The Failure of the Evangelical Church

The State of Theology Survey and the Church’s Failure to Teach Doctrine

This is upsetting, and I believe that it explains a lot of what we're talking about in terms of the ineffectiveness of the church in the West today, particular in the United States. Here it is. This is from Ligonier, right guys?

Yes. Okay. The state of theology. What do Americans believe about God, salvation, ethics, and the Bible? Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research partnered to find out these are the fundamental convictions that shape our theology.

What do Americans think about God, Jesus Christ, sin, and eternity? This is again Evangelicals. Ready boys? Ready. All right, so let's just go through this. You guys stop me as you please.

Evangelicals.

Here's the statement. Statement number 11. Please hear this guys. This is so upsetting. Okay, it gets worse for me, so.

You'll see. You'll see. Before we get started, can we maybe explain who they asked this to? Okay, yeah, yeah. Sorry. I don't actually know, so I was hoping you would.

So it was Evangelical respondents in 2018. So this is current data. Yeah, very up-to-date. Yeah, so very up-to-date. So this is right where we're at right now, and this is in the United States, Evangelicals.

So these are people who profess to be Evangelicals. Statement number 11. Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature. It says that 52 of Evangelicals agree that everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.

Wow. Good by nature. 52 of Evangelicals agree. It's over half. And to the degree on the chart, it's strongly agree, somewhat agree, not sure, somewhat, and strongly. So 52 of Evangelicals agree. Of course, the Bible would flatly contradict.

The Biblical Doctrine of Human Sinfulness

Yeah. How important a.

Reformed biblical understanding of man's condition. Okay, to explain that, give us a minute burst on that. So if you have, if you take what the Word of God says about the condition of man, you understand that man is totally unable to come to God, he's a rebel against God, he's hostile, and even his best day of righteousness is filthy rags before God's sight.

Right. That's what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that even the self-righteous works that we do that are supposedly good, are actually just nonsense before a holy God. Yeah. We don't have anything to offer God.

We come with him, we come to him absolutely empty-handed. He's the holy one, and that's another thing within the survey that was really, that they harped on, was that there, from the results, you can tell there's a, there's a lack of the understanding of the holiness of God.

Oh, yeah. So how set apart God is, how other he is, how morally blameless and pure and, and, and without sin he is. So suffice it to say, a proper understanding of who God is and who we are. And the only way that we understand that is by his revelation.

And starting with the revelation of Scripture, who he has revealed himself to be, he's holy. That is the attribute that it describes God more than any other attribute in Scripture. God is holy. Yeah. And then moving on from there, what is our condition before God?

Are we just a little bit sick? Are we, by nature, good people deep down?

Ephesians 2, by nature, children of wrath. Right. And I think just to tack on to that,.

I think Luke and I were talking about this a little bit earlier, how much Gnostic thought has influenced us as Christians. And even with something like this, the Gnostic view is separated into two stories.

The upper story is the immaterial, the value realm. Lower story is the fact realm. What's empirically verifiable. We've taken that and even applied it to this kind of a category where we say, okay, yes, the actions of the body that the person committed were bad, right?

They were actions in the body. They were socially conditioned by the the person's environment, upbringing, all these different factors. But the immaterial essence of the person, the upper story, is still good, ultimately.

We've divided the two so that way no one's responsible, ultimately, for their sin before God. And so we've done complete injustice to the Word of God and scripture and what God says about our condition before him by adopting.

Pagan,.

Unbiblical mindsets about the nature of man. Andrew Sandlin was talking about that and he called it the ghost in the machine.

Exactly. It's the driver of the car that somehow your body, your true self, is the immaterial essence. It's your consciousness, right? And then your body is the car, which is just an object that you use to further your own desires.

It's not actually intrinsic to who you are. It's extrinsic. It's just this machine that you're driving. And that, by the way, is the worldview that underlies abortion and underlies transgenderism, homosexuality.

Your body is just simply this mass of tissue that can be used for purposes that you deem fit to fulfill your desires of your immaterial essence. Boom. Wow. Wow. Well, we might get through two of these today.

That was good.

Yeah, we got to go a little faster. So now you know why. No, but I didn't want to stop you because it's too good. No, it's good. Yeah, we're short on time today. Okay, statement number three. This was upsetting.

God, again, and for those of you guys that are just joining us right now, wherever you're at, on whatever streaming device or whatever's going on, this is the State of Theology Ligonier and Lifeway teamed up to interview and question evangelicals in 2018.

They're questions related to Jesus, Scripture, the Bible, all those things. And so these are the answers. So God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Well, let me just ask you, so you guys are live right now.

How do you think evangelicals ought to respond to a question like that? And what do you think? Isn't it obvious right now to all of us? Like, well, the answer is obvious. Jesus is the way, truth, and the life.

No man comes to the Father, but by Him. One God, one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. It's obvious. God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

Evangelical respondents in 2018, 51 agree versus 42 disagree. There is a change, by the way, this was also asked in 2016 of evangelicals. And in 2016, it was 49 agreed, 43 disagreed. So you see a 2 change there.

It is going up, apparently. It might be negligible, but it's still upsetting. So, yeah, that's very, very sad. It's a core part of the Christian faith and the message of Jesus. He is the only way to God.

Think about what Jesus says in John chapter 8, and compare that to what evangelicals in 2018 are saying about Jesus. Jesus says, unless you believe echo a me, you'll die in your sins. Unless you believe I'm God, I'm Yahweh, you're gonna die in your sins.

American evangelicals go, ah, pish posh.

Well, it's inclusivism, is what it is. To sum up in one word, inclusivism. So basically, if people mean well, they don't have to have the true biblical Christ. Now, this one,.

When I was reading through this, I looked at it, and I go, as I read it, I immediately go, I already know everyone answered in the positive for that, because it makes so much sense. I'll just read it.

Statement number 13. God counts a person as righteous, not because of one's work, but only because of one's faith in Jesus Christ. Everybody goes, oh, yeah, we're saved just because of what Jesus did.

Everybody loves grace. Everyone loves that grace, y 'all. Which I do, too. We do, too. I'm big on grace. But, but what's important here is to note the, the tear away, the pull away from the Christian message in terms of our sin, our nature as sinful, everyone has truly, truly fallen and not good, and then Christ being the exclusive way, American evangelicals go, half of them go, well, no, not really.

But then you go, but how are you saved? Is it through your righteousness or another foreign righteousness? And everyone goes, oh, no, that's the grace of God. I need Jesus. Why? Because they know in their heart of hearts, they're not by nature good.

Right, right, right.

80? Good point. Oh, here you go. Finding. 91 agree. 91 agree that it is only through Jesus' righteousness and through faith in him. So I say to that, well, good, but that needs some context. Definitely.

Anything you guys want to say about that? No? Okay. It's going to get even more apparent with the next one.

Here's the question. Here we go.

Statement number two. There is one true God in three persons. God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit. I was like, hey, all right. 97 agree. There is one true God, three persons, God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit.

97 agree. I'd say it's pretty good. Yes. Yes. Evangelicals. Good, good, good, good. And then the next one. And then the wheels fall off. It all completely falls apart. One God, three eternal persons, and then statement number six.

Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God. Now, let me ask you a question. What's that sound like? Let me ask you a question right now, watching live. Listen to what I just said. Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God, the Father.

How ought evangelicals to answer that, considering they just affirmed the Trinity? Yeah, keep in mind that. They just affirmed the Trinity. Yeah. 2018. 78 agree. 78 of American evangelicals interviewed agree that Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.

78 of evangelicals believe that Jesus is a created being. We love Jesus and what he can do for us,.

But we have no idea who he is. Yeah. I like that word you just made up, though. Creatist.

I need to eat lunch. He's the first and best creatist. Combined created and greatest.

This is me having a very rough week as a pastor and not eating enough food. 78 agree that Jesus is the first and greatest being created by.

God. Wow.

Powerful stuff here, guys. Now, if we want to know how to affect the world, to affect the culture with the gospel, it's gonna start with our knowledge of the true God and the true gospel. There's not gonna be any change or transformation in the world around about us if we don't have the right God and right gospel.

And the fact that 70 of American evangelicals believe that Jesus was created by the Father is so upsetting. It's so upsetting. Yeah.