Would this be considered Biblical ignorance?

[HeDied4U]

Over the weekend, I came across some sermons my pastor preached back in 2010 (IIRC), long before my wife and I began attending. One of them was from the book of Nehemiah where, after the wall was rebuilt, they came across the Scriptures, and everybody was in awe of the Word, and it became all important to the people. (I know I'm kind of paraphrasing, but you get the idea).

Anyway, right at the start of the sermon, the pastor conducted a little test. He rattled off about 6 or 7 TV commercials, saying about the first half of each and having the congregation complete it, if they could. From what I could hear, they did a pretty good job of knowing their commercials, even some from the 80's and 90's. I'll admit that I was able to complete all of them as I listened. Next he did the same thing with Scripture verses. He would begin a verse, and then see if the people could finish it. This time from what I could hear, it didn't turn out so good. Just for the record, I didn't do too well either.

While he didn't go on to admonish the people for their lack of Scriptural knowledge and/or memorization, he made it plain that we should know the Word of God just as well, if not better than our favorite TV commercials.

I was commenting about the sermon to Kris, and she pointed out that it was a simple case of Biblical ignorance. I tend to disagree. I just think it's a lack of people, myself included, realizing the importance of needing the Word in their lives and taking the time to invest in reading it as much as they can.

Would like to hear your thoughts on the subject.

 

[T-Bone]

Ignorance just simply means "not knowing"...clearly the illustration showed that the people did not know the Scripture as well as they did the commercials...in that sense they were ignorant.  At the same time don't think it implies that they are completely ignorant of the Scriptures because they could not quote a particular verse.

 

[rsc2a]

Not knowing a particular verse does not make one ignorant of the Bible, just those particular verses.

I'd also be willing to bet that the pastor picked very popular commercials and less popular verses. Flip that and you'd get the opposite result, at least among the "churched" (generally speaking).

 

[ThatGirl]

I think it's more likely because commercials are repetitive and are set to catchy jingles that make them easy to remember.  That's what advertisers get paid to do...help us remember the product being sold through creative marketing. 

 

[HeDied4U]

I think it's more likely because commercials are repetitive and are set to catchy jingles that make them easy to remember.  That's what advertisers get paid to do...help us remember the product being sold through creative marketing.

Hmmmm, I think I've just come up with the next "great thing" for the Christian Church; I'll set Scripture verses to catchy jingles so we'll all remember them better. I'll get rich, and in turn help millions of Christians with their Scripture memorization.

And of course ThatGirl, as the inspiration for this idea, I will give you a 5% cut of all my earnings (or should I be biblical about it and give you 10%? LOL).



And to T-Bone and rsc2a; both good answers. Thanks.

 

[Ransom]

HeDied4U said:

I'll set Scripture verses to catchy jingles so we'll all remember them better.

Hey, it worked for Martin Luther. What do you know better offhand: the first stanza of Psalm 46, or the first stanza of "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God"?

 

[JrChurch]

I know it is MY responsibility to hide the word of God in my heart.  How much time and attention I devote to learning Scripture will determine the outcome.

 

[ThatGirl]

I think it's more likely because commercials are repetitive and are set to catchy jingles that make them easy to remember.  That's what advertisers get paid to do...help us remember the product being sold through creative marketing.

Hmmmm, I think I've just come up with the next "great thing" for the Christian Church; I'll set Scripture verses to catchy jingles so we'll all remember them better. I'll get rich, and in turn help millions of Christians with their Scripture memorization.

And of course ThatGirl, as the inspiration for this idea, I will give you a 5% cut of all my earnings (or should I be biblical about it and give you 10%? LOL).



And to T-Bone and rsc2a; both good answers. Thanks.

Of course, if you do that then you stand the risk of being called seeker sensitive, liberal, watered down, entertaining, etc.....

 

[raised2walk]

Hmmmm, I think I've just come up with the next "great thing" for the Christian Church; I'll set Scripture verses to catchy jingles so we'll all remember them better. I'll get rich, and in turn help millions of Christians with their Scripture memorization.

And of course ThatGirl, as the inspiration for this idea, I will give you a 5% cut of all my earnings (or should I be biblical about it and give you 10%? LOL).



And to T-Bone and rsc2a; both good answers. Thanks.

It's already been done, actually. Bean had a few cds of verses set to jingles. They were pretty fun and easy for little ones to catch Scripture and lock it away.

 

[Izdaari]

Not knowing a particular verse does not make one ignorant of the Bible, just those particular verses.

I'd also be willing to bet that the pastor picked very popular commercials and less popular verses. Flip that and you'd get the opposite result, at least among the "churched" (generally speaking).

I think this is probably the case. And because of that, it doesn't necessarily show that the folks were ignorant of Scripture.

 

[brianb]

How about Simpsons episodes?

Matthew 21:17