Christians' worldview has changed

I stand amazed at how flighty humans have proven to be. We can't seem to keep on the right track no matter how gloriously God makes Himself available. He provided America for those who desired to worship Him freely. It was not for those to worship any demon or idol, but for Christians. All one has to do is read historical speeches of our founding fathers or historical documents, or even read the inscriptions on the buildings in our capital. Everything points to the one true King of the universe. How sad it has taken less than 250 years for our ardor to go sour.

Barna Group asked Americans some pointed questions back in March to determine the worldview of Christians: Whether the world view is Biblical or Secular.

As a base, Barna set the standards as this:
For the purposes of the survey, a “biblical worldview” was defined as believing that absolute moral truth exists; the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches; Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic; a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or do good works; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today. In the research, anyone who held all of those beliefs was said to have a biblical worldview.

These same questions were asked in 1995, 2000, and 2005. Astoundingly, only 9% of Americans have a Biblical Worldview. But the thing that makes me cry (I'm not talking crocodile tears here, either, I'm talking the nose-honking kind of sobbing) is that less than one out of five born again Christians have a Biblical worldview. Born again Christians were catagorized as those who believe that Jesus died on the cross for the sin of the world, rose again, they confessed their sins, accepted what He did for them and were going to Heaven when they died because of Jesus Christ.

These statistics have remained basically flat since 1995 with just a few percentage points fluctuation.

Only one in three American adults believe there is such a thing as absolute Truth, and only 46% of born again Christians believe in absolute moral truth.

But, here is the kicker. Of all self-professing born again Christians, only 79% believe in the inerrancy of the Bible. I wonder how can anyone who believes Jesus will bring them to Heaven when they die can NOT believe in the absolute Truth of the Bible?

How can anyone plan to stand in the throne room of God, with His train filling the place, His glory blinding all around Him and say, "Well, God, I believe your Son, but I don't believe everything You said in the Bible. I tried to live a good life, but some of Your Biblical principles are just way out there around Pluto. I just couldn't swallow it all. Now, where's my crown?"

And they stand there looking up at God unflinchingly and say, "Oh, by the way, God, I don't believe that Your Son lived a completely and totally sinless life while He was here. Yeah, and there are 38% of all Your born again children that agree with me."

Oh, LORD, have mercy on Your children!

The End Times are definitely here. Matt 24:12 And because lawlessness shall have been multiplied, the love of the many will grow cold.

1Timothy 4:1 But the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, cleaving to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons, 2 in lying speakers in hypocrisy, being seared in their own conscience, 3 forbidding to marry, saying to abstain from foods, which God created for partaking with thanksgiving by the believers and those knowing the truth.


The Barna Group's survey also found these alarming statistics: The research data showed that one pattern emerged loud and clear: young adults rarely possess a biblical worldview. The current study found that less than one-half of one percent of adults in the Mosaic generation – i.e., those aged 18 to 23 – have a biblical worldview, compared to about one out of every nine older adults.
Other groups that possess a below average likelihood of having a biblical worldview included people who describe themselves as liberal on social and political matters (also less than one-half of one percent); Catholics (2%); Democrats (4%) and residents of the Northeast (4%).

I have a sore heart because of this. If we are not deeply careful, then we will wake up and find our Christian values and morals completely compromised. In fact, we are already there. One has only to look at how God felt about His Chosen People, Israel, who had the same attitudes that we Americans have today, to understand the dire peril we face right now. I think our best strategy is to fall to our knees, no better yet, fall on our faces and implore God's mercy on His children. To beg Him to open the stopped up ears and blind eyes, to pour the Spirit's understanding and wisdom into our leaders. Otherwise, we'll be marching to Babylon.

4 comments:

Stan said...

Practicing what I preached, I hope to comfort you with these words. ;)

Stan said...

"less than one out of five born again Christians have a Biblical worldview"

I would suggest that it is highly unlikely that the 4 of those 5 who do not have a basic "Biblical worldview" (considering simple, essential matters like the deity of Christ, the reliability of Scripture, the reality of Satan) do not have an actual relationship ("born again") with Christ. That is frightening.

Refreshment in Refuge said...

You know, this is something that has plagued me since I saw this survey. I realize that many do not have a real relationship with Christ. But, I also realize that the world is full of stagnant Christians, or baby Christians, if you will.

These are the Corinthians and they have not progressed to the meat but continue on with milk getting hungrier and hungrier, trying to satisfy their hunger with whatever the world offers.

How incredibly sad and frightening that is.

The bright rainbow in all this is that God never gives up on those called by His name. Praise His holy Name.

Giulianna said...

Excellent points and very sad. I tend to agree with Stan. I think many of those 4 out of 5 born again believers are the very ones that went to some crusade and said a sinner's prayer with no real understanding or desire to make Jesus Christ their Lord. They simply saw Willie Wonka's golden ticket being waved in front of them and wanted it and said what they had to in order to get it. No true repentance, no true grace. :(