Posted on 10/26/2020 6:31:50 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A recent article in The Christian Post discussed findings by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University that found while 61% of American millennials consider themselves to be Christian, just 2% of them were found to hold a biblical worldview. Conducted by Dr. George Barna, the study also reported that just 6% of American adults overall hold a biblical worldview.
“Profoundly disturbing”, said Barna.
While disappointing, I’ll risk having angry arrows rain down on me by saying the low percentage of Christian worldview holders makes complete biblical sense. Let me explain why.
When confronted by numbers showing Christianity being the number one religion in the world, atheists and skeptics will oftentimes counter by saying that’s mostly people checking off a religion box on a survey based on their family history.
Much as we may hate to admit it, they’re right.
The Hellenistic and classical Greeks actually had a word for such a thing: nomizo. The term described a type of faith held only because it was passed along by custom and tradition (e.g. by parents).
That said, plenty of people become Christians who either had or didn’t have a family history in the faith, with the growing church numbers in Communist China and Iran being clear examples of the latter. That kind of faith is described by the Greek term found everywhere in the New Testament, pistis, which comes from the verb peitho that means “to be persuaded”, and denotes trust, confidence, conviction, reliability and something worthy of belief.[1]
While nomizo is never used in the Bible to signify Christian faith, when you have over 60% of a group claiming to be Christian, but only 2% saying they actual believe in bedrock Christian teachings, then a false, nomizo-type faith is likely all they have.
So how does Barna define a biblical worldview? He begins with a belief that absolute moral truths exist, and that such truth is found in the Bible, and then includes doctrines such as God being the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe, which He stills rules today; the Bible being accurate in what it says; Jesus Christ living a sinless life; salvation being a gift from God that cannot be earned; a belief in a literal Satan; and a responsibility of Christians to share their faith.
In a culture where post-truth thinking infects everything, it’s not hard to see how millennials would reject – at minimum – absolute moral truth as well as the Bible being correct in what it teaches. But here’s the thing: when you give even just these two doctrines the heave-ho, instantly you become a person “tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming” (Eph. 4:14).
Definitely not a good place to be and not how the Bible defines a person of faith.
While we have plenty of studies purporting to tell us the sum total of all Christians alive today, what does the Bible say about the number of true believers, both now and for all time?
It says there will be just a few of us.
In His most famous discourse, Jesus said: “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matt. 7:13-14).
It’s interesting to understand what the term ‘few’ in the Greek – oligos – means. It means ‘few’.
Jesus repeats the fact that the actual number of God’s elect will be small when He says, “For many are invited, but few are chosen” (Matt. 22:14), and “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32, my emphasis). Once someone asked Him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to” (Luke 13:23-24).
After all the thousands He preached to, fed, and healed, on the heels of His resurrection the Bible tells us there were only a little over 100 persons gathered together as a believing group (Acts 1:15). I have a strong feeling that after 2,000 years and billions being exposed to the gospel message, the number of actual born-again believers is just as small percentage-wise, much like Paul (quoting Isaiah) said about Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved” (Rom. 9:27).
When speaking about His return, Jesus often referred back to the days of Noah and Lot (e.g. Matt. 24). Peter references Noah as well in one of his letters and adds this important fact: “In it [the ark] only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water” (1 Pet. 3:20).
Studies like Arizona Christian University’s that demonstrate how rare it is for a person to hold a biblical worldview remind us that it is likely only a few will actually be saved in eternity and how the majority of people who love darkness rather than light (John 3:19) will be lost.
Don’t let yourself be one of them.
[1] The same is true of the Hebrew term for faith (ěměṯ), which denotes firmness, trustworthiness, constancy, duration and truth.
RE: Many “Christians” go to great lengths to define anyone who disagrees with them on any doctrine, as “not Christian”.
This leads to the important question -— are there no ESSENTIALS in the Christian faith that differentiates a Christian and a non-Christian who nonetheless professes to be one?
I can understand disagreements in areas where scripture is not clear ( e.g. the events that lead to Christ’s return, the mode of baptism, etc. ), but can one accept and celebrate a doctrine that says -— homosexual sex is fine and acceptable in the sight of God?
This is serious because churches have been split on this one issue. Both cannot be right.
RE: ... is a crock of BS, and the Barna character is an evil POS.
Why? Barna simply reports what they see. Isn’t this a case of blaming the messenger for the message?
So you disagree with Jesus’s criteria - John 13:35?
Also, you should note that He never claimed he would be widely accepted, think “narrow gate”. So, to me it would be news if he were, that He isn’t is the norm. Thus my skeptical view of the statement of over 60% of kids claiming to be Christians.
RE: So you disagree with Jesus’s criteria - John 13:35?
If you Love a person ( agape ), would you withhold the truth from them? If a lifestyle is spiritually destructive, is it Christian Love to tell them to continue with it and not warn them?
The Churches that tolerate pseudo Christianity are losing members, and Churches that demand belief and commitment are gaining members.
It has happened several times in the United States. A Church grows, becomes prosperous, demands less, and drops off in growth and popularity.
One of the great strengths of the U.S. system is to allow this regeneration of faithful churches.
There have been about 3 iterations of the cycle in the USA,(over the last 250 years, may be 300 years, including the pre-revolution great awakening) as I recall.
Well said.
There are multiple paths to Christ.
No. Barna conducted the study, meaning he framed the study according to his own agenda; his biases determined the premises. 75% of the population might disagree with his biased opinion, and that 75% would be correct -- because the Barna character has no authority to set the premises for such a discussion, no more than each individual of the 75% he has attacked.
That's like letting the communists frame the arguments with humans, letting them set the premises, against which the human has to argue.
it's the same as letting a communist moderate a debate between a communist and a human.
The messenger is the site that reported Barna's study.
RE: No. Barna conducted the study, meaning he framed the study according to his own agenda; his biases determined the premises.
Have you actually looked into the so-called “biased” questions that Barna asked?
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but to simply call them biased without telling us what their questions were in the study does little to convince.
RE: There are multiple paths to Christ.
Can you name at least three of them?
Can’t the fires is California be Sodom? Whole towns are being wiped out.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but to simply call them biased without telling us what their questions were in the study does little to convince.
It doesn't matter what Barna asked for his study.
In the USA, every individual has the right to worship, or not, as each individual chooses. Each individual has the right to claim his/her religious identity as he/she chooses.
Barna has the right to speak for himself, as to his religious identification, but not for anyone else.
That is the only point of contention. His behavior is the same as the commies, who try to label other people according to their own biases. It's bogus labeling.
You visit a church, and they introduce you.
You contemplate reality, seek truth, and come to Christ.
A personal crises drives you to rock bottom, you ask for help from Christ.
You are raised in a Church, and accept what you have been taught.
When Communist Russia began persecuting Christians, the average church attendance dropped from 300 to 15 - a 95% falling away. The same will happen here.
I agree, the Gospel is simple and straightforward. However, living the Christian life is not. It is a constant struggle, and without a Biblical world view, it is a LOT harder. The Christian may no longer need fear damnation, but he can wind up in the low rent section of Heaven.
Being a tribe rather than a faith. Like most Jews.
You’re saying that Satan, the Accuser, is not a literal being? You are gravely mistaken. Jesus sure spoke as if the Devil really existed. So, you don’t believe the Son of God? Definitely not very Christian.
Interesting how many FReepers who claim to be Christian are willing to call another Christian a “piece of sh_t.” It’s sad, really.
You have read ‘Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’ How many ways to hear the Word? How many times a redeemed shares the Gospel of God’s Grace? Are you sure you read the assertion correctly? Because there ARE so many ways to hear the Word of God Grace in Christ. BUT there is only ONE door to redemption in Christ, faith alone in Christ alone, a function accomplished in the spirit which is then Born Again and God places HIS Seed therein never to leave for thus is a redeemed by the Blood of Jesus guaranteed eternal life with The Lord.
Cheer up. Jefferson was substantially more civil than I choose to be, and for good reason. His intention was to be influential to many generations, and he succeeded for the most part.
At the time Jefferson wrote the Virginia Amendment on Religious Freedom, and later when it was used as a model for a portion of our First Amendment to the US Constitution, there was little or no opposition from atheists, agnostics, or anarchists.
The opposition to religious freedom was unanimously from religious tyrants, in states/colonies that had established state official religions. For the people who fell outside the Official established religion in many of those states, they did indeed suffer torture, murder, economic devastation, and exile.
Today, we still have a small number of religious tyrants, trying to dictate their particular brand of religion and lingo upon those who might dare to believe and worship in a different manner, restrained only by the additional two hundred years of court precedence and legislation.
Jefferson, in a letter to his friend Benjamin Rush, stated: "I have sworn upon the alter of God, eternal hostility against all forms of tyranny over the mind of man."
He was specifically addressing religious tyrants; those who wanted to dictate to others how they should believe, and worship, and speak of religious matters.
Today, in addition to these religious tyrants, we do have some atheists, agnostics, anarchists, communists, Satanists, and others, who are trying to exert the same type of force against the rights of individuals to believe and worship as they see fit.
The religious tyrants have given, and continue to provide, the Leftist anti-religionists the exact ammunition they have needed to destroy our religious freedom through the courts and legislatures.
When we follow the Constitutional rights to religious freedom, everyone's rights are protected. When even a few people attempt to dictate their narrow religious beliefs and definitions upon others, we all lose some of our religious freedoms, along with other Constitutionally protected rights.
Thus the hostility, not against the researcher's religious beliefs, but against his disdain for the US Constitution, and his ignorance of its importance to everyone's beliefs, including his own.
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