Posted on 08/11/2020 7:12:36 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Less than half of U.S. Christians expect to experience eternal salvation because of their confession of sin and acceptance of Christ as their Savior, while a larger number of professing Christians believe good works will get them into Heaven, a new survey has found.
The American Worldview Inventory 2020 survey conducted by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University found that a majority of people who describe themselves as Christian (52%) accept a “works-oriented” means to God’s acceptance.
In contrast, a minority of adults (46%) who describe themselves as “Christian” expect to experience eternal salvation because of their confession of sin and acceptance of Christ as their savior.
The study also found that “huge proportions of people” associated with churches whose official doctrine says eternal salvation comes only from embracing Jesus Christ as savior “believe that a person can qualify for Heaven by being or doing good.” That includes close to half of all adults associated with Pentecostal (46%), mainline Protestant (44%), and evangelical (41%) churches. A much larger share of Catholics (70%) embrace that point of view.
The survey of 2,000 individuals found that one in three Americans (33%) say they consider themselves to be a Christian and affirm the statement that “when you die you will go to heaven only because you have confessed your sins and have accepted Jesus Christ as your savior.”
Len Munsil, president of Arizona Christian University, said the “lack of understanding of basic Christian theology is stunning,” with “potentially devastating consequences for individual souls and really for all aspects of American life and culture.”
“It’s a wakeup call for the church, and for leaders in all areas of influence, to speak, teach and work to restore biblical truth,” Munsil said. “Many souls will be lost if people are misled by the false notion that we can earn our way to heaven, rather than recognizing the truth that Christ alone and His righteousness are the basis for our salvation.”
Overall, 54% of U.S. adults believe they will get to Heaven after they die and only 2% believe they are going to hell. Additionally, 63% of adults believe “having faith matters more than which faith you have.”
George Barna, director of research for the Cultural Research Center, said Americans are “in an ‘anything goes’ mindset when it comes to faith, morals, values and lifestyle.”
“Americans appear to be creating unique, highly customized worldviews based on feelings, experiences and opportunities rather than working within the boundaries of a comprehensive, time-tested, consistent worldview,” he said.
“... By abandoning our moral standards and traditions, and replacing them with inclusive and conditional preferences, we are losing the foundations that have enabled the ‘American experiment’ to succeed for more than two centuries,” Barna added.
“We can only hope that our critical moral institutions — particularly the family and churches — will wake up and help the nation to get back on track.”
The survey corroborates a previous report released by the Barna Group and the American Bible Society which found that Scripture engagement is on the decline, with U.S. adults who say they read the Bible daily dropping from 14% to 9% between early 2019 and 2020.
Another recent poll from LifeWay Research, in partnership with Explore the Bible, found that 57% of Protestant churchgoers say the Bible is “challenging” when read alone.
In recent years, a number of pastors have stressed the importance of discipleship within churches amid a nationwide decline in biblical literacy.
“You and I are so overstimulated, you and I are so overwhelmed with fast-paced, energized entertainment that we have developed a real idealized sense of life with a real low pain tolerance,” megachurch Pastor Matt Chandler said in a sermon last year. “The Church herself no longer is about discipleship, no longer is about being shaped, no longer is it about being formed. It’s about being entertained in the gathering.”
Chandler noted that in Acts, Paul warns the Ephesians, “After I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.”
“How do you fight that? You walk with one another in community, you encourage one another in your giftedness, and you embrace that you’ve been called a minister of reconciliation and an ambassador of Christ for the building up of the body,” he said.
Pastor H.B. Charles Jr. told The Christian Post that every aspect of corporate worship should be a means of “making disciples of Jesus Christ,” from the preaching of the Word to singing.
“Faithful shepherds are needed to oversee the worship life of the Church to keep the Church focused on the Word of God,” he said. “Every element of a worship service must be geared around the Word of God so that we sing the Scriptures, read the Scriptures, pray the Scriptures, preach the Scriptures and enact the Scriptures in prayer and the ministry of the word.”
“We need to build safeguards around the Church so that the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ are central,” Charles added.
Oh this thread is going to be fun....
Then they are not Christians.
I can have works that survive judgment because I’m saved.
No one can be saved because of their works.
Now that I’m 75....I’m really working on doing good....hoping that God will just look at my recent behavior.
Is Christianity supposed to be about fear mongering or the teachings of Christ?
They could just read the handbook that’s readily available.
Yup. Popcorn time.
We can look at our society, see Romans 1:18-32 on display everywhere and understand that the diagnosis therein, that people have refused to retain the knowledge of the Lord, is confirmed.
Being mean and nasty most of the time but accepting Christ as your lord and savior versus being generally nice and generous but having some doubts abut Christ.... It’s a simplification, yes. Still there are those who are generally not very nice but confess their sins and ask for forgiveness, and there are those who will help others whenever they see others needing help, don’t lie, nice to be around yet are atheists or at least agnostic. If you are honest about God you know that he will take the kind and helpful over the mean and nasty no matter what they believe.
ahm . . . Good luck with that.
Quick. Tell that to the Roman Church
You should be counting on God to look at none of your behavior abd only at Christ. That is the only way to be saved
Really neither answer is right. You can't earn your way into heaven by "confession of sin and acceptance of Christ as [your] Savior" any more than you can earn your way into heaven by good works.
God has to pick you first. (In other words, Augustine was right and the semi-Pelagians were wrong.)
The study is rather suspicious to me. If you give someone a multiple-choice question and all of the answers are wrong to some extent, you can't really learn much by their attempt to pick the "least wrong" answer.
Phrase that question properly, but I agree that it is likely that people are believing that all one has to do is “be a good person,” to get to heaven.
If in the sense of “moralistic therapeutic deism,” those folks have slim to no hope (not presuming on God’s knowledge and intentions) getting into heaven.
A caveat is always the fact that one who believes in Jesus is one who believes sincerely and that His commands are God’s commands to be followed by one who is a believer in Him.
But the difference is that, not simply the actions that are “good” can get one into heaven on their own merits. That is not possible.
See my post immediately above for a correct and orthodox “Roman Church” answer. The II Council of Orange is still dogma.
If you know God at all you know that is not true. The only way to salvation is to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and receive His righteousness. All our works are as dirty rags
“Less than half of U.S. Christians expect to experience eternal salvation because of their confession of sin and acceptance of Christ as their Savior”
Big surprise coming? Matthew 7:22 “22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you:”
Christ and the teachings of the Bible do say there are dire consequences for not believing in the true Christ, repenting your sins and trying to live a life that follows the laws of God. I guess for some that could be called fear mongering. Lots of information in the Good Book that says it much better than I do!
There's a sense in which that's true, if you infallibly define "good person" the way God defines it. >:-)
Most people in our culture think "good person" is the same as "nice person" and "love" is the same as "approval". I don't think those are God's definitions. I wonder how many of us -- if we could read about them in a total vacuum, not knowing the text or knowing the person, but from complete blissful ignorance -- would truly consider Jesus to be a "good person". He certainly wasn't always nice, nor always approving.
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