Survey Finds Most American Christians Are Actually Heretics

The Federalist ^ | OCTOBER 10, 2016 | G. Shane Morris

[Brookhaven]

Evangelicals Didn’t Even Study for This Test

...this year, LifeWay used more stringent criteria for evangelical faith, as defined by some group called the National Association of Evangelicals. Only participants who called the Bible their highest authority, said personal evangelism is important, and indicated that trusting in Jesus’ death on the cross is the only way of salvation, were labeled “evangelical.” They totaled 586 survey-takers.

Everyone expected them to perform better than most Americans. No one expected them to perform worse. Seven in ten evangelicals—more than the population at large—said that Jesus was the first being God created. Fifty-six percent agreed that “the Holy Spirit is a divine force but not a personal being.” They also saw a huge increase in evangelicals (28 percent, up from 9 percent) who indicated that the Third Person of the Trinity is not equal with God the Father or Jesus, a direct contradiction of orthodox Christianity.

As before, it’s really the contradictory answers, not the outright heresies, that should most concern us. By definition, the evangelicals in this survey believed that “only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation.” Yet nearly half agreed that “God accepts the worship of all religions including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.”

Former Newsday religion reporter Kenneth Briggs recently told Religion News Service that the faith he finds in “mega-type churches” is a “Bible-less,” “alternative version of Christianity.” Scripture, he says, has become “a museum exhibit, hallowed as a treasure but enigmatic and untouched.”

[.45 Long Colt]

Joel Osteen and others like him couldn’t thrive if there weren’t millions of people with itching ears who won’t stand for sound teaching. Men like Osteen are tools of judgment in our sovereign God’s hands. He uses men like Osteen to give people exactly what their depraved hearts want. Osteen is a symptom, not a cause.

[Maudeen]

This ought to help you understand your mother. I’m glad I listened to mine. https://gotquestions.org/Trinity-Bible.html

[Luircin]

Why not the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic?

KJV has beautiful sound, especially when read out loud, but it’s not the original.

[HiTech RedNeck]

If you look hard enough at any preacher you’re going to find clay feet, warts, and the like.

I think the most popular Christian sport is “Damn those other guys.”

[Mrs. Don-o]

73 books.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Because, of course, Jesus would never ever say anything to you that would bring the strangest urge to kill Him?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Not to mention that it’s English-chauvinistic too.

Blaming some specific scapegoat (the wrong garments, the “wrong” bible, the wrong music, etc.) is one of the most spiritually lazy things possible.

[PeterPrinciple]

There’s no excuse to be a nation of heretics. But even that is preferable to being a nation of ignoramuses.

---

The last sentence in the article. Not sure there is much difference.

[PeterPrinciple]

A question not on the list but should be:

If you are saved, what are you saved from?

[.45 Long Colt]

I’m not damning anyone. I lack that power. I simply recognize that there are many sitting in churches who follow false teachers, just as the Bible foretold. In Jeremiah’s day the prophets prophesied falsely and the people love to have it so. (See Jeremiah 5). It’s no different in our day.

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” 2 Timothy 4:4

[Salvation]

But the KJV is incomplete.

[Rashputin]

". . . indicated that the Third Person of the Trinity is not equal with God the Father or Jesus . . .

That follows logically from rationalizing throwing books out of the Old Testament and changing excuses for doing so every time one excuse is knocked down by archeology or historical fact.

Accept the anti-Christ, anti-Christian, Jewish Pharisee Rabbi Approved !! Luther Subset of Scripture and you accept the lie that the Holy Spirit could not and did not protect the Bible from the inclusion of error and in fact, that the Holy Spirit helped Satan lead people astray for nearly eighteen hundred years by allowing those errors to remain in the Bible.

[daniel1212]

participants who called the Bible their highest authority, said personal evangelism is important, and indicated that trusting in Jesus’ death on the cross is the only way of salvation, were labeled “evangelical.” They totaled 586 survey-takers.

A liberal United Methodist might qualify as an evangelical under that test, but it does not even define the Bible as the wholly inspired-of-God, and basically literal and accurate word of God. Those who do so are the most conservative and unified major religious group. (http://www.peacebyjesus.com/RC-Stats_vs._Evang.html; American Piety in the 21st Century, Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/33304.pdf)

However, the 71% of Americans with Evangelical Beliefs who affirmed “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God,” even though 85% of them affirmed “Jesus is truly God and has a divine nature, and Jesus is truly man and has a human nature,” and 97% said “There is one true God in three persons..." can be explained by the reluctance to disagree with a statement that, in part, says Jesus Christ is the greatest being. To disagree wold seem to impugn upon His greatness. Had they asked, "Do you agree that "Jesus was always God along with the Father?," or "Do you agree that Jesus was created by God the Father?" then a more accurate response would be found.

But while the Federalist seems motivated to gain readers by shock value, the actual survey reports such finding as that,

• 94% of Americans with Evangelical Beliefs affirm "God is the author of Scripture” versus 50% of Americans who do not hold evangelical beliefs.

• 94% of Americans with Evangelical Beliefs affirm “The Bible alone is the written word of God” versus 42% of Americans who do not hold evangelical beliefs.

• 95% of Americans with Evangelical Beliefs affirm “The Bible has the authority to tell us what we must do” versus 39% of Americans who do not hold evangelical beliefs

• 95% of Americans with Evangelical Beliefs affirm “The Bible is 100% accurate in all that it teaches” versus 36% of Americans who do not hold evangelical beliefs.

• Only 17% of Americans with Evangelical Beliefs affirm that “The Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is not literally true,” versus 51% of Americans who do not hold evangelical beliefs.

• Only 30% of Americans with Evangelical Beliefs affirm “The Bible was written for each person to interpret as he or she chooses” versus 56% of Americans who do not hold evangelical beliefs.

• 68% of Americans with Evangelical Beliefs disagree that “There is little value in studying or reciting historical Christian creeds and confessions.”

• 97% of Americans with Evangelical Beliefs affirm “There is one true God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit” versus 62% of other Americans.

• 85% of Americans with Evangelical Beliefs affirm “Jesus is truly God and has a divine nature, and Jesus is truly man and has a human nature” versus 56% of other Americans.

• 66% of Americans with Evangelical Beliefs Disagree that the Holy Spirit is a divine being but is not equal with God the Father and Jesus” versus 48% of other Americans.

• 98 percent of those with evangelical beliefs agree that the biblical accounts of the physical (bodily) resurrection of Jesus are completely accurate, versus 56 percent of Americans who do not hold evangelical beliefs.

• 92% of those who hold evangelical beliefs agree “God would be fair to show His wrath against sin” versus 51% of other Americans.

• 96% of those who hold evangelical beliefs agree “There will be a time when Jesus Christ returns to judge all the people who have lived” versus 50% of other Americans.

• Eighty-four percent of those who hold evangelical beliefs say hell is a place of eternal judgment, where God sends all people who do not personally trust in Jesus Christ. Only 30 percent of Americans who don’t have evangelical beliefs hold that view.

• 64 percent of those who hold evangelical beliefs affirm “Heaven is a place where all people will ultimately be reunited with their loved ones,” which seems contrary to the prior affirmation, but many may have assumed "all" refers to Christians.

97 percent of those who hold evangelical beliefs affirm “God has authority over all people because He created human beings” versus 58% of other Americans.

• 95 percent of those who hold evangelical beliefs affirm “Humans exist to bring God glory and to enjoy Him” versus 50% of other Americans.

• Eighty-four percent of those who hold evangelical beliefs agree “Salvation always begins with God changing a person so that he or she will turn to Him in faith” versus 47% of other Americans.

• 91 percent of those with evangelical beliefs say sex outside of marriage is a sin, versus 50 percent of Americans who do not hold evangelical beliefs.

• 99% of Americans with Evangelical Beliefs affirm “God created male and female” as do 72% percent of other Americans.

• Only 32% of Americans with Evangelical Beliefs affirm Gender identity is a matter of choice.”

• 87 percent of Americans with evangelical beliefs say abortion is a sin versus 41 percent of other Americans.

• 94% of Americans with Evangelical Beliefs affirm "God continues to answer specific prayers" versus 60% of other Americans.

• 37% of Americans with Evangelical Beliefs affirm “God will always reward true faith with material blessings.”

• 42% of Americans with Evangelical Beliefs affirm “Worshiping alone or with one’s family is a valid replacement for regularly attending church.”

• 81 percent of Americans with evangelical beliefs affirm “Churches that do not preach from the Bible should not be considered a Christian church” versus 36% of other Americans.

[WhatNot]

It's the preserved for English speakers, I don't speak Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic. And most people who say they do, really mean they have a Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic dictionary to look up the words in. No thanks, I'll trust God's preserved word before I trust anything man wrote.

Romans 3:4
God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

[Luircin]

How do you know it’s preserved, as you say? What is your authority?

[HiTech RedNeck]

KJV onlyism is a shallow, fragile view of the power of the Holy Spirit to teach, though it is understandable for shallow Christians who still think that they have to figure out the bible with no divine guidance.

Living out Christianity helps bible understanding, and then in turn better bible understanding helps Christian living, in a reinforcing process driven by the Holy Spirit.

Consider that Christians did quite well with the Septuagint, which is sometimes loose and liberal with the Old Testament language.

Any conscientiously produced translation is adequate for the purposes of the Holy Spirit to teach.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Ultimately this gets into intellectual question begging. Nobody actually compares the quality of Christian life of, say, NASB preferring believers vs. KJV preferring believers. That might blow the illusion out of the water if somebody did.

[Gamecock]

Without reading the article I would guess most Americans are functional Mormons.

[HiTech RedNeck]

The Holy Spirit did allow the church to fool itself in some ways.

You’re an example of it.

[Luircin]

True enough.

I guess I’m just a glutton for punishment in theology.