Is it Really That Important to Read Your Bible?
By Movieguide® Contributor
Recent studies into the beliefs Christian Americans hold reveal why reading the Bible is so important for those seeking a rooted faith.
The American Worldview Inventory 2024 revealed that only 6% of professing Christians hold a purely Biblical worldview while the other 94% embrace syncretism — a custom blend of philosophies pieced together to a person’s liking. This belief is formed largely through a misunderstanding of what the Bible teaches because of how culture talks about certain topics.
“Our culture is working against us,” Dr. Peter Bylsma told CBN. “In fact, we don’t even realize we are in a culture that is influencing us in different ways. For a person to take on a different perspective that is influencing us in different ways. For a person to take on a different perspective based on Scripture…[you need] a network of people who are thinking like you and can support one another because the message of the Gospel and the message of the Bible are countercultural and that is hard to live in today’s society.”
While it is extremely important to surround yourself with a community of believers who can influence you for good, it is even more important to get to the source of Christian beliefs: the Bible. Last year, the American Bible Society found over half of Americans (52%) wished they read their Bible more, however, they “don’t have time” to do so.
A lack of engagement with the Bible has led many people to ascribe to new age beliefs with a study from 2018 revealing that 60% of Americans believe in one of these four topics: “believe spiritual energy can be located in physical things,” “believe in psychics,” “believe in reincarnation” and “believe in astrology.”
Belief in new age topics has only grown since then, with a YouGov poll from late 2022 finding that 87% of Americans believe in at least one of the following: “karma is real,” “hypnosis,” “manifesting” and “UFO’s/extraterrestrials are real.”
Bylsma believes these unbiblical beliefs come from a surface-level understanding of Christianity, and he blames the church for that.
“We usually come to Christ in a simple way, usually not having counted the cost, usually not having the knowledge of what you you’re getting yourself into,” he said. “You jump in and then you have that relationship and then you think that’s enough. And I would say the church doesn’t really do a good job of nurturing mature Christians.”
“Some of the churches I go to have the same themes over and over,” Bylsma continued. “I would say it’s elementary; it’s almost spiritual milk. And there really needs to be a deeper dive into the concepts and the themes [of the Bible]. Twenty minutes once a week just doesn’t do it.”
Along with reading the Bible and surrounding yourself with a strong community of believers, Movieguide® believes it is important to consider the content you consume and the way it impacts your worldview. This is why we produce reviews that break down the worldviews being taught so viewers can be on guard against non-Biblical and anti-Christian teachings.
Movieguide® previously reported:
A worldview is a way of interpreting all of reality. It is usually a broad philosophical viewpoint with theological implications.
There are basically two positive worldviews. The first one accounts for the fact that some movies are about the Old Testament (e.g., THE TEN COMMANDMENTS), rather than Christian history or theology per se, and some movies have strong or very strong moral worldviews or a broad ethical monotheism that reflect basic biblical values, virtues and principles in both the Old Testament and the New. Thus, even an action movie with violence and with no implied or direct Christian references may have a dominant worldview that promotes or extols some positive moral truths, like justice.
Moral/Biblical Worldview: Any worldview that implicitly or explicitly reflects and/or promotes the moral principles, values and virtues of the Bible (charity, love, compassion, justice, sexual purity, mercy, truthfulness, faithfulness, honoring one’s parents, the ubiquity of sin, etc.), that rebukes evil (such as hatred, envy, greed, lust, sexual immorality, drunkenness, cruelty), that refers to the God of the Bible or a Creator God who is personal and benevolent rather than impersonal (as in the paganism and pantheism of the Buddhists and New Age), or that tells a story or a group of stories that directly come from the Bible, such as THE TEN COMMANDMENTS or THE NATIVITY STORY. A movie can broadly fit the term ethical monotheistic worldview, in which case its got a moral and/or biblical worldview.
Christian Worldview: Any worldview that implicitly or explicitly reflects and/or promotes specific Christian principles, values and virtues (such as repentance, forgiveness, sacrifice, the deity of Christ, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, etc.) that are not just part of a basic moral worldview, that refers in a positive way to the New Testament or a passage from the New Testament, and, especially, that refers to Jesus Christ and/or His Gospel in a positive way. A Christian worldview can be allegorical (as in SUPERMAN RETURNS) but it must be accompanied by some positive Christian principles, values and virtues, like sacrifice (which is what Superman does in SUPERMAN RETURNS).
