A CT Poll Shows the Confusion of Post-Evangelicalism

The media, of course, is all agog today and has been for a few days now about the papal visit. Pope Benedict XVI is in the United States. And so we're hearing about the Holy Father over and over and over again.

Truly amazes me that hearing that so many times doesn't cause people to go, man, that doesn't seem like really solidly biblical language to use as someone, the Holy Father. Be that as it may, someone pointed me to a poll on the Christianity Today website that I found sadly emblematic of really the collapse of evangelical theology in Western society over the past 50 or 60 years.

The Meaninglessness of the CT Poll Question

I'll put it on the screen. The poll question is, do you think the barriers between Catholics and evangelicals should be lowered? Immediately, I stop and go, what are the nature of these barriers? And who could lower them if these actual barriers have to do with, well, the gospel and God's truth?

And unfortunately, the utter lack of meaning of the question then becomes reflected in what is then offered. Here are the offerings. No, the Catholic Church doesn't facilitate true discipleship. No, evangelicals aren't part of the true church unless they join the Catholic Church.

No, the traditions on both sides should be preserved as they are and no other. Then, yes, we're all Christians after all. Yes, we need to work together to shape the culture for Christ. Yes, we should be on good terms so that Catholics and evangelicals can come to the true knowledge of God.

And then another category of yes, which is just marked with other. And we know nothing whatsoever, anywhere, in any of these responses that are offered to you that has anything to do with the gospel. I suppose the first one may be the Catholic Church doesn't facilitate true discipleship.

How about the Catholic Church has the wrong gospel as the fundamental and foundational understanding which has been held by many evangelicals for a very, very long time, going back to the time of the Reformation.

Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, and the Reformation Divide

Well, this is a CT poll anyways. So we have nothing about the gospel. We have nothing about the key issues of sola scriptura and sola fide, the nature of justification, all these things. So where does the poll stand as of now?

Well, what do you expect? Though I'm not a math major, it looks to me like we have a 70 -30 split between the yeses and the nos, though one of those nos would only be answered by a hardcore Roman Catholic, actually.

The no evangelicals aren't part of the true church unless they join the Catholic Church. There's only 2 there. So we can sort of let that one go the other direction. Basically, we only have 15 of people who join the no, the Catholic Church doesn't facilitate true discipleship group.

And then 11 saying no, other. That's the only thing I could possibly choose, because if you actually object to Roman Catholicism on historical grounds from the Reformation, based upon the gospel and the authority of scripture and the addition of things to the gospel under Roman Catholic dogma, et cetera, et cetera, that's the only one you could really go with is the other category, which in and of itself says a lot here.

Confusion About Catholicism, Evangelicalism, and the Gospel

But then we have 17 saying yes, we are Christians. We are all Christians after all. Then 21 yes, we need to work together to shape the culture for Christ. And the biggest response, 26%, we should be on good terms.

So Catholics and evangelicals can come to the true knowledge of God. The fact that the Catholic Church directs you toward a different source of the true knowledge of God, different teaching about those things doesn't seem to bother these folks in the 26 category.

Given this level of confusion on the most foundational elements of why there is a divide between Protestants and Catholics explains a lot as to what we're seeing, what's being said about the Pope's visit, how he himself is being acknowledged by people who should have an understanding of the differences that exist.

The Reformation, Universalism, and Cultural Decline

It is a sad fact that in our country, many have come to the conclusion that the Reformation was all wrong, that we simply overreacted. And now we've gotten a chance to sit down and sort of talk things out.

Was there overreaction on both sides? I suppose so in some ways. I mean, when both sides are trying to kill the other, you can have some overreactions to that. But the issue of the gospel hasn't changed.

And while in Roman Catholicism, you have what can only be described as an implicit universalism that has become the certainly inclusivism at the minimum and universalism functionally. On the Protestant side, you likewise have the same postmodern diminishment of certainty concerning the categories of the gospel as well.

The Papal Visit as a Sign of Western Cultural Degradation

Western culture is in grave trouble. And when two sides that are saying different things come to the point where they can't even recognize they're saying different things anymore, that's a sure sign of the degradation of the culture in which that discussion is taking place.

Explains a lot about what's going on in the current papal visit. Thanks for watching.