Imagine a church filled with self-professed Christians, self-proclaimed followers of Jesus Christ, convinced they know the mind of God but wholly unfamiliar with His Word. They argue they know what God would say, what He would do, what He would approve of or condemn.

They post their opinions on social media, quote random verses they barely understand, and preach a “gospel” of acceptance, love, and open-mindedness—but not the actual gospel, mind you.

This is not devotion to the God of all Creation. It’s devotion to self. This is idolatry cloaked in religiosity. This is the dark and dangerous fruit of biblical illiteracy.

Biblical illiteracy is not just a blemish on the Church of Jesus Christ—it is a fatal flaw. It’s a mind-numbing toxin that infects the Church at its core, rendering her weak, malleable, and pathetic. Like termites gnawing away at the foundation of a home, ignorance of Scripture erodes the Church from the inside, leaving her vulnerable to every whim of culture, every new “insight” from self-styled prophets, and every philosophical trend that feels just close enough to “Christian” values to be excusable.

In this world of hollow spirituality, truth becomes elastic, stretched and bent to fit personal preferences and social acceptance. But people do not seek the truth, they seek validation. And they do not serve God, they serve themselves.

So let’s call this what it is. Idolatry. And not just any idolatry, but the most dangerous and subtle form—the kind that dares to wear the label “Christian.” To be biblically illiterate is to be led, not by God’s revealed Word, but by one’s own deceitful heart, perverse desires, and preconceived notions.

It’s the person who says, “God is love,” while having no idea what God’s love actually entails because they’ve never bothered to open and read the Book that defines it.

It’s the person who says, “Jesus never condemned anyone,” blissfully unaware of the countless times Jesus rebuked, warned, and flat-out vilified those who twisted the truth.

Their false faith is wishful thinking … it’s conforming God in one’s own image rather than conforming to the Image of Christ.

Worse, biblical illiteracy is a playground for self-deception. When the Bible becomes a prop—an ornamental book on the shelf or an Instagram background—its purpose is lost, and it becomes no different from any other book, powerless and ignored. Those who live by their feelings rather than the Word are living in a fantasy, concocting their own version of faith from scraps of sentimentality and cultural slogans.

These sad souls are like children making mud pies, convinced they’re baking a gourmet feast. How arrogant, how foolish, how utterly tragic! They’re worshipping a powerless god who is no god at all.

And what happens when you replace the God of Scripture with a god of your own making? You become the judge. You become the authority. You sit on a throne of ignorance, presiding over moral verdicts based on nothing more than self-adoration, yet you do it in God’s name.

They call themselves enlightened, progressive, even “spirit-led,” yet they’re lost, wandering in a fog of their own creation, utterly blind to the God who has already spoken. But instead of seeking Him, they tell themselves they already know Him, though they’ve never read His Word in full, never wrestled with His commands, never submitted to His truth.

And do we think this mindset doesn’t have consequences? A biblically illiterate Church is a church without a spine. It’s a laughingstock, a shadow, a house built on sand. It’s a people who won’t stand for truth because they’ve never been anchored in it.

These are “Christians” in name only, rallying for every feel-good cause, quick to signal their own self-righteous virtue, but slow to repent, reluctant to obey. They’re all “love and tolerance,” no holiness, no sacrifice, no cross. They worship a god of convenience, not the God of the Bible.

Is it any wonder that such a Church is easily swayed by culture? When people don’t know the Word of God, they’re sitting ducks for deception. They fall for every power of hell and scheme of man, every vain philosophy, every smooth-talking wolf in sheep’s clothing.

They are like driftwood tossed about by the waves, moving wherever the cultural tide takes them. And yet, they believe themselves wise. They are not wise; they are fools.

Biblical illiteracy is idolatry because it reduces God’s authority to that which can be ignored and elevates man’s voice over God’s. It enthrones the creature in the place of the Creator, whispering the ancient lie, “Did God really say?”

Biblical illiteracy creates a god who exists to affirm, not convict … a god who saves without requiring repentance … a god who loves without being holy. But such a god is no god at all. It’s a fantasy, an illusion, a mockery. It is nothing less than the golden calf of the modern age, shaped not by hammers and chisels but by ignorance and arrogance.

To be biblically illiterate is to worship yourself. It is to demand that God conform to your image rather than humbling yourself to His. It is the most cunning, seductive form of idolatry, masquerading as faith, but at its heart, it’s rebellion.

It is an act of defiance against the God who has spoken clearly, authoritatively, and sufficiently. It’s saying, “My thoughts are higher than Your thoughts; my ways are better than Your ways.”

A “biblically illiterate Christian” is a walking contradiction. They profess Christ but ignore His commands. They claim faith but lack knowledge. They wear the label but deny the substance. They honor Him with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him.

They are spiritually bankrupt, yet smug in their ignorance. They’re not just deceived, they’re deluded. They have traded the riches of divine wisdom for the scraps of self-assurance, and they do it all in the name of “faith.”

Biblical illiteracy is a disease that corrodes faith from the inside out, leaving nothing but a hollow shell. It is idolatry in its purest, most poisonous form.

And it will lead, as idolatry always does, to destruction.