Study Shows That Majority Of American Christians… Aren’t Actually Christian

Secularists with a hate on for Christians like to wag their finger and claim America is NOT a Christian nation. In at least one sense, they’re right.

While our HISTORY is emphatically Christian, and the ideas on which even the secular left considers core to the American values worth saving could not exist but for the Christian context in which those views were entrenched into our culture, there is a push by those hostile to Christian ideas and values to marginalize it, and — if possible — to stamp it out completely.

History tells us that Christian faith tends to come and go in cycles… in times of past revivals and awakenings, a culture that was largely indifferent to Christian belief — or carried it as a cultural artifact rather than a living faith.

Then along came some kind of a revival that shook the nation out of its slumber — maybe a crisis, maybe just Christians crying out for a return to faith. And the cycle repeats, with a spike in living faith that follows. Then Christians became fat an happy, thinking the Great Commission was somehow complete. Only to watch their influence disappear again under a tide of unbelief.

If this latest poll is any indicator, it’s time for the Church to step up and start praying for another revival, because we’re in worse shape than many of us realize.

The latest Barna polls have been released, and things are not looking good for the current state of traditional Christianity. Even those who profess to believe don’t have the foggiest clue about WHO it is they believe in… by the original standards of that faith, anyway.

The Study can be found here… but the critical information is contained in one graph… with a second demographics graph thrown in for a reference point.

The information that is most relevant for this question is the bottom row of the first graph. If you are Trinitarian, you believe in the God represented in the Creeds, which have historically been the bare-bones core answer to the question of what-do-I-need-to-belive-as-a-Christian? This core truth cuts across all denominations, and — importantly — it is one of the critical benchmarks that separates genuine faith from the self-styled ‘Christian’ denominations that function more like a cult than a traditional biblical faith.

What this REALLY argues for is a shift in how Christians react to the Great Commission. With the rise of missiononary movements, in recent centuries, there was an urgency to fulfill Christ’s command to bring the gospel to the least and the lost from outsider groups around the world who had yet to hear it.

But, Christ never called us to go into all the world to make ‘converts’. The Pharisees were already doing that. He calls his Church to make ‘disciples’… and that’s something much different than just saying a prayer and checking a box. It’s a call to a transformed life, in which old ways of thinking and being give way to new ways of thinking and being

In our rush to be seeker-sensitive, universal, and unoffensive, we’ve lost the thread of what it is we’re supposed to be inviting people into.

If we no longer know WHO God is, is it any wonder so many of our churches tolerate ideas that stand in open rebellion to the God of Heaven and Earth?

There is a word that was once known among Christians. ‘Catechesis’. It’s the instruction of believers into the shared truths of our faith.

There are three ancient historical creeds by which our faith is measured and shaped. All of the content of those creeds can find its source in Scripture, but it stands as a simple outline of what we believe. Each of those creeds describe the faith in terms of how we relate to the Triune God, who HE is to us, and who WE are to Him.

The Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed are the most familar. Less known is the Athanasian Creed, which takes time to go into great detail to explain what is and is not meant by the core Christian belief of Three Persons in One God.

Let’s look back at that first chart one more time. What do we notice about the one group that is doing the best job of holding tight to traditional Christian faith? It’s the group that, like Paul told Timothy, isn’t merley believing, but ‘teaching faithful men that they may teach others also’. (2 Tim 2:2)

Since there seems so much confusion on what it means to believe in the Christian God, let’s go all the way back to basics, with a creed that does not mince words.

Modern English version taken from the ACNA Book of Common Prayer, 2019 (pdf)

Note: in this instance ‘Catholic faith’ is not a reference to the Roman Catholic denomination, so much as the fact that all Christian believers are baptized ‘into Christ’, and in that sense, whatever else we may otherwise be, we are, as Paul calls us, ‘one in Christ’.

Athanasian Creed

Whosoever will be saved, *
before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith.
Which Faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, *
without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.
And the Catholic Faith is this: *
That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity,
Neither confounding the Persons, *
nor dividing the Substance.
For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, *
and another of the Holy Ghost.
But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost, is all one, *
the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal.
Such as the Father is, such is the Son, *
and such is the Holy Ghost.
The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate, *
and the Holy Ghost uncreate.
The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, *
and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible.
The Father eternal, the Son eternal, *
and the Holy Ghost eternal.
And yet they are not three eternals, *
but one eternal.
As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated, *
but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible.
So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, *
and the Holy Ghost Almighty.
And yet they are not three Almighties, *
but one Almighty.
So the Father is God, the Son is God, *
and the Holy Ghost is God.
And yet they are not three Gods, *
but one God.
So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, *
and the Holy Ghost Lord.
And yet not three Lords, *
but one Lord.
For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity *
to acknowledge every Person by himself to be both God and Lord,
So are we forbidden by the Catholic Religion, *
to say, There be three Gods, or three Lords.
The Father is made of none, *
neither created, nor begotten.
The Son is of the Father alone, *
not made, nor created, but begotten.
The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son, *
neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.
So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; *
one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts.
And in this Trinity none is afore, or after other; *
none is greater, or less than another;
But the whole three Persons are co-eternal together *
and co-equal.
So that in all things, as is aforesaid, *
the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.
He therefore that will be saved *
must thus think of the Trinity.
Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation *
that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess, *
that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man;
God, of the Substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; *
and Man, of the Substance of his Mother, born in the world;
Perfect God and perfect Man, *
of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting;
Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead; *
and inferior to the Father, as touching his Manhood.
Who, although he be God and Man, *
yet he is not two, but one Christ;
One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, *
but by taking of the Manhood into God;
One altogether; not by confusion of Substance, *
but by unity of Person.
For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, *
so God and Man is one Christ;
Who suffered for our salvation, *
descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead.
He ascended into heaven, he sitteth on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, *
from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies *
and shall give account for their own works.
And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting; *
and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.
This is the Catholic Faith, *
which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved.