Should you be required to read the bible at least once to call yourself a Christian?

originally posted by: Entreri06



It blows my Mind that you can have a major religion that counts over a billion people as it's flock and yet less the one percent have actually read the sole book it's based on.


Now correct me if I'm wrong, but in Islam and judiesm you are required to have read the Torah and Koran, right?



I just can't comprehend how you can have millions of people subscribe to a religion, base there life and soul on it, and never bothered to read the whole bible.



Multiple studies have been done showing that Christians (on average) know less about the bible then atheists!!! How can that be!?!


m.christianity.com...


So what do y'all think??

How can that be? They're Christians! If they'd actually read the entire Bible they probably wouldn't be. Yes, they should be required to read it in its entirety and pass a test proving that they have a basic literal understanding of what it says.

originally posted by: MarxMarvellous
a reply to: Entreri06

Christians should be FORCED to read it once a year, if you do that, you have true faith.

I'm not religious and I've read it, that thing is part of the reason I sold my soul (the other reason was money and access to occult powers).

Not only that, but it would keep them off the streets and prevent them from bothering other people. Good idea!

originally posted by: Kukri
It amazes me that the book Christianity is based on wasn't even written by the man their religion is based on. Hell he didn't even write the forward. Also apparently he was illiterate even though he was the embodiment of God himself! So if God can't write who made the tablets Moses brought down from the mountain?

Ah fairy tales and pixie dust I tell ya.

Are imaginary people illiterate?

a reply to: Entreri06

Multiple studies have been done showing that Christians (on average) know less about the bible then atheists!!! How can that be!?!

LOL what do ya mean "how can that be"??

The reason a good portion of those people are Atheists is because they actually read the bible...

originally posted by: iDope
I don't think you should be required to read the bible to call yourself Christian, but it would show credence in your beliefs to at least know what you believe. I have been in arguments regarding the Christian faith several times and on each occassion the other person did not know much about the religion they practiced i.e. going to church at least once a week. It's obvious to many athiests or agnostics like myself that many Christians don't even follow their religion seriously, as they do not follow the morals and values that it teaches, yet they will be the first one to condemn me for something I say or do. That I believe is hypocritical, being as I have read about 60% of the Bible and choose not to follow it for my own reasons.

I would rather follow the teachings of multiple fiction writers that offer much more insight on human nature and their values taught through other imaginary though realistic charachters. It is the same type of teaching, just not flooded with God and has the same amount of false history.

I don't really think they should be required to have read the entire Bible to think of themselves as Christians. However, if they are going to say a peep to anyone about Christianity outside of church, having read the entire Bible should be a requirement.

The Ethiopian eunuch only needed a single verse from Isaiah (Acts ch8).
Since the basic message is simple and easily grasped, no more was needed.
(Though, as it happens, I have read the Bible through several times over).

But who are you to be imposing requirements on people?
Nobody sets a requirement that somebody must read the entire works of David Hume before they are allowed to call themselves an atheist (though perhaps they should).

There was an attempt to raise me as Catholic. It didn't stick... There is a concerted effort to STOP you from reading the Bible. There are dioceses that still insist on performing Mass in Latin, with their back to the Church. The belief is that you are not qualified to understand the Bible and therefore must leave the interpretation of God's word to the Church.

It backfired. An intense study of the Bible lead to a bunch of uncomfortable questions for my Padre that he often couldn't or wouldn't answer.

But insisting I - NOT - study the Bible, it made me dive into it and as a result...not Catholic or even Christian anymore.

TLR: Lot's of "christians" have never read the Bible. That wont stop them from telling you that they know it and you dont

Aren't most of you who are participating in this thread the "ones" that jump on Christians about judging YOU or one another but yet I see here how most of you have made judgement statements against a faith that many proclaim to have?

So Christians are not to judge one on their faith and beliefs but you can?

What happened to all that preaching you non believers made about judging? Yet you are no better.

To those of you who live the double standard...........no comment.

a reply to: Entreri06

Absolutely not. You don't have to be a theologian to be a Christian. I know quite a bit about all religions. I've never fully read the bible. I plan to--but I've only read pieces (which probably adds up to almost the whole thing). And I've read plenty of kids' versions. Granted, I'm pretty young still.

The only thing you need is to believe the truth. That's why it's the truth. Get it?

Oh, and I bet even though I'm only 23 I've read more books than all of you put together. I'm a bibliophile. ^_^


Faith isn't something you get from a book. The bible gives off an energy no other book does. All books are alive but the bible feels different than any other religious tome. Believe it or not. It's powerful. That's all I'm going to say. I don't need to finish it to realize it's the real deal. That's why I'm taking it so slow.

a reply to: Entreri06

Should you be required to read the bible at least once to call yourself a Christian?

I can't say I have ever read that requirement in the Bible. In fact, the first century Christians didn't even have a New Testament. And for a majority of time for the past 2000 years most all common folk were illiterate.

So, no. What someone needs to accept Christ is what the thief on the cross believed and said.

originally posted by: Entreri06
It blows my Mind that you can have a major religion that counts over a billion people as it's flock and yet less the one percent have actually read the sole book it's based on.

That's a B.S. statistic. Absurd.

Christianity has 2 billion people. One billion are Catholics. Catholics read the bible. And the there are three bible readings at Sunday Mass, as well as two bible readings at weekday mass .... continually. There is an indulgence granted for 1/2 hour of bible reading each day. I know conservative Catholics take advantage of this.

Christianity has 1 billion protestants. There are hundreds of millions of protestants who are evangelical/fundamentalist. They read the bible. Episcopalians and Lutherans have bible readings in their services and the Lutherans I know have bibles in their home and can quote it.

So your stat is poppycock. I suggest you get your information from a different source. The one you used is phooooey.

originally posted by: Leonidas
There was an attempt to raise me as Catholic. It didn't stick... There is a concerted effort to STOP you from reading the Bible.

That's not true at all.
That nonsense is just anti-Catholic propaganda pumped out by fundamentalists.

The Sunday mass has three bible readings. The weekday masses have two. This is all the time. There are Catholic bible studies and Catholic TV programming with bible read alongs. And the Church has an indulgence attached to 1/2 hour bible reading ... each day.

There are dioceses that still insist on performing Mass in Latin, with their back to the Church. The belief is that you are not qualified to understand the Bible and therefore must leave the interpretation of God's word to the Church.

That's not true at all.

Geeeze, where do you get this stuff? There are some churches that offer Mass in Latin. The REASON is because the church is a UNIVERSAL church and latin is the old shared language of all the churches around the world. Example - A person from America would be able to go to Mass in Uganda and follow along and worship along with the locals. Most of the time, the Latin mass will have a booklet with the latin on one side of the page and the English on the other so people know EXACTLY what is being said during the service.

originally posted by: DeathSlayer
Aren't most of you who are participating in this thread the "ones" that jump on Christians about judging YOU or one another but yet I see here how most of you have made judgement statements against a faith that many proclaim to have?

So Christians are not to judge one on their faith and beliefs but you can?

What happened to all that preaching you non believers made about judging? Yet you are no better.

To those of you who live the double standard...........no comment.

To be fair, atheists don't have a mandate not to judge...

originally posted by: FlyersFan

originally posted by: Leonidas
There was an attempt to raise me as Catholic. It didn't stick... There is a concerted effort to STOP you from reading the Bible.

That's not true at all.
That nonsense is just anti-Catholic propaganda pumped out by fundamentalists.

The Sunday mass has three bible readings. The weekday masses have two. This is all the time. There are Catholic bible studies and Catholic TV programming with bible read alongs. And the Church has an indulgence attached to 1/2 hour bible reading ... each day.

There are dioceses that still insist on performing Mass in Latin, with their back to the Church. The belief is that you are not qualified to understand the Bible and therefore must leave the interpretation of God's word to the Church.

That's not true at all.

Geeeze, where do you get this stuff? There are some churches that offer Mass in Latin. The REASON is because the church is a UNIVERSAL church and latin is the old shared language of all the churches around the world. Example - A person from America would be able to go to Mass in Uganda and follow along and worship along with the locals. Most of the time, the Latin mass will have a booklet with the latin on one side of the page and the English on the other so people know EXACTLY what is being said during the service.

The only way Christianity is true is if there is a global conspiracy to discredit it... Like all the satanic illuminatti stuff... So no real suprise a lot of people think that everything is a conspiracy against them.

originally posted by: FlyersFan

originally posted by: Entreri06
It blows my Mind that you can have a major religion that counts over a billion people as it's flock and yet less the one percent have actually read the sole book it's based on.

That's a B.S. statistic. Absurd.

Christianity has 2 billion people. One billion are Catholics. Catholics read the bible. And the there are three bible readings at Sunday Mass, as well as two bible readings at weekday mass .... continually. There is an indulgence granted for 1/2 hour of bible reading each day. I know conservative Catholics take advantage of this.

Christianity has 1 billion protestants. There are hundreds of millions of protestants who are evangelical/fundamentalist. They read the bible. Episcopalians and Lutherans have bible readings in their services and the Lutherans I know have bibles in their home and can quote it.

So your stat is poppycock. I suggest you get your information from a different source. The one you used is phooooey.

I didn't source the stat because it was a figure of speech.... I live in mississippi (so in the middle of the Bible Belt) and almost everyone you meet considers them self a Christian but only devote preachers have ever read the whole bible. While anyone who has read Harry potter or a game of thrones has read more pages.


Have you read the entire bible?? Or just had single verses read to you by your minister?

originally posted by: Entreri06
Have you read the entire bible??

Many times.

The stat quoted that only 1% have read the bible is BS.

As I said ... there are one billion Catholics and the Sunday mass has three bible readings. In the course of three years, a Catholic will have read the entire bible simply by going to Sunday Mass alone. That's not counting their reading it on their own and in bible studies etc etc.

One billion Cathlics = 1/2 of Christianity. And I know darn well that the same goes for Episcopalians and Lutherans. And Evangelicals thump that bible like it's the only book on the planet.

No there is only one requirement to be any kind of a Christian and that is to believe you are a Christian.Reading a book has no guarantees of understanding what it means.For the majority of people that have read the bible it may as well be written in Martian.

Remember that Faith comes through hearing, not through reading, but maybe Laz is splitting hairs...

The whole problem with reading the Bible is that it is a coded book, meant to misdirect those who were meant NOT to understand the message. You must have the ability to see what you are looking at, to read between the lines, to read the Book with the eyes of understanding that God does not give to everyone.

For instance, most Christians believe they have a soul, but the Genesis account indicates that Spirit + body = soul, the living, breathing person. So you don't have a soul, but you ARE a soul.

Most Christians believe Hell is real. However, in Genesis we read that God made the Heavens and the Earth. Him making Hell is not mentioned. What the Hell?

Oh, I almost forgot - the Bible says God made Evil as well as Good. Who knew?

My question would be, who would do the requiring, and how would they test? Anyone can read a book and not retain he information or even understand what they actually read. So, to ask if someone should be required to read the Bible--I thik that's an non-enforceable mandate.

Interestingly enough, I had about a 15-20min conversation with a guy handing out stuff about creationism from the Creation Museum (I live literally about 15 minutes away from it), and it was readily evident that he had not done the research on the Bible for himself, and chose to just believe things he was told by Ken Hamm and his folk. While he was friendly enough and non-confrontational, he could easily see that I knew the Bible very well and walked away from the religion for very valid reasons (to me...probably not to him).

I'd argue that most modern, self-proclaimed Christians don't even know what the Bible says, let alone what many of the passages could actually mean as opposed to what they're told to believe they mean. Oddly enough, I think that if more people actually read and understood the Bible, its history, and could separate the fact from the unproveable (and oft debunked) claims within it, more people would come to the realization that Christianity--and, by extension, religion in general--is not all that it's claimed or cracked up to be.

I'm a recovered Christian. I used to be fully immersed in the awe of the stories in the Bible, the teachings from the pulpits, the repetition of the hymns, etc. Then one day, I decided to treat the Bible and the stories in it like anything else in the world, and I dove head first into its origins, and other contemporary religions, and the borrowing and adapting of religions to create new ones, and the psychology behind religious beliefs and why nations would want a nationalized religion, and the fallacious tendencies of many of the claims within the religions, the discrepencies within factions of the religion, and the corruption within the religions, and biblical archaeology, and the need for faith in lieu of lack of factual evidence, and etc, etc, etc.

I will never claim that the Bible is a worthless book with no redeeming qualities--many of the stories and fables contained within have very good messages. But as for the historicity of the book as a whole (to include the parables and the creation myths and flood myths, et al.) and the supernatural claims, I can only brush it off as fanciful claims in order to inspire those to lead good lives in the face of the threat of eternal damnation.

As one of the lines in a good song states:

Way back when the prophecies began
Do you think they really had a master plan
Or were they merely writing fables, stories?
I don't know but it has occurred to me
The punishment that they threaten constantly
It's only real if they could just convince me

originally posted by: Entreri06
Multiple studies have been done showing that Christians (on average) know less about the bible then atheists!!! How can that be!?!

If more Christians actually read the bible, they'd likely become atheists. Many atheists become so because they studied the bible. It was a big part of my departure from religion.

I don't think there should be ANY prerequisite for people calling themselves Christian. We have FREEDOM of religion and no one should have to do anything to call themselves a member of any religion.

Preachers Who are Not Believers