How Can So Many People Read the Bible but Still Die Unbelieving?
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This is the title of the following YouTube video, with the opening question, of the video, actually being a little longer:
“If the Bible is really the revealed Word of God, and it has the power that you say it has, why is it that millions of people can read it and know it and still die unbelieving?”
And watching this video (and the countenance of the young man asking the question) his query could be taken as either a sincere enquiry or as skepticism that:
- The Bible is really the revealed Word of God,
- It has power, and/or
- Millions of people can read it and know it and still die unbelieving.
In any case, these are valid and good questions. And the answers are perhaps simpler and clearer than those given, in the video, to the young man (and are possibly best answered in the reverse order of the question itself):
“. . . why is it that millions of people can read it and know it [the Bible] and still die unbelieving?”
Reviewing the “common” use and understanding of “know” may help resolve some confusion on this issue because his “if” questions (if the Bible is really the revealed Word of God, and if it has the power . . .) depend on this assumption (that “millions of people can read it and know it and still die unbelieving”).
“Know” is a word that has a range of meanings – from simply mentally being aware of a fact to the far more solid knowing based on experience. In both cases we can say we know; while in the latter instance that we really know. We can know a man can walk on the moon (and by listening to those who have done so, have some idea what it is like). An astronaut who has been on the moon can say he really knows about walking on the moon – both are correct, while the astronaut more fully knows.
Jesus made this important distinction about knowing the Bible mentally and superficially versus more fully knowing what it says through the trials, challenges and struggles of trying to live what we read:
Jesus replied [to some of the best educated in the Bible of His day], “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” Mt 22:29
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jn 8:31-32
Biblical “knowing” (and the faith that comes through it) is always an experiential knowledge.
Jesus was not denying, in the first quote, these “experts” knew the words of the Bible, rather He was highlighting the fact that they did not know the fullness of the far more important meaning and essence of what it was trying to communicate because they had not, by and through God’s Grace and power, experienced His truths (and it takes God’s Grace to really understand the Bible and believe His truths).
So, yes, people can read the Bible and, as a result, they can in one sense fairly say they “know it” (and maybe even have some of it memorized) “and still die unbelieving.” But far from this confusing us, the reality that we can read and know the words while, at the same time, really know nothing about what is being said, should strengthen us in our faith because this is one of the great warning themes of the Bible. For in just one of many, many cases we are cautioned:
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power [missing the real meaning of what they are reading, that true godliness is always accompanied by God’s Grace – His power working through us]. Have nothing to do with them. 2Ti 3:1-5
Again, the very real danger of self-deception about “believing” and having saving faith is one of the very key themes of the Bible and, as such, is taught and warned about throughout the Bible. And interestingly, these warnings relate to another key apparent misunderstanding (or incorrect assumption) on the part of the questioner about the issue being discussed – namely when he mentions:
“. . . it has the power that you say it has . . .”
We do not know, from the YouTube clip, what was said by the speakers prior to the clip. We do not know if they said the Bible has power (in which case they were in error) or if the questioner simply assumed the Bible itself made this claim (in which case his assumption was wrong).
The word “power” appears 266 times in the Bible (113 times in the New Testament). Yet there is not a single case equating the Scriptures with power. In fact, in the first New Testament use of “power,” Jesus makes a clear distinction between the Scriptures (Word of God – the Bible) and the power of God (Holy Spirit):
Jesus replied [to some of the leading religionists of His time], “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” Mt 22:29
The Bible has no inherent power so that reading it will “make things happen” or win the favor of God. To give it this status, as some have done in the past and are doing even today, will become a stumbling block to finding the source of real power in Jesus Christ as He warned 2,000 years ago (and provided as a caution for us today):
“I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life . These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” Jn 5:36-40
Understanding these limiting truths about the Bible in no way minimizes its importance to us and our temporal and eternal salvation. While the Bible is not “raw” power itself, it is a great catalyst to power as it teaches us about Christ, His:
- Truths,
- Promises of Grace and conditions for protecting these gifts,
- Warnings about our enemies that will destroy our faith if we are not careful,
- Our mission . . .
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Knowledge is power. Francis Bacon
Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jn 8:31-32
Jesus makes it clearer and simpler than we do: power comes not in merely reading and being mentally aware of His truth, but in the further and deeper knowing obtained only through the experience of struggling with (the trials and errors) of faith.
Yes, the young man in questioning highlighted one of very great misunderstandings about faith (and the level of faith the Bible clearly, time and time again, indicates is) required for salvation:
Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth [this is true faith] so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 1Pe 1:22-23
Reading the 2nd sentence above, separate from the sentence that precedes it, may lead us to believe the Bible has power to save us. But the 1st sentence reiterates the clear Bible theme (“by obeying the truth” we experience the power of God and His salvation). That:
The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 1Co 4:20
not of talk or words, even the great words of the Bible, if unheeded and unpracticed. Or as James so clearly states:
Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. Jas 2:17
The Bible truly is a very great and important gift to us, but, like any gift, it must be properly used to be of maximum benefit. And giving it power is a perversion and distraction from the truth. Maybe a corny analogy can best make the case:
The Bible is the most valuable of all possible maps and signs because it points to the greatest of all possible treasures, Jesus Christ and His offered eternal salvation of our souls. But similar to the clearest map to a great earthly treasure, neither are of any benefit to us if we fail to follow the paths they lay out for finding their respective treasures.
Christ offers us the map. In it He promises His Grace (provision, protection, power . . .) in many forms to help us do what otherwise is impossible, to many degrees and at many levels, without His Grace. Yet, all the while, He warns us His saving faith is not passive, but active – we must seek, walk, fight . . . to find and realize this great treasure:
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Mt 7:13-14
“If the Bible is really the revealed Word of God . . .,” the young man asked
Just as we quoted earlier:
Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jn 8:31-32
Jesus also, similarly, said:
Jesus said, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.” Jn 7:16-17
“That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Lk 12:47-48
So that, the only way we can expect to change the “If the Bible is really the revealed Word of God . . .” to being able to know and say: “Since the Bible is really the revealed Word of God . . .” is not in simply studying and reading, but also in doing what Christ tells us in it.
In the end, maybe the best answer to the question:
“If the Bible is really the revealed Word of God, and it has the power that you say it has, why is it that millions of people can read it and know it and still die unbelieving?”
would have simply been a clarification and rephrasing of it:
The Bible is really the revealed Word of God. And as it reveals, in many ways – and in many places, it is our only map, with associated signs, to Christ Jesus and His eternal salvation. But read and study it as we might, it assumes no power to save us demonstrating why it is that, sadly, millions of people read it and still die unbelieving because they fail to act on and live by Jesus’ revealed Grace and Truth offered them.
Let us be those who really know God’s Word!