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Why Reading Your Bible Everyday Might Still Leave You Biblically Illiterate
November 10, 2026 · 29 min
Series Out of Zion Video November 10, 2026 · 29 min · Out of Zion Video
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Embark on a transformative journey through the Bible and the Land of Israel with Dr. Susan Michael, President of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem
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The Rise of Biblical Illiteracy Despite Increased Engagement 0:01 Welcome to the Israel Answers series, connecting Israel, the Bible, and you. Join Susan Michael as she explores timely issues and current events from a scriptural perspective to equip the0:12 Christian world with a balanced and biblical response. Be sure to subscribe for future episodes, which will ignite your faith and bring the Bible to life in your everyday world. Now, let's join Susan with0:24 your Israel Answers.0:30 Hey there. Welcome to this week's Out of Zion podcast. I'm your host, doctor Susan Michael, and we are in the mid... Middle of a series on antisemitism. It's0:42 so important that my Christian audience and and our churches understand this problem, where it's coming from, what its roots are, what its nature is. And so, so far in0:54 this series, we've talked about the absolute absurdity of the accusations made against the Jewish people. And then we talked about where is this actually coming from in America, the,1:06 you know, the land that relishes freedom of religion and freedom of speech and honors individuality. How is this happening in our country and the influence coming1:17 from foreign players that are bringing this about? And then we talked about, well, what are things we can do to keep that foreign influence out of America? The next episode,1:29 I turn to the biblical explanation for antisemitism and talked about its spiritual roots and its evil nature. And, and so finally, now I wanna1:41 talk to you about the, importance of understanding the biblical literacy... Illiteracy crises that is1:53 facing us in America that is making the church vulnerable. So, you know, last week I talked about what are some of the things that make the Christian church vulnerable to2:05 antisemitism. Because we would think that if you are a Bible believing Christian, there's no way you would be antisemitic. Yet, we're hearing some2:17 in our churches, our young people, are espousing antisemitic ideas. So we want to understand what are some of those things that make us vulnerable. We talked about that last2:28 week. This week, I want to focus on one of them, and that is the rising biblical illiteracy in the United States. And it's producing a crisis really that's2:40 facing the church and it's facing Israel. So there was a recent Barna Group state of the church report that came out And it showed a strange2:52 paradox in America that Bible engagement numbers are up, but there's a profound decline in those that actually believe the Bible is3:04 true and, that understand the overall story of the Bible. So we wanna unpack how this is happening and what it means for the church. Let's look at3:16 the stats. First of all, it said that weekly Bible reading among self identified Christians reached forty two percent in twenty twenty five and that that was the highest number3:27 recorded in over a decade. And young adults were leading the way. That's exciting. That's really a wonderful statistic. But according to the CEO3:39 of Varna, he said, however, at the same time, there is a rising number of Americans who believe the Bible is completely, inaccurate. It's3:51 not accurate in its principles. And, so he said engagement in the Bible is outpacing conviction in the truth of the Bible. So,4:03 I don't wanna dwell today on kinda how or why this is, but I will mention three factors that I think are playing into this picture. First, the fact4:15 that more Americans, do not believe in the accuracy of the Bible, that it's true, that only makes sense. I mean, for what forty years now,4:27 we've been sending people to schools that are totally secular where the Bible, is not just excluded. It's actually ridiculed, quite often.4:40 And along with that is the Christian faith is ridiculed. And I know I've talked to students in Ivy League universities, and they they won't even admit to their their, fellow students that4:52 they're Christian because they're so embarrassed by it, because there's such an atmosphere on campus that that's stupid, you know, to be a Bible believing Christian. So of course, that's5:03 affecting the overall numbers in America. The second factor here, the reason bible engagement is up, is, yes, we5:15 are noticing that there's a real movement within generation z to become... Go back to church, to look to the roots of their faith, to,5:27 be more spiritual, and that's a wonderful thing. And so they are buying Bibles, and they're also downloading Bible apps on their phone. And all that's great, and5:39 that's why they can claim that Bible engagement is up. But my concern is that that Bible app does not replace,5:51 real Bible study. I... I'm using one right now, and every morning it feeds me scriptures to read. And it's great for devotional reading, But it doesn't give me any6:03 sense of continuity whatsoever in terms of the Bible, the story of the Bible, the overarching story that these verses fit into and the historical6:15 context. And so without that, we have a generation of young Christians that understand certain moral lessons from the scriptures, but still don't understand what the Bible is really6:27 all about. And then the third factor that plays into that and makes it worse is that our church model has largely done away with the Sunday school. You know, I6:39 grew up where we had Sunday school where the children were taught the stories of the Bible. And then we went into the Sunday worship service where the sermon was there for inspiration6:51 and for personal application. But Sunday school was so critical to teaching those stories of the Bible, and many of our churches have done away with that. They may have7:03 Wednesday night, cell groups. They may have prayer groups. But we're losing some of the really intention of teaching through the Bible. So many of our young people7:15 are buying Bibles, downloading Bible apps, and therefore saying that their Bible engagement is up, and we rejoice in that. But they're not getting the right tools and teaching to help them7:27 to actually understand the Bible. And so there's a real danger here that they are actually biblically illiterate while they're reading the Bible7:39 daily as a devotional. And I know that sounds contradictory, but what we have been, building educational resources to help people to understand their Bible.Dangers of Biblical Illiteracy for the Church and Israel 7:52 And, so we have a free download for you today. We'll offer it again at the end of today's broadcast. But we have a free download. It's a guide to reading the Bible, and it's how to get started to8:04 actually read the Bible and study it. And so I encourage you to get that in today's show notes. If there's no show notes under this platform, you can go to our website, icejusa8:17 dot org forward slash show notes, and you'll find the link there. Alright. So let's get on. The ramifications and the dangers of a decline in biblical8:29 literacy. If people do not really know their Bible, then it creates a vacuum that is quickly filled up with secular and cultural8:41 narratives and theological theological errors, and even Christians can fall prey to some of these significant misconceptions. So for example, moral relativism, it's a8:53 popular ideology in our modern world. Of course, it's absolutely antithetical to the Bible that teaches that there is a right and there is a wrong. Moral relativism teaches9:05 that it's up to you what your right is and you're wrong. And so when a person believes that part of the Bible is outdated or irrelevant and not considered9:17 truth, that person is actually espousing moral relativism that they think they can pick and choose what they want to believe and what they consider9:29 as truth. That's very dangerous. Another error is spiritualizing portions of scripture and explaining them away that should not be spiritualized.9:41 And that, of course, leads to the error of replacement theology, which we'll talk about in a minute. So when the Bible is relegated to being a devotional book only about9:53 stories that you read for the hidden meaning or the moral of the story, without understanding who the people are, their historical context, what's going on in the world around10:05 them while the... While the story is taking place. So without a structured understanding of the Bible story, the overarching story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation,10:17 then you lose the, appreciation of the importance of the people of the Bible, who are the Jewish people, and the land of the Bible, which is the land of Israel. And all that becomes10:29 less important. And Israel becomes just another country. And Jerusalem, you know, the place where God placed his name into where Jesus will return, becomes just10:41 another city. And and God's promises to Abraham to give them that land, to make them a great nation, and give them a mission to bless the world all becomes like10:53 a myth or a tale. Tale. And the modern state of Israel then has no theological significance whatsoever when you're reading the Bible11:06 without understanding its actual story. So this all leads to the rise of replacement theology. Once God's covenant with Abraham is11:17 dismissed or it's spiritualized, it becomes easy to embrace replacement theology. And that's the belief that the church has permanently replaced11:29 Israel in God's plan. The church is now the chosen people. The church is spiritual Israel, and the Jewish people are no longer set apart for a specific11:41 purpose. And this, of course, renders the modern state of Israel as totally irrelevant in God's plan of redemption. However,11:53 scripture repeatedly affirms God's promises and his continued faithfulness to fulfill those promises. So the apostle Paul's discussion12:05 in Romans nine through eleven really drives this home. And when speaking of the Jewish people, he declares the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.12:17 He was talking specifically about the Jewish people. God will use the Jewish people as a primary instrument in his end time activity,12:28 fulfilling a prophetic plan that began in Jerusalem and will ultimately culminate there. This is very clear when you read the scriptures. It's only when12:40 you begin to spiritualize them, that you make yourself vulnerable to this idea of replacement theology. So I'm gonna talk more about replacement12:53 theology next week. I'm gonna keep moving now, sticking to the subject of biblical literacy or the lack thereof. So the first thing13:04 that... I I guess I'm on my second problem now with biblical illiteracy is that it erodes God's character. So biblical illiteracyHow Biblical Illiteracy Erodes God's Faithful Character 13:16 and replacement theology fundamentally alter how Christians understand the character of God. This is very important because from Genesis to Revelation,13:28 the biblical narrative consistently presents God as faithful to his promises. Let me read just a few. Deuteronomy seven nine says God is faithful13:41 and he keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations. In Psalm eighty nine thirty four, God himself says, my covenant I will13:53 not break nor alter the word that has gone out of my lips. That's why in second Timothy two thirteen, Paul says14:05 that even if we are faithless, God remains faithful for he cannot deny himself. He is a faithful God.14:17 So not understanding the overarching story of the Bible and how foundational God's covenant with Abraham really is to it can lead a person to adopt a theology14:29 in which God can replace his original covenants or change his mind. If divine covenants may simply be abandoned14:42 or permanently transferred to another people, then God's character is absolutely impossible to reconcile with scripture's own testimony that he is faithful14:54 and unchanging. Not to mention his sovereignty and his wisdom that he sees the end from the beginning. He knew all along exactly what would happen.15:07 So one of the most exciting aspects of the Bible is understanding the character of God, his faithfulness. That promises that he made to Abraham four15:19 thousand years ago are being fulfilled in our day through Israel and the Jewish people. You can't get more exciting than that. But, unfortunately,15:31 a lot of our Christians are being robbed of that excitement by not really being given the tools to understand that overarching story of the Bible,15:43 how the Jewish people are central to it, how the church fits in. And what about the unbelieving nations? What does the Bible say about all of this? What is God's grand plan?15:55 Because he is the sovereign king, creator of the universe. He knows everything. He is all wise. He doesn't have to come up with a new plan.16:07 So that's why I call the Bible the most exciting book on the planet. It's when you understand this about God and about his plan. Now the other16:19 thing that suffers, without understanding the Bible story is the... It erodes the character of Jesus.16:30 Jesus is stripped of his historical and Jewish context. Jesus was a first century Jew born into the house of David, circumcised according to16:42 the Mosaic covenant, and raised to worship in the temple and celebrate the Jewish feast. But if the reader has determined that the Jewish16:54 people and Judaism is totally irrelevant, then they begin... They no longer appreciate that eastern context17:18 culture, not Eastern, or modern secular culture rather than the first century, Middle Eastern Jewish culture he was born into.17:31 So to truly understand the teachings and the ministry and the calling of Jesus, we must understand the Jewish context.Eroding Jesus' Jewish Identity and Christianity's Roots 17:43 Jesus did not come in a vacuum like a Greek god. He came in fulfillment of an eternal plan that was laid before the foundations of the world according to Ephesians17:55 one and that God executed through Abraham and his descendants, the Jewish people. The other consequence18:07 of this is that it erodes the very root of Christianity. Detaching Jesus from his Jewish identity also impoverishes Christianity18:19 by severing it from its Jewish context and roots. The apostle Paul warned against this arrogant approach to the Jewish people when he18:31 described Christians as wild olive branches that have been grafted into the Jewish tree of faith. And then he said these words, quote, remember that18:43 you do not support the root, but the root supports you. If we say that that root is now irrelevant,18:55 we sever ourselves from it. And it means spiritual death because the sustenance, the actual meaning of Christianity, the roots of Christianity are found in the root19:07 of that tree that we're engrafted in to. Another consequence of all of this is if we do not understand the overarching story of the Bible and the19:19 centrality of the Jewish people in it, then we will not understand the spiritual evil nature of antisemitism and the importance of standing against19:31 it. We may think that it's just about politics. It's about land in Israel, or maybe we think the accusations may be true. And what happens is we become19:42 silent. We back away. We're either indifferent or we're actually negative towards it. So if if you, do understand19:55 that Israel is at the very center of what God is doing in the world today and in the future as prophesied in the Bible, you understand that the lies and the battle20:07 against Israel is evil trying to stop God's eternal redemptive plan. And you will feel a burden to stand with Israel and20:19 the Jewish people to to pray for them, to defend them, and to be a blessing to them. So the the other side of the coin I wanna just mention before I20:31 start bringing this to a close is that along with the rise of biblical rise of biblical illiteracy, we have a rise in biblical skepticism.20:43 So we have this growing number of people that actually don't believe that the Bible is true or that all of it is true, that there's parts of it that are old, archaic, irrelevant,20:56 of man or this kind of thing. I call this biblical skepticism. It's just a lack of conviction in the authority and the accuracy of the Bible. And as I mentioned earlier,21:08 you know, our young people are growing up in secular schools where the Bible is ridiculed. And so now when they come to faith, they start going to church, they start reading their Bible.21:20 They have these thoughts in the back of their mind questioning questioning the Old Testament, questioning some of the, verses in the Old Testament, some of the21:32 stories. And so it's to be expected that both our churches and our seminaries are finding that they need more intentional apologetics and biblical21:44 studies. Because one of the core, one of the core pillars of evangelical Christianity is the belief and the authority of the scriptures. It's nonnegotiable.21:56 And so we have to be intentionally teaching our congregants, our churches, our students about the biblical story andThe Need for Biblical Reeducation and Available Resources 22:08 how true and accurate it is in answering these, false accusations against the Bible itself. So I believe... And the22:20 CEO of the Barna group actually said this in the article I read that he sees this as a reset moment for the American church. So in other words, it's not all over. It's not too late. And22:31 I I agree with that. I believe we're standing at a crossroads where rising biblical engagement must be met with radical biblical22:43 reeducation. And so we at the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem have been building resources to assist churches and schools and anyone,22:55 to better understand the Bible, to better understand these issues. And so I just will share with you quickly as we bring this to a close what we've developed because we have online23:07 courses at iceju dot org, and they're free of charge for the public. We have a section under biblical studies. We have a23:19 year long walk through the Bible program. We have a series of videos that introduce every book in the Bible and the historical context and what's happening there.23:32 Then we have another section of courses called Israel studies, and that's where we talk more about Israel of the Bible and then the history of the Jewish people. We talk about antisemitism.23:44 We talk about Jewish Christian relations and the modern state of Israel. We tie it all together. And so please take advantage of those courses. Once again, they're at iceju23:58 dot org. Then we have built a semester long course that can be taught at the university level for credit. And we are right now,24:11 networking with campuses all across the United States, Christian colleges and universities, to let them know about this course and see how they could maybe take advantage of it.24:23 We've also developed a summer study trip to Israel that a student can go on. It's an eighteen day trip, and they will get six credits from24:35 Hebrew University that will transfer back to their school. There is nothing like studying the Bible in the land of the Bible. I24:47 I I can attest to it personally. I was one of those very blessed Christian college students that was able to go over at the age of nineteen and study there in the summer. And I tell24:59 you, my Bible just came alive, and I realized it's not just truth. It's an accurate portrayal of historic events. And25:11 you just understand how true and accurate it is that you can base your life on this book. And so we want to give that experience to as many,25:23 Christian students as we can. And then we're also working with different campuses, to start some kind of an Israel center on campus25:35 so that every year that Israel center can put on seminars or conferences or bring in special speakers on issues about Israel, for students that25:47 are interested in that. And, so we're really excited about the potential. It's it's a lot of work and a lot of follow-up and just working with each campus to see,25:59 well, what are your needs and how can we help you? These are the resources we have, but we can build something just for you if that would help. So we at the ICEJ, we're not just26:11 talking about the problem. We are addressing it. And so I invite you to take advantage of the resources that we have and share them with your pastor, with your church, with your26:22 Bible study. Definitely share them with the younger members in your family. And, and so let me just close with... I invite you to26:34 please get the free download, the guide to reading the Bible. It is perfect for especially a young person just starting out in their Christian journey. They wanna start reading the Bible.26:46 This will help them get started and then it points them to even more resources. And, it also may be helpful for someone's been reading their Bible for many years. So26:58 please download it, the guide to reading the Bible in today's show notes down below. If there's no show notes below, go to icejusa dot org27:10 forward slash show notes. And while you're there at our website, would you consider making a donation to our work so that it'll really help us to reach more27:22 campuses, more students, more churches, more young adults with these educational resources that are designed to make their bible come alive27:34 and ignite their faith, it can be absolutely life changing. Plus, help them to become lifelong supporters of Israel and those27:46 praying for the peace of Jerusalem. That's our goal. So please, get behind our ministry, and, I would look forward to seeing you back here next week. We're gonna27:58 talk a bit more about the error of replacement theology. Until then, God bless.28:06 We hope you have enjoyed this episode of Out of Zion with Susan Michael. Be sure to subscribe to Out of Zion now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, pray dot28:18 com, Salem One Place, Salem Life Audio. Out of Zion with Susan Michael is a production of ICEJ USA. All rights reserved.In this video 0:00 The Rise of Biblical Illiteracy Despite Increased Engagement7:40 Dangers of Biblical Illiteracy for the Church and Israel13:10 How Biblical Illiteracy Erodes God's Faithful Character17:40 Eroding Jesus' Jewish Identity and Christianity's Roots22:00 The Need for Biblical Reeducation and Available Resources4:40
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