The Top 5 Heresies Among American Evangelicals | My Reaction

The Decline of Biblical Literacy and the Rise of Heresy

American evangelicals grasp on theology is deteriorating. Where is all this going? It's going to deconstructing. It's going to progressive Christianity. It's going to false religions like Jehovah's Witnesses and Latter-day Saints.

And this is a problem and you read articles like the one I just read to you. By the way, not the first article to come out saying stuff like this, but you start thinking to yourself man. This is hopeless.

No, it's not. No, it's not. This is where I wanted to go with this.

Want to leave with you if you're watching for the very first time. Howdy.

My name is Nate Sala. I am NOT from the south. So I don't know why I said howdy just now so I was I am half Samoan and apparently there's not a lot of us out there, so We are rare birds me and the rock.

Well, okay again if this is your first time watching I'm the president of a Christian nonprofit organization called wise disciple and here at wise disciple We're helping you become the effective Christian that you were meant to be.

What does that mean. Nate thanks for asking it means that we're helping you to think speak and act more Effectively as a Christian in today's culture more and more people are getting angry and they're clashing with each other than ever before.

We have actually reverted. I was talking to William Lane Craig about this. Think it was a couple years ago. We have reverted right back to the polarization of the late 1960s. So, how do we navigate our faith in this environment?

Well, we're showing you at this channel here with each video that I make we're showing you so stick with me. Click that subscribe button like the video so that we can hit the algorithm and do all the things that I don't even really truly understand.

What I'm getting at is more people can become aware of what we're up to if you subscribe and you like and you share What we're doing. Well, anyway, let's take a look at a recent survey that came out. I think it was in September.

This survey is about American Evangelicals. So if you are an American Evangelical or even a Christian this should be troubling to you. The article is from Christianity Today. It says so it's top five heresies among American Evangelicals.

It says 2022 but Arianism and Pelagianism are steadily making a comeback according to the state of theology report. All right, so buckle your safety belts. It's an eye-opener. So let's just go ahead and Read some of the article here.

So it says American Evangelicals grasp on theology is Slipping and more than half affirmed heretical views of God in this year's state of theology survey released Monday by Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research.

Okay. I'm not the first person to say this, but I have been talking quite a bit about biblical illiteracy. As a matter of fact, I was talking to Greg Koukl about this recently where he shared my concerns here.

Biblical illiteracy is one of the fundamental issues with Christians of all stripes in America today. Now I know somebody's watching and maybe you're in the chat right now and you're thinking to yourself.

No, my denomination is great. It's those Presbyterians over there. It's those Baptists over there. It's those Protestants that are ignorant. No, it's not. We're all largely biblically illiterate. I'm gonna focus on American Evangelicals, but this is across the board.

Ladies and gentlemen biblical illiteracy is Across the board and we all need to develop our understanding of theology and I guess along those lines. We all share the blame in some sense for this. And if you're one of those who's you're more aware of things that you have a developed understanding of theology.

You should be and I hope you are pouring into other brothers and sisters around you. So we all grow in this area. Amen. Well, anyway, this is what happens these these heresies that are floating around.

Are what happens when God's people become biblically and doctrinally illiterate. All right, so let's read the article. It says overall adults in the US are moving away from Orthodox understandings of God and his word year after year.

More than half of the country 53 now believe scripture is not literally true. Okay up from 41 when the biannual survey began in 2014 researchers called the rejection of the divine authorship of the Bible the clearest and most consistent trend over the eight years of data.

This view makes it easy for individuals to accept biblical teaching that they resonate with while simultaneously Rejecting any biblical teaching that is out of step with their own personal views or broader cultural values.

The researchers wrote In the 2022 surveys this just came out. Like I said, I think it was September when he came out. Around a quarter of evangelicals 26 said the Bible is not literally true up from 15 in 2020.

Okay. Now I haven't seen that survey the one that they're referencing in this article. All right. I'm just reading the article here from Christianity Today I don't know about the kinds of questions that were asked in the survey to lead to the 26 number.

I mean, I think that's probably an accurate represent representation of Christians. I mean just considering again how illiterate we are compared to generations past.

But.

It is possible That the way the questions are worded in the survey is Maybe ambiguous enough to bring that number down from a more accurate representation of where evangelicals are again. I don't know I'm speculating here.

I haven't seen the questions for the survey. The reason I say that is it's possible that a More educated Christian is gonna see the phrase the Bible is literally true and go. Okay, but wait a second. What does that mean?

Right because a more educated Christian is gonna recognize immediately that the Bible is a collection of 66 books. Spanning multiple authors across multiple centuries many of these authors were geographically removed from each other.

Some vastly removed in time and location and so there are a number of different Genres that the Bible is written in some poetic some Prophetic some are written in terms of recounting history, which should be taken literally by the way.

But not all of it is in one genre and so that could play into these numbers being so low. It really just depends on whether the word Literal is key to the survey and how respondents understand that word.

But you know, but again, who knows I Haven't seen the questions for that. So I'm just speculating they also became more likely to consider religious belief a matter of personal opinion and Not about objective truth.

38 said so in 2022 compared to 23 in 2020. Now, that's a problem. Right if they're more likely to consider Religious belief a matter of personal opinion. They're not getting that from the scripture.

They're getting that from the the culture and Maybe you know from politics. I don't know Barack Obama More recently shifted our constitutional right to express our religion in the public square. He did this in some of his, you know presidential speeches.

He tried to say things that. And shift things and and kind of say that well, we have a right to express our you know. We have a right to express our religion in Certain designated locations. That's what he said Certain designated locations and that's not true.

If you look closely at our First Amendment rights, we have the right to express our religion in the public square. That's what free exercise of religion means see man. It's more than just biblical illiteracy guys I mean, this is this is civics.

This is basic civics. Like if you had graduated high school in the 1950s You would be way more educated than well, anyway, okay a former high school teacher talking here I'm diverting the point is the Great Commission that Jesus gave us is not meant to be understood as private and Subjective and a matter of personal opinion.

These are marching orders for every Christian and. So if you're watching this video and you're a Christian you should be fulfilling the Great Commission in some capacity in your daily life on a weekly basis if you're not Put the video down and start doing it.

Amen. All right. Here we go. So we're getting into the five top heresies of American Evangelicals number one Jesus isn't the only way to God. Okay, more than half 56 percent of evangelical respondents affirmed that God accepts the worship of all religions including Christianity Judaism and Islam up from 42 percent in 2020 and while the question Doesn't include all religions.

It indicates a bent toward universalism. Believing there are ways to bypass Jesus in our approach to an acceptance by God. This contradicts Orthodox theology found in the scriptures in which Jesus affirms that I am the way and the truth in the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me. All right. That's John 14 6. It gets more involved than that the God of the Old Testament says You shall have no other gods before me. I am the first of the last besides me.

There is no other God. I mean, these are all not merely descriptions but injunctions to recognize only God only Yahweh the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the father who sent his son Jesus to die for our sins as the one true God That must only be worshiped by us.

So you have to put all of that together with Jesus saying to his disciples No one comes to the father except through me, right? If you do not abide in Jesus words, you are of your father the devil. These are things that we need to put together.

It makes a framework for us to understand what's going on here in terms of salvation. And by the way, none of this in this biblical framework leaves any space for any other path to the father. It is not true that all roads lead to Rome as it were.

Jesus said the gate is wide and the path is easy that leads to destruction. But the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and few find it. Again, put that all together and you have no liberty to conclude that Jesus isn't the only way to God.

Of course he is and Those who do conclude that That he's not are simply biblically illiterate, which is where a lot of this comes from. I I think that's that's kind of my take on this, right? The the thrust of the article and why I'm going over this is not for us to simply go.

Oh, these are the five heresies that American evangelicals suffer from. No. There's something going on underneath that that I want us to think about and I think it's biblical illiteracy. At least it's one.

It's one of the major factors, right? The heresies that pop up in our churches are simply due to our biblical and doctrinal illiteracy, and that's a real shame. Number two, so that's heresy number one heresy number two.

Jesus was created by God a Surprising 73 agreed with the statement that Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God. This is a form of Arianism a popular heresy that arose in the early 4th century.

Those believing it caused such a stir that it led to the gathering of the very first ecumenical council of church leaders. They discussed and denounced these and other Unorthodox beliefs as heretical for being contrary to scripture.

I mean It gets worse than that. You know Arius was a bit of a rabble rouser if you know your history he was Unabashed in his views able to rally his troops so to speak proclaiming that the father and the son were two separate beings and.

That.

One was subordinate to the other and this came from Arius his understanding of Oregon. Although as far as I remember Oregon wasn't as weird in his beliefs as Arius was but nevertheless Arius got all of his followers so up in arms about his beliefs and then also like the response to his beliefs that the Arians got out into the streets and they started marching.

So Arius was I mean like if there's like a parallel to today, right? He was a bit of an activist. His people his followers got out into the streets and they started marching and the same is true of the opposing side.

The opposing side also came out and they started marching against Arians in the street. You know and then both groups met each other in the middle and then it turned into a Scorsese film. You know, it just got it was a riot and they just they went at each other.

It's that's how crazy this got ladies and gentlemen. Out of the Council of Nicaea came the Nicene Creed which states in part that Jesus was not made but eternally begotten and one in being with the father as found in passages including John 3 16 and John 149.

Okay, very good, right so the Council of Nicaea comes together and This is where folks who don't understand the history of the church. They start going all Da Vinci code and Saying that Christianity was formed at that point, you know.

The doctrine all came together and the Bible came together because of the councils. No, it didn't the doctrine of the Trinity was not invented by the councils. It was a word that was used as a shorthand for all the scriptural passages that provide a basis for the doctrine so it starts with scripture and That's the problem with Arianism it can't hold up to the full teaching of scripture.

So by the way I have a website. I'm more than just a channel. I actually have a team behind me. We have a board. We're a nonprofit and so there's not just this YouTube channel. There's also a website.

Why is disciple org if you're not aware? And I encourage you to check out the website where you can find articles like the one That I'm about to pull up here. So I called this article Bible blueprint.

So if you just go through the article the article is going to give you the biblical basis for the Trinity. It tracks along certain key things that are taught in the Bible. So go to this article use it as a resource for you because check this out, you know, there is only one God.

Right. The this is what the Bible teaches. The Lord is one God. Deuteronomy 435. Deuteronomy 6 for Galatians 320. There is no other God. Deuteronomy 32 39. Then you go down to well Jesus is God. Right, the Word is God.

John 1 1. Jesus is in very nature God. Philippians 2 6. Jesus and God are 1 John 10 30 to 33. So this is going to be an encyclopedic resource for you for all of the references where you find the biblical case that is made in the Bible for the Trinity and So again, the Trinity was not a word that was invented.

I know there's some hay made by Jehovah's Witnesses about The Greek word sort of being adopted and used for the first time to describe the essence of the Trinity.

And.

There's truth behind that but the point is that this word is meant to be a shorthand for everything I'm showing you on the screen right now. Look at this. Jesus has God's attributes, right? Jesus is eternal.

It's taught in Colossians 1 17 Jesus is immutable. That's in Hebrews 1 10 to 12 Jesus look at this. Jesus has the same title and uses the same title as God. Jesus is the I am John 8 24. So anyway, this is a really great resource.

I encourage you to check this out Bible blueprint the Trinity. I was just talking about this by the way in a Short video about Jehovah's Witnesses. I thought legit. I was about to lose my voice and so I made a video really quick about Jehovah's Witnesses on Friday.

The question I got was a little Strange. I was trying to work with the question I had but it was basically how can we from the scripture talk about Jesus to Jehovah's Witnesses now part of the issue and I barely scratched the surface with this in the video is the Jehovah's Witnesses have crafted their own Interpretation of the Bible and they call it the New World Translation and in certain places They are butchering the Greek in order to get at their own pre-established theology.

So instead of as I mentioned a moment ago John 1 1 stating and the word was God. They have to add an article that does not exist in the original Greek in order to say and the word was a God. In other words, they're just inserting words that do not exist in the original language.

So Jehovah's Witnesses flunk Greek in order to establish their theology. That Jesus was a God separate from God the Father and that's just one of the many reasons why Jehovah's Witnesses are a lot Like the Aryans.

They're the Aryans of our time. But I don't know apparently a lot of American evangelicals Are following suit and that's very concerning. That's why I'm going over this article. Heresy number three there should have been a drumroll.

I should have planned this better. It should have been a drumroll. Heresy number three Jesus is not God.

Okay.

So given the above beliefs on Jesus as a created being it's not too surprising that 43 affirmed that Jesus was a great teacher. But he was not God, which is another form of Aryan heresy this effectively denies The divinity of Christ and his unity with God the Father is an equal member in the Trinity.

Who is one God? He is one God in three persons this has been considered classic Orthodox belief Since the early church and is based on many biblical passages like where Jesus says I and the Father are one John 10 30.

Right and for this he gets accused of blasphemy and threatened with stoning by religious leaders for claiming to be God, right? And you know, this is what I was just saying If anyone tries to tell you otherwise That for example these concepts like the Trinity and Jesus divinity were invented by one of the councils that this just goes to show that they don't know church history.

Period the end. And I'm not even an expert in church history. That wasn't like the area of my focus for my theology degree, but the bottom line is we all need to understand a bit of church history as Christians just so we can Safeguard ourselves against heresies because apparently they're making a huge comeback you know heresies and Jimmy Carter style leadership that leads to recession.

Can I do that? Is that too soon? Can I can I can I say that? Some things are making a huge comeback, right? So it had to be said come on now. Anyway, so We need to read up on church history. We need to understand how the church thought and spoke because Many have dealt with these things in the past and they have refuted them soundly.

Which again means that the reason these heresies that were refuted in the past it popped up again. It's because we just don't know our history. We don't know our theology. We don't know our doctrine and Those who don't know their history as Santayana says are doomed to repeat it.

Amen. Heresy number four. The Holy Spirit is not a personal being so speaking of the Trinity 60 of the evangelical survey Respondents had some confusion about its third member believing that the Holy Spirit is a force but is not a personal being to be fair.

The Spirit of God is often described as an impersonal force throughout the Bible sometimes as a dove a cloud fire wind or water. But these are all just metaphors for the Spirit's personal presence. The scriptures clearly affirmed that the Spirit is fully God just like Jesus and the Father who sent us the Spirit.

Including the time when Ananias was described as simultaneously lying to the Holy Spirit and to God. Okay, there's a great book by dr. Michael Horton. It's called rediscovering the Holy Spirit. It's a great read.

I Think so. I just want to give you a couple books on this. Francis Chan maybe wrote a book on this a long time ago forgotten Holy Spirit or something like that. I mean the fact is the article is correct.

Many of us neglect our understanding of the Holy Spirit as a person and as a personal being we have no idea What it means for the Holy Spirit to dwell inside us and I think many of us Oscillate too far into opposite categories.

Right when we do try to understand the indwelling Holy Spirit we sort of It's almost like teeter-totter. We were either of two extremes, you know some veer way far over into the idea of The Holy Spirit having long conversations with them on a daily basis.

All right. They speak in tongues and they're having long Conversations with God and then I said to God and then he said back to me, but then I said back to him. Okay, and then you have that's the one side and then on the other side others veer way far over into the Holy Spirit being this.

I Don't know like initiating mechanism of salvation at the moment of conversion and then doing almost nothing for the believer ever since. Both of these extremes misunderstand the Holy Spirit and we need to understand him.

We need to understand his work for us because the reality is there is no way that we can truly appreciate and understand and even say what the Apostle Paul said in places like Galatians 2 20 or Philippians 2 13.

Right. Galatians 2 20. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith and the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Right. Philippians 2 13.

It's God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. We can't we can't even. Yes, and amen these things on a deep sense even say these things about ourselves. If we do not understand the Holy Spirit and his daily role in our lives.

The Holy Spirit is absolutely a personal being friends. He convicts folks of sin. He is the agent of regeneration for a person who becomes born again, but he's also a teacher. He teaches us and guides us into the truth of what Christ has taught the truth of his words the Holy Spirit Transforms our moral and spiritual character in order to conform into the image of Jesus Christ all of these things by the way.

You are incapable of doing in your own strength or flesh. Right to to born again yourself. You can't do that. You know, you can't Convict yourself of your own sin. You can't guide yourself into the truth of Christ.

You can't transform yourself morally and spiritually. You can't do any of those things on your own. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in you and it is your submission to his work that causes these things.

Heresy number five. Humans are not sinful by nature. Okay. Interestingly 57 also agreed to the statement that everyone sins a little but most people are good by nature. So in other words humans might be capable of committing individual sins, but we do not have sinful natures.

This response indicates that many American evangelicals believe humans are born essentially good which leans toward a heresy known as Pelagianism. This denies the doctrine of original sin, which is based on a number of biblical passages such as Romans 5 12.

Even David acknowledged the Old Testament that humans were born in.

Sin.

I.

Know exactly where this comes from. It's not exactly Pelagian ism. Although the connection is absolutely valid to Pelagian ism. This is not a this is not exactly Pelagian ism. This is actually from the Enlightenment.

Okay, the Enlightenment was a time of It was a time when the culture moved away from viewing the Bible as an absolute divine authoritative revelation. Okay, textual criticism came to the fore during the Age of Enlightenment academics started criticizing the Bible.

Out of the Enlightenment came the Industrial Age where a lot of folks they transitioned out of agrarian style living. You know like like farm based open country lifestyles, which ironically like every farmer's market.

We're trying to return back to that. I mean, I live in Las Vegas. So that's that's another so but in the Industrial Age You had people basically all living in an agrarian style Economy and in living in agrarian style homes and then a lot of them leaving that and living in the cramped Cobblestone cities with the smoke in the factories, you know, like a Charles Dickens story essentially many people Liked industrialization and then many people did not like it.

Okay many people thought staying in the country was where it's at and around this time a movement emerged that Desired to return to nature and they really deified a lot of the process of being in nature and they were called Transcendentalists, but this is where essentially poets and thinkers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman.

They were talking about, you know going back into nature in order to discover the divine. But instead of returning to like the traditional Orthodox view of Christianity. Which is that reality begins with God is revealed in his word and then shapes our understanding.

Transcendentalism starts with me puts the focus on myself and on my experience as Discovered in nature and then there's this discovery of the divine inside ourselves. Right, so you see the difference there.

So the emphasis is on seeking the self personal experience any of this ringing a bell and Finding transcendent experience and again, it's rooted in the Romantic era. In the Romantic era the the emphasis was on self and experience and there were these fundamental assumptions that went along with it.

You know and one of them was that the only way to know truth is to know yourself through personal experience. This means that personal experience became the way to know ultimate truth. Not only that but this period ushered in a view that humanity is inherently divine and good now I had to learn all of these things just so that I could teach English in the high school.

Here in Las Vegas. And so as I'm walking through these things and learning about Transcendentalism and romanticism. I'm sitting here as a Christian going.

Wow.

There is an explanation for why human beings today Believe that deep down. We're just all good people. Right because that's what happens you put all these ingredients together rejection of the church and the Bible as the divine authority from God.

And then you you put in elevation of the self and experience as divine and the way to experience real truth. And then what happens next the idea that we were born sinners in need of a savior is rejected then it's replaced with well you know what we're born good and Anything that's wrong about our experience.

Well, it must be because we're being manipulated from externalities from outside forces that seek to change our innate goodness. Right and then fast forward to today and there are still so many people particularly in America Particularly in the West who are there's zoomed in they're hyper focused on them their own Individual selves and thinking that they deep down are just really good and that's not true.

It is completely anti biblical. American evangelicals grasp on theology is deteriorating. Where is all this going? It's going to deconstructing. It's going to progressive Christianity. It's going to false religions like Jehovah's Witnesses and Latter-day Saints and this is a problem and You read articles like the one I just read to you, by the way, not the first article to come out saying stuff like this.

Okay, but you start thinking to yourself man. This is hopeless. No, it's not. No, it's not. This is where I wanted to go with this just want to want to leave with you the same God who saved you is the same one who will sanctify you and.

So your job as a Christian is to deepen your relationship with God and that requires That you spend significant portions of your day your week your month and your year Seeking to know God more than you did yesterday.

And I don't mean learning a bunch of academic things about God in a Greek sense. You know being a being a student or a disciple in more of the Greek sense. I mean more in the Jewish sense. I mean more in the way that Jesus explained this and that comes down to Exploring real relationship with God where you put the focus on him and you Sense his presence in your life.

If this is you if you're thinking I don't have that name. I Don't feel that in my life. Let me encourage you. This is what it means to be a Christian. You can email me. Hello at wise disciple org. Let's chat about it.

Let me just just tell me what your story is. Tell me what's going on with you. You can Go find a church and get plugged in. You know start going to a small group and walk alongside older wiser Christians who can mentor you.

These things are available to you wherever you are. Okay, let's fight heresy together, but it starts with you. It starts with one person at a time going deeper each day in their knowledge of God and then walking alongside other brothers and sisters preferably the next generation amen and Helping them to understand what you have been what what God has been teaching you and what you have been gleaning from his word by the way Knowledge of God is eternal life.

Okay, John 17 3 Jesus said this is eternal life that they know you the one true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent Amen you with me. I hope that something here that was said blesses you in some capacity that you have something you need now so that you can go.

And you can affect others for Christ on behalf of God and his kingdom and said and establishing his kingdom here on earth. So I'm just so grateful that you are subscribing that you're watching what I'm doing here at wise disciple.

My goal is to help you follow Jesus injunction to be wise. Especially in today's kind of culture. That's where my heart is in ministry. That's where these videos come from more videos are coming soon.

Okay friends I should do a debate teacher react soon, shouldn't I? But anyway, I'm gonna take a break. But in the meantime, I'll say Bye for now.