An article from an atheist: How ironic.

Below is an article i stumbled across on http://www.atheistrev.com/2011/07/how-many-christians-have-read-their.html. A blog by yet another atheist who spends his precious time trying to disprove something that he doesn't believe in anyway. The fact they he finds it necessary to do so and to try and encroach on the beliefs of others is strange in itself and downright decadent. But anyway, the content of this article is interesting and rather ironic. Give it a read and see if you can see the irony:

July 21, 2011

How Many Christians Have Read Their Bible?

I cannot help wondering what percentage of self-identified Christians in the United States have read their bible from cover to cover. I suspect that if more had read it, there would be fewer Christians. Once one realizes what the book contains, it becomes considerably more difficult to insist that it is "holy." No, this isn't a post about religious literacy, although that is certainly relevant. And it is not a post about how most Christians do not appear to believemuch of what their bible says. Instead, I am suggesting that most of what many Christians think they know of their bible comes from sources other than reading it for themselves.

Consider the following:

Much of what many Christians know of their bible is based on what others have told them (e.g., their parents, their clergy) about what it says.

Most sermons I have heard in church involve some element of clergy explaining to the laity what certain passages in the bible mean.

Dumbed-down and incomplete bibles are used in many Sunday schools and youth outreach programs.

Bible study groups abound, which typically involve someone interpreting the bible (i.e., communicating to participants or readers that it often means something different from what it says).

So what percentage of Americans who identify themselves as Christians have read an adult version of the Christian bible by themselves from cover to cover without someone else paraphrasing or interpreting it for them? My guess is that this number is probably no greater than 20%.

---------------------------------------

The author has got a point: probably not enough Christians read their Bibles. Although the argument that we should read it cover-to-cover is ill founded. There are many useful schemes out their that allow you to do just that and I know that some people have found it incredibly helpful and others not so much. If you want to do that yourself then that is your own decision. Although the books of the Bible are not in chronological order in terms of date, they are in terms of how the story flows, which is another sign that the book is God-inspired, in that it flows coherently and perfectly throughout as one long narrative.


The author also has a point that too many Christians today are gathering their knowledge through means other than God's word. Instead of going and reading the book of John, many would prefer to pick up a commentary on John. Or instead of searching the scriptures for verses on forgiveness, a Christian is more likely to pick up a book on 'Love' by a contemporary author. 


Where the author's article comes into disrepute is where he states: "I suspect that if more had read it, there would be fewer Christians. Once one realizes what the book contains, it becomes considerably more difficult to insist that it is "holy."" On the contrary this is just not true. In fact I guarantee that the more we read our Bibles, both Christians and non-Christians, not only the more would we see God's hand at work in our lives but also we would see many more professions of faith to our Lord Jesus Christ. 


The article is ironic. Here is an atheist saying that the problem is is that Christians do not read their Bibles and take the words of others rather than find out for themselves. In light of this I ask: what atheist has ever bothered to read the Bible for himself, without reading it with a bias opinion so that he may find fault with it at the first opportunity. Atheists do not know what is written in God's Word. This makes their attacks on Christians not only completely ill-founded but also infuriating. At least do some research before hand, and by research I do not mean reading a book on why the Bible is wrong. Read the bible itself. 


If anybody were to actually sit down and study the Word, with an open mind they would see that it is God-inspired. If they do not then I believe that is because they are letting their personal experiences of the world cloud their judgement and perception of God, which is exactly what the devil tries to do, however that is their choice, but at least they would see that it is not the book that atheists make it out to be, and it would not cause such an extreme reaction from these people. 


This atheist is saying that not enough Christians read the Bible, and they believe what others tell them about it rather than read it themselves.... ha! This is ironic. This is exactly what atheists do! None of them bother to read it, they all take the word of a fool, who has himself taken it from yet another fool. 


The answer to the rant by this atheist is simple: both Christians and atheists read their Bibles and choose to believe or not believe what the Bible says, not what others say!


-BACChristian