Me with my lovely wife, Kathy:

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Can those who deny the heart of the Evangel be called Evangelicals?

I just read a post on Al Mohler's blog. On it he makes reference to a Pew survey on religion and a subsequent article in US News and World Report. The quote below gives the disturbing gist of the article.

"an overall majority (54%) of people who identified with a religion and who said they attend church weekly also said many religions can lead to eternal life. This majority included 37% of white evangelicals, 75% of mainline Protestants and 85% of non-Hispanic white Catholics.
This survey cannot easily be dismissed. The specificity of the responses and the quality of the research sample indicate that we face a serious decline in confidence in the Gospel. When 34 % of white evangelicals reject the truth that Jesus is the only Savior, we are witnessing a virtual collapse of evangelical theology." http://www.albertmohler.com/blog.php (Dec. 18)

Unfortunately, I am not surprised by the conclusion of this article. It has been my observation for some time that the bulk of so called "Bible believers" live lifes that are shaped much more by the views of respectable society than by the clear teachings of the Bible. I fear that this is one reason that Evangelicals have become so politically active. We want to create a society where we can fit in. We don't want to have to stand out. I'm not advocating a move to Evangelical monasiticism, but I am challenging the motives and focus of some of my brethren. Rather than being willing to stand for the scandal of the cross, are we trying to create a world in which the cross is less scandalous?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Hello. And Bye.