Summit, a ministry in Manitou Springs, Colorado that I wholeheartedly support and have served with, in cooperation with Barna conducted a survey of “practicing Christians” and the results are disturbing. The questions were designed to see if Christians were influenced, or perhaps adopting, beliefs from other ideologies. The results show that New Spirituality, secularism, post-modernism, and Marxism have all penetrated the thinking of the elect. The survey is made up of 1,456 people who described themselves as attending church at least once a month, who claim their faith is important to them and agreed with the following statement:

Believing that absolute moral truth exists; the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches; Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic; a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or do good works; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today.

Christianity Today provides a breakdown of the results which, while interesting, doesn’t address the issues. We at Think-Biblically.com intend to rectify that error.

28% of those surveyed believe all people pray to the same God, no matter what name they use for that spiritual being. It is difficult for me to believe that nearly a third of Christians who believe the Bible is God’s word could hold the opinion that everyone who prays does so to the same entity. This is Biblical Theology 101 stuff folks. What problem got the nation of Israel into so much trouble, over and over again? Idolatry. What is idolatry? Worshiping and praying to a different god instead of the one true God. Why did Elohim command the Israelites to completely conquer so many of the nations in the Promised Land? Because those people worshiped and prayed to other gods and held other wicked practices. Need one verse to sum up the fact that not all people pray to the same God? Exodus 20.3: “You shall have no other gods before me.” That’s right, the very first of the Ten Commandments. How could anyone be guilty of having other gods before Elohim if there were no other gods? They couldn’t. There are other Gods and unfortunately most the world are worshiping and praying to the wrong one(s).

27% of those surveyed believe meaning and purpose come from becoming one with all that is. This is Eastern mysticism plain and simple, and it has nothing to do with Biblical teaching. The phrase “to become one with” is used to teach the concept of the unity and interrelatedness of all things. If this philosophy were true, then sin would be in unity with the whole of existence and Jesus would not have needed to sacrifice himself upon the cross. The truth is there is nothing but disunity upon the earth and our sinfulness is the cause. Paul describes our relationship with God as once being divided by a wall of hostility, and only because of the atoning work of Jesus can we have a right relationship with God. The closest teaching to this one can find in the Bible is John 14.20: “You will know at that time that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you.” The language Jesus uses here describes the relationship Jesus has with the rest of the Trinity and us with him, not unity or oneness.

32% of those surveyed believe doing good works results in receiving good; doing evil results in receiving bad things. I am not as shocked by this as the others, for it has a ring of truth. “Cast your bread upon the waters and they will return to you,” appears to back this up. A more careful reading of Scripture will show this isn’t true, particularly for followers of Jesus. Matthew 10.16-17 teaches us what to expect from doing good and following Jesus: “I am sending you out like sheep surrounded by wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of people, because they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues.”

We will continue to provide the Biblically-correct view of the issues presented by this survey in the days to come.