I have often heard people say that they have met or known Christians who do not act or talk as they think Christians should. The imperfections they see in these so called Christians justify their belief that Christianity is false or flawed. To further their justification of their belief, they might point to a recent scandal involving a religious leader or actions that have been overlooked by a church.
There are also those who share this perspective and double down on their certainty that Christianity is flawed by claiming they have read the Bible from cover to cover and found nothing in it.
Maybe they have read the Bible, or maybe they just claim to have done so. But I would argue that anyone who has actually read the Bible would know that it is not men that we look to as an example of how a Christian should live, the example to follow as a Christian is Jesus, NOT men, a religious leader, a religion, or a church.
We certainly want to associate ourselves with people who are doing their best to lead a Godly life, but they are not the standard to strive for, Jesus is. And we do not want to discount the benefit of learning more of God’s Word from those teaching from the pulpit. We just need to keep in mind that even those who teach the Word of God each week are also humans and sinners just like us. They make mistakes and sin, too.
I would not call those who claim they have read the Bible and found nothing in it to be telling a lie or stretching the truth, only they and God know if they actually read it or not. However, I would argue that anyone who has read the Bible and walked away not knowing the Truth might be struggling with a reading or comprehension problem. To them, I would recommend giving it another go, you clearly missed the point along the way. Or you might try an audible version of the Bible, you might comprehend the Word better by listening than reading.
Giving up on the Word would be similar to getting frustrated and giving up on learning to ride a bike. Even if you give up learning to ride, a bike is still a bike, and the way a bike is ridden is still the same.
The issue would be that you have decided not to ride the bike, not that there is an issue with the bike.
