Page 18 - Bible Study Methods-Textbook_Neat

Orthotomeo was also used as a mining term. It meant to drill a straight mine shaft so
that the miners can get quickly and safely to the "mother lode." What is intended is
teaching Scripture accurately, as a single, unified whole, without being turned aside by
false teaching or man-made agendas. Paul commands Timothy in this passage to be
diligent in making sure that what he teaches is 100% accurate to what God has written!
(Dr. Paul M. Elliott, What Does 2 Timothy 2:15 Mean by 'Rightly Dividing the Word of
Truth'? (http://www.teachingtheword.org/apps/articles/?articleid=61936))

What is the State of Biblical Literacy?

“The Christian body is immersed in a crisis of biblical illiteracy,” warns researcher George Barna. “How
else can you describe matters when most churchgoing adults reject the accuracy of the Bible, reject the
existence of Satan, claim that Jesus sinned, see no need to evangelize, believe that good works are one
of the keys to persuading God to forgive their sins, and describe their commitment to Christianity as
moderate or even less firm?”
(Barna Research Online, “Religious Beliefs Vary Widely by Denomination,”www.barna.org/cgi-
bin/PagePressRelease.asp?PressReleaseID=92&Reference=B, June 25, 2001.)

Other disturbing findings that document an overall lack of knowledge among churchgoing Christians
include the following:

• The most widely known Bible verse among adult and teen believers is “God helps those who help
themselves”—which is not actually in the Bible and actually conflicts with the basic message of
Scripture.
• Less than one out of every ten believers possess a biblical worldview as the basis for his or her
decision-making or behavior.
• When given thirteen basic teachings from the Bible, only 1% of adult believers firmly embraced all
thirteen as being biblical perspectives.

(Barna Research Online, “Discipleship Insights Revealed in New Book by George Barna,”
www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PagePressRelease.asp?PressReleaseID
=76&Reference=E&Key=bible%20knowledge November 28, 2000.)

Gary M. Burge points to research at Wheaton College in which the biblical and theological literacy of
incoming freshmen have been monitored. These students, who represent almost every Protestant
denomination in the United States from every state in the country, have returned some “surprising
results”:

• 33% could not put the following in order: Abraham, the Old Testament prophets, the death of Christ,
and Pentecost.
• 50% could not sequence the following: Moses in Egypt, Isaac’s birth, Saul’s death, and Judah’s exile.
• 33% could not identify Matthew as an apostle from a list of New Testament names.
• When asked to locate the biblical book supplying a given story, 33% could not find Paul’s travels in
Acts, 50% did not know that the Christmas story was in Matthew, 50% did not know that the Passover
story was in Exodus.

(Gary M. Burge, “The Greatest Story Never Read: Recovering biblical literacy in the church,”
www.christianitytoday.com/ct/9t9/9t9045.html.)

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