S'pore Churches Face Crisis of Bible Illiteracy: Theologian
The trend of Christians knowing little about the Holy Bible is by no means confined to the West. Singapore churches face the same problem, suggests theologian Tony Siew. And churches, seminaries and churchgoers themselves are to blame for it.
Dr Siew was commenting in his weblog on research findings released by Pew Research Center on September 28. He is a lecturer in New Testament at Trinity Theological College.
The American think tank had found that a significant proportion of American Protestants surveyed could not answer simple questions about the Bible. Examples follow.
Forty-four per cent of the Protestants do not know that the Golden Rule is not among the Ten Commandments.
Nearly 40 per cent do not know that Abraham is the biblical figure who was willing to sacrifice his son’s life for God. Over 60 per cent do not know that Job is the biblical figure known for remaining obedient to God despite extraordinary suffering.
Forty-three per cent were unable to name the Four Gospels.
Dr Siew wrote: “If America is facing a crisis in biblical literacy, what about the rest of the world?
“I would venture to suggest that if a similar survey is done in Singapore, the results will be about the same as those in America.”
The former lawyer went on to suggest five reasons for Bible illiteracy among Singapore Christians. He also highlighted his observations in his October 7 blog post.
Firstly, there is not much systematic teaching of major sections of the Bible through its 66 books. Preaching is often limited to a period of between 25 to 30 minutes and scheduled at the end of the service.
Expository preaching is limited to a brief passage. Many parts of the Bible are not covered in church even in a period of ten years. This is worsened by the fact that not many churchgoers typically attend a regular Bible study class if it is offered at all.
Secondly, the Bible is no longer at the centre of the theological curriculum in seminaries. Instead, seminary programmes are often filled with practical or skill-based courses.
He wrote: “If over the course of 3 years, students only take 4 or 5 biblical courses out of a possible 30 courses… it is not surprising that one learns little about the Bible since the Bible is a collection of 66 books.
“Learning to interpret the Bible canonically – how various parts are understood as a whole and how the whole is understood in the light of all its parts – takes much skill, effort and time.”
Without having comprehensively studied the Bible in seminary, potential pastors are often ‘left in a lurch’ and ‘ill-prepared’ to teach the ‘whole counsel of God’ as revealed in the Bible. This has ramifications for the Bible knowledge of churchgoers.
Thirdly, Christians are increasingly ‘lazy’ in reading the Bible.
Many Christians neglect the discipline of personal Bible study. In fact, they have devotions irregularly. And they read the Bible only when it is preached at church.
“Bible illiteracy can only be overcome when we take personal responsibility in reading our Bible systematically for men shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,” he said. He was quoting a popular verse from Matthew 4.
Fourthly, “pragmatism and instant success/blessings seem to be the flavour of the day even in churches,” he noted.
He put the prevailing mindset thus: “Give us crumbs or tiny bits provided it works and we shall be happy with it.”
“So much of preaching today is hardly apostolic preaching of truth and the whole truth,” he said. The apostolic church "devoted themselves in the teaching of the apostles," he highlighted. He was citing a verse from Acts 2.
Fifth and finally, there is the failure of Christian leadership to set the Bible in the centre of all speaking, learning, ministry and practice.
Yet "all Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching, instruction, rebuke and correction that the man of God may be proficient and equipped for every good work,” he pointed out. He was citing verses from 2 Timothy 3.
Dr Siew is not the first Christian leader in Singapore to highlight a crisis of Bible illiteracy.
The Reverend Edmund Chan has expressed a similar view. He did so in a video presentation for a yearly conference on theology his church organises. Chan is the Senior Pastor of the Covenant Evangelical Free Church.
Nathanael Ng
nathanael@christianpost.com | 
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