New Survey Reveals U.K. Christians' Lack of Basic Bible Knowledge

ONDON – Less than a quarter of Christians in the United Kingdom possess enough knowledge of the Bible to be able to place key events in the order they appear, according to the results of a new survey by the Bible Society released last week.

The Christian evangelical organization carried out a survey of regular churchgoers, which revealed that 76 percent of people were unable to put a series of ten popular Bible stories in the order that they appear in the Bible.

Events used in the survey included Noah’s Ark, Solomon’s building of the Temple, and Jesus feeding the five thousand, among other similar incidents.

The survey was carried out by asking the questions in a quick-fire quiz style, and was designed to assess the common assumption that Christians possess an in-depth knowledge of the Bible.

The survey results have been published to coincide with the recent publication of “The Drama of Scripture,” which is an SPCK (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge) book that has been created in association with the Bible Society. The book aims to portray the Bible as a drama containing six “Acts,” including creation, sin, Israel, Jesus, mission, and new creation.

The Director of Program at the Bible Society, Ann Holt said, “It seems that even Christians struggle to see the big picture when it comes to the Bible – never mind those who never read it.

“The Drama of Scripture has been published to provide Christians with some much-needed help in rediscovering afresh the significance of God’s Word for living out their faith today. That is why we recently supported the launch of the book with the mass distribution of a booklet containing key extracts from the publication.”