 Good afternoon pastor. Hey John welcome everybody to a random moment with Pastor David unfiltered today pastor I'd like to speak you speak with you about Biblical illiteracy and I want to read just a couple of bullet points that I have here We see that biblical literacies are a huge problem in the American church today people in churches May pay lip service to the importance of the Bible, but Largely, they do not read it. They're professing to know the word of God But they're in in reality illiterate Interesting facts on a survey that I came across it said 82% of Americans think that Those who God helps those who helps himself as actual Bible verse 12% think that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife 50% of graduating high school students think that Sodom and Gomorrah were actually husband and wife And it's embarrassing to To see that our church in the world that we live in today To see that the illiteracy among our churches is so prevalent and obviously there's so much work to do So pastor, what are your thoughts about biblical illiteracy in our church today? Well, I think that in general there is an Illiteracy and there are various reasons I would ascribe to that One may be just laziness. I think that we as a people are Not readers anyway. I mean look at it how it is today You don't have to read a book. Do you just get something and the book is read to you and People don't really carry books as much as they used to anymore We have a Bible Store a bookstore here on the campus and when we first put the bookstore on campus There there it was constantly flooded with people who were buying devotionals and Bibles and you name it and Over the course of the years, you know, what was at one time a 3000 square foot? bookstore that was Selling quite a quite a few Bibles and devotionals and all is now relegated to a section and we changed it into a Into a chapel because of that because people were not buying books. And so I think it's part of this generation the younger people Have a different way of acquiring information and all it's not that they don't read It's that much of what they do read when it's done at all is going to be online. And so When it comes to the church, there's a there's a lack of Just enjoying reading I think in general. That's just a general thing. I would say a second thing Would be that they may come from Church Congregation where the pastor does all the reading for them Doesn't even require them To even open their Bibles because even here in this fellowship The scriptures that I quote very often I just put on a screen so the people look up to the screen and see The scripture there, but they're not learning where these scriptures are in their own Bibles because we have in our fellowship a number of young believers and spiritually immature at this point believers and So I I see that even within the confines of this Calvary Chapel that I would say is Is built on the word of God. That's one of our our pillars here is the word so Yeah, there's a laziness. I think that sometimes the church itself doesn't really even preach I think that there are churches that have devalued scripture and its importance and never encouraged the people to follow along in their own Bibles and things of that nature john so Another thing I would think that's within the confines of that is there's a lot of people who there are a lot of people who do not believe that scripture is actually like you just said is Is actually inspired by God. It's interesting this upcoming sunday. I'm starting a new study I'm in the gospel of mark. I'm gonna do mark you know, uh, and uh It he has kind of a unique introduction Because it begins simply by saying in the beginning in the god. This is the beginning or the beginning of the gospel Of you know beginning of the gospel concerning jesus christ Who is the son of god? And then he immediately and it's a little different in his gospel than you find in others. He immediately goes straight into Without much fanfare Quoting malachi and isiah He's writing to a a roman group that mark was written to romans And these romans would not really be familiar with old testament scripture necessarily And yet he begins by quoting scripture to them. Why to introduce them To the fact that the messiah jesus is actually the subject of prophecy and then he introduces Through those two scriptures of malachi and isiah He introduces john the baptist who himself Jesus said was great. Why because not only is he a prophet But he's the subject of prophecy And so he's a man who spoke forth the mind of god as a prophet But god had spoken forth concerning him And all of this the roman people are being encouraged to know is found in scripture And so how can you Know who christ is? If you don't read your bible and how do you know what he can do If you don't read your bible and so i believe that today there are quite a number of people Who have looked at the bible as simply another one of those old books that are not interesting and a lot of pastor quote-unquote pastors Have they know that and so what do they do they do magic tricks on on stage? You know, they they pull a subject out of the bible like a magician pulls a rabbit out of a hat It's really not there, but they somehow find it in there pull it out astound the people And the people just go wow what a great message when in fact He never ever taught that bible verse and so they're lazy they go in they want to hear the latest news They want to hear the latest situation and with covet. They want to hear all this Give me an update because i'm too lazy to watch the news and think for myself And i know that you're gonna know everything because you told us you do And that's kind of where the church is today. So You know, we have we have people who just don't hunger after the word and yet it's the word of god That we're to be hungry for and it's the word of god that Instructs us concerning the ways of god how to please god who god is who jesus is So, yeah, there is a biblical illiteracy In the pews and yes, i've i've read some of those those statements that that they're humorous to the believer In in in the ironic way of my goodness. This is where we're at now But because a lot of young people were not raised with devotions They were not raised in churches that taught them many are not even going to church anymore. The parents are too lazy or to Didn't value their souls enough to actually teach them about god There's no concern, you know, yeah, we've seen that we've we've seen that today. So Uh illiteracy is obviously within the ranks of the believers, but i would pray and hope that those who are watching this I hope you read your bibles. Yes. Yes and pastor. Thank you for that I think the church sometimes has done a good job spoon feeding spoon feeding the sheep And not allowing them to graze on their own on the word of god haven't made they're not hungry You know, you know, when a baby, uh, when a baby is hungry, they let you know And a lot of uh, a lot of christians don't seem to have that hunger They're not hungry and thirsty after the things of god So come to church on sunday. Come to church tomorrow. We're in the book of joe We're gonna we're getting close to closing and come with us to israel. Yes And so pastor, thank you so much for your time and thank you everybody for tuning in and we'll see you Wednesday at 7 p.m Sunday 8 30 a.m and 10 45. That's right. We'll be kicking off the book of mark. Amen. Thank you pastor. God bless you