Mennonite Weekly Review

Surveys and polls show a high percentage of Americans claim Christianity as their faith. Yet the same surveys also reveal a lack of biblical literacy among even those who claim the Bible as the Word of God.

Richard Hughes, a professor at Messiah College, a Brethren in Christ college in Grantham, Pa., examines this in his book Christian America and the Kingdom of God. Hughes reports that, between 1949 and 1953, when Bibles were selling at a record rate, and 80 percent of Americans believed the Bible to be the “revealed Word of God,” more than 50 percent of those Americans could not name even one of the four Gospels.

In 2005, while 85 percent identified themselves as Christians, only 40 percent could name more than four of the Ten Commandments, and only half could name any of the Gospels. The 2005 survey also found that three-quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches “God helps those who help themselves.”

In 2007 a survey found that most Americans cannot name the first book of the Bible, only one-third know that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount, and 10 percent believe Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife. Hughes asks how people can understand what is faithful Christian living when they do not really know what the Bible teaches.

The importance of biblical literacy leads us to ask how well Mennonites know what the Bible teaches. Faculty at Hesston (Kan.) College pre-test students in the Biblical Literature class to determine their level of biblical knowledge. They find that incoming students, the majority of whom are from Mennonite background, may know quite a few Bible stories but have little sense of the chronological order of events in the Bible or how these stories connect to the whole of God’s work with humanity. For example, when asked to place Abraham, Moses and David in chronological order, the majority cannot do so correctly. These students’ lack of understanding the big picture may reflect a wider problem in Mennonite congregations.

Hesston faculty work to correct this by teaching heilsgeschichte, or salvation history. Heilsgeschichte describes how God has worked throughout history with a perfectly created but fallen people. These people are chosen for a mission, to become the people through whom God would be revealed to the whole world, for the purpose that all people would be reconciled to God and join the people of God.

The Bible is an interpretive story of God seeking to solve the problem created by sin in which humans are disconnected from God, others, themselves and all creation. The Bible shows the interaction between God and people. At times the people are not faithful, but God continues to work with them through his remedial will, which is not the same as his ultimate will.

In Jesus the solution to the sin problem is accomplished. Jesus is completely faithful to God and creates a new people of God, whose mission continues to be to reveal God to the whole world. Jesus points us to God’s ultimate will for how to live.

So the heilsgeschichte provides a timeline and a theme with “hooks” on which to organize and hang the stories and passages in the Bible. It takes a Christo-centric approach in interpretation of Scripture, believing that God’s will is revealed most clearly in Jesus because Jesus was faithful to God.

Faithful Christians need to know and understand what the Bible teaches. Bible stories need to be put into the context of the whole story of God’s work with humanity. Knowing the framework for the whole story can help us interpret the significance of individual Bible stories and verses for our lives. Without this framework, we can misunderstand individual scriptures and Bible stories and draw wrong conclusions.

Hughes claims a lack of biblical literacy allows many Americans to connect the kingdom of God with the United States and its government, and then justify immoral actions they would not normally accept. We need more emphasis on biblical education in our congregations so our members have a framework in which to interpret Scripture.