don't know what to read and what trot to read in the Bible. I'm confused. I DON'T KNOW what to believe and what not to believe. What part of the book is true and what part is just a story? If one Bible story is a fairy tale, what about the next story?" [Emphasis ours]
Little wonder the average man-on the-street is soured against the Bible!
What else would you expect the average person to believe about the Bible when men, looked up to as Biblical "specialists" and "experts," declare it to be a PIOUS FRAUD?
The trouble with most people is that they take for GRANTED what other people say about the Bible.
Most people — including church laymen and the clergy — have not taken the time to really look into the Bible for themselves! They simply have
NEVER PROVED what they have come to believe.
And so most people continue to carelessly assume the Bible teaches hundreds of conflicting ideas — that it is irrational and irrelevant in our scientific age — and that the Bible is responsible for the hundreds of differing sects and denominations we find in the world today!
What Is the Bible?
There is a statement in the Bible which says: "All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching . . ." (II Tim. 3:16, R.S.V.).
The Bible is God's revelation to man of basic knowledge — laws and principles which man is unable to discover for himself — knowledge which is otherwise utterly inaccessible to the mind of man.
For example: God did not directly reveal the law of gravity in the Bible. He equipped man with the powers and abilities to discover gravity for himself.
But man has never been able to discover what he is, and why he was put here on earth — whether there is a real purpose for human life, or what that purpose is. Man has not been able to discover the true way to peace, happiness, abundant well-being and real success. Colleges and universities do teach students how to earn a living — but they fail to teach them how to live.
The Bible reveals all this — and more!
Nowhere but in the Bible can one find this basic necessary knowledge. God inspired the Bible to be the very BASIS of all true education.
The Bible, then, is the FOUNDATION OF ALL KNOWLEDGE! It gives the true approach to the acquisition of knowledge in the fields of history, education, psychology, home economics, sociology and the health sciences. It reveals basic principles concerning business, commerce, science, the arts, law, government, philosophy and religion.
The Bible also explains the meaning of the Space Age. And it shows us how peace, prosperity, success and happiness are coming to all the world within just a few years!
People could understand the Bible if they were really willing. The Bible is plain and simple. It means exactly what it says! If we take it as it is, without trying to interpret its meaning, it does make sense.