This past weekend, we attended the Tennessee Valley Fair in Knoxville with a couple friends. As we were leaving the fair and returning to our car, we noticed that there was a long line of people who were in line to purchase entry tickets to the fair. My friend happened to have a few unused, extra tickets, so he went over to this long line of people and said, “I’ll give anyone standing here two free tickets into the fair if you can tell me how many books there are in the Bible.” The answers started pouring in, “2!” “4!” “16!” “33!” “50!” The guesses continued for quite some time. However, no one in that long line of people could tell my friend how many books were in the Bible. It wasn’t like he asked them to name of the books of the Bible, just give the number of books. No one could do it. He asked a couple other questions that no one could answer either. He finally gave the tickets away by “dumbing down” his questions to “What is the first book of the Bible, ” and “Who wrote the book of Luke.”
I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. Since then, this incident has caused me to consider that some day we will all stand before God and have to give an answer in order to obtain something of much greater value than just entrance into the fair. Friends, how prepared will you be to give an answer then?
Excellent! Can I have your permission, Steve, to use in our bullentin this Sunday?
Hi Randy, Sure you may use it, and for future reference, don’t ever feel you need to ask.
My people perish from a lack of knowledge.
Truly, as in Hosea’s day, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” Hos. 4:6; ignorance is the fuel for Satan’s cause.
Our youth group went on a scavenger hunt at the local wal-mart. They quickly learned that not many people could even recite a verse from the Bible. This was a great lesson to the teen and also probably gave thought to the ones that were asked. great article.
Steve,
It was great to eat lunch with you on Friday at the lectureships. I had a great time visiting and getting to know you better. Also, I am glad you got a chance to go into the mountains some. Thank you for your time and great fellowship.
Your Friend,
Matthew
Steve,
Your timing is impeccable. Just after publishing this article, the Pew Forum releases the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey, which essentially said the same thing as you did. Although not nearly as succintly or as well. 🙂
Geoff, I just saw that survey today. Interesting.