Howdy!
Lately I’ve been reading an old book by A.A. Hodge. He was the son of the famous Princeton Seminary theologian Charles Hodge, and a first-rate churchman himself. The particular work that I am looking at is a collection of popular (that is written for non-experts) lectures he gave for the women’s society of Princeton in the mid-to-late 19th century. They are primarily on subjects which deal with teachings of the Bible like the Trinity, predestination, and prayer. One of the things about it though is that the content would seem a bit high even for many pastors today. To be honest to write that kind of makes me wince a bit. Unfortunately, it also says something about where we are as a culture. I’m sure you’ve seen those lists of test questions that our grandparents and great-grandparents had to answer for high school exams. We look at them and wonder what happened to our educational standards, etc… The same can be said when I see the requirements for entrance into seminary in the days of the father-son Hodge’s. As most of you know I can barely speak English, let alone be able to pass Latin and Greek exams just to get into seminary. As much as we have access to an insane amount of information today it seems to be the case that we know less than we have for a long time. In our prayer and worship help today we are going to talk a little about why things are the way they are. Now, we aren’t really getting into how much geometry, philosophy, or other “secular” subjects we should comprehend, but our purpose is to think more about the kind of knowledge that passes all understanding in the days in which we live.
While we may lament where things are in our world when it comes to what people are able to do on Jeopardy, the same could be said for where we are as a church, not just at Bethany, but in general. Our sense of the Bible, let alone our Confession and catechisms could certainly be improved, I think we could all agree on that. The question though is how did we allow things to get to the point where according to the latest polls done by Barna Research Group most Christians cannot name the Ten Commandments or the Twelve Tribes of Israel? Part of it I think we all know comes from the fact that we are far busier than earlier generations, at least that is our normal excuse for it.
Though I wonder whether we actually are.
Think about household chores. While the washing machine and dishwasher have been with us for most of the 20th and 21st centuries there is no doubt that we probably have more clothes to wash, and more dishes to do even though we are eating at home less. Why is that? A part of it is relatively speaking clothing and the like are less expensive than they were before, so we have more and use more. Though I have to admit in my own home the go-to are not pottery platters, but Sam’s Club paper plates. They get the job done for sure, so I have even less excuse. While we are pretty busy with after-school activities for the kids, that doesn’t mean I don’t have time while they are practicing, especially, to get out the Bible, or my catechism, or a devotional or study some book of some type and hit up a few passages in order to redeem the time. At least that’s the goal…however how do we usually spend that down time we are given as we wait? I’m not one for Candy Crush (does that date me?) or games on my phone, but boy howdy can I waste an hour or two doom scrolling Twitter or checking out reels on Instagram. After all that though what can I show for it? Outside of getting into worthless arguments with trolls and seeing cute-pet-tricks that become moments of levity there is not much there, there.
We are good at justifying that though. You know life’s hard and we need some time to just chill and let the world go by for a second. Yet, how many times have you or I heard from a minister that if we are low, wore out, etc… that the Lord Jesus Christ is there for us to be strengthened and that His word should be the food that builds us up out of the depths? It’s definitely something I have been told, and likely passed on to lots of people, yet I have to admit to not being the best at heeding my own advice. On my end some of it comes from an excuse I often tell myself that I’ve been studying the Bible all day, reading it with people, preaching it and all that so I need to do something else in the evening or I’d get burned out. Boy as I typed that out I was convicted something serious. A danger pastors sometimes can fall into when it comes to God’s word is to treat as a manual, or a textbook that we use to do our jobs, and not the life-giving testimony of the Creator of Heaven and Earth.
While that is something preachers need to keep an eye on, it’s a truth I think we can all identify with, and leads to a bigger point that answers some of the reasons why we do not know as much about the Bible as we used to. All this access to stuff has made us lazy, intellectually and otherwise. Surely part of why folks used to remember a lot more of their Scriptures has to do with the fact they likely didn’t have as much to read or access to near as many options for stuff to do when there ain’t as much to do. Israel often got themselves in trouble when things were good, and life was relatively easy, and we can fall into the same trap. We have to be much more intentional when it comes to getting to know our Lord through His word. Let’s not waste it.
Here is an encouragement on that front:
https://www.reformation21.org/blogs/why-you-dont-read-your-bible.php
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church