Psalm 19:7 The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
The Pew Research Center conducted something they call the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey in June of 2008. They questioned just over 19,000 professing Christians across America. Some of the results were as follows: 69% believe God is a personal Being rather than an impersonal force. 83% believe in heaven, 68% believe in hell. 80% believe in life after death, 13% do not. 37% believe the Bible is the word of God and should be taken literally, 30% believe the Bible is the word of God and should not be taken literally, that evidently means 33% don't believe the Bible is the word of God. 67% believe there's more than one true way of understanding the Bible, only 28% believe there's only one true way. 69% believe other religions can provide entry into heaven, only 25% believe Christianity alone provides salvation. 44% believe homosexuality should be accepted and 45% believe abortion should be allowed in most cases. Such percentages should tell us we have a big problem in America within Christianity and seeing people truly converted to Christ. In 2000 a Christian denomination recorded around 280,000 professions of faith worldwide. Out of the 280,000 only 14,000 were attending church in 2001, that's 5%. Some good news is that Answers in Genesis reports that people in America born between the early 1980's and the early 2000's are largely biblically illiterate. The reason I think that's good news is because it could be possible, with God's help, to persuade them to view the Bible as the word of God, but we're going to have to prove that to them.
The actual number of truly saved people in America is most likely very small. Of the 19,000 Christians surveyed only 25% believe only Christianity offers real salvation. If we assume the 25% fall within the 37% who believe the Bible is the word of God and should be taken literally we would then have a group of people from which probably only a percentage would actually be saved people. So, of 19,000 professing Christians about 4,750 believe the Bible is the word of God, should be taken literally and only Christianity offers real salvation. So some percentage of the 4,750 are truly saved people, we just don't know how many. What this all means is of professing Christians in America only 25% have beliefs that line up with scripture enough to suppose they could be saved. It's likely all of them are not.
There can be no doubt we have a real problem in our culture within Christianity and seeing people truly converted to Christ. It's possible most of the problem lies in the way Christians are presenting God and His way of salvation to others. Consider the early church, Acts 5:12-16 And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.) Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. It seems people from the early church gave such a miraculous witness of who Jesus is and what He could do that no one thought of joining themselves to the church without being truly converted unto Christ. That type of witness largely doesn't exist today. There's so few that have it they are easily branded fanatics and overlooked. We don't need to bring back apostolic miracles, we just need Spirit filled, obedient Christians under the influence of God, bearing the fruit of the Spirit, preaching the sinfulness of man, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.
It would be much better if we had a very small number of professing Christians in our culture who were actually saved rather than having a large number who have only a religion. The latter poses the greatest challenge because religion is the greatest obstacle of real conversion to Christ. Religion was responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus and modern day Christianity in America is no different, it has the effect of suppressing the truth by distorting it. Jesus said to the religious leaders of His day, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do” (John 8:44).
So, what can we do about this problem? The short answer is rather than just offering people a way of salvation or just a different belief system offer them a living Savior instead. Jesus said in John 5:39-40 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. John wrote in 1 John 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. We need people with a message who are a living testimony that Jesus saves. He saves minds, He saves hearts, He saves from confusion, from error, from bad decisions, from worry, from unhappiness, from hopelessness, from anxiety, from depression and from hell. We need to present the gospel with a way of living that has been truly altered by Christ. We have a culture that's looking for the answers through politics, wealth, medicine, physical fitness, psychology, psychiatry, religion, drugs and alcohol, but only the Creator has real answers.
How did Jesus and His apostles present the Gospel? Mark 1:14-15 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. Real salvation, real conversion, real change is not possible without repentance. To repent means to think differently, to have a change of mind, to reconsider. People don't repent until they see a need to. Jesus and His apostles presented a message and a picture (by picture I mean a witness). An acceptance of one or the other doesn't require repentance, but both together demand it!
The Pew Research Center conducted something they call the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey in June of 2008. They questioned just over 19,000 professing Christians across America. Some of the results were as follows: 69% believe God is a personal Being rather than an impersonal force. 83% believe in heaven, 68% believe in hell. 80% believe in life after death, 13% do not. 37% believe the Bible is the word of God and should be taken literally, 30% believe the Bible is the word of God and should not be taken literally, that evidently means 33% don't believe the Bible is the word of God. 67% believe there's more than one true way of understanding the Bible, only 28% believe there's only one true way. 69% believe other religions can provide entry into heaven, only 25% believe Christianity alone provides salvation. 44% believe homosexuality should be accepted and 45% believe abortion should be allowed in most cases. Such percentages should tell us we have a big problem in America within Christianity and seeing people truly converted to Christ. In 2000 a Christian denomination recorded around 280,000 professions of faith worldwide. Out of the 280,000 only 14,000 were attending church in 2001, that's 5%. Some good news is that Answers in Genesis reports that people in America born between the early 1980's and the early 2000's are largely biblically illiterate. The reason I think that's good news is because it could be possible, with God's help, to persuade them to view the Bible as the word of God, but we're going to have to prove that to them.
The actual number of truly saved people in America is most likely very small. Of the 19,000 Christians surveyed only 25% believe only Christianity offers real salvation. If we assume the 25% fall within the 37% who believe the Bible is the word of God and should be taken literally we would then have a group of people from which probably only a percentage would actually be saved people. So, of 19,000 professing Christians about 4,750 believe the Bible is the word of God, should be taken literally and only Christianity offers real salvation. So some percentage of the 4,750 are truly saved people, we just don't know how many. What this all means is of professing Christians in America only 25% have beliefs that line up with scripture enough to suppose they could be saved. It's likely all of them are not.
There can be no doubt we have a real problem in our culture within Christianity and seeing people truly converted to Christ. It's possible most of the problem lies in the way Christians are presenting God and His way of salvation to others. Consider the early church, Acts 5:12-16 And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.) Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. It seems people from the early church gave such a miraculous witness of who Jesus is and what He could do that no one thought of joining themselves to the church without being truly converted unto Christ. That type of witness largely doesn't exist today. There's so few that have it they are easily branded fanatics and overlooked. We don't need to bring back apostolic miracles, we just need Spirit filled, obedient Christians under the influence of God, bearing the fruit of the Spirit, preaching the sinfulness of man, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.
It would be much better if we had a very small number of professing Christians in our culture who were actually saved rather than having a large number who have only a religion. The latter poses the greatest challenge because religion is the greatest obstacle of real conversion to Christ. Religion was responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus and modern day Christianity in America is no different, it has the effect of suppressing the truth by distorting it. Jesus said to the religious leaders of His day, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do” (John 8:44).
So, what can we do about this problem? The short answer is rather than just offering people a way of salvation or just a different belief system offer them a living Savior instead. Jesus said in John 5:39-40 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. John wrote in 1 John 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. We need people with a message who are a living testimony that Jesus saves. He saves minds, He saves hearts, He saves from confusion, from error, from bad decisions, from worry, from unhappiness, from hopelessness, from anxiety, from depression and from hell. We need to present the gospel with a way of living that has been truly altered by Christ. We have a culture that's looking for the answers through politics, wealth, medicine, physical fitness, psychology, psychiatry, religion, drugs and alcohol, but only the Creator has real answers.
How did Jesus and His apostles present the Gospel? Mark 1:14-15 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. Real salvation, real conversion, real change is not possible without repentance. To repent means to think differently, to have a change of mind, to reconsider. People don't repent until they see a need to. Jesus and His apostles presented a message and a picture (by picture I mean a witness). An acceptance of one or the other doesn't require repentance, but both together demand it!
