How much Christians know about Bible? What about Muslims?

[don532]

Salaam/peace;






well , Quranic stories are different from the Bible. But that discussion will be off topic here.


but the question is why Christians don't read Bible ???

Greetings.
I refer you back to my first post in this thread. The original post in this thread was talking about Americans and their lack of knowledge of the Bible. Do not ignore reality by assuming all Americans are Christians. The US has freedom of religion. There are many faiths here.
Many Christians do read their Bibles. It is a regular practice in my house, in the church I attend, and the churches my Christian friends attend.

 

[Muslim Woman]

Salaam/peace;

.....Many Christians do read their Bibles. It is a regular practice in my house, in the church I attend, and the churches my Christian friends attend.

the above survery & from other sources , what i understood is many Chrisitians don't read Bible. Some Chuches don't encourage to read the whole Bible , some don't think it's a must.


take no offence , pl. it's not my intention to hurt Christians feelings .

 

[don532]

Salaam/peace;





the above survery & from other sources , what i understood is many Chrisitians don't read Bible. Some Chuches don't encourage to read the whole Bible , some don't think it's a must.


take no offence , pl. it's not my intention to hurt Christians feelings .

I understand. No offense taken. Many who call themselves Christians don't read the Bible regularly. Similarly, many who call themselves Muslim don't read the Qur'an regularly either. I have met both kinds of people.

I have never seen a church that doesn't encourage its congregation to read the Bible. If such a church exists, it is not following the Bible.

In my opinion, when describing America, one word sums it up best. That word is diverse.

 

[Pygoscelis]

I think it is fair to say that far more muslims read the quran than christians read the bible. I think it is even fair to say that the average muslim knows more of what is in the bible than the average christian does, odd as that may sound.

There are of course some christians who DO read the bible, but they are rare. Most depend on preachers to tell them what it says. Its an interesting phenomenon, and one that I think has helped Christianity survive and vary and adapt - it can say just about anything, all you need is the right preacher to read it that way and a flock who will follow.

 

[Keltoi]

I think it is fair to say that far more muslims read the quran than christians read the bible. I think it is even fair to say that the average muslim knows more of what is in the bible than the average christian does, odd as that may sound.

There are of course some christians who DO read the bible, but they are rare. Most depend on preachers to tell them what it says. Its an interesting phenomenon, and one that I think has helped Christianity survive and vary and adapt - it can say just about anything, all you need is the right preacher to read it that way and a flock who will follow.

I wouldn't say Christians who read the Bible are "rare". Most of the Christians I know do read the Bible. Of course there are many Christians who do not or have not read the Bible, but that mostly depends on one's interest in reading literature of any kind, which is a different topic altogether.

 

[Muslim Woman]

Salaam/peace;

.... Do not ignore reality by assuming all Americans are Christians. The US has freedom of religion. There are many faiths here.

I guess , the survery was done among Christians. Othewise , result came differntly ...i.e. Muslims know so & so , Christians know that much etc.

As the report only talks about US Christians , i m sure non-Christians were not included....well , i don't not remember the whole report now.

 

[Muslim Woman]

Salaam/peace

I think it is fair to say that far more muslims read the quran than christians read the bible.

--2 main reasons for Muslim to read Quran are : it's a must to recite few lines from Quran in daily prayers & we believe , for uttering even each alphabet from Quran , we will get rewards :statisfie


Do Christians have any such belief about Bible ?

 

[Pygoscelis]

Not that I'm aware of. If they do, then they keep it pretty secret.

 

[Muslim Woman]

Salaam/peace

Not that I'm aware of. If they do, then they keep it pretty secret.

+o(

I have never seen a church that doesn't encourage its congregation to read the Bible. If such a church exists, it is not following the Bible.

I don't remember exactly now , most probably the author was a RC who wrote something like that his/her Church does not encourage to read other than Chuches own materials.

Any RC here ?

PS. i miss Sis Jayda , she was a good Catholic .

 

[MustafaMc]

I wouldn't say Christians who read the Bible are "rare". Most of the Christians I know do read the Bible. Of course there are many Christians who do not or have not read the Bible, but that mostly depends on one's interest in reading literature of any kind, which is a different topic altogether.

My observation as a former Christian (Baptist then Church of Christ) is that most devout Protestant Christians regularly read there Bible. There are of course gradations in devotion to one's religion - regardless of which religion is there's. I have less knowledge of Catholic Christians, but a Protestant convert to Catholicism has told me that her observation is that Catholics read the Bible much less on average than Protestants.

Another thing to remember is that when one accepts either the Bible or the Quran as the inspired or literal Word of God that s/he does not read it critically, but accepts what s/he doesn't understand. To question the legitimacy of one's "holy book" is to question the very foundation of one's religion. This is a very difficult thing to do because religion is a fundamental part of some people's self-identity.

There are things in every religion that we humans don't understand fully, but we chose to believe one way or another. To believe that belief in the Oneness of God as the critical component of salvation is almost as difficult for an non-believer to accept as the belief that Jesus was the "Son of God" and that he died on the cross for our sins. Of course these beliefs are diametrically opposed and one must choose to believe one way or the other, or to reject them both.

When a believer reads his or another's book, he reads it from his own personal prejudice as to whether or not it is the Word of God. When one reads his own book and comes across something he doesn't understand, then he decides to believe it anyway because it is the "Word of God". When one reads something in another's book that he doesn't understand or is contrary to his own beliefs, then he rejects it as not being from God, but being man-made or mis-guidance from Satan.

 

[Grace Seeker]

Muslim Woman, you posted this in another thread:

Salaam/peace;


when u have time , will u pl. visit this thread ? How-much-christians-know-about-bible>>?

I want to know why so many educated Christians don't read Bible ? Why Americans got an F on Bible ?


http://www.islamicboard.com/compara...ut-bible-what-about-muslims-2.html#post706774

yap :statisfie

Well, it took quite some time for me to get here, but I finally made it.

You've asked two different questions of me:
1) Why do so many educated Christians not read the Bible?
2) Why did Americans get an F on knowledge of the Bible?
(I've restated your questions slightly, but think I've left the essence of them unchanged.)

I would like to start with the second question first.
As a nation, Americans do poorly on most of these general knowledge tests done by the media. For example, not too many years ago, a geography test was given to students graduating from Texas high schools. (For those of you who don't live in the USA and don't know where the state of Texas is located, it is in the center of the country on our southern border with Mexico.) Over 50% of those students were unable to identify the country south of Texas on a map of North America. In another instance, a test was given to first year teachers in the state of Wisconsin, and over 30% could not name the three branches of government as specified by the US Constitution. For entertainment, late night comics will go out on the street asking random people simple questions of general knowledge and invariably they find that the common person knows more about the lives of celebrities than American history, government, literature, science or religion. You ask why American's got an F on the Bible, and the answer is relatively simply. Many simply don't care. They don't care about the Bible or, for that matter, many of the other subjects that one might think it would be important to have some working knowledge about.

Even among those who have completed high school and college, you will find many who focused more on simply getting through and on to other things in their life than on becoming an educated person. Thus, what they learned they learned only long enough to pass a test and then quickly forgot it. As a result, Americans may be among the most educated and at the same time paradoxically most ignorant citizenry in the world.


Now, to your first question, why do so many educated Christians not read the Bible? First, I am not sure why you speak specifically of educated Christians? If by that you are speaking of people who have enough education to be literate and able to read -- the literacy rate in the USA is at 98%. If by that you are speaking of people who have a higher education beyond say high school (also known as secondary) the graduation rates are 85% for a secondary school education and 27% for a post-secondary school (or univeristy) diploma or higher. Speaking as a pastor, I do not notice a significant differnce among members of my congregation who read their Bibles based on their level of education. Some read it daily. Some read it occassionaly. Some read it rarely. But one would not be able to make a generalization about their reading habits based on a knowledge of how much education they happen to have.

Also, I really do not have enough knowledge about Christians (educated or un-educated) in other places outside of the USA to address your question. So, I would rather consider a question you did not ask. That question being: Why do so many American Christians not read the Bible?

And the first response I have to that question is that I am not sure that it is true. Most American Christians do indeed read the Bible -- at least at some point in time or another. However, this is not the same as saying that large percentages of American Christians read their Bibles regularly, or that they understand what they read, or that they have read the entire Bible. In saying that most American Christians do indeed read the Bible, I mean only that most of them have either picked up a copy and read a few pages, or they have attend an event (usually worship, Sunday school, or some retreat/seminar) where they were introduced to readings from the Bible. This is far short of actually developing the habit of regularly studying the Bible for personal understanding and edification of their faith and life. So, why don't they do that? Well there are a number of reasons:

1) Many American Christians are nominal Christians. That is they are Christian in name only. They may have been baptized into the faith as a child, they may have even joined a church and have their names on a church roll someplace, but the truth is that they do not practice the Christian faith. I think that the actually rate of attendance among church members nationwide is probably somewhere around 30%. This means that more than 2/3 of all people who claim to be Christian, do some as a product of their culture more than of their personal beliefs. I'm sure you see this same thing in Islam. There are people who grow up in a predominately Muslim culture and call themselves Muslims. They may even celebrate Ramadan, and make a haj to Mecca, but they don't really practice Islam in a way that impacts their daily life. How common they are in Islam I don't know, but that they exist I know for a fact, for this is how some of my friends in Turkey and Iran describe themselves to me.

Well, when a person is a "Christian", but not practicing, they are not likely to read the Bible. They may have taken a cursory look at it at sometime, but they aren't likely to be able to answer what I would consider even the simplest of questions with respect to it.

Having said that, this would account for the vast majority of persons in the USA. According to some stats, the USA is about 78% Christian. If as much as 70% of that is only nominally Christian, then one has only about 23% of the population which might even be considered as having an interest in regular reading of the Bible.

2) While some churches do make a very heavy emphasis on use of the Bible, not all churches always have. I know that may sound strange to some -- it actually does to me; but I know it also is true. There might be many reasons that some churches have not emphasized the Bible, but the biggest one is pretty obvious and that is that they have emphasized something else.

One of those groups that would even confess to having given less attention to the Bible than they should have is the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church of course holds to the authority of the Bible, and they would tell you that they based their doctrine firmly on the teachings found in the Bible. But, that doesn't mean that the common layperson in the Roman Catholic Church was expected to read his/her Bible. The Church itself would distill the teachings of the Bible into something they called the Catechism. So, it was that many Roman Catholic Christians would read from their Catechism and not from their Bibles. Now, of course, the Catechism would quote from the Bible, but there is a difference in reading selected passages quoted in the context of discussing a particular church teaching and simply reading the Bible as a book. There are other reasons too, having to do with the liturgical nature of the Roman Catholic Church and the role of the clergy with the life of the Roman Catholic Church, but the net result of all of this was that many Roman Catholic Christians simply didn't feel an urge to read the Bible for themselves, but to let others do it for them and then tell them what it said.

Now, the Roman Catholic Church has acknowledged this as part of their history and today has a much greater emphasis on individual study of the scripture than they formally did. But habits take time to change. And so it is that there still isn't as much Bible reading in most Roman Catholic Churches as you will find in Protestant Churches.

3) But it is also true that many Protestant Churches may not be as big on Bible reading as they think they are. In my own church, we have three adult Sunday school classes, and each one of those classes sees itself as teaching from the Bible. Yet, in truth one of them teaches using a prepared curricula. Like with the Catholic Catechism, it does a lot of quoting from the Bible, but it is not the same as reading the Bible as a whole. In another, they actually do read the Bible -- that is when they get done with all of their other conversation about how people are doing and sharing stories of their past week. Often, out of an hour of class time, they will spend only about 15 minutes on actual Bible study. The third class spends much more of their time on the lesson and sees itself as using the Bible, but it is a teacher centered class, and one can sit through the whole hour and just listen without having to ever open and read the Bible for one's self. And I am not disparaging my lay people who teach these classes. Each was designed to meet a specific need. I also offer two other Bible studies during the week. And even one of these is a topical study, so that while we read the Bible in it, we don't simply sit and read through the whole of it. Rather in it we skip around from place to place picking up topics and themes and seeing how they run through the Bible, not simply reading in one place. So, of 5 different options for study offered to adults in my church, only one is actually a Bible study where the student reads from the Bible for him/herself in process that will result in reading the whole of the Bible. Of my active (i.e. non-nominal) membership, this means that there are only about 10% involved in group study of the Bible in a way that will eventually result in the reading of the entire Bible. Another 50% (for a total of 60%) are involved in other forms of group Bible study, but that still means as many as 40% of practicing Christians are not involved in group Bible study.

4) How about personal Bible study? This is where it gets frightening. My experience is that people who are willing to commit themselves to personal Bible study are almost always to be found as being participants in group Bible study also. So, I have little consolation that there are but a few rare individuals who practice personal Bible study on their own that are not already included in the 60% who are involved in group Bible study. Of course thare are a few of these individual, but they are, as I have already said, rare.

5) Why do those who truly seek to live as practicing Christians and attend churches where reading the Bible is encouraged, promoted, and even provided for not read it?

Now I am speculating, but I think the biggest reason is their philosophy of what is important in the Christian life. There are those who feel that worship or service or some other component of the Christian faith is what is primary to it. Thus, rather than having a balanced approach and doing a little of all, they focus on one aspect of it over others. Indeed there are those that focus on study over service. But there are also those who focus on worship over study. It is not that they don't read the Bible ever, but that reading of the Bible is not central or regular to their own personsal practice of the Christian faith. They get their teaching form sermons, or what they remember of attending Sunday school as a child. (Many adults attend Sunday school regularly as children, but quit doing so as adults, with a false -- in my opinion -- belief that they no longer need such instruction.) Though they may, as a consequence, be ignorant regarding many matters of the faith, they live in blissful ignorance of such a deficiency in their Christian walk.


So, there you have it, my analysis of why Christians don't read their Bibles. Please note, I am not saying that I support such a practice, because I don't. Can one be a Christian without reading the Bible? Sure, but one will not be as well-rounded and certainly not as well-versed as one who does.

I hope I have been able to answer the question you were asking of me. In some ways it is actually unanswerable.

 

[Muslim Woman]

Salaam/peace;

....

I hope I have been able to answer the question you were asking of me. In some ways it is actually unanswerable.

u have so much patience , Masha Allah.

Insha Allah , i will read it when i go off line .

thanks for the reply



[/COLOR]

 

[MustafaMc]

So, I would rather consider a question you did not ask. That question being: Why do so many American Christians not read the Bible?

And the first response I have to that question is that I am not sure that it is true. Most American Christians do indeed read the Bible -- at least at some point in time or another. However, this is not the same as saying that large percentages of American Christians read their Bibles regularly, or that they understand what they read, or that they have read the entire Bible.

...

Now I am speculating, but I think the biggest reason is their philosophy of what is important in the Christian life. There are those who feel that worship or service or some other component of the Christian faith is what is primary to it. Thus, rather than having a balanced approach and doing a little of all, they focus on one aspect of it over others.

In my opinion, this was a thorough and honest evaluation of the situation. I believe that what was described by GraceSeeker is human nature and not particular to Christians.

 

[thirdwatch512]

what we have to remember, is that many "christians" are christian by name, and NOTHING more.

i get so many text messages saying "if you're proud of ur faith, send this to everyone." i always respond to people saying "if u really know the Bible...." and then i ask a question. and they almost always get it wrong.

the vast, vast majority of americans are NOT practicing, true christians. they are christian by name, and no more.

as for muslims and their knowledge of the bible.. a very, VERY lack of the Bible, definetely. i can not tell you ignorant the vast majority of Muslims are on christianity. they read from islamic sources, and no more. they quote verses totally in correctly. for example, my muslim friend who we call Mimi.. she pasted this verse from this website, and she said it was from the Bible.. so i looked up the verse, and it said NOTHING of the sort! lol

of course, some muslims do have knowledge on the Bible in christianity. so please don't think i'm stereotyping all muslims.

as for Christians and their knowledge of the quran.. i think that religious, practicing christians know more about Islam then non practicing. like me for example.. I have read the qu'ran many times, and have read many of the hadiths. i listen to islamic sermons all the time. and many of my fellow christian friends do.

i still think that a religious muslim would know more about christianity then a religious christian would on islam. i think the reason why, is simply because the christians are obviously the majority here. but like christians in egypt.. hah, they prolly know MUCH more about islam then a muslim does about christianity. same with lebanon prolly.

One of those groups that would even confess to having given less attention to the Bible than they should have is the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church of course holds to the authority of the Bible, and they would tell you that they based their doctrine firmly on the teachings found in the Bible. But, that doesn't mean that the common layperson in the Roman Catholic Church was expected to read his/her Bible. The Church itself would distill the teachings of the Bible into something they called the Catechism. So, it was that many Roman Catholic Christians would read from their Catechism and not from their Bibles. Now, of course, the Catechism would quote from the Bible, but there is a difference in reading selected passages quoted in the context of discussing a particular church teaching and simply reading the Bible as a book. There are other reasons too, having to do with the liturgical nature of the Roman Catholic Church and the role of the clergy with the life of the Roman Catholic Church, but the net result of all of this was that many Roman Catholic Christians simply didn't feel an urge to read the Bible for themselves, but to let others do it for them and then tell them what it said.

Now, the Roman Catholic Church has acknowledged this as part of their history and today has a much greater emphasis on individual study of the scripture than they formally did. But habits take time to change. And so it is that there still isn't as much Bible reading in most Roman Catholic Churches as you will find in Protestant Churches.

what a LIE!!!!

go look at protestant majority nations, and what do you see? hmm, let's see...

you have the U.K., and the fall of the anglican church.
you have the netherlands, and.. do they even have protestant churches anymore??!!??
you have germany, and the few lutherans left.

then you have poland, and its religious Catholics. you have Mexico with most people going to Church weekly. you have Brazil, and religious people. you have the Catholic population just skyrocketting in China, Morocco, Egypt, and just all throughout asia and africa!

you have Catholic Churches in the U.K. on a MAJOR increase.. in fact, there are more Catholics in the U.K. then Anglicans!

RCC - more converts each year then any other protestant denominations.. even more then pentecostals! lol

the Catechism is just a book of our beliefs. but we NEVER use it over the Bible.

and look at any Catechism.. half of it is Scripture being quoted. the other half is what the Scripture has to do with the topic.

i read my Catechism daily.. but not nearly as much as my Bible!

 

[Grace Seeker]

Thirdwatch, why do you call my statement a lie?

First, it was given totally as my analysis, i.e. an opinion, not as objective fact.

Second, I specifically made mention that I was righting with respect to Americcan Christianity, not other countries which you mentioned.

Third, some of the facts you give to substantiate your point of view would appear to me to not speak to it at all, and are true for other reasons, but are irrelevant to your point. Most notably among them that "RCC - more converts each year then any other protestant denominations.. even more then pentecostals! lol". Given that the RCC has 1.1 billion members of the total 2.1 billion Christians on the face of the earth, and the next closest Christian denomination in size is the Eastern Orthodox Church with less than a fifth of that, the Roman Catholic Church must add more members a year than many Protestant denominations have as members just to keep maintain itself. But none of that is relevant to the use of lack of use of the Bible.

Fourth, I don't believe I disparaged the Catholic Church. I reported on some of the historical practices of the church. I said that things had also changed in recent years. And I did not say that these general comments could be applied unilaterally to all Catholics or all Catholic Churches. I said that there isn't as much Bible reading in most Catholic Churches as in Protestant Churches. And I do think that is the case. If it isn't, it isn't a lie, it is something I must not be well-enough informed about.

I have a copy of the Catholic Cathecism. I reported that it was based on the Bible. I didn't say the degre that it quoted the Bible; I could have been more descriptive there. But I made comparison to my own church's use of some of our curricula which I also critiqued, and as I have both available to read I am able to say, as I did, that they are quite comparable. I don't think reading from the Catechism or from my denomination's curriculum is the same as actually reading from the Bible. I don't think you do either or you would not have made mention that you read from your Bible more.

I am glad to see you, and more and more Catholics, getting into their Bibles. I don't know how old you are, I am 50, but I can report to you that in my experience, this is a relatively new thing, since Pope John XXIII. It has taken more than a few years to catch on to the extent that it has, and I don't think yet matches the level of Bible study found in Protestant Churches in America. Again, I am talking about the USA, not Europe.

I am sorry if I have offended you. That, most certainly, was not my intent. You may even find my comments unfounded in your experience, but the best I can do is share my observations from more than a quarter century in ministry. What I have observed I have shared. I don't think it is a lie. But if it is contrary to the truth that you have experienced, please share with us where your experiences differs with what I have observed. You have in one point in saying that you read from your Bible more than your Catechism. What else is different in your experience and that of the majority of Catholics you know. Being Catholic, I am sure you can speak to the Catholic experience better than I.

 

[thirdwatch512]

oh bless, i'm sorry if i offended you! lol i know that i rather snapped. i'm just in a crabby mood today.

anyways, but if a Catholic goes to mass daily, like they should, they would read a lot more then protestants do, as protestants typically only have Church on Sunday lol.

the fact of the matter is though, is the Catholic Church is the Church of God. Matthew 16 says "and upon this rock i will build my Church." now Jesus is talking to Peter in this verse, as it's obvious lol.

some think that Jesus literally meant he was building a Church on a rock.. umm, ok... interesting!

but, one thing to note, is Peter, greek Petra, means "Little Rock." so jesus is telling peter that he will build his Church upon him.. basically, the Catholic Church was started by Peter, by the instruction of Jesus! lol, but that's just a Catholic perspective. i've yet to hear a protestant perspective on that lol

 

[Grace Seeker]

the fact of the matter is though, is the Catholic Church is the Church of God. Matthew 16 says "and upon this rock i will build my Church." now Jesus is talking to Peter in this verse, as it's obvious lol.

some think that Jesus literally meant he was building a Church on a rock.. umm, ok... interesting!

but, one thing to note, is Peter, greek Petra, means "Little Rock." so jesus is telling peter that he will build his Church upon him.. basically, the Catholic Church was started by Peter, by the instruction of Jesus! lol, but that's just a Catholic perspective. i've yet to hear a protestant perspective on that lol

OK. I've certainly heard all of this before. But what does this have to do with Christians frequency, or lack thereof, in reading the Bible?


For a discussion (or rather argument) that included both Protestants and Catholics on this question, among others, check out this thread on Catholic Answers Forums: The Catholic Church is just another denomination.

And while reading the missal is one way to read scripture, it won't get you through the entire Bible. There are passages that the missal and the lectionaries never touch. Even on the Catholic forum I just referred you to, I read polls where in talking amongst one another, 100% of those Catholics who responded prayed everyday, but in some cases only 50% of them ever read the Bible apart from attending worship. In other cases up to 80% said they read the Bible daily -- I doubt if I could get that sort of response anywhere among Protestants, but I'm guessing that these figures are skewed by the sampling size and the type of individuals who would be in the group participating.

 

[MustafaMc]

anyways, but if a Catholic goes to mass daily, like they should, they would read a lot more then protestants do, as protestants typically only have Church on Sunday lol.

I don't think the issue is reading a few select verses in congregation, rather comprehensive reading and studying from beginning to end. As a former Protestant I often read and studied my Bible as I see my more religous Christian relatives still do.

 

[thirdwatch512]

OK. I've certainly heard all of this before. But what does this have to do with Christians frequency, or lack thereof, in reading the Bible?


For a discussion (or rather argument) that included both Protestants and Catholics on this question, among others, check out this thread on Catholic Answers Forums: The Catholic Church is just another denomination.

And while reading the missal is one way to read scripture, it won't get you through the entire Bible. There are passages that the missal and the lectionaries never touch. Even on the Catholic forum I just referred you to, I read polls where in talking amongst one another, 100% of those Catholics who responded prayed everyday, but in some cases only 50% of them ever read the Bible apart from attending worship. In other cases up to 80% said they read the Bible daily -- I doubt if I could get that sort of response anywhere among Protestants, but I'm guessing that these figures are skewed by the sampling size and the type of individuals who would be in the group participating.

the missal just simply has all of ther readings, songs, and all of that in the one book, instead of having to open a Bible to like 20 different pages. it has all of the readings for like a month of something of that nature.

and yes, sadly, 50% of Catholics might not read the Bible daily, but i really don't see the number being any lower among protestants. most people now days feel that if they go to church, that's all they need. they go to Church for more of a social even rather then to Worship! others go to Church on Sunday, read at Church, but feel that Church is the only time they need to read the Word of the Lord. which, is obviously bogus.

but sadly, that's how people feel. but i have noticed a rise in Christianity, contray to what the news seems to portray. the Church i go to has 5 masses each Sunday, and it used to have 3. and a lot of younger people are going. and i think that more and more people are beginning to read the Word of the Lord, and get a sense of what Christianity really is, and not what the media protrays it to be!

 

[Grace Seeker]

I think you might still be not understanding me.

the missal just simply has all of ther readings, songs, and all of that in the one book, instead of having to open a Bible to like 20 different pages. it has all of the readings for like a month of something of that nature.

First, thank-you for explaining this for those who might not have known what I met by the missal. I do know what it is. It will have the day's readings from the Psalms, the Old Testament, the Epsitle, and the Gospel -- one from each. And as you said, by printing it in this fashion one does not have to flip through pages in a Bible to find the passage.

What I think you missed in my referencing of the missal, or maybe are not aware, is that even if one was to read the missal every day of one's life for 100 years, and read all of the scripture passages that are printed in it, one would still not have read the entire Bible. The reason is that neither the missal, nor any lectionary, even tries to present the entire Bible through the use of it. Rather, they present a significant portion of the Bible, they include what are generally considered all of the highpoints, but there are also stories and passages that one would never read if one only knew as much Bible as one read in the missal or heard proclaimed through lectionary based preaching. Check this website out to learn How much of the Bible is included in the Lectionary for Mass? Not as much as you might think, yet far more than was included in the Roman Missal before the Second Vatican Council!.

Just as this Roman Catholic Lectionary website states, "since many parts of the Bible (esp. the Old Testament) are still not included in the Lectionary, one must go beyond the readings used at Mass to cover the entire Bible." Thus, in my opinion, there really is no substitute for sitting down with the Bible itself and reading through it.

and yes, sadly, 50% of Catholics might not read the Bible daily, but i really don't see the number being any lower among protestants. most people now days feel that if they go to church, that's all they need. they go to Church for more of a social even rather then to Worship! others go to Church on Sunday, read at Church, but feel that Church is the only time they need to read the Word of the Lord. which, is obviously bogus.

I didn't use the figure of 50% to say that Catholics read the Bible less than Protestants. I can only report on what I know. I have not seen what I would call a scientifically valid survey on the frequency of Bible reading. Some years ago, I attended a seminar where it was said that only about 15% of any congregation are involved in any given activity beyond worship. But, they weren't speaking specifically of Bible study, and it was made as an off-hand comment that happened to catch my attention. So, I don't know if there was any real documentation done on arriving at it. But, in discussing it, to move from mere opinion to something that might be at least close to fact based, one must deal with actual numbers. You will note that I began with numbers based on my own experiences in churches, protestant churches. In doing so, I showed that less than 60% of my active worship attenders were involved in any form of group Bible study. And my active attenders represent less than 2/3 of my membership. So that translates to about 20% of my congregation involved in any form of group Bible study. And then I shared my experience as a pastor is that while not all those who are involved in group Bible study will do the "comprehensive reading and studying from beginning to end" that MustafaMc spoke of, that none who do not engage in the group Bible study will take the time to do the comprehensive persoanl study on their own. I have been a pastor at more than one church, and I find this trend is pretty consistent through-out, though perhaps a little higher at my present church than others I have served. The net result is that I am certain that well less than 50% of Protestant Christians, my guess, probably less than 10% of Protestant Christian take time to do the comprehensive beginning to end study that we are speaking of in elsewhere in this thread.

Now, do more Catholics than that do so. Based on what I have heard and experienced in life, I don't think so. But I did cite the only real numbers I had on Catholics, and in it as much as 80% said they did, and I said so. I also said that I doubted that I could find a Protestant group where the figure would be that high. I do find that figure high and don't think it really reflects the frequency of Bible reading among Catholics. Not that I think those individuals are lying, but rather that they represent a rather unique subset of Catholics, much like yourself, who are more active in practicing their faith than the average Catholic. That is an assumption of mine based on life. I may be right. I may be wrong. And I own that it is just an opinion, not a proven fact.

With respect to the actual 50% figure that I cited and you appear to have taken exception to. Again what that was in reference to is NOT whether or not Catholics read their Bible daily, but the self reporting of a different small group of Catholics who admitted to never reading their Bible at all, but who maintained their faith only through prayer and worship. I don't think we can extrapolate from either of these groups to all of Catholicism, but they are the only hard stats that I had.

but i have noticed a rise in Christianity, contray to what the news seems to portray. the Church i go to has 5 masses each Sunday, and it used to have 3. and a lot of younger people are going. and i think that more and more people are beginning to read the Word of the Lord, and get a sense of what Christianity really is, and not what the media protrays it to be!

That is great news!!! I too see in it some quarters this increased interests. In others I still see stagnation. But let us celebrate the vibrancy of faith and increase in seeking to nurture and express one's spiritual life that you are experiencing in your local congregation. Would that it were true everywhere.