4 Reasons Why You Will Never Read the Bible
What would you say to someone who said Star Wars was their favorite movie series, then found out they’ve never watched any of the movies?
You’d probably look at that person the same way people looked at Jar Jar Binks, yousa dee thinkin thesa liv in da galaxy far, far away. You’d also probably tell that person to skip Episode I…
If you’re like me, maybe you’re one of the many Christians who believe and stand behind the Bible as the inspired Word of God. But when asked if you actually read it…uh…yeah, about that…
For Americans, the accessibility to a Bible is more insane than a Han Solo aerial maneuver. The average American household owns FOUR Bibles, not including the countless churches, sermons, seminars, books, apps, and VeggieTales DVDs out there. We have more Biblical resources than you could shake a celery stick at.
So why do Christians never read the Bible?
1. Reading Ancient Literature Doesn’t Contain Emojis :(
150 years ago, Abe Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address with that iconic phrase, “Four score and seven years ago.” What does that mean?
500 years ago, Will Shakespeare started off Romeo & Juliet with that classic line, “Gregory, o’ my word, we’ll not carry coals.” Come again?
Those were written in English and they still require a Google search to understand the meaning. Nowadays, we’re dumbing the English language to 140-character tweets, emojis, and Kermit the Frog memes.
Even with several Biblical translations, what’s your habit of reading ancient literature from 2,000 years ago from other places of the world you’ve never been?
2. Fictional Nonfiction?
Can we be honest? The Bible begins with some wild stuff. Page 3 goes straight into a talking snake. After a giant flood, the kangaroos hop off Noah’s ark from the Middle East and end up in Australia. Then, God hits the SAP button on his celestial remote control at the Tower of Babel and new languages are born.
No matter how Christian you are — myself included, the first 11 chapters (although entertaining) is a lot to believe.
3. The Bible is Loooooooooooooooooooooooong
My NIV Bible is 1,208 pages — containing a collection of different authors from different backgrounds in different times using different writing styles. It has historical accounts, letters, songs, warnings, and do-it-yourself ark instructions.
In today’s social media age, we want things now. Who cares what God did with a bunch of ungrateful Israelite refugees 5,000 years ago? Who’s got time to read Leviticus when we can Netflix-binge a new season of House of Cards?
4. Christians who Militarize the Bible with Verses
A lot of Christians…well, suck, especially those who use Bible passages to prove they’re +1 with God.
In the Wild Wild Web, people love to prove their Biblical superiority by verse-dropping. If a Christian disagrees with you, they’ll do the classic drive-by verse-drop, thus proving that their viewpoint is more in line with God’s. Hence, their Biblical IQ is better than yours and would kick your heathen ass if you dueled on The American Bible Challenge.
What Is a Good Reason to Read the Bible?
Maybe you’re like me. As a Christian, you abide by the Bible and think you believe everything it says, but you feel like a hypocrite without actually having read it. But you want to get to heaven, so a Bible is a must — even if its treated like an over-glorified spiritual insurance card. Going to church and listening to a sermon is a lot simpler.
Last month, Francis Chan gave a talk at Facebook headquarters. Chan’s church started in his living room and eventually grew to a 5,000-member megachurch. But he left.
“I got frustrated at a point, just Biblically,” Chan said. “According to the Bible, every single one of these people has a supernatural gift that’s meant to be used for the body. And I’m like — 5,000 people show up every week to hear my gift — see my gift. That’s a lot of waste. Then I started thinking how much does it cost to run this thing? Millions of dollars! So I’m wasting the human resource of these people that according to Scripture have a miraculous gift that they could contribute to the body but they’re just sitting there quietly. … They just sit there and listen to me.”
Chan started a church planting movement and has become part of the Read Scripture app in collaboration with The Bible Project. Together, the teams leverage today’s addictive technology to make reading ancient literature not feel like a bore-some chore, make it manageable, and read in its original narrative?
The team crafts hand-illustrated comic strip-like videos summarizing each section of the Bible that you’re about to read. Every few days, you watch a video clip that highlights what you’re about to read as it relates to the big picture, even covering difficult concepts and themes. Then you read 2–3 chapters per day, and finish your session with a Psalm.
The app tracks your progress each day, sets reminders, and also gives the option to remove verse numbers so you can read in its original narrative. You start the first 20–30 minutes of your day using the app, and you’re done.
As I finish converting 52 Churches in 52 Weeks into a book, this blog will be dropping insights as I read through the Bible over the next year. Personally, I’ve gone a month straight and completed Genesis and Exodus already. I want to keep seeing more and more videos to help give clear and concise clarification for what I’m about to read, and by reading 2–3 chapters a day, it makes things very manageable.
If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you.
Stay tuned for more updates and download the app if you’d like to join in.
