The Status of Bible Teaching Today

The Status of Bible Teaching Today THE STATUS OF BIBLE TEACHING TODAY
GEO. H. STEPHENSON IN THESE LECTURES we have had the importance and significance of the Bible teaching clearly presented. All thinking people must recognize the great debt our civilization owes to the teaching of the Bible. And if there is no other person in the world who is interested in the teaching of God’s word, surely those of us who have contended for a “Thus saith the Lord” in matters of religion should be deeply concerned about Bible teaching. How ardently we have maintained, and rightly maintained, that the Holy Spirit does not operate on the sinner’s heart independent of the word of God. And how often we have quoted such verses as:—“Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto every good work.” “Every one that hath heard from the Father, and hath learned, cometh to me.” From our contending for a knowledge of the Scriptures, it would be expected that we should have a splendid program of Bible teaching. There is a desire among us to know more of God’s word and we are apparently trying to be more efficient in our work of teaching. However, there is much room for improvement and we lack much of attaining an ideal teaching program. It shall be our purpose in this lecture to discuss the status of teaching today, to ascertain what we are and are not doing. Our subject will be divided into the status of teaching in the home, the schools, the press, the radio, the pulpit, and the regular Bible classes maintained by the various congregations. The home was the first great institution which God gave to bless the world, hence we shall first consider the status of teaching in the home. One does not have to be well versed in the modern affairs of our nation to know that in the average Amercian home of today the Bible is hardly known. Family prayer and family Bible study are things of the past. The modern mother is interested in looking young and being popular in society. The modern father is interested primarily in business and probably playing golf. The mother is interested in the child’s popularity; the father in his success in business. About the only time the Bible is mentioned in the home it is in some joke aimed at religion. As far as systematic Bible teaching is concerned, the average boy or girl knows nothing of it.

About two years ago an eighteen year old boy wrote the Amercian Magazine asking why he should be honest. Shortly afterward a young woman wrote the magazine, asking if it were possible to be popular and still maintain the respect of parents with old ideas of virtue and honor. The inquiries of these young people show the tendency of many of the youth of today. This tendency can be attributed to one great cause, a lack of respect and knowledge of the word of God. In a modern alcoholic advertisement pictures are shown of various men and women with their indorsements of the liquor advertised. The men give their various reasons for liking the liquor, as well as the women. Below the pictures of the women is the word home-maker. If this is the type of home-maker our present generation knows, is it any wonder the people of today know so little of virtue? If she be a home-maker, is it any wonder we are more interested in the movie stars than in the Lord who died for us? It is any wonder that when one picks up a newspaper he reads of this youth who has committed suicide or of another who has murdered his own father and mother? Is it any wonder young girls and boys of high school age are guilty of some of the worst sins? But someone suggests that these conditions do not prevail among those of us contending for New Testament Christianity. This is true, and certainly a higher regard for the Bible as the word of God is found among our Christian homes; but even the best of our homes are failing to give the time they should toward regular and systematic Bible teaching. One of the popular jokes is that of a preacher who visited a home and called for a Bible. The mother asked one of the children, “Bring us that old book we all love so well.” And the little child brought the Sears-Robuck catalog.

Even so-called Christian parents are often more interested in seeing their boys and girls learn the sciences and literature than they are in training them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I do not mean to be pessimistic, but we must face the fact that our homes do not have regular Bible teaching. It is true that the are homes against which this charge cannot be made, but these are too few in number. Christians, let us make our homes truly Christian. Our public schools are not permitted to give systematic instruction in the Bible, but in the majority of them brief selections from the Bible are read occasionally. There are twelve states in the United States which require regular reading of the Bible in the schools. The laws of ten states specifically prohibit the reading of the Bible in the schools, and the remaining states, in their laws, are silent on the question. In the state of Texas it is possible to secure high school credit in Bible by passing an examination over the Old and New Testaments prepared by the State Department of Education. In the city of Dallas, instruction in the Bible is given to students in the various churches of which they are members, and if they are successful in passing a certain examination they are given high school credit for their work. It is easily seen that under our present system of sectarianism and denomina- tionalism it would be next to impossible to teach the Bible in our schools. With so many diversities of opinion concerning religion, the American school can not be expected to be able to give adequate religious instruction.

While we need not expect the public schools to teach the Bible, yet it is a deplorable fact many teachers are mocking the Bible, and scientists “falsely so-called” are teaching speculative philosophy, which would destroy the Bible, as actual scientific facts. Our teachers have often been trained by atheistic professors themselves and it is alarming to know the numbers of teachers who discredit the Bible account of creation and who laugh at the miraculous and supernatural element of the Scriptures.

According to a survey made by the Interchurch World Movement of North America in 1920, there were 27,000,000 children and youth (under 25 years of age) who were not enrolled in any type of Sunday School. Among these were 1,376, 580 in Texas. When we consider the fact that among those who are not included in this list the majority are receiving only partial instruction of the Bible in their sectarian Sunday Schools, we are made to see how many of the youth of today are ignorant of God’s word. The Catholic, Lutheran, Mormon, and Jewish churches, in their parochal schools and the synagogues are giving instruction to their young in their own peculiar doctrines. I admire them for their zeal in teaching what they believe, but I wish that we who claim to be Christians only had the same zeal to be teaching the Holy Scriptures which are able to make us wise unto salvation. In contrast to the agnosticism and materialism which characterize many of the instituions of learning today, Abilene Christian College stands as an institution which bears on the entrance of its main building, “We believe in the Divinity of Christ and in the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures.” And we are thankful for other Christian colleges standing for the truth as it is revealed in the Bible. I am thankful that I was among the many young men and women who were trained in the word of God in Abilene Christian College and that I had the opportunity of sitting at the feet of men of God and learning the great lessons of Divine Truth. In the Christian college we learn not only the facts contained in the Bible, but we are also given the opportunity of practical use of those facts in our every day lives. Our Christian colleges have their faults, and of course they fail to achieve perfection, but we must recognize that they are doing much in the teaching of God’s word. It is generally true that members in the various con-gregations over the country who are ex-students of our Christian colleges are leaders in the work of the church. The printing press has been a wonderful power in the spreading of all kinds of knowledge. The fact that the Bible today is found in practically all of our homes is partly due to the fact that we have the printing press. The press has been used by pratically all types of people. It is used by the mer-chant to advertise his products; it is used by the propogandist to advocate his theories; it is used by our educators in the training of youth; and it is used by the sectarians to spread their false doctrines. The press, which has been powerful in teaching error, may also be powerful in teaching truth. Today we find that the newspapers are usually glad to co-operate with the various churches in their programs of advertising. Many newspapers are glad to receive well-written reports of sermons and practically all of them are glad to make various church announcements. The press has been used by many local congregations in circulating various weekly or monthly papers, containing short Bible topics, church announcements, etc. Interest in the study of the Bible has been created through this medium. In addition to the use of the press in this manner by local congregations, the press has been used to publish many splendid Gospel papers. Such papers include The Firm Foundation, The Gospel Advocate, The Christian Leader, The Christian Worker, and The Gospel Guardian. These papers have done good in the teaching of the Word of God, and I think that no Christian home should be found without at least one gospel paper. It is a sad fact that Christians may be able to subscribe to daily newspaper and several of the leading magazines but they are unable (?) to have a Christian paper. While we acknowledge the good our Christian papers do and the fact that they have helped to convert many people; nevertheless, it is a fact that few people who are not already strong and active Christians ever read a religious paper. The various papers' published by our brethren usually print various religious books, tracts, and sermons which may be used in a very helpful way. Our literature should be used more than it has in the past. The followers of such religious leaders as Rutherford and Mrs. Eddy use the press almost exclusively as a means of converting people to their false teaching. I wish we might have more zeal to distribute literaure of the gospel of Christ all over the world. Why not see that we have religious papers in leading libraries, hotels, etc.? And let us see that we have something that measures up to the standards of journalism, and something for the sinner to read and not a dispute among our brethren.

Within recent years the radio has been having a very important place in our life. It is found in the majority of American homes today from the must humble to the richest. Sects which have used the press very entensively are now turning to radio. Notably among these is Judge Rutherford who has broadcasts regularly over scores of radio stations. Other religious groups are using the radio. In this part of the country we are familiar with the Radio Revival, a program broadcast each day under the leadership of W. E. Hawkins, Jr. and is financed by free-will offerings of the listeners. We are also probably familiar with the Catholic Hour, a regular nationwide broadcast and also nation-wide broadcasts of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ,. an association composed of some of the leading denominations. In some of these programs some instructive addresses are given and some valuable lessons are occasionally presented, but it is evident that very little is accomplished so far as the actual teaching of the Bible is concerned. Our brethren, seeing that the radio has been used by various sects, are in a number of places using it as a means of broadcasting the gospel of Christ. Perhaps the greatest program of radio work among the churches of Christ is that of the Central Church in Nashville, Tennessee which broadcasts ten services each week. We shall talk more of this work later. We have other brethren broadcasting regularly, including Bro. W. L. Oliphant and Bro. Roy Cogdill, who broadcast a splendid program each week over KRLD in Dallas. The regular morning services of the church at Hot Springs, Arkansas of which Verna E. Howard is minister, are broadcast once each month. There are numbers of others of our brethren who broadcast, that we do not have time to mention here. Too many of our broadcasts in the past have been over rather weak broadcasting stations and have not accomplished the good they might have had they been over more powerful stations. Some of our brethren at the present are trying to create interest in a nation-wide “hook-up” broadcast of the gospel of Christ. It seems to me that this affords us an unusual opportunity to do good, and I hope to see the day when pure and simple gospel of Christ is broadcast through the length and breadth of the land.

Paul declares that God has chosen through “the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” (1 Corinthians 1:21) But that preaching which will save is the kind Paul did, and that was the preaching of Jesus Christ and him crucified. From the pulpit of the modern denominations one may hear of the present social order, of the economic conditions, or of national and foreign governmental affairs, but one will hear very little of the gospel which Paul preached, Atheism and infidelity are bad wherever they are found, but they are even worse when found among supposed preachers of the Bible. In view of these facts it is necessary for preachers today not only to teach the Bible, but they must stress its authority, that it is the inspired word of God. I am glad to believe that in contrast with many modern preachers that preachers of the churches of Christ are doing their best to proclaim the Bible, and that they stand ready to contend earnestly for the faith. There are some who fear that our young preachers will not stand for the first principles of the gospel and that there is no one to take the place of the older preachers. But if I may speak as a representative of the younger preachers, may I say that we are ready to do our part in continuing the great work that you older preachers have done. We are ready to stand for the truth, and with your encouragement and help that you are able to offer as1 a result of years of experience on “the firing line,” we are ready to obey the marching orders of our great commander, the Lord Jesus, and go teach all nations. We are determined to carry the blood-stained banner of Prince Immanuel and to take the whole armor of God in order that we may fight against Satan and sin on every hand. May God help all of us as preachers, whether young or old, to heed the admonition of that grand old preacher, Paul, when he said, “Preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will heap to themselves after their own lusts; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside unto fables. But be thou sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill thy ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:1-5)

I would not minimize the great importance of preaching the gospel; I had rather preach the gospel than do anything else I know. But as important as the preaching of the gospel is, we must admit that if an individual depends solely upon his hearing preaching as his source of knowledge of the Bible, his knowledge will be very limited. This is due to a number of reasons, some of which are:

1. The preacher does not have a select group. In his audience are all classes of people, old, young, saint, sinner, educated, and uneducated. In the majority of cases the preacher will either teach a lesson that is too difficult for some or too simple for others. (And even Paul recognized that some people can teach certain classes better than others when he told the older women to teach younger women, a particular class of people).
2. It is a known fact that the majority of an audience will not be able to remember very much of what the preacher says. It is hardly to be expected that an audience can grasp in thirty minutes what a preacher has learned in hours, and sometimes even months and years.
3. Much of the preacher’s sermons are not intended to directly teach the Scriptures, but rather to secure action, to persuade men and women either to be Christians or better Christians.

I do not mean to say that the preacher does not do any teaching, but I do mean to say that the church should have other means of teaching the Bible other than mere public preaching in the pulpit, and that unless other means are used of teaching the Bible, the membership as a whole will be ignorant of the Bible. In order to accomplish the work of teaching the Bible more effectively, the majority of congregations over the country usually have certain periods of Bible teaching in different classes. Practically all of them meet on Sunday morning before the regular hour of worship for this purpose, and we are all familiar with the classes that are held for the various ages. In addition to the Sunday morning classes, a large number of congregations have young people’s training classes on Sunday evening. Many churches have ladies’ weekday Bible classes and some have special training classes for men. In addition to these classes, nearly all congregations of any size have some sort of mid-week service. Sometimes this is largely a devotional service, but in most congregations it is another period of Bible study.

All these classes have done a great work in the teaching of the Bible, but there are many criticisms which might be offered against them. In many instances the classes are not arranged in the most effective way. In many congregations there is no systematic order of classification and no means by which a child may be promoted from one class to another. In our smaller congregations it is nearly impossible to have an ideal arrangement, but even in them great improvements could often be made. A large number of the smaller congregations are handicapped in their Bible work because of lack of classrooms. With the entire congregations in one small auditorium; with six different teachers trying to talk at the same time, our Anti-Sunday School brethren may have some right to quote, “For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.” (1 Corinthians 14:33). While they perhaps misapply the Scripture, yet we should realize that all of the noise and confusion in a small church house is not conducive to good learning. In addition to these hindrances, in the majority of our Bible schools there is no systematic course of study. Little children five and six years old are sometimes taught by wellmeaning Christian women the operation of the Holy Spirit or how we are saved by grace. The International Sunday School lessons have done good, but we are learning that they are not best from an educational standpoint. Some of our brethren are now trying to prepare some course of study that wrill be more desirable. Dr. G. C. Morlan, who teaches Christian education in Abilene Christian College, has done some splendid work in the matter of preparing some children’s courses. The Gospel Advocate, at the present, is pub-lishing a graded course of study ana leaders in Christian education say that these courses are going to prove valuable. In our teaching, huwever, we must not forget that at all times the Bible is our actual text. There is a great danger in our study of coming to regard the quarterly as our authority. Let us remember that men are authors of the quarterly, but that God wrote the Bible. If Dr. J. Frank Norris can boast of the largest Sunday School in the world through using thiough- the- Bible course, why can not we depend more on the Bible. Do not misunderstand me. f am in favor of literature, as I have already indicated in this lecture, but let us remember we need the literature not as an end writhin itself, but only as a means to an end of a greater appreciation of the Bible. The most important person in the teaching of the Bible is necessarily the teacher. I am persuaded that even with the use of the International Sunday School lessons, if we have a good teacher, much can be learned by the pupils1. On the other hand, with the most carefully graded system of study, and a study that measures up to all the standards of pedagogy, the pupils will not learn without a good teacher. The teachers we have had in our Bible classes usually are good Christian men and women and may have good purposes, but they often fall short of measuring up to the qualifications of a good teacher. Many of our teachers have no definite objectives in their teaching they teach merely because the duty has been given them to teach. We have all seen classes in which the teacher (?) merely asks the questions found in the quarterlies, while the pupils read the answers out of the book. Our teachers often do not have a good knowledge of the Bible. Many times a teacher is selected just because he or she teaches in the public schools. But the ability to teach English, or history certainly does not mean the ability to teach the Bible. There are other teachers selected to teach simply because they do have a knowledge of the Bible. Neither is this a guarantee of a good teacher, for one may be able to quote verse after verse and yet fail to have a personality that will guide the pupil in his learning. Our educators are demanding more and more of the secular teacher; year by year the standards of the public school teacher are raised higher and higher. If it is important that our public school teachers be qualified, how much more important it is that the teachers of God’s word be qualified!

One hindrance to the work of Bible teaching is the general lack of interest among the pupils. There is absolutely no way of forcing them to study, and it would probably do them no good if we could. In many classes, there are only a few who ever study the lesson. A visitor may visit a class and he will probably have to ask several what the lesson is. Here is where we see the need of a good teacher with a strong personality, able to create interest in the Bible among the pupils.

Brother J. P. Sewell has done a great work in the matter of creating more interest in Bible teacher training. He and Brother Speck are co-authors of the teacher training text, “The Church and the Ideal Educational Situation.” In addition to this book, two other books have been published as teacher-training texts under the guidance of Sewell and Speck. These books were written by members of the Grove Avenue Church in San Antonio, of which Brother Sewell is minister. They are, “The Church and the Young People,” by Mrs. Harry M. Melton and “The Church and the Children,” by Mrs. Loyd Rutledge, Mrs. Davy Drennen, and Miss Orlena Drennen. Churches over the brotherhood are now having training courses for their teachers with these books as texts.

We have a number of men in the church who are showing a great interest in the improvement of our Bible teaching. Bro. Jas. F. Cox has shown interest in it and is the author of a little book, Teaching God’s Word, which he uses in a course by the same title in Abilene Christian College. One of the leaders in Bible school wark is Bro. C. A. Norred of the College Church of Christ here in Abilene. He has written some valuable material on this subject. These men and others are creating a greater interest in Bible teaching throughout the brotherhood.

There are a number of congregations which are doing much in teaching the Bible. I should like to especially mention the work carried on by the Grove Avenue church of San Antonio. Brother Sewell has his assistant minister in this work Brother Omar Bixler, a former student of Abilene Christian College. I shall quote from a letter which I received from Brother Bixler in regard to the Grove Avenue work:

“The elders of the Grove Avenue church supervise specifically all the work of the church and they have appointed class teachers, supervisors, and educational directors. (Bro, Sewell is the director of the teaching generally). The elders themselves are the directing authority for every branch and detail of the work, but they appoint those who are best quali-fied to do the specific work of each department.

“It will be noted that there are no opening exercises before the classes on Sunday morning. Each individual class has its own study of worship and exercise elements of worship and in order that every pupil may grow ‘in grace and knowledge’ may we say in the best way for him and his individual group. Each class in turn has part in prayer meetings for the whole congregation, young men assist in each service and practice Bible reading, the young people’s class sponsor a library for the use of children and adults and have built a good collection of religious and general literature.”

Bro. Bixler then gives in the letter an outline of the classes on Lord’s Days. There are three general departments of the work, the children’s department, the young people’s department, and the adult department. These various departments have their own different groups and classes. There are two teachers for each division or group and there are social sponsors to aid with the social affairs in each group of the young people’s department. In addition to the classes on Lord’s Days, the Grove Avenue Church maintains a number of week-day classes. There are six Bible classes held for women in various homes each week.There is a Bible class and training class for men on Tuesday evening. A training class is held each Wednesday night with studies and prayer meetings conducted by different Sunday morning classes. After the Wednesday night training class, hymn study and singing practice are held.

There are many other congregations doing a good work which we can not mention here. I think that no lecture on the status of Bible teaching today would be complete without telling of the splendid work done by the Central Church of Christ, Nashville, Tennessee. Perhans you are familiar with the splendid charity work it does, but since this lecture deals with the teaching of the Bible, we shall on'y discuss that phase of work. The Bible teaching of the church is broadcast ten different times each week over Station WLAC. These broadcasts include a New Testament class from 10:00 to i0:45 a. m. each Sunday, preaching every day of the week, on Sundays at 11:00 a. m. and 6:00 p. m. and on week days from 12:25 to 12:55. On Friday from 5:15 to 5:45 p. m. questions are answered over the radio. Each Saturday from 5:15 to 5:45 a talk is made on the Sunday School lesson. In a letter from E. W. McMillan, who is now minister for the church, he states that the management of WLAC estimates that the noonday radio audiences are approximately on hundred thousand. The evening audiences are no doubt much larger. The audi- diences are composed of representatives of all denominations in existence and they listen in homes, business establishments of all kinds, shine parlors1, drug stores, department stores, garages, and hotels. Numerous communities In the mountain regions and away from railroad centers, unable to have re-gular preaching, are installing radios in their church buildings and are listening each Lord’s Day to the preaching at the Central Church in Nasnville. The church is engaged in other Bible teaching in addition to that broadcast over the radio. It has regular Sunday morning Bible sudy with one of the elders acting as supervisor. This elder wrote his doctor’s thesis in the field of education. There are also three Bible classes held each Friday in the auditorium. The work at the Central Church in Nashville is ten years old. It began with 46 members and now has around 1000. There has been an average of one addition per day since the work started. Of course many of these have transferred membership elsewhere or have died. Bro. McMillan states, “Only eternity can reveal the amount of good being done.” The work of such churches should cause all of us to be inspired to do more Bible teaching. May all of us learn to love the Bible more and then have a burning desire to teach it to others. May we take it as light to direct our feet, as food for our own souls, as the chart and compass of our own lives, and then we may be instrumental in giving it to others. Today we have a challenge presented to us by the world. It knows little of the Bible and consequently little of Christianity. As Christians we have been entrusted with the great treasure of the gospel, that for which the world is hungering and thirsting. Now is the time for us to teach the Bible both publicly and privately as never before, and let the world know that God’s Book is still the Book of all ages, that it is still the only books that tells of our origin, that tells of our purpose in being here, and the only Book that points the way to heaven when life’s work is over.