The Sean McDowell Show - The Surprising State of the Bible in 2025: New REVEALING Study

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

What is the state of the Bible in 2025? The American Bible society has given it's new report and we're going over it today to talk about how AI has impacted Bible reading/study, how Gen Z is changing the trend and how the Bible has been linked to flourishing in life. Hope this conversation is useful and gives encouragement going forward!*Get a MASTERS IN APOLOGETICS or SCIENCE AND RELIGION at BIOLA (https://bit.ly/3LdNqKf)*USE Discount Code [SMDCERTDISC] for 25% off the BIOLA APOLOGETICS CERTIFICATE program (https://bit.ly/3AzfPFM)*See our fully online UNDERGRAD DEGREE in Bible, Theology, and Apologetics: (https://bit.ly/448STKK)FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: https://x.com/Sean_McDowellTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sean_mcdowell?lang=enInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmcdowell/Website: https://seanmcdowell.org

What is the state of the Bible today both in the church and the culture? What is the state of the Bible report revealed about how artificial intelligence has affected people's reading of the Bible? And what is the connection between engagement with the Bible and someone flourishing in their life? Sean and I will discuss the most recent state of the Bible report put out by the American Bible Society And in all the implications it has for both individual, church, and community flourishing. I'm your host, Scott Ray. I'm your co-host, Sean McDowell. This is Think Biblically from Talbot School of Theology at Biola University.

So Sean, what exactly is the state of the Bible report? How long has it been going on? And so what's it about? So the American Bible Society puts out an annual report about Bible engagement in America. Some of our viewers and listeners will remember last year in 2024, we looked at the data and did our take and an update on it. What it's not is it's not about like doctrine alone. So if you're looking for how many people say they're Christians but don't believe in the Trinity, how many believe there's other ways to be saved besides Jesus.

That's not this. This is more about Bible engagement. So how many people who read the Bible are actually stressed and anxious compared to those who don't? How many people who read the Bible are actually going and anxious compared to those who don't? How many people who read the Bible are actually going to church? How many nonbelievers actually read the Bible?

So what is Bible engagement and use in America today? That's what this study is about. Right, and how it correlates with other things that contribute to people being happy and flourishing in their lives. So, maybe a little bit, give us a little bit more about why it's so important to understand how the Bible is engaged, maybe some of the different ways that the Bible is engaged in America today.

I think there's a lot of angles to this question. One thing we often still hear is that like, Christianity is bigoted and it's harmful to society, and evangelicals get a bad rap, some of it we've certainly brought on ourselves and they're bad for the country and the world. This study's like, okay, let's actually look and see those who are Bible-engaged, and they define that a certain way.

Does that affect their experience of, say, being willing to forgive others? Does that mean they'll be less stressed and less anxious? Do they give more to people and are more charitable? So those are really interesting questions. Number one, when I'm just speaking with non-believers who maybe have a certain view about what the Bible is. But it's also as a Christian, I want to know. I mean, this is the most influential book, even if you're not a Christian, that's ever been written. And we have people like Jordan Peterson saying things like, it is the foundation of science

and Western civilization. There's more and more atheists and skeptics saying, oh, wait a minute, we actually need a biblical kind of worldview, we need Jesus. So we're seeing this resurgence and this turn back. So it helps us to actually say, all right, rather than just guessing anecdotally, how much is the Bible really shaping the lives

of people in America, Christians and non-Christians? I think that's a helpful piece. But the other last thing is, and we'll get to this, is people who don't read the Bible. Is that because they think the Bible is bigoted and outdated, or do they wish they read it more? The answer to that is really interesting, and we'll come to it. Yeah, we'll get to that in a minute.

Now, we've got some pretty hard data... Yep....about how many more people bought Bibles in 2024. That's up over 20%. But, you know, there's a lot of the data is all self-reported about how frequently people read the Bible and what it does for them. It's mostly self-reported. Yeah. So how much stock do you put in this particular study, given that so much of it is dependent on self-reporting? The same stock I would put in any other individual study.

Now, it's obvious. I mean, you look at this thing. They've spent a lot of money researching this, and this is not just 10 people putting a poll on Twitter. They hire some leading research firms, and they produce a beautiful book. So there's a lot of credibility, it sure seems, behind this.

So Barna has something to do with this. Barna has something to do with it. Like there's a lot of, it's a well done study, but it's one study. And I don't know, I've never met anybody in my life who had researched more than my dad He'd always be sitting at the table with stacks of articles and data and just devoured it Hours a day and he'd always say son. That's one study. You got to compare it to others

So this was done it talks about the state of the Bible in 2024 Which I think reveals where we're at in 2025, because a lot of studies are forward-looking. But it was done in 2024 in January. Now the latter part of 2024, for some reason we saw 22% jump in Bible sales. Now will that be sustained? Why did that happen? I don't know.

We just have to keep in mind this is one study and there's other factors at play. And I'm curious when they do the State of the Bible next year, will they pick up on that and will things change? We'll revisit that here. That's right. I suspect this is gonna become an annual thing for us to do. I enjoy it. It's really interesting. In the first quarter of every new year. Let's do it.

So let's talk a little bit about how specifically people are engaging the Bible. Because he's got three categories that they put out. What are those categories and how, you know, particularly the ones who are Bible engaged, how are they engaging the Bible? How frequently? What does that look like? So let me just highlight a few things that will help. They said overall, people are interacting with the Bible

a bit less than the previous year. So we've seen a little bit of a drop of Americans as a whole engaging the Bible. Now, a few years ago, half of Americans were what they called Bible users, 50%. There was a drastic shift in our 2022 survey, which we talked about last year. Bible use tumbling by 10 points down to 40% in one year from 21 to 22, 50% to 40%. And I remember reading that thinking, is this just a blip on the radar?

But they show here that that drop-off has continued and it wasn't just a blip on the radar. Now to my question earlier, what about those who don't read the Bible? They say more than half of American adults say they do wish they read the Bible more. Now that tells me that people aren't reading the Bible not because they don't think it's valuable, not because they don't have a positive view on it, because they're busy or they have other priorities.

So they're not just hating on the Bible, they kind of wish they did. That's an opening for us. Some other things that they say. They say they confirm a recent decline in Bible use, scripture engagement and church attendance. That's a fact. The percentage of in the category Bible disengaged

is now at its highest point ever in the data that they've studied So more people are in the category of not engaging the Bible than before now a couple other interesting things I found is they said black Americans leading again in scripture engagement Which is just interesting why and where does that come from and what can we learn from black Americans? Evangelicals are most likely to be Scripture-engaged. Zero surprise on that one. Yeah.

The South... That's... I hope so. Yeah, I hope so. The South is the strongest, and Boomers are most likely to be Scripture-engaged. Okay. Now, with Evangelicals being the most, just under half of Evangelicals are Scripture-engaged.

46%. In part of being an evangelical is believing Jesus is God need to have a born-again experience You should share your faith and the Bible is authoritative so that means a huge chunk of people are saying they're Evangelicals and really aren't or there's a lot of Evangelicals just not living out what scripture says I mean 46% by the way Bible engaged is using the Bible at least four times a year Which is a really low bar to me. I couldn't I actually thought they should have a higher bar than that I thought originally when I read that I thought that's a misprint. So did I I thought there's no way that is four times a week

Yeah, exactly. Now they come back to the role of four times a week. But that just surprised me. This doesn't surprise me. Gen Z adults, 18 to 27, and they don't have younger, because this study goes down to 18. So younger Gen Zers were still studying. They're the least scripture engaged. So if we talk about those who are scripture engaged by generation, from boomers to exers to Millennials to Gen Z It drops off every single generation and this is where Barna study show that should tell us something

It does tell something but Barna study shows that a biblical worldview drops off per generation Could a big piece of that be that we're actually not reading the Bible? Now one more thing is, here's the last thing I'll point out, there's a lot here and I'm really scratching the surface. One in seven Americans rather consistently say the country would be better off, but four in nine say a Bible less America would be worse. So far more, so maybe this would be more helpful. Half of Americans now

agree that Bible reading is an important component of a child's character development. So what this means is there's far more people that are willing to say reading the Bible is good for America, it's important for child's development than those who say the opposite. And sounds like that those that those who say is good for me. Yeah, or at least we're living that out. Okay, so talk a little bit about the people who don't engage the Bible. Okay. For one, I think, what do you think accounts for that sort of consistent lowering of that percentage over the last few years?

And then what I'm really curious about is how people who don't engage the Bible feel about their lack of engagement with it, and the importance of reading the Bible even though they're not doing it. So, people have a lot of reasons why they don't read the Bible and why they do. And we can come back to a lot of those. I think the biggest reason is just time. But I always say you have time for what's important. We make time for what matters. So that is not an excuse, especially with podcasts people can use while they're driving, working out.

That's really not an excuse. It really is. It's just not a priority enough for people who don't do it, for whatever reason we could talk about. I could see where some people look at reading the Bible as, you know, sitting down in a chair, opening up the Bible to first Chronicles, or a book they're completely unfamiliar with, and thinking, you know, why, what am I, I'm not getting anything out of this. But as you pointed out, there's so many new avenues for people to ingest the Scriptures. For sure. You know, there's, I mean, I mean, how many, how many, you know, phone-based apps... Yeah.

...are available for just, and all they do is they just read the Scripture. Podcasts, apps, online, you know, free stuff. Devotional guides. I've started using one just at the start of the new year that I hadn't used before. So it's a wonderful devotional guide that gives, it doesn't

go through the Bible sort of book by book, but it goes through section, you know, sections and blocks over several weeks, and it's been really a rich, rich resource. So, but people who don't, I think this, the thing about the report that struck me is that people who don't engage the Bible really feel like it's important to do so. That was one of the biggest surprising things to me. That's huge. And I think they recognize not just important culturally, but important for me personally

to be doing. I think that's what the report revealed. That's really striking to me. Because if I, it's sort of like, I know that there are certain foods that are bad for me. But I'm eating them anyway. Because I just don't have some of the discipline I'd like. And I know that there are a lot of things I ought to be eating that are really good for me.

And I wish everybody else did that so the healthcare costs would go down. But, you know, I'm not eating green vegetables at every meal. I'm just not. So the Bible's not junk food. It's like, good food. I just don't have the discipline to do it. That's the key.

I think if most people were honest about it, that would be the reason why they don't. Why they don't engage with it regularly. And the data shows that. Different from the new atheist just critique about the Bible, a lot of people still hold it in high esteem and at least wish they read it more like they wish they ate their broccoli and green beans.

Now that's not to say they don't wrestle with certain parts of it that- Of course. You know, that make them scratch their head. Yeah. I mean, I think we all have those things that we've, you know, that we're gonna, when we meet the Lord, we're gonna ask him about. So, how some of those things work, I think, are still sort of puzzling to me. But, overwhelmingly, I think the parts that are easy to understand far outweigh the parts that are tricky and challenging.

I agree. So let's, one of the things I'm so glad they talked about this part is they have a chapter on how artificial intelligence impacts the reading of the Bible on church, on spiritual growth. I mean, I'm just so fascinated to read that. So, spell out for our viewers, what does AI have to do with all of this, and how is it impacting this? Here's a quote that they include, I thought was helpful. This is from two different authors.

I honestly can't pronounce their names. It said, the question of the church leaders becomes not whether the church will embrace AI, but how the church will embrace AI. I think that's right. But I think we're kind of in a cultural moment where we don't know what's okay and what's not okay. And there's a lot of unspoken assumptions about AI. I suspect that if, I can't put a number on this, but I suspect if there are a lot of unspoken assumptions about AI. I suspect that if, and I can't put a number on this,

but I suspect if there are a lot of church workers and pastors who made it known to their congregation exactly how they're using AI, they might get a little pushback and question about this and people that are not happy with it. So we had somebody I was working with and they sent us a study guide for a book we were working on and didn't tell us it was put together by AI.

And honestly, it really bothered me. I felt like I'm a guinea pig. Why don't you just tell me and then I can look at it. So I think one thing we gotta take away is pastors need to be very clear about how they're using AI, in what way they're using it, at least with the staff and the leadership. So they're doing it with integrity. That's one takeaway.

This stat I thought was interesting. There's a bunch in here people can read. They said, I would look unfavorably at a pastor or priest using AI to develop sermons or homilies. It was basically one third disagree, one third uncertain and one third agree. In other words, people don't even know what that means. They're all over the map. Now, of course, the question is,

how do you use it to produce a sermon? So there's a big difference between saying, you know, chat GBT, write a sermon for me on this. That's obviously out of bounds. But what if you're reading a passage and you say, you plug in the passage and say, ChatGBT, what do you think is the main point of this passage?

Well, it doesn't mean you trust ChatGBT, but that might be a helpful tool to figure out. What if you say, ChatGBT, give me an outline of this passage? ChatGBT, help me with an application of this. Okay, maybe as a tool to supplement. But for me, I want to just dive into a text first, understand it, do my research, and then AI is a tool on top of that.

That's more so how I want to use it. But I'll tell you, with things like Logos Bible Software built into their newest version, AI tools, it's incredible the time-saving devices that you can use and are available. Bottom line is I think there's a lack of clarity. So here's what they write. I'll just read this paragraph.

They're talking about Gen Zers. Why don't we see more support for AI among younger generations? They're actually less likely to support AI. So younger generations less likely to support it in the church and Bible engaged less likely to support AI, which surprised me. I have a theory about that. And they said, authenticity appears to be highly valued in that group. And so the intrinsic artificiality of AI might be difficult for many to accept.

Maybe, I mean that could be a piece of it. I tend to think those who are scripture engaged probably have a more robust view of human nature and being fall in human nature and are skeptical of these tools being used well and concerned it'll be manipulated. If I had to guess that's why I would say scripture engaged are less skeptical of these tools being used well and concerned it'll be manipulated. If I had to guess, that's why I would say scripture engaged are less enthusiastic about AI. Do you agree with that or what was your take on that point? Well, I give you an example. I spoke on AI in the church about a year ago when Jack GPT was just starting to make waves. And I did an exercise in front

of the church, and I had my computer plugged into their screen, so it came up on the screen, and I said, I asked the pastor, I said, tell me what passage you're preaching on next week. And so, and he told me, and it was three or four verses from Philippians, and so I plugged into the prompt, said give me a thousand word sermon based on Philippians, I won like nine through 12. And in like 10 seconds, it spits it out. And you could see the people in the pews, their eyes are so.

And then I said, let's do it again. And you could see the people in the pews, their eyes are so... And then I said, let's do it again. And now I said, give me the same sermon, but in the voice of the pastor of the church. And it was markedly different. Some of the same main points, but you could see that it had tweaked it in order to better represent what it had gotten off of the pastor. The internet from his content. Yeah.

You know, all the sermons are posted on the web. Yeah. And so I said, at least, you know, let's be clear about what you're doing. And then I made two points at the end. I said, for one, you know, AI doesn't run the message through your own life experience. That's not the filter that it uses. And second, AI is not filled by the Holy Spirit. And you are. The person is. And so I think it's fine to use for, you know, prompting, you know, priming the pump for ideas, you know, things like that. But I don't want authors to turn into editors and pastors to turn into basically glorified plagiarists in their preaching. So I think it's, you know, the effect on how people read the

Scripture, I could see, you know, I could see perhaps using it to give me different interpretive options for a challenging passage, you know, and just use that instead of, you know, looking at, you know, half a dozen commentaries. And I could see, I could see, you know, looking at, you know, half a dozen commentaries. And I could see, I could see you, you know, give me some ideas for application. I could see you just to prime the pump in that way. Yeah, prime the pump is a good way to put it. But, you know, it's not surprising that people just don't know, they still don't know quite what to do with it. I think the bottom line, people are not talking about it.

There's not clarity. There's different assumptions. So minimally, one takeaway from this is if you're a church, talk about this. Get on the same page. Maybe have a policy like we do in our classes so there's at least clarity on what's okay and what's not. That's a good takeaway from this. Now there are a number of parts of the report that I didn't expect.

Okay. That didn't strike me initially when I read the table of contents, it's having much to do with the reading of the Bible. So, for example, there was a whole chapter on, you know, what's the connection between where people are in terms of going to church with sort of coming out of COVID when so much church was online, remote, or in person? There's a whole chapter on that. I didn't see that as particularly related to the reading of the Bible, though the Scripture

engaged folks, I think, were more inclined to see the importance of church in person, in the flesh, in community. But tell us a little bit about, you know, how the impact of where people are in terms of the Bible affects how they view going to church. Yeah, this is interesting. They write this. They said, many assume that online church viewing would temporarily supplant in-person attendance. But once COVID threat dissipated, people would return to the live services. According to our newest data, that seems to be true. That's a good trend.

In-person attendance is bouncing back. So if you go to 2021 through 2024, the numbers of in-person, primarily in-person primarily in person was 38 56 67 now 75 percent it's on an upward trajectory which I think is positive which means people are studying and reading the Bible in Person so to speak now this one made me really happy Scott

It said gen X which is my generation is the generation most likely to attend in person Way to go gen X. We got beat up for a long time now They do point out that like maybe Millennials have kids and that's harder. So there's fair Pieces that are taking place there. They said online Attenders which is people who use they go in person, but when they can't will watch online So it's kind of a blend of the two. Including those who attend church online and in person about equally, are more likely to read the Bible on their own.

I see that. I'm like, okay, that's interesting. So somebody's attendance, you know, shapes how much they engage the Bible. Fine. I don't know why, but it does. This was an interesting question, and I wanna know what you think about this one. They wrote, this is on page 38, they said,

our data suggests that some churches are discontinuing their online options. So now that 75% of people are back coming to church as a whole, should we discontinue online options and focus incarnationally on those in our local community? What's your take? Well, let me give an example first.

Okay. And this will reveal my take. I think the first place I spoke in a church during pretty serious COVID restrictions. It was all remote, and I was in the building. So I spoke from in the building, it was live streamed, and there may have been, I don't know, maybe 10 people in the building at the time, tech folks.

And it was a worship team that led worship remotely. And I was the only one sitting in the seat in the building. And that worship started the first time I'd been in public worship in a local church in months and months. I remember feeling this incredible wave of just joy and refreshment and being in person worshiping, even though I was the only person in the seats. And I thought, this is so right for me. Now, some people, they flourish in watching you know, in watching online and, you know, not having to, you know, get dressed and all that stuff. And, you know, and I get that.

But there was something that was so refreshing, just about being back in person, even though I was the only person in the seats. So I wouldn't have a problem if a church wanted to discontinue online services, but I'd want to make sure that they have at least some of the worship and the preaching still available online. Now, I attend a church where the preaching is not the main event. That's different than a lot of other evangelical churches, but I attend an Anglican church where communion is the main event. That's different than a lot of other evangelical churches, but I attend an Anglican church where communion is the main event. Everything else leads up to that. And there's,

doing communion, the Eucharist online, is really challenging to do to make it really meaningful. Needless to say. That's a tough thing to do. So I think there's maybe some traditions that can more easily dispense with online delivery than others. But I'd want to make sure that people have access to at least some of the Bible teaching, maybe some of the worship that they could enjoy. If they're just not able to make it on a particular Sunday, they can go back during the week and, you know, then look it up and take advantage of it. So that that's interesting.

Now it's different than saying we want online for our community when they're sick or they're traveling to hear or see a sermon or the community, etc. Versus we are trying to reach other people through our online sermon. Those are different things. I would say if you're a local church, your first responsibility, your focus and your resources is to reach those in your community. So if you can have a further reach without compromising this, go for it and do it. We are called to reach the nations, but our priority is to the local church.

They point out in a... I think that's okay. As long as the church makes it clear that there is something about being embodied in a body of believers in person, that's just a different experience than being online. They emphasize that. Yeah, and I mean, that's my point, is you prioritize in person,

but for when you just can't be there. I listen to my home church sermons when I can't go, that's for me. Now, with that said, I preach quarterly. I'm on the preaching team this year in my home church. And I asked my pastor, I said, I'm gonna preach first to our congregation, but I'm gonna frame the message in a way

that I can put it online and reach more people. He's like, great, go for it. So that's a way, if you have the resources and the ability to reach more people, go for it. But make sure the local church is not, you know, under prioritized. And so they point out on page 103, they said many people who watch church online find a haven who don't yet fully trust the church.

It can be an on ramp to a local church. So there's endless sermons, endless podcasts people can listen to, but there's also something about like a local church of someone who goes, oh I'm in my community in Indiana or New Hampshire or Southern California. This pastor's preaching to people like me. I want to hear it before I go, that is a valuable reason to have it online, that I would encourage, like you said, pastors to keep doing. Yeah, that's right. It's almost as though,

I want to go to church, but I don't have to interact with those people. LAUGHS And it could be, I get it. Some of it can be church hurt, some of it can be just different reasons. As step one creates. They want to stay anonymous.

Yeah. They don't want to stay anonymous. Yeah. They don't want to, you know, they don't want to, you have to turn in a card that you're a new person or anything like that. Or they're an introvert and they're just, as long as it's step A and you're working to get people there in person prioritizing it, we're both good with it. Yeah. Here's, I think Sean, this is the part that I, that I actually got the most out of. 100% agree and that is this is the part about

human flourishing I Agree and the Bible Bible engagement What does that have to do with our ability to flourish as individuals the way God intended us to be I? Agree 100% if people are still with us watching and listening in some ways we should have started with this exactly but this is really a big takeaway here. So by the way when they talk about human flourishing they said this was their index was developed by researchers from Harvard University the human flourishing index and it covers five specific areas of life that we won't go into.

Now they do point out that Americans dropped one decimal point in their overall human flourishing score in 2024. I don't even know if that's significant or what that really means, but they're using a legitimate metric here. And this part is incredible to me, Scott. They said a few things. They said the more often people interact with the Bible the higher their human flourishing scores

Greater interaction on the Harvard scale on the Harvard scale greater human flourishing scores Now, of course right away people are asking the question Well, maybe it's the kind of people who would flourish who would interact with the Bible. And I think we're going to see reason why it's actually reading the Bible itself that encourages this flourishing. Now they talk about Bible promoting agencies have mentioned the power of four. So I've interviewed my friends at Logos Bible Software, I use their stuff all the time, and for years they've said there's something about engaging the Bible four times a week. Not three times. Four times weekly shifts and causes like a significant uptick in your human flourishing.

And I've heard that and I believe them. They're like, our data actually supports that. I don't know why I could only guess, but there's something about human flourishing, not four times a year, but four times a week encourages that. So they ask the question, what is it about regular Bible use that impacts human flourishing? And one is meaning and purpose. You're not an accident.

The Bible, you're part of a story. You're made in God's image. There's a meaning for your suffering. There's a meaning for your life. That's one. Second, they have what's called hope agency and they just describe it as the sense a person has when they're moving forward on a path that leads in a good direction. I have a sense of optimism and hope that my life is moving in that direction.

Those who read the Bible more have a greater hope agency. They said, that was the second one. I think there's three or four. The third one is they said those who agree strongly that they can forgive others are two full points higher on the overall flourishing score. That's significant. Interesting, because they don't hold grudges.

Yeah, now you're taking these one by one. It's like the Bible has meaning the Bible talks about hope The Bible says to forgive one another. You know, these are biblical ideas For it that says scripture engaged people report much less stress than others They said it's not even close more than 30% lower than the other groups And then they bring in that it's not just reading the Bible, but it's practicing Christians report three quarters less stress than others if you practice your faith. Now they point out some other things in here like Gen Zers have the highest level of stress

of any group, which is interesting. They also report the lowest levels of hope agency. But if you go back to the human flourishing, Gen Z adults who are scripture engaged, once again, have much lower levels of stress and anxiety than those who don't. So even with this generation. So, I mean, I could go on and on. It says, when these young adults are scripture engaged, they flourish as much as their elders and even more with Gen Z.

So, I just, I mean, here's their conclusion. People tend to flourish in life when they're regularly and meaningfully interacting with the Bible. The data to back this up, I think is really significant. We've always known that reading the Bible regularly was good for you. We just haven't had the data to tell us exactly how that works. And I think, you know, I want to be careful that we don't, you know, that we look at the people who are getting the cart before the horse, where they say that if, you know, the

people who are more inclined to flourish in general are the ones who are reading the Bible. I think that's backward. What the data shows is that it's reading the Bible itself that makes you, not entirely, but it contributes to making you a person who flourishes in your life. Now, I think there probably are some people who, you know, they just, you know, they're just these emotionally healthy people who also happen to read the Bible. So that, there's probably some of that there. Well, there, if I can, there is some selection effect.

But when the Bible says, forgive one another's, your life has meaning. There's hope in Christ. Cast all your anxieties upon me. It's teaching the very things that lead to human flourishing. And what they mean by practicing Christians by- In flourishing, not according to how a church defines it. According to the Harvard, and they make a distinction here between casuals

and nominal Christians and nuns. It's actually the practicing Christians. They have the best scores in every individual component of human flourishing, as well as the metrics related to hope and stress. That means going to church, saying faith is important, saying they follow Jesus. So I think it's, I think the data is pretty strong and clear. Now there are a couple other areas that have to do with with flourishing and some of the effects of reading the Bible regularly.

And maybe we'll close with these two. How does the Bible influence loneliness? There's a whole chapter on that in the report, but it has a lot to say about it. So how does reading the Scripture, presumably in isolation, affect how people combat loneliness? There's been a lot of talk about loneliness lately. Like, Britain is talking about a commissioner of loneliness. Surgeon General has talked about how... Hopefully that's not an introvert.

Yeah, exactly. Fair enough. Surgeon General talked about the you know I forget the numbers like being lonely is equivalent to smoking a certain number of cigarettes per day just on your health and lifespan So they point out a few things like women report more loneliness than men Gen Z scores highest in the loneliness like you said earlier self reporting Those who are married are about half as likely to report a high level of loneliness as those who are not. Like these are some things we might expect. But then they say, active Christians combat loneliness in two ways.

First, when they engage scripture, they interact with a God who loves them, with an everlasting God. Part of the message of the Bible is you're not alone. God sees you. The Holy Spirit is with you. But second, it leads to meaningful connection with others. Why? Because it talks about the importance and really the command of going to church. So the conversation we had earlier about going to church, it's really the Bible that encourages that fellowship. And of course, when there's fellowship, you're less likely to report being alone.

So they, you know, scripture engaged people are half as likely to report high loneliness as the Bible disengaged. 22% versus 11%. It says it's no surprise then that people who read about love and humility and forgiveness and live out these principles in their lives would build strong friendships and report fewer Feelings of loneliness. Yeah now that that's an important thing to I think to emphasize because it's not there's you know We're just reading the Bible is not a magic bullet On this it's reading the Bible and living it out. Mm-hmm That the combination of those is what contributes to combating loneliness and contributes

to flourishing, things like that. So I wouldn't want our viewers to be misled that simply, although the task of reading the Bible just in isolation is valuable in and of itself, but we say that's a necessary but not sufficient condition for somebody's flourishing. But it's the emphasis which is a biblical emphasis on not, you know, on living it out. As my mentor used to say, the Bible was not written to increase your information but to transform your life. So one other area that... Yeah, let me say something. I think you would still find, I don't believe the study talks about this, people who read the Bible and don't practice it, I would bet my house, and maybe this is too aggressive, that you would still see an uptick in their reporting not feeling lonely because of the

message and ideas in the Bible. When you live it out, then you see the highest uptick. Is what I would guess. Now I do have to point something in this. I don't know what to do with this data, Scott, but it said on all different worldviews, atheists struggle least with loneliness and agnostics the most.

Now I don't know why, and they put a couple of guesses in here, what it could be. They're like, you know, anyways, sometimes that's why you need multiple studies and you need a lot of things to weigh in here. But sometimes there's data we got to recognize and go, okay, this is this is interesting. What exactly do we do with any of our viewers who have an idea on that? Yeah, tell us right in and let us know.

I'm really curious what that might be. Hey, one more area. Yep. And that is, this one is not a huge surprise, but Bible engagement leads to a greater emphasis on charity and giving. Okay, I'm not super surprised by that, but it sounds like there's a little more to that than meets the eye initially. I'm so glad you brought this up. This is probably the second most significant thing to me. Now, in some ways, it didn't surprise me. I've heard for years that people who are more politically conservative, and more theologically conservative, give more time and money to the poor and charity. The focus in here wasn't just how you answer, but whether you are scripture engaged or not. So it's related to activity the way you describe it, not just cerebral beliefs. And they said scripture engaged people are more likely to donate to charity and

they give more. Now they explain different reasons why that might be the case but for many it goes beyond the obligation. They find in Scripture a passionate spirit of giving. So there's a command of giving and it's taught about the goodness of giving but this on page 182 we should throw this chart up there, but it says, giving by faith participation. Non-Christians, I think this is annually, if I'm reading it correctly. Non-Christian is about $1400. Nominal $1500.

Casual Christian $2700. Practicing Christian $5800. That's huge. Now, some outside might critique and say, well, you're given to the church and we differ over those causes. Okay, we can have that conversation. But nonetheless, they're sacrificing more and giving more because reading the Bible,

when you take it to heart, like you said, leads towards behavior that should, and in this case does, help our neighbors. So that stat was awesome. Particularly since the Bible has a whole lot to say about money, possessions, giving, and generosity. You know, maybe that may be the most frequently addressed topic in all the scriptures. Now, one final thing. If our listeners are inclined to read through all the data, how do they get a hold of this?

I think you just search online, and we can put a link, State of the Bible USA 2024, and you can download it, I think, for free. We got a copy that was sent from our office, so I assume it's free. If there's a cost for it, it's worth it. If you're a data person like me and what we talked about here was helpful,

this gives the background. They talk about a lot of issues we didn't go into. And so for church staff, it might be helpful to just kind of work through this and say, how are we encouraging Bible engagement and what of this information can we get out to help our congregation? I think it'd be really helpful in that way. And I want to thank the American Bible Society because they're doing good work.

This is a big sacrifice to put this together. I'm assuming this is helpful to them, but they keep pumping out these reports. We'll keep talking about it and encouraging people to pick it up. Yeah, now, I'm not a data nerd, but I'm glad you are. I am a data nerd. But I think this is really helpful for our listeners. I hope it has been helpful to you. And we recommend that churches use this in ways to help engage their members more,

to help more than become scripture engaged on a regular basis. And we would define that as more than four times a year. Oh man. We're shooting for the four times a week mark. Exactly. On that. So we hope this has been helpful. If you're one of those that wants to wade through the data,

we really encourage you to get this, the State of the Bible from the American Bible Society. Sean, this has been super helpful. I'm grateful that you did a deep dive into this. I enjoy it. Because this is one of the ways Bible Society. Sean, this has been super helpful. I'm grateful that you did a deep dive into this, because this is one of the ways in which you and I are just wired differently. So I'm very thankful for that. So if you have a question or a comment, not only about this, but about it in general, please feel free to email us at thinkbiblicallyatbiola.edu.

said think biblically at biola.edu. That's think biblically at biola.edu. And we wanna be sure you join us on Friday for our weekly cultural update. And in the meantime, think biblically about everything. Thanks for joining us. ["Bible Talks"]