Ignorance and Biblical Illiteracy
The American church is currently at an all-time low regarding biblical literacy. This is true for infants to adults. Our inability to comprehend and digest the biblical text is the root cause of our inability to live like Christ in a corrupt culture. Due to this lack of biblical knowledge, it should come as no surprise when biblically illiterate children grow into biblically illiterate, unbelieving adults.
The Way Biblical Education Used to Be
The current trend of biblical ignorance is indeed that, a trend. In other eras of church history, the church has done a much better job of engaging and equipping our children with the tools they needed to “renew [their] minds”. In the American colonies, a standard education included lessons in biblical studies and theology. In every schoolhouse around the early country, both rural and urban, the Bible served as the primary textbook for elementary readers. At their beginning, the great American universities of Harvard, Princeton and Yale required of every student the study of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. Some students began these courses at the age of fourteen.
The best example of systematic childhood biblical education is perhaps that of the Jewish people of medieval and renaissance Europe. Jewish families were intentional in teaching not only the basics of biblical awareness but an interpretive method. Torah instruction began at early childhood and culminated in the Bar or Bat Mitzvah ceremony at the age of 12 and 13 respectively. At this age the child was considered an adult, theologically speaking. Their faith was their own and they were expected to take ownership and responsibility.
Adam & Eve Voted Off the Island
Unfortunately, many Baptist children of 12 and 13 cannot retell basic Bible stories. Though Jewish were expected to be able to explain the theological significance of Abraham’s call to leave Ur, many children of our own denomination have great difficulty remembering the difference between Noah and Moses. When asked to retell the story of Adam and Eve, one child at a church in which I served, confused the biblical narrative with the reality TV show “Survivor”!
To prepare our children to take ownership of their faith, we Baptists must make biblical literacy a high priority. Instead of teaching morals, character development and civic responsibility, it is time we teach scripture, pure and simple. God could have revealed Himself in any manner, but He chose to reveal Himself through written text. It is only in this text that our children will encounter Him. Therefore, we should preach it, teach it, pray it, sing it, meditate on it; and teach our children to do likewise.
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