Just when you thought you’d heard everything: A publishing company in Great Britain recently released a book entitled The 100-Minute Bible.

According to its author, Michael Hinton, The 100-Minute Bible summarizes “every teaching from the Creation to the Revelation” in a format designed to be read in a little more than an hour and a half. The book’s official Web site says:

“The 100-Minute Bible is primarily intended for people who have an interest in Christianity but not the time (nor tenacity!) to read the whole Bible. As the title indicates, most people will only take 100 minutes to read it, making it ideal for an upcoming rail or aeroplane journey.”

I’m not sure which is the more pitiable thought: that someone would be cynical enough to believe that genuine interest could be satisfied in 100 minutes; or that 100 minutes is still a greater chunk of time than many people would be willing to devote.

The 100-Minute Bible symbolizes today’s instant gratification culture perfectly: “Sure, I’d like to know more about God’s plan for my salvation, but if it takes longer than an hour and 40 minutes to read about it, I’m outta here.”

Is there any worthwhile activity in life that one could successfully learn about in 100 minutes? What occupation could one master in that time? What skill could one develop? In what field of scholarship could one become educated? Seriously — watching a movie on commercial television takes two full hours. Is the word of God not even worth that much?

When I first heard about The 100-Minute Bible, I thought about the exchange Jesus had with Peter, James, and John at Gethsemane on the night He was betrayed. You’ll recall that the Master took these three close friends with Him into the depths of the garden as He prayed to the Father. When He returned to them, they had fallen asleep. Jesus said to the three men, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:40-41).

Perhaps the flesh has improved some in the past 1975 years: Now we can wait an hour and 40 minutes.

But no longer.

I have the same reaction to the mindset of The 100-Minute Bible as I do to that of folks who complain that Sunday worship services — and specifically the sermon — are too long. Are we in so much of a hurry that we can’t spare the Lord two hours and fifteen minutes (assuming we bothered to attend Bible study, which for some of us would be an invalid assumption)? Can we not sit and meditate upon His word for a mere 40 minutes (the usual length of the sermons in the assemblies here)?

And if the answer to those questions is “No,” what does that say about the quality of our faith, or of our commitment to Christ?

It would seem to me that if God took 1,700 years from Moses to John to inspire His complete revelation to humankind, it deserves more than 100 minutes of someone’s attention. It would also seem that if the Son of God could spend roughly three and a half years on earth, the account of His life deserves more than 100 minutes. If Jesus could spend six hours on a cross dying for the sins of humanity, is it too much to ask that one spend at least that much time reading and reflecting upon what He did?

It’s sad that we live in a world where someone would think a 100-minute summary of the Scriptures would be all the Bible some people would tolerate.