Here’s an article I wrote for Q, an organization started by Gabe Lyons to help Christian leaders wrestle with the biggest issues impacting the church today…
Biblical Literacy Begins With… Reading
3.9 billion.
That’s how many copies of the Bible we’ve bought over the last 50 years, according to one estimate. As you might have guessed, that makes the Bible the bestselling book of all time. The Bible has sold more copies than Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Twilight. Combined.
But we all know there’s a difference between “bestselling” and “most read.”
When J.K. Rowling sold 400 million copies of Harry Potter (#3 on the list), there’s a good chance most of those copies were actually read.
Can we say the same for the nearly four billion Bibles in circulation? I think we all know the answer to that.
Not all copies of the Bible are read, and almost none are read cover to cover. If we turned our attention to a modern novel, it would be a bizarre and ludicrous experience to only read a few pages in the middle and ignore the rest.
These are the words of an atheist blogger named Jake Wilson. They are a chilling indictment of our relationship with the Bible. The worst part is, he’s absolutely right.
We buy a lot of Bibles. We just don’t read them. And if we do, it’s usually a verse here or a chapter there. We don’t read; we cherry-pick. And cherry-picking is a guaranteed path to a miserable reading experience.
I want you to change two things about the way you engage the Bible. If you do, you might just find yourself reading — seriously reading — God’s Word.
Ben Irwin 
Ben,
Biblical illiteracy is a great challenge for the modern Church. It’s really astounding, given the historical fact that people died for us to be able to read this book. Thanks for an important post.
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