How do I get my stubborn unbeliever mom to read the word?

[Rebemk80]

My mom was raised Catholic just as I was and she stopped being catholic long before me but she still acknowledges what they believe in such as purgatory, confessional instead of repentance, praying to mary etc. She just doesn't go to church anymore or read the bible. Right now after telling her all these things i'm learning about such as repentance and who jesus really is supposed to be etc, she has gotten confused and thinks i'm a "bible thumper" I've only read Genesis-numbers, job, sirach, proverbs, mathew, and a few others. But i havent read the entire thing yet. My mom thinks I'm insane and "a mormon" (which I definitely am NOT) she doesn't understand all these things I'm trying to tell her. Tonight she told me that she believes God is all around us and that freaked me out because I thought Satan and his minions were the only ones on Earth and God was in heaven. I then began literally begging her to start reading the bible as she never has read the whole thing. She says she doesn't want to and she'll be fine because "as long as I am a good person i will go to heaven" which is not true. I don't know how to get my mom to read the bible. She has one but hasn't read it all. I just want to get myself and her to heaven because God wants us as christians to guide each other to God.

What would be the best approach to encourage someone who does not want to read the bible to read one? My mom is very stubborn in the fact that she thinks she will be fine if she doesn't read it. I need help, I don't want my mother to end up condemned.

 

[PloverWing]

Chill. The enthusiasm of a new convert is great, but it can also be a little off-putting. Keep reading the Bible yourself. Perhaps from time to time you can mention some of the passages in your own reading and how they're challenging or inspiring you. That may make reading the Bible more appealing to your mom.

Do you know why she has stopped going to church? Is it an active rejection -- something she dislikes or disagrees with -- or is it more a drifting away, not getting around to it, not feeling like it's important, etc.? And is it something about her particular parish, or Catholicism more broadly, or Christianity as a whole? Ask her, and listen non-judgmentally to her answer. Depending on her reasoning, you might be able to draw her back to church. If your church is doing something especially interesting, perhaps invite her to come with you to this one potluck dinner or Christmas service or whatever. Or invite her to come with you on whatever service projects you do with your church. That might help her to see a daily, conscious practice of the Christian faith as relevant to her life, and as not crazy.

(As a side point, she's right about God being with us. It's not accurate to see God as distantly in heaven while demons inhabit the earth. The Bible talks about the Holy Spirit being an ongoing presence in our lives.)

 

[crossnote]

What would be the best approach to encourage someone who does not want to read the bible to read one? My mom is very stubborn in the fact that she thinks she will be fine if she doesn't read it. I need help, I don't want my mother to end up condemned.

I would read together Romans chaps 1-3. That is the portal to being born again apart from which no one would understand the Scriptures as intended.

Tonight she told me that she believes God is all around us and that freaked me out because I thought Satan and his minions were the only ones on Earth and God was in heaven. I then began literally begging her to start reading the bible as she never has read the whole thing.

BTW, God is omnipresent (Everywhere present) that includes here on earth.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

What would be the best approach to encourage someone who does not want to read the bible to read one? My mom is very stubborn in the fact that she thinks she will be fine if she doesn't read it. I need help, I don't want my mother to end up condemned.

This might be key, and only as appropriate according to Scripture and also if and as God leads daily: "without a word"

Also, even though it is written concerning or for married women as a sort of 'how to live' Biblically with a wayward (or even a good) husband,
the book "Total Joy" by Marabel Morgan may be very very helpful with Biblical Godly Scriptural Insight in living a truly Godly Life....

 

[Lord Give Me A Sign]

You could try to get her to watch some of the visual bibles. Like the gospels of Luke, Mark, John and Matthew...and the Book of Acts is on youtube as well

 

[Ahermit]

Your mother already knows of your concern for her. Because you love your mother you will remain concerned, and without having to say another word, she will also remain aware of your concern for her.

Live and let live.

Let her console God by her own doing. To do so for your sake won't work. She needs to do so for her own sake. In this way, she will be genuine and honest to God.

I have seen people turn away from church, because of the church, not because of God... after all, God is Love and Truth. If one blames God, then it is themselves that fear God's love and truth (usually it's the truth about themselves they fear most) - hence the need for repentance - to wash one's robe.

Revelation 22:14

 

[Jord Simcha]

It's very hard to convince somebody else about God. I don't even try a lot any more with my own family, I'm trying the patient approach instead. In the beginning I was very enthusiasticly trying to convince everybody, which, like PloverWing says, can be found off-putting by others, at least, my mom definitely thought so.

I have stopped worrying about the eternal fate of my relatives (because I believe God will save everybody).

I recommend praying for your mother.

 

[Carl Emerson]

Jesus did not say all would be saved...

Apart from that, I think you need to forgive you mum and leave her salvation in His hands.

Demonstrate the truth of Jesus by what you do not what you say. Love your mum.

 

[KateforChrist]

leave her salvation in His hands.

That's what I had to do with my husband. Even though we are to spread the good news of the Jesus, we have no control over another person's salvation.

When I stopped trying to convert my husband I think it allowed God to do what He needed to do without me getting in the way. And yes, I did continue to pray for him. No, I don't know if my husband ever accepted Jesus as his saviour.

 

[Rescued One]

My mother only went to a church as a child. I think that if it wasn't Unitarian, her Sunday School teacher must have been. She never read her Bible and wasn't interested in what it said. Then she said she lost her Bible during one of her moves.When she was in her eighties, she said she needed to get a Bible. She had a friend who was a Sunday school teacher. I imagine her friend was startled to learn that she had no Bible. So we sent her a large print NIV Bible. I thought she'd have trouble understanding KJV. She thought she was good enough to go to heaven. It made no difference what I told her about the Bible. I kept asking her to read John Chapter 3. Several months later, I asked if she had read it. "Yes," she said, "but I didn't understand it." I don't even know if she read it because she lied so often. The only other thing she said about the Bible, was, "I rubbed my hand over it today."

 

[pdudgeon]

Write a familiar Bible verse ( not the whole chapter, just one verse) on a piece of paper (with the scripture reference) and tape that piece of paper to the refrigerator.

The next week, write a different verse on a piece of paper (with reference) and tape that to the refrigerator, removing the original paper.
If your mother removes the piece of paper that's her right to do so. Just keep on putting up a new scripture each week.

The point is that if you make scripture available to her to read (and change out the scripture each week), you will be helping her by doing the hard part of remembering to read, finding scriptures that she might remember, and encouraging her without having to be contentious about it.

Why post it on the refrigerator?
Because at some point she just might get the connection that the Word of God is food for her spirit and for her heart.
It will nourish her, and be just as important to her as the food in her refrigerator is for her body.

 

[Sketcher]

If you try hard to save her right now, you could lose her.

She seems to have prejudices against what you say you believe. Knock down those prejudices. They're her "defense" against ideas she doesn't like. But you do that by pleasantly surprising her, showing her what you and the Biblical truths you embrace are really about. Then she might think you and what you believe aren't so bad, and then she might be willing to talk.

Practice patience and respect. If you cannot witness with them, you are not a complete witness. Allow her to expand on what it is she believes without feeling the need to correct every little thing as it comes out. Ask for clarification rather than jumping to conclusions.

Think of it this way - let's say someone with your mom's beliefs or other beliefs you disagree with was out to convince you that your way of thinking is wrong and their way of thinking is right. How would you not want them to talk to you about it? Don't do those things. How would you want them to talk to you? Do those things.

 

[mkdrive2]

Do you believe your mother will go to Hell if she does not start reading the Bible?

 

[Tolworth John]

What would be the best approach to encourage someone who does not want to read the bible to read one?

May I suggest a different tactic.
One can take a horse to water, but one can't make it drink.

Next time you are doing the ironing or cooling or some activity like that why not put on a spoken version of one of the gospels, so as you are working you and your mother can listen to a gospel being read out loud.
She will be listening without realising she is, use a gospel because that contains the message of salvation.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

Supposedly, with news reports possibly acknowledging at the time,
at one college campus a few thousand days ago,
the majority of students did not seem interested in Bible reading , not even the students who were, by name anyway, Christian.

Then someone got the bright idea, to publish a newspaper of so many pages,
and the 'news' was the Gospel of John, or of Mark, or of some letter from /in the Bible, word for word, in modern English, formatted as if it was a reporter's 'story'.

More people read the 'news' (i.e. the Bible Letters), in that format, for some time.


" How do I get < anyone > to read the word? "