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[Newbie]

Do you feel the impact of Scripture has been minimalized, and do you think it will grow less and less important over time?

There are a lot of posts on here that tend to poke at Christians about the things in the bible that modern day Christians tend to ignore; slavery, incest, genocide, rape, murder, child sacrifice, etc etc.

It's kinda silly to sit here and ask Christians if slavery is ok (althought much to my shock some actually said yes...that was kinda f***ed up) when there are virtually no Christian slave owners to parade around the bible as justification for owning slaves.

I was curious if Christians are willing to say that the impact of the scripture has been minimalized. By that I mean very few follow the 613 commandments, there are almost no fundamentalists left, there are extremely few literalists and they tend to differ on what they believe. The lines between Christian denominations are melting and new age Christianity (mega churches and the like) are rising in popularity.

There is much less importance placed on scripture these days, IMHO, and much more being placed on common sense and empathy. There is less emphasis on people needing to look to the bible for guidance, which could partly explain why so few Christians regularly read the bible and why atheists have proven to be just as educated if not more so on Christian scripture.

So, do you agree that Christianity is changing and the need to rely on scripture for instruction is fading? If yes, is it a bad thing? If no, why?

And also, if yes, do you think that this trend will continue or do you think it will reverse at some point and people will come back to making the bible an important part of their lives?

[jimwalton]

> Christians tend to ignore...

That's funny—actually, kind of an odd statement. I don't know any Christian who ignores such things. Christians around the world are working to end the sex trade, sex slavery, medical epidemics, child sexual abuse, rape, and many other things. It's quite a misperception that Christians routinely or corporately ignore such things.

> the impact of the scripture has been minimalized.

I would say that it has not. Scripture is as powerful as ever. "Very few follow the 613 commandments"—of course, Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law.

>there are almost no fundamentalists left

It depends what you mean by that. If you mean what the newspapers mean by it (religious wackos), then the fewer the better. If you mean people who believe in the fundamental truths of the gospel, there are many many many.

> there are extremely few literalists

It depends what you mean by that. A literalist can still agree to metaphor, irony, poetry, simile, archetypes, etc. Or are you insisting that when the psalmist says the trees of the field will clap their hands, that a literalist believes they will grow hands and clap them? A literalist can believe in the Bible for what the ancients meant by what they wrote rather than a shallow interpretation of the English.

> There is much less importance placed on scripture these days

While people are far less biblically literate than they used to be, there are many many who revere the Scriptures, respect them, and obey them.

> There is less emphasis on people needing to look to the bible for guidance

The Bible isn't a crystal ball, though some people try to use it as such. It's the record of God's contract with humanity, many illustrations of obedience and disobedience and the consequences, and it reveals God to us. That's what it's for, not guidance.

> why atheists have proven to be just as educated if not more so on Christian scripture.

Ha, that's funny. My experience is quite the opposite. I find that many atheists have an atrocious understanding of Christian Scripture. They just read it shallowly, get tidbits off the Internet, twist its meaning, and have very little genuine understanding.