Falling on Deaf Ears?—Why So Many Churches Hear So Little of the Bible

“It is well and good for the preacher to base his sermon on the Bible, but he better get to something relevant pretty quickly, or we start mentally to check out.” That stunningly clear sentence reflects one of the most amazing, tragic, and lamentable characteristics of contemporary Christianity: an impatience with the Word of God.

The sentence above comes from Mark Galli, senior managing editor of Christianity Today in an essay entitled, “Yawning at the Word.” In just a few hundred words, he captures the tragedy of a church increasingly impatient with and resistant to the reading and preaching of the Bible. We may wince when we read him relate his recent experiences, but we also recognize the ring of truth.   Continue at Al Mohler

Amateurs All? Christians and Bible Reading

Most American Protestants, whether liberal or evangelical, are egalitarians when it comes to the reading and study of Scripture. They tend to be committed to the American proposition that "all men"-and women-"are created equal" not simply because they are patriotic or democratic but also because their doctrine of Scripture drives them to it. The logic runs like this: Because the Bible is clear, anyone who can read its words should be able to understand its meaning, no matter what the reader's education or social status. This egalitarianism has produced some laudable results. For example, it keeps ordinary Christians reading the Scriptures so that they, like Timothy, may thus be made "wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 3:15). Individual Scriptural reading is also one of the means by which God instructs and encourages Christians and thus gives them hope (see Rom. 15:4). Moreover, we, like the Bereans, surely are to be commended when we turn to the Scriptures to check whether what is being preached to us is true (see Acts 17:11). Yet Protestant egalitarianism is also, at the same time, the source of significant errors. One of these errors involves egalitarianism's failure to recognize that not everything in Scripture is easy to understand and so we need those people who are especially well-trained in the Scriptures to help us avoid twisting them in harmful ways (see 2 Pet. 3:16). The fact is that some people are better equipped to interpret the Bible than others-and so their interpretations, everything else being equal, are to be preferred over the interpretations of the average Peter, Paul, or Mary.

The egalitarian error is illustrated by the ethic of those small-group Bible studies where everyone's insight carries equal weight. But a better example comes from a more prominent corner of the Protestant world where this kind of egalitarianism collides with the hierarchies that most Americans use to negotiate modern life. The phrase "the integration of faith and learning" is a constant source of inspiration and self-examination at many Christian colleges. Administrators stress its importance as a way of attracting new students who, it is promised, upon graduation will be able to think Christianly about themselves and the world. Christian college faculty are required to integrate their own faith and learning in order to get tenure and promotion. Students are also expected to show the influence of these endeavors in their papers and exams. Continue at D. G. Hart

Pastors: That Divorce Rate Stat You Quoted Was Probably Wrong

Since I have written quite extensively about the abuse of stats by evangelicals and the media in the past, it was refreshing to see a recent article at the Gospel Coalition show some new data that corrects some erroneous divorce rate statistics which seem to get thrown around the Internet, in the media, and, unfortunately, in the pulpit. The stat in question was that Christians divorce at roughly the same rate as the world. 

But what did the actual research show?

People who seriously practice a traditional religious faith---whether Christian or other---have a divorce rate markedly lower than the general population.
The factor making the most difference is religious commitment and practice.

What appears intuitive is true. Couples who regularly practice any combination of serious religious behaviors and attitudes---attend church nearly every week, read their bibles and spiritual materials regularly; pray privately and together; generally take their faith seriously, living not as perfect disciples, but serious disciples---enjoy significantly lower divorce rates than mere church members, the general public, and unbelievers.

The article draws from research found in Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites... and Other Lies You've Been Told, the 2010 book by Bradley Wright (and for which I wrote the foreword), as well as an article by W. Bradford Wilcox and Elizabeth Williamson in American Religions and the Family.

Specifically, the research shows that couples who are active in their faith are much less likely to divorce. Catholic couples were 31% less likely to divorce; Protestants couples 35% less likely; and Jewish couples 97% less likely, which in itself is quite impressive, I must say.   Continue at Jonathan Howe

Happy New Year 2012!!!

New Year’s Message from Mr. Spurgeon

BELOVED FRIENDS,

The season invites to renewal of spiritual life. It suggests freshness and awakening. As there was of old a time when kings went forth to battle, so are there periods when to gird up our loins anew is the order of the day. The furnishing of the armor, and the sharpening of the sword, are the duties now incumbent. Let the year of grace, 1870, be to us all a year of greater consecration, and more incessantly indefatigable effort for the great cause and kingdom of the Lord Jesus. To achieve this it will be most helpful to begin the year well, and to do this there must he holy resolve, and a settling of the whole soul to the work.

Being debarred from serving the Lord by my own public ministry, it has been laid upon my heart to endeavor to stir up my brother ministers to use increased diligence while they are permitted the great pleasure and privilege of preaching the word. It is a hard trial to be laid aside, and harder still if the heart he pierced with regrets for opportunities unimproved when health was in possession. That you may never know such poignant sorrows is my earnest wish, and to help in that end I ask leave to address a few words to you. I pray that every syllable I write may be approved of God, and may be by the Holy Ghost rendered serviceable to you.

It has struck me painfully, that for some little time a somewhat listless spirit has fallen upon many of the churches, and perhaps upon the ministers. A short time ago we heard more of special services, revival meetings, and aggressive efforts upon the world than we do at present; perhaps these may still be in full and vigorous operation among your people, but in many places it is not so; the pace of holy work has slackened, and the church is falling back into that dreary routine which is easily reached and is so hard to escape. Nothing is more dreadful than stagnation, even heresy is not more deadly in its consequences. Sleep at the hour of battle would prove as disastrous to an army as the most deadly artillery. The spiritual morphia with which some churches appear to be drugged and drenched is for all practical purposes as injurious as the poison of infidelity. A church whose religion is mechanical and whose zeal is non-existent may soon become a nuisance but is never a blessing.  Continue Reading >>>

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Emmanuel: a New Year’s Devotional

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“Jesus never read the New Testament”

Bible Reading — in Church