The Bible remains the world's

all-time best selling book, but Americans demonstrate an embarrassing

ignorance of biblical basics.

About 92 percent of Americans

own at least one Bible, and the average household has three. Yet, one

Gallup survey revealed that fewer than half of Americans can name the

first book of the Bible (Genesis), only one-third know who delivered the

Sermon on the Mount (many thought Billy Graham instead of Jesus), and

one-fourth do not know what is celebrated on Easter (the resurrection

of Jesus).

As Gallup said once, "We

revere the Bible, but we don't read it." The number of people who

read the Bible at least occasionally has dropped from 73 percent in the

1980s to 59 percent, according to Gallup. No wonder 12 percent of Christians

think Noah's wife was Joan of Arc, while 80 percent of Christians believe

the often-quoted statement, "God helps those who help themselves"

is part of the Good Book. Actually, Ben Franklin supposedly came up with

that one.

So what's the problem? Why

don't we know the Bible any better? One reason, says Tyndale House Publishers,

is that 64 percent of Americans don't read the Bible because they are

too busy. Why not buy the Bible on tape and listen while you commute?

That's better than no intake.

Another reason is the Bible

is confusing, according to 80 percent who took Tyndale's survey. Little

wonder, since modern Americans still prefer the King James Version by

5-1. The King James Version was released in 1611. Vernacular has changed

since that time. Not the message, just the "thees" and "thous."

Another reason is that too

many of us are sporadic in our worship attendance and small group Bible

study participation. You can't benefit from Bible study when you're not

present.

The Bible still answers the

basic questions of life, and serves as a great road map to everyday living.

Plus, it enriches and nourishes our spiritual lives because it is "God's

Word." As the old cliché goes, "A Bible that is falling

apart usually belongs to a person that isn't."

If we don't get a better handle

on what's inside, I'm afraid we may end up like the pastor candidate who

was interviewing with the pastor search committee of a prospective church.

The committee liked the candidate so well that it brought him before the

deacons for examination.

"Sir, do you know your

Bible?" the deacon chairman asked.

"Certainly I know the

Bible!" the man replied.

"Which part do you know?"

"I know it all! I know

the Old Testament and the New Testament," said the pastor.

"Well," the chairman

said, "why don't you tell us one of those stories, one of the parables.

How about starting with the parable of the Good Samaritan?"

So he began: "There was

a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus who went down to Jericho by night

and fell among thorns, and the thorns choked him half to death, and he

said, 'What shall I do? I will arise and go to my father's house.' And

he arose and climbed up a sycamore tree.

"The next morning Solomon

and his wife Gomorroah came by and found him, and they carried him down

to the Ark for Moses to care for, but as he went through the Eastern Gate

into the Ark he caught his hair in a limb and he hanged there 40 days

and 40 nights and he was afterwards hungry, and the ravens came and fed

him. The next day the three wise men came by and carried him down to Ninevah,

and when he got there he found Delilah sitting on the wall, and he said,

'Chunk her down, boys!'

"And they said, 'how many

times shall we chunk her down? Until seven times?' And he said, 'Nay,

until 70 times 7!' And they chunked her down 490 times, and she burst

asunder in their midst. And they picked up 12 baskets full of the fragments

that were left. And in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be?"

And then the chairman said,

"Folks, I think we ought to call him as our pastor. He really

knows his Bible!"

The Rev. Dr. David L. Chancey

is pastor, McDonough Road Baptist, Fayetteville. The McDonough Road Baptist

family cordially invites you to join them this Sunday for Bible study

for all ages at 9:45 a.m. and worship at 10:55 a.m. and 6 p.m.