THEY WON’T READ!

Blessed is he who reads. (Rev. 1:3)

It is a common complaint of those who would change their world, They won’t read! Even when we go to the trouble of researching the stuff, putting it into print, and delivering it to their front door (and sometimes even handing it to them), still they won’t read it. Or will they? We have to admit that while many do not care to read anything much, especially when it challenges them to think along different lines, some will and do read, even stuff with which they disagree.

It is a sobering truth that the God of heaven chose to disclose his will to certain prophets and apostles who were not only to speak the word that God revealed but to write it as well. The Creator intends that we learn of him by reading, and this in a world where a substantial percentage of the population has always been illiterate. This means that those who can read are to study the Scriptures and convey the teaching to those who can’t read. It may also mean that part of our mission is to teach the world to read.

The inability of so many through the centuries to read has been only part of the problem, for during most of human history the masses had no literature to read, or very little, even if they could read. For many centuries the Bible was chained to the pulpit, not so much because the church did not want it read (assuming there were those who could read it), but to keep it from being stolen. For the first fourteen centuries of the church’s history all Bibles, as well as all other books, had to be copied by hand. Even with the coming of the printing press in about 1450, it was centuries more before the Bible was generally available to the masses, due to poverty as well as illiteracy, and only then to the more enlightened nations of the world. Even today the Bible is an unknown volume and unavailable to large segments of the world’s population, which implies, of course, that God will not judge them by that volume, but by other ways he has revealed himself to them.

How about us? We are inundated with books of all kinds and we have the Bible, in several translations, in most every room of our homes. Endowed with such literary riches we still do not read all that much.

With the circumstances as they were, it is understandable that Rev. 1:3 would promise: “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.” It is a reference to public reading to the assembly, and refers, of course, only to Revelation. It was to be read to the believers, and the reader would be blessed, along with the hearers, if they heeded its message. Other references to reading indicate that it was part of the service, such as I Thess. 5:27: “I adjure you by the Lord to have this letter read to all the brethren,” and “Until I come, give attention to the (public) reading (of Scripture), to exhortation, and teaching.” (I Tim. 4:13).

It is enough to say that the great God of heaven is the infinite educator. He discloses his mind to us in propositional statements to be read. Thus we have the Scriptures, which can be read and studied continually. All this adds up to God’s intention for each of us, that we be cultivated and educated in the ways of God.

If we can read but won’t read, whether the Bible or other good books, it can only be because we don’t want to badly enough. The “want to” needs fixing!

To say that we are too busy to read only condemns us, for we know that we find time, at least some time, to do what we really want to do. While the complaint that there is too much to read has some validity, it does not mean that we cannot read some things. Even a few minutes a day is a good start.

We should espouse causes that we believe to be both valid and crucial: the unity of all mankind, the liberation of the world from all forms of tyranny, the enlightenment of all God’s children. Such a mission calls for no gimmickry or clever advertising techniques, but we must have the printed page. Apart from a return to serious reading there is no way to change our world. No reading, no renewal. It is just that simple --- and just that critical. We read or we perish! This implies, of course, that there must be good stuff to read.

Insofar as this little journal is concerned, there is cause for hope, for our people seem more eager to read searchingly and critically than ever before. I am persuaded that if we will say something and not simply fill columns with print as one stacks empty cartons, that the people, enough of the people, will read.

Thomas Carlyle said it well when he wrote: “All that mankind has done, thought, gained, or been: it is lying in magic preservation in the pages of books.” How blessed we are that there is no knowledge, practically speaking, that is not deposited somewhere in some book. We should search for the ideas that really matter as one would seek silver and gold. And always the end in view is to glorify God and enhance man’s way of life. The search for truth never ceases so long as we are in this world, and that search surely will affect where and how we will spend eternity. Perhaps the search goes on. But woe unto us if we have no interest in the search for truth in this world.

Just now at our house in Denton, Texas we are reading and talking about Japan and Thailand, for I will soon be spending a month in those two countries. Ouida joins me in learning about these fantastic peoples, their culture, religion, economy, values, ideals, as well as their history and geography. Ouida will be better prepared to appreciate my letters from Tokyo, where I will visit churches and missionaries, and Chiangmai, where I will teach in a seminary and visit churches in the back country. Through-out the journey I will read and listen, as well as teach, watching out for liberating and liberalizing truths and ideas. Ouida reports that she has already learned that from any place in Japan one can see a mountain!

I agree with Mortimer J. Adler that “Reading is the only basic tool in the living of the good life.” I arose at six this a.m., which is now long before dawn. In a matter of minutes I was at my desk reading for only a half hour or so before taking off for my two-mile walk. I had a few minutes with Romans, for I will be teaching it to the Laotians and the Thais in Chiangmai (considering what difference an interpreter will make). I was reminded once more of Paul’s insistence that sin is not to “reign” within us, now that we have died with Christ and have been raised with him, and so we are to be “dead to sin.” It is a remarkable teaching in view of the fact that he also insists that the old man of sin is always with us. The point must be that “sin shall not be master over you,” as in Rom. 6:14 and the apostle insists that it is grace (not law keeping) that keeps the dogs of sin at bay, even if they now and again nip at our heels. Mastery is the key. Christ rules our hearts through his Spirit, not sin.

Then I had a few minutes with a book that pained me, which meaningful reading often does. Whatever Happened to the Human Race? is co-authored by Francis Schaeffer, the renowned Christian writer, and C. Everett Koop, M.D., who is Surgeon General of our nation. This moving book deals with the frightening loss of human rights brought on by abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia. I found it frightening that some who seek to manipulate our society have seriously suggested waiting several days before deciding whether to allow a newly born to live.

I found myself grimacing with Dr. Koop, who must be a courageous Christian physician (and whose appointment as Surgeon General was strongly opposed by pro-abortionists), when he asked the disturbing question, “If a mother can kill her own children, then what can be next?” He was terribly disturbed that a high court of justice would actually sanction the parental decision to allow a baby to starve to death rather than to live with a (not so serious) handicap, as in the famed case of “Baby Doe.”

Then I went out for my walk while it was still dark. A mile down our street, at the end of Windsor Dr. that breaks out into a large field, I saw the eastern sky aflame with orange rays, a burst of beauty that would inspire the poet’s heart. Old Sol, whom I had seen retire the evening before from a nearby park where I take my granddaughter, was about ready to get up and do his thing again, which he does quite well, especially in Texas. There was also rain in the air. As I returned home, with the smell of rain on my jacket, I thought of something else I once read. A reporter walked in out of the rain into a prison cell block to visit with a man who was momentarily to be executed for a grievous crime. The reporter wrote of the smell of fresh rain on his coat as he bade farewell to his friend --- the smell of rain, so fresh, so alive, so hopeful, over against the stench of an impending death. The dying man’s last smell of earth was that of refreshing rain. While I read that story long years ago, I thought of it again as I blotted the rain drops from my face with a clean towel. Someone has wisely observed that we should choose our books as we do our friends, for they have such an influence upon us.

While I have read and studied some more during the day, I started the day with at least some reading. It is like the goal of doing a good deed each day: if you don’t get it done early in the day you might not get it done. Early reading gets one off to a good start, nurture to the soul, tonic to the mind.

And soon reading is a joy, and therein lies the secret. And there is no question that we can discipline ourselves to the point that we fall in love with reading. If a man can teach himself to sit in front of the tube and enjoy watching gladiators on an athletic field blast the living daylights out of each other, he should have no problem in forming a delightful friendship with Goldsmith or Emerson or Lincoln or Shakespeare or Lord Byron or John Mark. And where there is joy no one has to be coaxed or cajoled. It is like kissing your wife! --- the Editor