Why Are People Biblically Illiterate Today?

Why are people so biblically illiterate today? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity.

Well, happy Friday. I'm Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. We pray that this first week of 2024 has gone well for you, looking ahead at some great things for the year. Here's our phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Now, we'll be taking your calls for the next 25 minutes or so, so now is the time to call. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites, and you can watch Adriel live on YouTube right now. In fact, you can send him a question through our YouTube channel, and feel free to email us anytime at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, Adriel, one of our listeners was listening earlier this week and disagreed with something you said.

Let's listen to their voicemail and let you respond. I just kept on listening to the program, and there was a young lady on the air worried about her friend not being able to take the Lord's Supper, and you agreed with the church in denying this woman who was a Christian. You took the side of the church denying her because she wasn't a member. Basically, what she just said was that she was denied the body and the blood of Jesus Christ, and the Lord said, if you deny me before men, he will deny you before God.

What you said was totally absurd. I hope you go back into your Bible and realize that what you just taught there was religion rather than the word of God. First, let me say thank you for reaching out to us. Even where people disagree with the things I say on the air, I always do appreciate people who want to call in and ultimately dig into the word of God.

That's just what we're going to do. Just for some context, this woman who called in was sharing that she's a part of a church that says, if you're not a member of a local church in good standing, that you should not be taking the Lord's Supper. In other words, if you are not a part of a church, it doesn't have to be our particular church, but you should be as a Christian a member in good standing of a local church. If you aren't, we're getting the cart before the horse is a real issue.

That's actually a solid way of understanding. I think we have too low of a view of the Lord's Supper and too low of a view of church membership today. The fact of the matter is, those two things kind of go hand in hand in the Bible.

If you look at what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, listen to this solemn warning that he gives to the Corinthian church. He says in verse 27, Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup, for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. So the first thing that we just have to say is, look, we're not supposed to be taking the Lord's Supper flippantly, just sort of willy-nilly. We have to examine ourselves and discern the body.

There's a question about, okay, what is the body there? Is that referring to the elements of bread and wine? Is it referring to the church body, the church community?

Is it sort of a double entendre? It's referring to both. It does seem like in 1 Corinthians 11, the big issue is how people in the body and the community of faith are treating each other. So I think it's at least that.

Maybe it's in reference to both. But the fact is, what the Apostle Paul is saying here, is it's really important to properly discern the body, who's a part of it and who's participating in this great sacrament. And so if somebody comes along and says, oh yeah, I'm not a part of a church. I don't really go to church anywhere. I'm not a member of a church. Yeah, I guess, sure, let me participate in this, Rich.

I don't really know what's going on. That would be an improper way of taking the Lord's Supper, and churches should fence the table. You shouldn't just say, hey, whoever wants to do this, no big deal. Paul says, don't take the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner. And so I guess my pushback would be, could it be that one of the reasons why people recoil at this idea, could it be that the reason that is, is because we have such a low view today of church membership, of being committed to a local church, a low view of what takes place when we're gathered around the Lord's table, the significance of the fact that Christ is present by the power of the Holy Spirit. We shouldn't just be going through the motions or approaching this table faithlessly or without reverence.

I mean, there's a real issue there. You also brought up another passage, Matthew chapter 10, verse 33, whoever denies me before men, Jesus said, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. And again, the goal is not to deny people communion who should have it.

It's to call people to follow the Lord and to partake of the Lord's Supper the way scripture calls us to, as a part of the body of Christ. And what Jesus is referring to there in Matthew chapter 10 is not denying people the Lord's Supper. He's talking about those who are ashamed of him at his coming, those who are ashamed of the gospel, ashamed of association with him. He says in verse 32, everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men. That is, whoever's ashamed of their association with me as a Christian who wants nothing to do with me, I also, Jesus says, will deny before my Father who is in heaven. So I think that you're taking that passage out of context a little bit. But again, I appreciate your feedback and your pushback even. I just think that we have to look at this question in particular, who should be taking the Lord's Supper, with a high view of what's happening when we take the Lord's Supper and of the local church community.

Thank you. Just to follow up for you on that, Adriel, do you think that a church, that a pastor, when they are administering communion to the congregation, should be making a statement about, you know, this is for a believer, someone who has trusted Christ as their savior, regardless of whether or not they might be a member of that particular church at that moment. But it seems like there's a lot of churches now that just, as you said, they don't fence the table. They basically say, come on, come all, if you're visiting here from Pakistan, we'd love to have you, you know, take communion.

What is your view on that? Yeah, I think it is important in the context of the administration of the Lord's Supper, when a church gathers together, that the pastor does clarify and say, hey, this is for the baptized, those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're a member in good standing of a local church, doesn't have to be our church, but you have made a profession of faith, this meal is for you. It's not for perfect people, it's not for people who are sinless, because then nobody could partake of the Lord's Supper, but it's for people who are repentant and coming to the Lord and wanting that goodness and that grace and that mercy that He nourishes us with week in and week out. Another practice that I've seen, Bill, that I think is unfortunate, sometimes, you know, churches will just sort of set the elements out there, and then the band will be playing music, and they'll say, yep, you know, if you want to come up and take communion, go ahead and do that. And it's sort of this very individual practice, you know, everybody's kind of going up at different times and partaking at different times, and nobody's been told, you know, this is a meal for Christians, for those who have been baptized, it's just sort of, you feel like you want to participate in this, go ahead. And I think, again, that's just indicative of the confusion on this very topic, and so we need to go, and that's why I appreciate that pushback and the comment of let's dig into the Scriptures, let's look into the Word of God, because that's what we want to do. And I think as we do that, and we have a biblical understanding of the Lord's Supper and of the importance of the local church, we'll take these things more seriously. Really well said.

Thanks for that explanation. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our phone lines are open right now.

Our communion's not open, but our phone lines are open. Here's the phone number. Good one, Bill. I caught that.

Okay. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

We'll be taking calls for the next 15 minutes or so. Let's go to Karen, who's calling in from Nebraska. Karen, what's your question for Adriel? My question for Adriel is, why is the Sabbath not observed? According to the calendar, Sunday is the day that Christ rose, so that's why Christians celebrate Sunday. But the Fourth Commandment also says that God commanded us to observe the Sabbath, because that was the day He rested.

Karen, thank you so much for that question. There are some Christians who say, well, Sunday is the Christian Sabbath. There are others who distinguish between the Saturday Sabbath and what they refer to as the Lord's Day, because often in the New Testament, like in Revelation 1, for example, Sunday is referred to as the Lord's Day, being the day that Jesus rose again from the dead. I think what does need to be emphasized is that we are called to worship and to rest as the people of God, but we don't do it like the believers did under the Old Covenant. One of the things that's interesting about the Sabbath in the Old Testament is, especially when you look at the rationale for the Sabbath given, for example, in the book of Deuteronomy, it was associated with the deliverance of the people from Egypt.

God delivered His people from Egypt out of slavery in Egypt so that they might rest and worship Him. It was a commemoration of the Exodus. Well, throughout the New Testament, especially in the prophets, the prophets foretold a coming new Exodus that was going to cause the old Exodus to be forgotten in one sense. I mean, this is going to be such a new, amazing, great, powerful event that the old Exodus, you know, when you came out of Egypt and into the land of Canaan, that's nothing compared to what God is going to do. The prophets, over and over again, they talk about this new Exodus, especially Isaiah, for example. You see it in Isaiah, you see it in Jeremiah. Well, what is that new Exodus that's commemorated by us believers under the New Covenant?

It is centered around the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's deliverance not from Egyptian slavery, but from slavery to sin and to Satan. That's why Jesus, for example, on the Mount of Transfiguration, when He's with, you know, Elijah and Moses, they're talking about His departure. The word that's used there is Exodus. So why do we worship on Sunday? Well, we're commemorating that new Exodus. We're resting and worshiping at the beginning of the week, the first day of the week, sometimes referred to as the eighth day, because we've entered into the Sabbath rest that is Jesus Christ by faith. And practically, I think that means that we need to be. I've already talked about it, you know, the importance of being a part of a church and worshiping together.

Practically, I think that's the big takeaway. You need to be gathering together with believers to worship the Lord. And it seems like from the earliest days, you see this in 1 Corinthians, you see this in the book of Acts, Christians were doing that on Sunday, on the Lord's day. And so that's, you know, we're following the example of the apostles and we're worshiping on the Lord's day, Sunday, the first day of the week. You can refer to that as the Christian Sabbath as you want, insofar as it's entering into that everlasting rest that's promised to the people of God through faith and union with Jesus Christ. Thank you for reaching out, Karen, with that question.

Thanks, Karen. Appreciate you listening to Core Christianity. If you've got a question about the Bible, the Christian life, doctrine, or theology, we'd love to hear from you.

Maybe there's a passage of scripture that's always kind of confused you and you'd like some clarification on it. Well, Adria would love to dive into that passage with you. Here's the phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 833-843-2673. We'll be taking calls for another 10 minutes or so, so jump on your phone right now. Also want to mention a great resource that we have here at the Core. You know, at some point you are likely to have a conversation with a person who doesn't believe in Christianity and asks you some tough questions about your faith. And maybe that's happened to you before and you've kind of been stuck and you've panicked and you say, I don't know how to answer that question. Well, we want to help you be ready to respond if that happens to you again. Yeah, the resource is called Tough Questions Answered and it's four chapters, really something you could go through quite quickly, but it's going to be just packed full of information and helpful information that will enable you, I think, to engage with people who are skeptical about the Christian faith, who have questions about the relationship between faith and science, what about all the world religions that are out there, you know, why is Christianity so exclusive.

Those are some of the questions that are answered in this resource and so we hope that you'll get a hold of it over at corechristianity.com. Again, it's called Tough Questions Answered. We'd love to get that in your hands.

Or maybe you could give it to somebody, you know, who really is looking at some of these questions and how to answer them. Go to corechristianity.com forward slash offers and look for tough questions answered. Well, let's go to Maggie, who is in Texas. Maggie, what's your question for Adriel? Hi, yes, a question, my name, my husband, is what is his input on replacement theology and is it biblical? Hey Maggie, thank you for that question. So sometimes that phrase, replacement theology, is used to refer to people who, it's typically not used positively, it's used to say, well, there are some people out there who believe that the church has replaced Israel and so that God doesn't have a plan for Israel for his old covenant people.

I don't know that that's a real helpful way of presenting it. The fact of the matter is, when you look at the New Testament, it's very clear, places like Romans 9 through 11, that Jesus Christ himself is the true Israelite and the covenant people of God are those who are united to Jesus Christ by faith. Those who have no faith are not a part of the covenant people of God.

So for example, Jews, ethnic Jews, who reject Jesus Christ, who reject the gospel, are not considered a part of the covenant community, the new covenant community. Why? Because they don't have faith. This is what the apostle Paul makes absolutely clear in Romans chapter 11. He says some of those branches were broken off.

Why? Because they didn't have faith and you Gentiles were grafted in by faith. And here's the good news, they can be grafted in again too, by faith, if they trust in Jesus Christ. So it's not a question of God just sort of discarding people and not caring and Gentiles replacing Jews. It's the reality of the fact that the people of God are those who are united to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. That's the covenant community.

And so that's how we have to see it. And in the New Testament, the church of the New Testament really is the fulfillment of the people of God in the Old Testament. It's not that you have two peoples of God, the Israelites and then the church today, and God has these different plans for them throughout redemptive history. It's that there's one people of God throughout redemptive history, this sort of organic unity. And the old covenant people, the church of the Old Testament, we might say, is a type of that New Testament reality, which is why Peter, for example, says we are being built up into this spiritual house, a holy temple, a priesthood, kings and priests before God. That was old covenant speak for the covenant community, for the people of God. And Peter says that's what the church is, made up of Jews and Gentiles.

You see this in the book of Ephesians as well. And so the focus, I would say, sister, is on that faith in Jesus Christ that makes us a part of the church and also opens the door for us to be the recipients of those great promises of God that were made throughout the Old Testament to Abraham, the patriarch, and those are ours through Jesus. Thank you for reaching out with that question. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Just a quick programming note. We're going to be recording a second episode of Core Christianity when this program ends here in a few minutes. So if you weren't able to get through during the show, you can still call us for the next 35 minutes or so with your question. Might need to stay on hold for a little while, but we would love to hear from you. Here's the number 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners.

This is Valerie. My question is this. I have recently started reading God's Word, like reading, studying, meditating on God's Word.

I'm so excited to read. But my question is, how is it that I grew up in the church, but not in the Word? And how is it that we have so many people talking about Christ, but they're not reading God's Word? The Bible is about knowing who God is, but it seems like Christians are suffering, and they're so downtrodden, and they don't know about prayer and etc. But I'm so excited about reading God's Word and learning of Him. So how do I share that faith?

So that's my question. Okay, God bless you. Bye-bye. Thank you for all that you do.

Hey, Valerie, you're sharing it right now. Just through that message that you left us, and I'm so grateful to hear how excited you are about reading the Word of God. Oh, that each and every one of us had that same excitement, that same fire in us to open up the Bible and read it.

And your question is, how can I grow up in the church without that passion? I think there are a number of reasons. I think in a lot of places, the Word of God is just not emphasized. The importance of reading the Bible, and not just reading it, but creating a sort of daily habit in our lives of spending time sitting at the feet of Jesus. And in our busy society, there's always something that's vying for our attention, something that threatens to get in the way. And so you have to be intentional about this. And there are seasons, right? I also love reading the Bible, but I know there are mornings where I wake up and I'm really excited about it, and there are other mornings where I wake up and I'm wiping the sleep from my eyes and struggling to get through the reading.

That's okay. I think it's creating those consistent habits. You start to see the payoff, the fruit. And you highlighted the fact, and this is something that we're seeing, it's one of the reasons why we have this broadcast, frankly, that there's just a lot of biblical literacy out there. People don't understand the basics of the Christian faith. I remember when I started studying in seminary to be a pastor, one of the things a professor said was, you know, more and more we're seeing as students are coming in, they have less of an understanding of the Bible as a whole. People just aren't reading the Bible. Even ministerial candidates are not coming in with the same kind of biblical knowledge that they were coming in with years ago. And so I think it's true across the board, and we need to recover, one, a high view of scripture, but the understanding that, man, this is a gift, a benefit for us.

It's not about being legalistic about reading the Bible. It's about receiving this gift that God has given to us in His Word and growing in it. And so I'm so excited to hear, Valerie, that you're doing just that and that the Lord has blessed you with this excitement, with this joy. Keep it up. Keep up the good work, and may God work in each of our hearts, giving us that same desire.

Especially right now, I mean, the year is just starting. There are all sorts of wonderful, through-the-Bible reading plans that you can pick up. If you just Google, you know, one-year Bible reading plan, that kind of a thing, you'll find dozens of different kinds of reading plans.

Pick one and set aside time to go through the Word of God every day to read it, prayerfully, with humility, saying, Lord, speak to me through Your Word, and I promise you, you will not regret it, and God will work in your life through His Word. So take up and read, and Valerie, thank you for your question. Amen. This is Quora Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Mick, who's calling in from Missouri. Mick, what's your question for Adriel? Good afternoon, gentlemen.

Good afternoon, Mick. So, in response to your earlier question from the gentleman that left the message about the woman that you said shouldn't take Communion, the church that I go to doesn't offer Communion, so does that mean it's not a church? And a second follow-up to that is that I found it interesting that you used 1 Corinthians to answer that question. Doesn't 2 Corinthians Paul say that the church is the body of Christ, therefore it's not a building, but the actual body of Christ and people that join in that body? Mick, thank you for that question, and I would say it's sort of a both-and.

You know, we sometimes pit those two things together. The church is a people, it's not really a place, but the word church in the New Testament, ekklesia, has to do with being assembled, gathered together. Same thing with the Hebrew word. In the Old Testament, the idea of synagoguing, coming together as a people, an assembly. So even just in the word or this idea, we're not thinking of like this scattered group of people, we're thinking about the gathered community of faith gathered around what? God's word and his promises.

And so we don't need to pit the idea of a people or a place against each other, I would say it's both-and. And Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 verse 13 says by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, and it's that one body, that community of faith, that gathers around the Lord's table to partake of the one loaf symbolizing our unity. And why do we do that? We do it because Jesus said to his disciples, do this in remembrance of me. This is a perpetual ordinance instituted by Jesus Christ himself with bread and wine, these signs and seals of our redemption that the church is supposed to be doing. I don't know what the rationale, Mick, for the congregation that you're part of, why they're not doing the Lord's Supper, but I would say that that is a significant issue. The marks of the true church, of true churches, are there places where the word of God is faithfully taught, the gospel is proclaimed, and those ordinances that Jesus gave to the church, that he instituted for the church's perpetual use to signify the reality of the gospel and its promises, baptism and the Lord's Supper, where those things are being done. And so I would say, yeah, I don't know if your church just takes it infrequently or if they don't take it at all, but if they don't take it at all, there's a serious issue there. And Mick, maybe you can give us a call back and we can talk a little bit more about that at another time that the broadcast is ending. But I appreciate your question and may God bless you in this new year. And once again, brothers and sisters, thanks for listening to The Core. The truth of God's word together.