Will Your Children Believe Correctly?
The secularization of America is growing and spreading at an alarming rate. This is becoming increasingly apparent in what people believe. More and more Americans are demonstrating muddy and incorrect thinking, even in basic concepts of truth and morality. To take the temperature of what Americans believe, Ligonier Ministries and LifeWay Research have teamed up to produce every two years their “State of Theology” report card on America. This year’s report (at TheStateofTheology.com), is quite revealing.
What Do Americans Believe?
Among the general American populace,
30% agree that “Christians should be silent on issues of politics.”
32% agree that “God is unconcerned with my day-to-day decisions.” (This is up from 20% in 2014.)
40% agree that “modern science disproves the Bible.”
42% agree that “gender identity is a matter of choice.”
46% agree that “the Bible’s condemnation of homosexual behavior doesn’t apply today.”
53% agree that “Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God.”
53% agree that “the Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is not literally true.” (This is up from 41% in 2014.)
55% agree that “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.”
59% agree that “the Holy Spirit is a force but is not a personal being.”
60% agree that “religious belief is a matter of personal opinion; it is not about objective truth.”
66% agree that “everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.”
67% agree that “God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Islam.”
What Do American Evangelicals Believe?
Perhaps even more striking is what American Evangelicals believe. For the purpose of this survey, an evangelical was defined (at Research.Lifeway.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Ligonier-State-of-Theology-2022-White-Paper.pdf) as one who believes strongly that:
- The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe.
- It is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior.
- Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin.
- Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation.
This is a great foundation, but then the muddy thinking creeps in, as the survey shows. Among American Evangelicals,
20% agree that “Christians should be silent on issues of politics.”
21% agree that “modern science disproves the Bible.”
25% agree that “the Bible’s condemnation of homosexual behavior doesn’t apply today.”
26% agree that “the Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is not literally true.”
33% agree that “gender identity is a matter of choice.”
38% agree that “religious belief is a matter of personal opinion; it is not about objective truth.”
44% agree that “Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God.”
55% agree that “the Holy Spirit is a force but is not a personal being.”
55% agree that “everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.”
58% agree that “God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Islam.”
61% agree that “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.”
What Will Your Children Believe?
In America, we have a problem: Many people who want sincerely to live according to the Bible in fact know very little of the Bible (and probably have never read it) and therefore believe (and live) incorrectly. At Logos Academy we intend to address this problem in the next generation. We intend to provide a K-12 education that will emphasize biblical and theological studies at all grade levels. Each high school student, for example, will study every chapter of the Bible, read the entire Bible and memorize key verses. Why? Because “all Scripture is God-breathed, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). If we do not teach our children what is true, they will believe what is not.
