State of Theology in America, Part 1

Explaining our Missing Compass

I’ve been wanting to write about this for a while: The 2022 survey results from www.StateofTheology.com. I’m planning a series of posts about these results over the next few weeks. There’s a lot to cover.

Who Are the Investigators?

Ligonier Ministries

Founded in 1971 by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Ligonier Ministries is a fellowship of teachers dedicated to ‘making the deep truths of the Christian faith accessible to growing believers.’  Ligonier publishes books, study Bibles, magazines, online articles, and more. Ligonier Ministries believes that the Bible, in its entirety, is the infallible, inerrant, and inspired Word of God; it is a divine revelation that carries the full weight of God’s authority to which we are obliged to submit.

 The About Section of their website says this:

For more than fifty years, Ligonier has served the church by producing trustworthy discipleship resources that are rooted in the historic Christian faith. This faithful, biblical teaching reaches more than 50 million people each year in regions and languages around the world. Our aim is to help Christians everywhere know what they believe, why they believe it, how to live it, and how to share it.

LifeWay Research

Launched in 2006, Lifeway Research is an evangelical research firm measuring needs in the church and culture. Lifeway Research is a respected source for insights on pastoral leadership, church ministry, and the beliefs and faith practices of Americans. Lifeway Research produces reports as research projects, for pastoral commentary, and for church resources.   

The State of Theology Survey

Every two years since 2014, Ligonier Ministries and LifeWay Research have partnered to assess the theological temperature of the United States, exploring what people on the street and in congregations believe. The survey consists of 33 different statements and then participants are asked to assess their level of agreement using a four-point, forced choice scale (strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, strongly disagree).

The statements are designed to assess how people view God, Jesus, theology, and their personal spirituality. Granted, only 3,011 people were surveyed, but according to Lifeway, statistical quotas were put in place to ensure the sample was “demographically balanced and slight weights were used to ensure the sample matches the population on gender, age, ethnicity, income, region and religion.” The reports and the graphs posted on the website make it easy to compare trends from previous years and to sort answers based on each of those categories. I encourage everyone to spend a little time perusing the data on the survey site and then post a comment on your observations.

Unfortunately, I could not find how the respondents were chosen. Was this an online survey taken by random persons who found it? Was it sent to specific churches or fellowships? I have left a message with both Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway research. If I get a response, I will post an update.

The Statements

The 33 statements were presented based on six key doctrinal areas, with several focus points within each category:

A.   Beliefs in God

1.     God is a perfect being and cannot make a mistake.

2.     There is one true God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

3.     God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

4.     God learns and adapts to different circumstances.

5.     Biblical accounts of the physical (bodily) resurrection of Jesus are completely accurate. This event actually occurred.

6.     Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.

7.     Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God.

8.     God created male and female.

9.     The Holy Spirit is a force but is not a personal being.

10.  The Holy Spirit gives a spiritual new birth or new life before a person has faith in Jesus Christ.

11.  The Holy Spirit can tell me to do something which is forbidden in the Bible.

B.   Beliefs about Goodness and Sin

12.   Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.

13.   Even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation.

14.   God counts a person as righteous not because of one’s works but only because of one’s faith in Jesus Christ.

15.   Everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God.

C.    Beliefs about Salvation and Religious Texts

16.  The Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is not literally true.

17.  The Bible is 100% accurate in all that it teaches.

18.  Modern science disproves the Bible.

19.  God chose the people he would save before he created the world.

D.   Beliefs about Judgement and Punishment

20.  Hell is a real place where certain people will be punished forever.

21.  There will be a time when Jesus Christ returns to judge all the people who have lived.

E.    Beliefs about the Church

22.  Worshiping alone or with one’s family is a valid replacement for regularly attending church.

23.  Christians should be silent on issues of politics.

24.  Every Christian has an obligation to join a local church.

F.    Beliefs about Authority – opinion vs objective truth

25.   Sex outside of traditional marriage is a sin.

26.   Abortion is a sin.

27.   Gender identity is a matter of choice.

28.   The Bible’s condemnation of homosexual behavior doesn’t apply today.

29.   God is unconcerned with my day-to-day decisions.

30.   The Bible has the authority to tell us what we must do.

31.   Religious belief is a matter of personal opinion; it is not about objective truth.

32.   The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe.

33.   It is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior.

Discussion

I first learned about the StateOfTheology.com survey in 2020 and I have been mulling over the responses for quite some time. The survey and its results can be sorted in a variety of ways on the website. Much of the data has been sliced, diced, and written about on various sites and from different perspectives. My plan is to write about these findings from my personal perspective as an explanation to why America’s civil society is crumbling and falling apart.

The response given to each statement, particularly the responses by self-declared evangelical Christians are most interesting to me, and perhaps the most disturbing. LifeWay Research defined evangelicals this way:

People who strongly agree: 1) that the Bible is the highest authority to believe; 2) Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the only sacrifice that can remove the penalty of sin; 3) only those who trust Jesus Christ as their Savior will receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation; and 4) it is very important to personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior.

In addition to the Gospel, these are the core values of the Christian faith, not just those who declare themselves to be an ‘evangelical.’ In my opinion, the answers given by the evangelical group are representative perspectives of all Christians who took the survey.

Sadly, the 2022 survey documents the trend that Americans are increasingly rejecting the Divine Creation origins of all life and are questioning the accuracy of the Bible. Without the Word as our spiritual foundation, our culture is drifting aimlessly. More and more adults are not only accepting an unbiblical worldview regarding homosexuality, transgenderism, pedophilia, abortion, and pre-marital sex, they are embracing these activities as normal.

Let’s start this discussion with a few of statements and the survey results:

Statement 25: Sex outside of traditional marriage is sin.

In the survey, 33% of the 3,011 respondents strongly agreed with this statement but 29% of respondents strongly disagree. Among evangelicals (377), those with traditional Christian beliefs, 87% strongly agreed with this statement while 3% disagreed.

What the Bible says:

Leviticus 18:6-17 – This section of scripture has a long list of instructions God gave to Moses for His people, demanding that they must control their sexual desires and not have sex with literally everyone. I previously wrote a substack on this – you can find it here.

Hebrews 13:4 - “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for  God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”

1 Thessalonians 4:3 “For this is the will of God,  your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality.”

God only approves of sex between a husband and wife.

Statement 26: Abortion is a sin.

Abortion is murder of a living, unborn child. Surprisingly, the respondents were nearly split on their perspectives about abortion, with 53% saying they agree or strongly agree that abortion is a sin, but 39% said they disagree or strongly disagree, meaning they did not believe abortion to be sin. The balance of respondents (8%) said they were ‘unsure.’ But even 4% of evangelicals disagreed that abortion – the murder of an unborn child – was a sin.

Can anyone who claims to be a Christian really be “pro-choice”? If you haven’t seen it, find a way to watch the documentary, A Matter of Life. Here’s the trailer.

What the Bible says:

“Thou shalt not murder” is the 6^th of the ten commandments (Exodus 20:13).

The scriptures also teach that the developing baby in the womb is a living, responding life. (Luke 1:41, 44)  

Statement 8: God Created Man and Woman

Statement 27: Gender identity is a matter of choice.

This is a big topic these days, with “gender choice” and “gender fluidity” being pushed as the norm. According to SexualDiversity.org, in 2023 there were 107 gender identities that can “change and increase at any time.” Of the 3,011 respondents, 16% strongly disagreed with statement 8, while, gratefully, 98% of all those who listed a religious affiliation responded in strong agreement that God created MAN and WOMAN.

However, when it comes to statement 27 - that gender identity is a choice - 16% of evangelical Christians agreed a person’s gender can be chosen. And when all Christian affiliations were included in the response, 37% agreed that yes, gender identity is a choice. Among those who stated they were Roman Catholics (99 out of 3,011), 53% responded that yes, gender is a matter of choice.

What the Bible says:

Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

1 Corinthians 11:11-12: “However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and all things originate from God.

It is very clear that WOMEN give birth. A man that declares he is a woman, wants to give birth, and then ‘chest feed’ his infant is, in my opinion, a sexual deviant. And, according to the Bible, this is NOT from God.

Statement 28: The Bible’s condemnation of homosexual behavior doesn’t apply today.

In the survey, 46% of all respondents say that Biblical condemnation of homosexuality no longer applies to today.  Collectively, 65% of evangelicals but only 43% of Catholics belief that the principles put forth in the Bible about homosexuality still apply.           

Regardless of what has become accepted within our culture or the global community, the Bible consistently declares homosexual activity as sinful.

What the Bible say:

Leviticus 15:33 – “You shall not lie with a man as with a woman; it is an abomination.”

Romans 1: 26-27 - “For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.”

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 - “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.”

Jude 1:7 - “Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities near them, which like them committed sexual sins and pursued homosexual activities, serve as an example of the punishment of eternal fire.”

Summary

These are a look at 5 responses to the 33 survey statements but the results clearly spotlight that the Church and many Christians have lost their moral compass and no longer embrace the Bible as the inerrant Word of God that transcends time.

In fact, according to Pew Research, since the 1990s, large numbers of Americans have left Christianity to join the growing ranks of adults who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.” Covid-19 also hurt the American church. In 2019, according to estimates from Lifeway Research, approximately 3,000 Protestant churches were started in the U.S., but 4,500 Protestant churches closed. A 2021 Gallup poll revealed another grim number: church membership in the U.S. has fallen below 50% for the first time.

Instead, in appears more Christians are choosing to be “politically and socially correct,” embracing a secular view of behaviors that have always been abhorrent to God.  Good doesn’t become evil overnight. Morality, our sense of right and wrong, changes along the slippery slope of tolerance. Tolerance leads to desensitization, which then leads to permissiveness and to policies that promote persecution of those who hold to time-honored morality.

The following quote, attributed to Fr. Dwight Longenecker, an author of at least 20 books and Catholic priest, posted this on his Twitter account in 2019: 

First we overlook evil.
Then we permit evil.
Then we legalize evil.
Then we promote evil.
Then we celebrate evil.
Then we persecute those who still call it evil.

Isaiah cried, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isa. 5:20)

Today’s Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, we need to humble ourselves and seek Your forgiveness for our tolerance of what You find abhorrent. There is no “gray area” in your Word about right and wrong behavior. We have accept these vile activities so we are not called “racist” or “homophobic” or “offensive.” As Christians, our personal compass must be solidly fixated on Jesus and continually ask the question, “What would Jesus do? Would He violate His personal temple - His body - to be “politically correct”? Should we sin and think God is going to wink and give us a pass?

Father, convict our hearts and minds so that we see human behaviors through Your eyes. As long as we are still alive on Earth, You have given us a direct path back to You through 1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, You are faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. However, verse 10 goes on to warn us - If we say, ‘We don’t have any sin,’ we make You a liar, and Your word is not in us.

We ask You for Your love, Your mercy, and Your forgiveness. Help us to find our way back to our moral compass through Your Word and through focusing our eyes on You. In Jesus’ precious name we pray. Amen.

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