While many churches are replacing the teaching of the word of God with other “spiritual tools” and “spiritual disciplines,” the knowledge and understanding of the actual word of God is receding to the background in the information base of many Christians. This sad phenomenon has reached “crisis status” in our opinion. However, as far as the Church has wandered, the only antidote is still the word of God, studied in context and applied liberally, which strengthens the spiritual immune system.

Nehemiah is one of my favorite Old Testament books, and while reading it this week, I came across a familiar favorite passage of mine. Though I am familiar with the passage, I was struck anew with its importance. Nehemiah had overseen the rebuilding of the Jerusalem wall after Israel’s return to her land after exile. In this passage they were installing the new gates to the city.

Nehemiah states in Nehemiah 7:1

“The gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed.”

At this point Nehemiah turned over the charge of Jerusalem to his brother and the governor of the castle. Exiles were returning from Babylon and were sorted out according to their genealogies. Anyone who did not appear in the register “were excluded from the priesthood as unclean.” (Nehemiah 7:64b). They had all been in Babylon for many years, which was rife with idols and pagan beliefs. With the core reconstruction completed and the people organized, the hearts of all the people seemed to turn as one to focus on the word of God:

And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. (Nehemiah 8:1)

They stood for the reading “from early morning until midday” (Nehemiah 8:3) and listened attentively. (Nehemiah 8:4) The line in the historical narrative that grabbed my attention was in Nehemiah 8:8:

They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

There was a hunger for the word of God and a desire to not only hear it read but understand what it meant. Not only did they want it read aloud but wanted Ezra and the other readers to exegete the text. They wanted to know its meaning. Having returned to the land, they were in the process of reconstructing their faith.

We host a live online evening study group on Tuesday evenings. A few weeks ago, while we were discussing the phenomenon of “deconstructing faith,” I (Don) mentioned that something plaguing the church today is the wild spread of “spiritual A.I.D.S.” among the flock. Dr. Donald Williams, who is part of the teaching team, looked a bit puzzled by my statement. I explained that “Spiritual A.I.D.S.” is a phrase we coined about two decades ago.¹ The acronym stands for the “Acquired Ignorance of the Doctrines of Scripture” and it is to us a spiritual equivalent of physical A.I.D.S. which stands for Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome. A compromised immune system leaves the individual largely defenseless in fighting off various illnesses.

As we compared the two, Dr. Williams agreed it was an apt description and thought be might adopt it himself. While many churches are replacing the teaching of the word of God with other “spiritual tools” and “spiritual disciplines,” the knowledge and understanding of the actual word of God is receding to the background in the information base of many Christians. This sad phenomenon has reached “crisis status” in our opinion. However, as far as the Church has wandered, the only antidote is still the word of God, studied in context and applied liberally, which strengthens the spiritual immune system.

We can clearly see the results when Biblical training is lacking, demonstrated in studies like the 2022 State of Theology. 41% of Evangelicals in 2014 agreed that:

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