Why have so few Christians read the Bible?

That's a really good question. If you were trying to get a job and knew you had to study and memorize this thick informative book to be able to get the job and do a good job at it, wouldn't you study and study it until you knew it front and back and followed it word for word??? I sure would. So why do so few Christians feel the need to study and read scripture. It is the instructions and handbook for the Christian walk. It is completely and totally necessary for you to read the Bible in order to reach Heaven. How will you know what God requires and asks of you if you do not study His word?? Jesus is the way, the truth and the Life, and without Him no one shall see God, but how would anyone know any of that without reading it and studying it in His word. If we all really believed, in God, and in an eternal Hell, we would not only be reading and studying the Bible, but warning and witnessing to others daily of the Judgement.

They may be afraid to have their lives shaken up as much as it would. I once planned a Bible study course that would look at the bits of Scripture which individuals found hardest to accept. I think it would have been good, but shortly afterwards, i decided to leave the Church because i stopped believing in the power of the Holy Spirit.

I haven't read the whole Bible. Specifically, i haven't read all of the Psalms and a couple of the minor prophets. I think it's interesting what Christians choose to ignore, particularly the bits about accepting other religions (in Malachi for example) and the clear implication in the Gospels that there is no original sin. Oh, and complete failure to mention the Trinity, the absolute requirement to live frugally and not to be involved in interest. I wonder how many wealthy Christians have no credit cards, mortgages, pension schemes or bank accounts. Then there's the command never to make promises. That's what Christ requires of Christians. It also says there's no afterlife, in Ecclesiastes.

Read five pages a day and you can read the whole thing in one year. Start with Psalms, Proverbs, or Matthew. Read one chapter a day. Whatever you can handle.

Jeremiah 7:31 clearly states how God feels about burning living creatures. He hates it and never even thought of doing it. Hellfire comes from outside the Bible and is false.

You would never know that if you trusted others to read it for you. I feel terrible that so many people believe that when you die, you actually continue to live; a false idea.

Ecclesiastes 9:5,10

Life is a gift, not a punishment. To live again all humans need a resurrection. Everyone in hell is going to come back to life real soon now including my Mom and friends.

Revelation 21:4; John 5:28,29

You can't read everything in a lifetime. Read the Bible.

Jehovah's Witnesses are encouraged to read it every day.

If you need help, ask. They are glad to help.

You're right, few Christians read the bible. I'm Christian and I don't normally read the bible... I'll admit that. But it doesn't mean that I'm not a real Christian. I gave my life to Christ and I'm living my life the way God would want me to. I pray everyday. And again I just do things that God would want me to.

Laziness and lack of education= the ability to actually pick up and read a book longer than a Sunday comic strip. As long as the Pastor and the Priest say its okay as long as they just believe it will continue. That's were a good deal of the ignorance comes from in Christianity.

Why don't you read it?

Come to a really educated conclusion on your beliefs by reading up on the bible and all the other stuff. It is just as lazy and easy to sit back and decide that you're an atheist based on nothing as it is for a christian to sit in ignorance without knowing what religion he/she truly subscribes too.

If you read 4 to 5 chapters of the bible everyday, you will be finished in a year. I read it about 5 times already but I study it all the time. I read it in French and English. Trying to memorize it, won't help you at all. What you need to do is to understand it by studying it. Also studying all the religions in the world won't help you find the true one. If you have a counterfeit dollar bill, would you study all the fake ones or rather study the real one so you can tell which ones are counterfeit? Just food for thoughts!

Up until the 1960's the Catholic Church discouraged reading of the bible for fear we might interpret it incorrectly. This error could lead us into serious sin causing us to lose our soul to the devil forever burning in the fires of Hell....yeah, they really did say that.

The Truth: They didn't want anyone reading the bible because then they would know that they made-up half the crap....like Jesus never calls Himself the Son of God. He always referred to Himself as the Son of Man....There's no Trinity in the Bible...They made that up. Mortal Sin: A sin so grevious that it cuts you off from God. You can never cut yourself off from God.

They told us not to read it and many bought into their reasoning...not like today...tell a kid he can't read something and it's the first book opened under the covers. Ah, the world is going to be a better place.

Great question....even in Bible Study classes they skip some bits....On Penn and Teller's television show, they said the fastest way to make somebody an atheist was to get them to seriously read the Bible....doesn't make sense exactly, but I think it shows how daunting a task reading it really is....

I actually have read it several times, plus I bought the audio versions when I was working a job where going through the tapes was something I could get away with doing (machine operator) and went through it 5 times...and I'm still a Catholic....

but btw, great analogy....

There may be no great benefit to memorizing or even reading the whole Bible. In the Bible you will find no prescribed requirement to know or believe the whole thing.

You do not avoid hell fire if you know it all, nor is there any punishment for not believing parts of it.

So, one has to weigh costs and benefits.

My mother-in-law was a Southern Baptist. It was her lifelong ambition to read the bible all the way through. But when she died at 91, she hadn't done it.

Given that she was a serious, intelligent woman, one can only conclude that the bible is either too dull or too outrageously nonsensical to maintain the interest of an intelligent person.