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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Vicky Thompson
publicity@journeywithspirit.com


ISSUE FACT SHEET

The Changing Role of the Bible

As fewer people attend church, the Bible is losing its dominance as the main source of truth for living. Many people are combining teachings from the Bible with other spiritual traditions to create a new prescription for life. Can the Bible adapt to the changing needs of spiritual seekers?

What Research Says

  • Nine out of ten adults believe they know all of the basic teachings of Christianity very well. But when given 14 basic teachings from the Bible, only 1 percent of adults had both a firm and biblically-consistent opinion for all teachings.

  • 60 percent of Americans agree that the Bible is totally accurate in its teachings.

  • 24 percent of Americans rely on the Bible or church teachings as their primary source for moral guidance. 

  • 44 percent of Americans believe that it doesn’t matter what religious faith you follow because they all teach the same lessons.

  • 54 percent of Americans believe that truth can be discovered only through logic, human reasoning, and personal experience.

  • When asked to choose between the statements “There are moral absolutes that are unchanging” or “Moral truth is relative to the circumstances” 64 percent of adults said truth is always relative.

  • Among the nine out of ten adults who own at least one Bible, 37 percent read the Bible for an average of 52 minutes during the week.

Source: Barna Research Group, a Ventura, Calif.-based Christian marketing research company.


What Vicky Thompson Says

The Bible has provided believers with great comfort as well as great confusion over the centuries. But the Bible does provide keys for living life in accordance with Jesus’ teachings on love, compassion, and acceptance. As an historical source, the Bible provides clues about the life of Jesus as a rebel teacher and his controversial actions that shook up the purity system in ancient Israel. As a spiritual source, the Bible provides a window into the mystical and miraculous world of God, where healings can occur spontaneously and Jesus can tell his followers that they too can feel the hand of God guiding them from within. The very existence of the Bible is a reminder that God can touch and influence our lives deeply. The Gospel writers and others who penned the Scriptures were everyday people having deep spiritual experiences. This grace was not exclusive to people of ancient times, but instead inclusive of people throughout time. As God continues to touch our hearts, people will continue to share these spiritual discoveries through books, songs, and oral traditions. The Bible continues to hold relevance in a spiritual journey as one of the sources chronicling God’s presence in our world. New sources will continue to build upon this foundation.

 

What The Jesus Path Says

The Jesus Path integrates ageless spiritual principles into a personal practice for everyday divine living that inspires inner and outer peace. The New Testament of the Bible explains how Jesus shook up this world of entrenched convention. We see a powerful man overturning vendor tables in the temple, healing on the Jewish Sabbath, touching the impure misfits of society, and openly accepting women and lower class people as spiritual seekers. We see Jesus as the Messiah, a man seemingly without fear or doubt, guided by the knowing hand of Spirit to do God’s work upon Earth. We believe that this power and strength came solely from the grace of God, bestowed upon this being named Jesus who seemed not of this Earth. In reading these stories of Jesus’ great accomplishments, we forget, and sometimes even doubt, that Jesus was human, just like us.…Our understanding of this missing piece of commonality is in our very blood: Jesus was human, just like us, and his experiences reflect the great possibilities available to us all in living as an instrument of God….Jesus recognized that he was not alone in achieving great things through the love of God and openly invited others to take up the charge and do God’s work. (The Jesus Path: 7 Steps to a Cosmic Awakening, Vicky Thompson, Red Wheel/Weiser, March 2003, $16.95, page 10.)

 

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THE JESUS PATH

7 Steps to a Cosmic Awakening

Reconnecting with Your Inner Spirit During Changing Times

by Vicky Thompson

Published by Red Wheel/Weiser, Paperback $16.95, 282 pages

Publication Date: March 2003

ISBN: 1-59003-053-2

 

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