News-Record.com

Neat comment on the list:

"Mark Twain once wrote that a classic is a book everyone has but few people read."

Seems That that would most likely be true for most owners of the Bible and a few others on that list (Atlas Shrugged? They must be KIDDING!).

I would have appreciated a link to the actual poll. It would be most interesting to see what the age range breakdowns were on this poll.

And considering the number of people that I encounter who are ABLE to read, but prefer to use that talent only for road signs and price tags, I find it sort of surprising that "None" wasn't near the top of the list. :

I think these polls are only worthwhile in that they do show the widespread influnence of the Bible, regardless of whether it is studied or read.

Considering the direction the nation seems to be heading, I think your comment, Namtac, that many people have Bibles lying around, but few read them, has much truth to it. And far fewer really study them.

Nevertheless, it does tend to corroborate the fact that America can still be said to be a "Christian" or religious nation. I used quotes because the sense in which it is a Christian country is primarily historic and cultural; not theological or pragmatic.

The Bible is only a powerful force when it is intelligently studied and applied, with love and faith. Otherwise it might as well be used as a quaint coffee table trinket. As St. Paul put it:

"For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews 4. 12

I'm afraid there are more dust-catchers lying around than dynmic, life-changing sources of truth.

"I think these polls are only worthwhile in that they do show the widespread influnence of the Bible, regardless of whether it is studied or read."

If a book isn't read, much less actually studied, what sort of real "influence" does it have? Isn't its influence in the case of people who don't read it more a matter of those people deciding what they THINK it says and using THAT to justify their beliefs? That would be the ultimate in circular thinking, IMO.

Just a guess on my part, of course... :)

"If a book isn't read, much less actually studied, what sort of real "influence" does it have?"

This was precisely my point above, Namtac. This is why there is so much “religionism” around today; so much emotionalized nonsense that does not create committed, doctrinally informed disciples of Jesus Christ. I guess we’re in agreement, of-a-sorts, here; but with different concerns.

The Bible is not just a little devotional booklet for comforting old ladies or a source of children’s tales. It is an idea book about God’s relationship to man as Creator and Redeemer, and spiritual principles that order every aspect of human life: social, political, economic, educational, cultural, sexual, etc. As such, it often comes into conflict with ideas and policies that are conceived by fallen men. And this is where it becomes controversial. Humanists and atheists don’t mind dust-collectors on coffee tables; they do very much mind a worldview that opposes their own – that challenges their self-appropriated claim to sovereignty.

“ . . . a matter of those people deciding what they THINK it says and using THAT to justify their beliefs?”

Yes, I agree again. But this is true of any philosophy or movement. Unless people are informed and careful in their knowledge of a particular ideological system they tend to misappropriate and abuse it. Moderate Muslims insist that the radical terrorists are doing this. Or socialists say that their Marxist cousins in China are being arrogant and oppressive: not true to the best of socialist ideals. This is one reason I have such a low opinion of TV ministries. All too often they are superficial and unstudied in their teachings and MO; and end up doing saying things that are alien to biblical truth. What we need today is a Church that is very conscious of sound biblical exegesis and teaching, that is balanced AND bold, loving AND principled. Educated and pious scholarship has been a tradition of the Faith since its inception: Paul, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, et al. We need more intellectual acumen and prowess regarding scriptural principles, and less emotion-based sound-byte exposition.

Mistakes, imbalances, error, heresy and kookiness are not part of the Bible’s nature, but are aberrations emanating from the hearts and minds of ignorant and carnal men, who would rather advance their own perversions of the Truth than submit to God’s all-sufficient and authoritative Word.

A religion professor I had in college, who, despite being an ordained baptist minister, seemed rather agnostic in his outlook, remarked that one cannot consider oneself well-read in Western Civilization if one has not read the Bible.

The Bible is the seminal work of the Western world. The world is much richer, and makes a great deal more sense when one understands the fundamental principles on which our civilization is based.

"THE seminal work"? With all the cultural influences from Greek and Roman literature that had nothing to do with the Bible (think of the works of Homer, Plato, Aeschylus... quite a long list actually), I think that it's rather strange to talk about only ONE such work, don't you?

Not at all, Namtac. While the Graeco-Roman civilization had great influnece in shaping much of Western culture and politics, it was the Bible and the Gospel that undergirded the key ethical, social and spiritual foundations of our culture. The US was founded on Christain prinicples (and I'm not just talking about the documents, please). The Christian Faith and biblical principles were pervasive in molding our culture.

I in no way mean to imply that there weren't other ideas or principles that went into the mix. As Francis Shaeffer said, "All truth is God's Truth" - and to the extent that cultures and their philosophers apprehended the Law, truths of government, social relationships, and culture, they were able to build viable and lasting nation states. But only the power of the Gospel can transform fallen, sin-ravaged souls and build a godly, benevolent civilization on disticntly scriptural foundations. It is the soul set free from sin and death that treasures freedom the most.

The probelm with our nation right now is that we have abandoned the Gospel and Holy Scripture, and are therefore inexorably sliding into the slough of sin, misery and economic collapse. This is the death knell of any civilization. Only a return to God and His all-sufficient Word can prevent our fall from wealth, power and greatness into irrelevance, obscurity and disgrace. We seem to have reached a depressed,self-loathing stage wherein we are committing corporate suicide, viz-a-viz Obama, Wright and many politicians.

This is typical of idividual sinners, and it seems to be playing out nationally. True freedom from sin and guilt, through Gospel transformation, brings opstimism, faith and industry. This is what made America great, even with all her faults and flaws - NOT Homer, Plato, and Aeschylus! Intellectual speculation and astute observations of man and existence are insufficient to save a man's soul and and reveal the living God to him.

I know Iv'e oft quoted this passage, but it's as powerful and germane as ever:

St Paul says: "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness,

but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."

AMEN

I happen to be reading this blog the same day as and after I read and responded to the more recent posts on the teacher with his Bible in Columbus. If that teacher is wanting to keep his Bible on his desk merely as a paperweight he identifies with, then isn't he being as dull and empty as those you are dissecting here? Isn't the whole point to have the book open and read from it? Why else is that teacher saying he needs to have it out on his desk (not just handily in a drawer where he could get it when he wished to read on his breaks)? By being in his desk, out of sight temporarily, is he afraid he'd lose his bearings or his very soul, his identity? Or he of little faith (or much hypocrisy)!!