BIBLE IGNORANCE | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 7, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 36.

BIBLE IGNORANCE.

WHAT was the character of Pontius Pilate? and what was his place in history?
What are the synoptic Gospels? How many are there? Which is the shortest?
Who was Joseph of Arimathea? Where is his place in history!
Who is Ishmael? When did he live?
Who is Haman, suggested in the proverb, “As high as Haman”?
In how many days does the Bible say the world was made?
Who was Noah?

There ought not to be an intelligent Christian man or woman or young man or young woman who has had at least three years opportunity of Bible study, who could not answer these questions. We can select scores of Sabbath-school and church school children from twelve to eighteen who would answer every one.

Yet the New York Evening Post, of not long ago, tells us that, of thirty freshmen in an English class in Yale, only a few more than half had ever heard of the subject of the first question, and part of these were doubtful. The most of them did not know what the synoptic Gospels were, and a bright, shining, literary light among the high classmen did not know that Mark’s Gospel was the shortest.

Another teacher reported that among his students he could not find one who could give any account of Joseph of Arimathea.

A sophomore confounded Ishmael with Jacob. Still another thought Haman was one of the earliest inventors of flying machines.

In Cambridge, England, no remembrance of the record in Genesis 1 could be declared, altho the students were familiar with Greek and Egyptian mythology.

The Bible is not a large book, yet it has changed the face of the world, and overthrown and established nations and governments. As much as it is maligned, it is the mightiest book in the world. It is era-making because it is character-building. It deals with every phase of human existence, and presents a remedy for every ill. It is the most widely circulated and best printed book in the world, and proportionately the most neglected.

This Bible ignorance is ominous of evil. It will be said of those who live now as of those anciently, when too late, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me; seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children. As they were increased, so they sinned against Me; therefore will I change their glory into shame. They eat up the sin of My people, and they set their heart on their iniquity. And there shall be, like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings. For they shall eat, and not have enough; they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase; because they have left off to take heed to the Lord.” Hosea 4:6-10. What a picture of these days!