So if we
believe in Christ, why do we need to know the Bible?
Well, the
good news is Bible-based Christianity improves wellbeing. Consequently, if we are
wise we should be ravenously studying scripture to learn what it contains.
The data supporting
that the Bible augments wellbeing come from scientific research and
include the following:
·
Teleios Research – We have found through
prospective surveys and studies that Christianity helps wellbeing both
generally and from additional specific measures. We will discuss these findings
in greater detail throughout these blogs.
·
Publications – Peer-reviewed scientific studies
support improved wellbeing with Christianity! Many studies in the medical
literature indicate wellbeing is improved by the practice of religion.
Importantly, almost all these medical studies were performed in historically
Christian countries. This suggests that most all the subjects in the studies
would have identified as either social or believing Christians. Many of these
studies can be seen in Teleios’ published reviews and are available on our
website (publications). Otherwise, they can be searched
on Pubmed.
Let’s
examine the impressive findings of Teleios and other medical literature which
have shown that wellbeing is improved in Christians or religious people in
Christian countries:
·
Demographics – All age groups (10 years and older), both genders,
and African-American as well as Caucasian races.
·
Broad wellbeing effect – Specific wellbeing-related measures such as:
sense of purpose, satisfaction, hope, stronger social relationships, and
ability to forgive.
·
Social measures – Vital areas of life such as the family, career,
a sense of community and socialization.
·
Family life – Christianity is associated with good health and higher levels of
education and less substance abuse in the children. Family religiosity predicts
better functioning for parents, a better social network, and ties with families
of friends. Further, church promotes happy marital relationships by encouraging
spouses, especially the men, to live decent lives and to treat their partners
decently.
·
Careers – Christianity helps people’s ability to make career decisions and assists
them in being open to a variety of career options. They also have been shown to
have more positive feelings toward work.
·
Service – Those
who serve in or outside the church have better wellbeing questions including
contentment, peace, joy, purpose and community acceptance.
·
Practice of the faith – Those who practice the faith especially engaging
in prayer, praise, fellowship, church attendance, studying the Bible and
outreach to others have better wellbeing than those who do not. Further, the
more one practices their faith the better generally will be their wellbeing.
·
Physical health, healthy and patient populations – Christianity assists
wellbeing in specific diseases including: glaucoma, rheumatoid arthritis,
various cancers, chronic pain, fatigue, diabetes, diabetic eye disease,
congestive heart failure, and HIV.
Summary: Wow! What a great God we have who provides us such
true and useful guidance for life which has an obvious impact on our happiness.
Our view of scripture should not be to avoid it out of fear from what we might
read, to limit it to 15 minutes a-day to complete some pre-set time requirement,
or simply to read it to get through another session in the Bible reading plan,
but to devour it like a bowl of ice cream! It’s incredibly useful for our
lives.
Thanks
for joining me today and return again for the next blog.
For
questions or to view more of our research…
