Paul's Passing Thoughts

Albert Mohler Has the Audacity to Lament Bible Illiteracy

Posted in Uncategorized by Paul M. Dohse Sr. on October 15, 2015

AM12In an article written by Albert Mohler,  President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky and posted on Christian, he bemoans Bible illiteracy among Christians. It begs the question: is he really this blinded by orthodoxy, or is he just gaming the herd?

You can read the article for yourself which chronicles examples of how bad it is, but I think it’s common knowledge for the most part, no pun intended. Even among Christians that are regarded as knowledgeable, including those with university degrees from religious institutions, they know little that is beneficial. Orthodox Christianity is the blind leading the blind and always will be.

First of all, his bemoaning defies the very major tenets of the Protestantism that he claims to represent as a leading authority. Protestantism is predicated on a loathing of human reason and a faith exemplified by blind trust in those whom God has supposedly “appointed to save His people from ignorance”; this according to Mohler at a 2011 pastors conference (mark 1:14:00). This same mentality came from the Catholic Church that gave birth to the Reformers and believes that Bibles in the hands of the great unwashed is like a loaded gun held by a toddler.

Secondly, Mohler’s admission that Protestantism at large is biblically illiterate is a stunning admission and revelation regarding his real belief in the herd’s aptitude. If a vampire is a pastor and says he advocates daylight saving time, that is apparently good enough for the herd, and raises no questions in their minds whatsoever. Mohler knows he can get away with verbalizing these metaphysical absurdities. Al Mohler is a leading figure in the evangelical industrial complex that makes billions of dollars from the massive distribution of Christian teachings via books, church events, conferences, the internet, printed media, recorded media, movies, and radio. How could Christians possibly be biblically illiterate? This is proof positive that content is indeed the issue. REAL knowledge empowers people and would threaten the authority of the Protestant church. The harlot that gave birth to Protestantism merely outlawed knowledge; Protestant leaders have to skin the cat another way because people started printing Bibles upon pain of death.

Go to any Catholic Church, the parishioners don’t have any Bibles with them. Go to any Protestant church and watch the people carefully during the sermon; they refer to their Bibles little if there is any need to open them at all. The general mentality is that they are not qualified to understand it anyway. In fact, there is no reasonable difference between Catholic ex cathedra and elder authority according to the likes of Mohler himself and the Protestant hierarchy in general.

Lastly, Mohler has the audacity to suggest that lack of knowledge is the issue when Protestant academia denies that the Bible is for the express purpose of knowledge to begin with. Pastors continually fustigate those who read the Bible to gain knowledge because “Jesus is a person, not a precept.” Simply stated from a true Protestant perspective, the Bible is a metaphysical narrative about salvation and EVERY verse is about the gospel/justification/salvation. Few parishioners deem themselves as able to see Jesus in every verse, so they merely close their Bibles and listen.

Mohler calls Biblical illiteracy a “scandal.” And why not? After all, a popular mantra in today’s Protestant church refers to their faith as a “scandalous gospel.” And what is the scandal? That God would save sinners and fill His church full of them. But alas, our temptation is to think that we can actually do a good work, and the primary purpose of the Bible is to keep us grounded in faith which seeks to see ourselves more and more for the sinners that we are which results in a deeper and deeper gratitude for our salvation. That’s why every verse in the Bible is supposedly about salvation.

So what knowledge is Al Mohler talking about exactly? With all things Protestant, it depends on what the definition of “is” is.


5 Responses

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  1. Dave said, on October 15, 2015 at 1:40 PM

    This is a very interesting newsletter. My personal feeling is that the knowledge a person must have is the knowledge the Spirit leads him or her into in the ongoing discovery of the meaning of the Christ Event.

    The knowledge of Christ and his Kingdom are the supreme knowledge. It just so happens that these are mentioned in the bible too. But it takes insight to understand and that is the Spirit’s job.


    • Paul M. Dohse Sr. said, on October 15, 2015 at 4:34 PM

      Right, that’s basically Hinduism 101. So what’s your point?


  2. SGsdfgsdee said, on October 15, 2015 at 11:24 PM

    Biblical illiteracy is a necessary function of rejecting the Apocrypha because half the NT makes no sense without it. Where did Saducees and Pharisees even come from? See Maccabees. Why does Jesus say in Luke “Give alms of such as you have and all things are clean to you”? See Sirach. Where did the Saducees come up with that hypothetical of the woman who married 7 husbands who all died on the wedding night? See Tobit.


    • Paul M. Dohse Sr. said, on October 16, 2015 at 5:13 AM

      The present canon was determined by church councils so I wouldn’t reject your notion out of hand. I think Christians have to reevaluate everything apart from Protestant academics who have been lying to us for 500 years. At some point, I do plan on reading the Apocrypha and studying its etymology.


  3. lydia00 said, on October 16, 2015 at 11:10 AM

    The book of Shosanna was left out, too. In it we learn to watch out for corrupt elders. Not enough mystery there, I suppose.

    As to Mohler, propagating the idea of biblical illiteracy feeds the need for the philosopher kings who will explain it to us. It elevates preachers as essential to “ongoing salvation”. Think of how often these guys promote the thinking that their sermon is the most important event in our week. I hear it all the time from those circles.

    They always leave out the “promised to all who believe” Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit denotes individual freedom of conscience. And that is not acceptable in their world. In their world the HS works through the leader who has the special anointing.

    People need to spend time also studying thought Reform tactics so they can recognize them at church!


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