Posted on 04/25/2020 7:47:41 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
As part of an ongoing release of research about the worldviews of Americans, new data show that just over half hold a biblically-informed view of God, a 22% drop from 30 years ago.
Longtime researcher George Barna, whose work is now based at the recently-founded Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, released another installment in his findings that reveal the erosion of the Judeo-Christian worldview in the United States. The new report shows that only 51% of Americans consider God to be "all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect and just creator of the universe who still rules the world today.” In 1991, 73% of Americans believed that to be true.
The latest research from the 12-part American Worldview Inventory also documents that 44% of survey respondents agreed with the idea that when Jesus was on the Earth, in the flesh, He was both fully divine and fully human and therefore committed sins like any other person. Only 41% held the biblical perspective that Christ lived a sinless life and was both fully man and fully God.
"Over half of all adults—52%—contend that 'the Holy Spirit is not a living entity, but merely a symbol of God’s power, presence or purity,'" according to the survey and that "most shockingly, most Americans—56%—believe that 'Satan is not merely a symbol of evil but is a real spiritual being and influences human lives.'”
Nearly half of those surveyed who claim to believe in a God who is an influential spiritual being are not fully confident that He even exists.
“The spiritual noise in our culture over the last few decades has confused and misled hundreds of millions of people," Barna said in a statement to The Christian Post. "The message to churches, Christian leaders, and Christian educators is clear: we can no longer assume that people have a solid grasp of even the most basic biblical principles."
Whereas 30 years ago, people spent time thinking and learning about God, today culture has become increasingly self-focused, Barna noted.
"We've transitioned from a people who upheld the existence of absolute moral truth to a nation that rejects moral absolutes. The result has been a seminal shift in our collective focus, from other to self, and from absolute truths to conditional truths. That helps to explain why the ‘doesn’t/don’t know/don’t care’ population, regarding the existence of God, has mushroomed from 8 percent to 32 percent in just 30 years," he said.
"That’s one-third of the nation’s adults who have chosen to dismiss traditional teachings about God, the importance of personally determining whether a powerful, holy, Creator God exists, and the implications of their conclusion for their present and future."
The release of the research was going to coincide with the launch of the Cultural Research Center at ACU in Glendale, Arizona, last month but the center's formal event had to be postponed until the fall due to the coronavirus pandemic.
**You are so lacking in discernment.**
Christ founded the Catholic Church on the apostles, the first Bishops. Please check your Bible again.
Gospel Jn 20:19-31
On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”
Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”
But he said to them,
“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nailmarks
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
Now a week later his disciples were again inside
and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples
that are not written in this book.
But these are written that you may come to believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that through this belief you may have life in his name.
Note these words:
Christ gives the apostles the ability to forgive and retain sin.
**“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”**
Satan’s greatest work of deception was the Catholic Church.
Do you expect me to believe John MacArthur? Afraid not. He tells only his part of the story, not the Catholic truth.
Wow. Do you know any history? Your sect didn’t even exist until 1500 years after Christ’s birth. To sit there and curse the Catholic Church is pretty arrogant.
Even Luther acknowledged that we gave y’all the Bible. Apparently you think Protestantism exists in a vacuum.
Dr. David Jeremiah endorses Jesus Calling
Dr David Jeremiah – A Sheep In Wolves Clothing
Anyone that endorses TBN, and stands alongside people who preach heretical teachings, is not doing as commanded in the Bible to stay away from such folks. The Book of James speaks to this, as does Paul the Apostle in Acts 20:29-31.
As for my preference for the King James, your comments just show how little you really know about it, and I'll not comment any further on your points because they're foolish speculations coming from the uninformed.
Of bible translations I will say this, however, in that every single Bible that has been published since the KJV is:
1. either just a paraphrase of a man's interpretations, or
2. is based on the Westcott-Hort translation of the Vaticanius and Sinaiticus into modern english, both of which are not true translations of any Godly manuscripts.
fare well. I do not agree.
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