In a recent study by the American Culture and Faith Institute, born-again Christians were asked a series of questions. While some of the results were pretty good, others were quite shocking and says a lot about what people truly believe:
- 89% believe God is the all-knowing, all powerful Creator and ruler of the universe
- 82% believe God is actively involved in our lives today
- 79% believe all people are sinners
- 78% do not support same-sex marriage
- 76% believe the Bible is God's word and contains no errors
- 66% believe the the universe was created by God, as described in Genesis
- 64% believe the Bible is totally accurate in all the life principles it teaches
- 58% believe Satan is alive, not just a symbol of evil
- 52% believe Jesus Christ lived a sinless life while on earth
- 47% believe absolute moral truth exists and is contained in the Bible
- 46% believe divorce is not morally acceptable
- 43% believe the Holy Spirit is alive, not just a symbol of God's presence
- 40% believe success is determined by obedience and commitment to God
- 37% believe it is not possible to earn your way into Heaven
- 34% believe you have a personal responsibility to share your religious beliefs with people who have different beliefs
- 30% believe having faith is not more important that which faith you have
- 25% believe that, as sinners, all people are not basically good
Now, while I could question the assumptions made behind some of these statements, the basic issue as that a low percentage of so-called born-again Christians have a biblical worldview. Ultimately, this would make me question if they are truly born-again at all. When I see that a high percentage of believers don't believe Jesus lived a sinless life, don't believe that the Holy Spirit is alive, believe you can earn your way into Heaven, believe that people are basically good and don't believe they have a responsibility to share their faith, I can only conclude that these people are not believers at all, but lost! An even scarier thought is how many of these people are sitting next to us in church or, God forbid, preaching to us from the pulpit? The scripture is clear that the Holy Spirit of God will lead believers into all truth. Therefore, if so many Christians have these false beliefs on basic teachings of the Bible, is the Holy Spirit even there at all?
Jesus Christ said that "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you (John 6:53)." What this, basically, means is that if you are not born again of the Spirit of God through faith in Jesus Christ, you are spiritually dead to God, not alive to Him and are not saved. In other words, you are the "Walking Dead" or a "Zombie" in many ways. you are physically alive to the world, but spiritually dead to God. It doesn't matter if you are in a church or call yourself a Christian. If you don't recognize the problem between man and God is that he is born spiritually dead to God in sin and that the solution to that is to come spiritually alive to Him through faith in Jesus Christ, the vast majority of your so-called beliefs will not be supported by the Bible because you are not saved and, therefore, not a Christian at all. What you see in this study are people who view the Bible through the lens of the world instead of viewing the world through the lens of the Bible. They are dead to God because His life is not in them and, thus, they do not have the truth in them. The discernment that only comes from the life of God, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, is not there. Therefore, the result is unbiblical beliefs that are more in line with the unbelieving world then they are with the Bible. It is also why Jesus said, "you have no life in you." You are dead to Him; dead to God. We can claim we are Christians, but when the majority of what we believe does not line up with God's word, are we truly His? Is it any wonder why we see all the problems in the world, from a social, political and economic standpoint? Is it any wonder why there are people who claim to be Christians on all sides of the social and political realm? When you have people who claim to be born-again Christians, but have so many beliefs in opposition to the scripture, the end result is what you see in the study from the American Culture and Faith Institute. A wise man once said, "The reason church benches are called pews ... is because so many "dead" people sit there." If you claim to be a Christian, but your beliefs are in opposition to the Bible, it is time to come alive to God and be truly born-again to God through faith in Jesus Christ.
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