Have you ever noticed that on "Jeopardy", very few contestants seem to know answers when the category is the "Bible"? This is sad. There seems to be a widespread ignorance of the Bible in this country.
What saddens me most about ignorance of the Bible is that people can only be saved by an understanding of it. Paul said of Timothy, "And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." (2 Tim. 3:15) We are told in James 1:21 that the word "is able to save your souls." We will be judged by the words of Christ. (John 12:48)
Years ago, I discovered this funny illustration attributed to Billy Moore, a gospel preacher. To improve your knowledge of the Bible, make a list of the Bible characters or events referenced that confused the mountaineer preacher, and where they are found.
The Mountaineer Preacher
The story is told about a mountaineer who felt that he had been called to preach and requested the position with a local church in town. Submitting to an examination the following procedure took place:
"Can you read, Sam?" "Yes sir." "Can you write?" "Yes sir, but my wife is a better writer, sir." "Do you know the Bible?" "Yes sir, I'm pretty good in the Bible. I know my Bible from lid to lid; from generations to revolutions." "What part of the Bible do you like best?" "Well sir, I like the New Testament best." "What book of the New Testament do you like the best?" "Well sir, the book of parables." "Which of the parables?" "Why I like the parable of the Good Samaritan." "Well tell us of the Good Samaritan."
"Well once upon a time a man went from Jerusalem to Jerico and fell among thieves and the thorns grew up and choked him. And he went on and didn't have any money, and he met the Queen of Sheba, and she gave him a thousand talents of gold and one hundred changes of raiment. And he got in a chariot and drove furiously, and while he was driving under a tree his hair caught among the limbs, and he hung there for three days and three nights; and the raven brought him food to eat and water to drink, and one night while he was hanging his wife came along and cut off his hair, and he fell on stony ground and it rained forty nights, and he hid himself in a cave and he met a man who said, 'Come in and have supper with me.' And he said, 'I have married a wife and can't come now.' So the man went into the highways and byways and compelled him to come in and have supper with him. And he went on to Jerusalem and sitting high up in a window was Jezebel and when she saw him she laughed and they flang her down. And he said, 'Flang her down some more,' and they flang her down some more. And they flang her down seventy and seven times and of the fragments they picked up twelve baskets full. Now whose wife is she going to be in the resurrection because they all had her? Amen."
The examiners sat silent for a few minutes; finally one of them said, "These am thoughtful delinerations our brother has pronounced to us: therefore, I recommend that he be accepted unamiously, because he sho know the Bible from kiver to kiver."