Christian researcher George Barna has cited survey statistics showing just 9% of all born-again adults and just 7% of Prostestants held a Biblical worldview.
Mr. Barna was shocked as he assessed his survey and then began to wonder what sort of biblical worldview the nation's religious leaders held. He instructed his research team to conduct a national survey of Protestant pastors, and the outcome was shocking.
The group interviewed Senior Pastors nationwide from a random cross-section of Protestant churches. Barna was appalled with what he learned from the survey as it exposed that only half of the country's Protestant pastors – 51% - have a biblical worldview.
The minister survey was like the first survey, which defined a biblical worldview as believing that absolute moral truth exists, that it is based upon the Bible, and having a view was based on the following six core beliefs such as:
1. The accuracy of biblical teaching. 2. The sinless nature of Jesus. 3. The literal existence of Satan. 4. The omnipotence and omniscience of God.
5. That salvation is by grace alone. 6. The personal responsibility to evangelize.
"The most important point," Barna argued about the survey, "is that you can't give people what you don't have. The low percentage of Christians who have a biblical worldview is a direct reflection of the fact that half of our primary religious teachers and leaders do not have one. In some denominations, the vast majority of clergy do not have a biblical worldview, and it shows up clearly in the data related to the theological views and moral choices of people who attend those churches."
It is astounding that we have 49% of our ministry leaders who are blind to these fundamental biblical truths, and are leading others into a counterfeit gospel, which is no gospel at all!
Anyone who rejects the accuracy of biblical teaching, the sinless nature of Jesus, and that salvation is by grace alone is out of touch with the Lord!
This is a big reason why so many professing Christians, and their leaders, look more like the world then they do Jesus. A preacher void of these essential elements of Christianity can only dish up lukewarm half-truths Sunday after Sunday. That is why selecting a minister and church should be a most serious process.
There is an additional factor; one should take note of, which is also working to produce our lukewarm church age. Many ministers profess that they believe in the accuracy of biblical teaching, the sinless nature of Jesus, and that salvation is by grace alone.
However, their life and their preaching contradict their profession and messages. To the undiscerning, their messages sound biblical, but they are laced with flesh pleasing craftiness.
Whether it's what we read, see or hear, the Holy Spirit will always show us, if we seek it, the enticing rhetoric from the wisdom of men, and that, which is inspired by God. This Spiritual discernment is foolishness to the fallen carnal nature of man – our flesh – because it always reveals a scheming, rational, fleshly attractive Gospel that fits right in with the spiritual ditch of the world!
A spiritual message from a preacher inspired by the Lord does not build our self-esteem – it esteems and glorifies Christ! It will bring conviction and agony of spirit if we are not living right, and our carnal mind always wants to reject it. A carnal mind wants to keep things positive and shuns controversial spiritual issues and truths.
Carefully tailored messages that pander to the sinful fallen nature of man are abundant today. We need more bold ministers sent by God who cherish scripture and have a heart to reach others with it.
This subject reminds me of A.W. Tozer, a man who addressed it often. He was pastor of the Southside Alliance Church in Chicago for 31 years until his death in 1963.
A.W. Tozer wrote over 40 books and often quoted by Chuck Swindoll, Dave Hunt, Charles Stanley, and many others today. Warren Wiersbe said of Tozer, "If a sermon can be compared to light, then A.W. Tozer released a laser beam from the pulpit, a beam that penetrated your heart."
I want to share something Tozer wrote in the early 1960's. He called it The Old Cross and The New. It goes like this:
"Unannounced and mostly undetected there has come in modern times a new cross into popular evangelical circles. It is like the old cross, but different: the likenesses are superficial, the differences, fundamental.
From this new cross has sprung a new philosophy of the Christian life, and from that new philosophy has come a new evangelical technique -- a new type of meeting and a new kind of preaching. This new evangelism employs the same language as the old, but its content is not the same and its emphasis not as before.
The old cross would have no truck with the world. For Adam's proud flesh, it meant the end of the journey. It carried into effect the sentence imposed by the law of Sinai. The new cross is not opposed to the human race; rather, it is a friendly pal and, if understood aright, it is the source of oceans of good clean fun and innocent enjoyment. It lets Adam live without interference. His life motivation is unchanged; he still lives for his own pleasure, only now he takes delight in singing choruses and watching religious movies instead of singing bawdy songs and drinking hard liquor. The accent is still on enjoyment, though the fun is now on a higher plane morally if not intellectually.
The new cross encourages a new and entirely different evangelistic approach. The evangelist does not demand abnegation of the old life before a new life can be received. He preaches not contrasts but similarities. He seeks to key into public interest by showing that Christianity makes no unpleasant demands; rather, it offers the same thing the world does, only on a higher level. Whatever the sin-mad world happens to be clamoring after at the moment is cleverly shown to be the very thing the gospel offers, only the religious product is better.
The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect. To the self-assertive it says, "Come and assert yourself for Christ." To the egotist it says, "Come and do you're boasting in the Lord." To the thrill-seeker it says, "Come and enjoy the thrill of Christian fellowship." The Christian message is slanted in the direction of the current vogue in order to make it acceptable to the public.
The philosophy back of this kind of thing may be sincere but its sincerity does not save it from being false. It is false because it is blind. It misses completely the whole meaning of the cross.
The old cross is a symbol of death. It stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being. The man in Roman times who took up his cross and started down the road had already said good-by to his friends. He was not coming back. He was going out to have it ended. The cross made no compromise, modified nothing, spared nothing; it slew all of the man, completely and for good. It did not try to keep on good terms with its victim. It struck cruel and hard, and when it had finished its work, the man was no more.
The race of Adam is under death sentence. There is no commutation and no escape. God cannot approve any of the fruits of sin, however innocent they may appear or beautiful to the eyes of men. God salvages the individual by liquidating him and then raising him again to newness of life.
That evangelism which draws friendly parallels between the ways of God and the ways of men is false to the Bible and cruel to the souls of its hearers. The faith of Christ does not parallel the world, it intersects it. In coming to Christ, we do not bring our old life up onto a higher plane; we leave it at the cross. The corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die.
We who preach the gospel must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish good will between Christ and the world. We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, the world of sports or modern education. We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.
God offers life, but not an improved old life. The life He offers is life out of death. It stands always on the far side of the cross. Whoever would possess it must pass under the rod. He must repudiate himself and concur in God's just sentence against him. What does this mean to the individual, the condemned man who would find life in Christ Jesus? How can this theology be translated into life? Simply, he must repent and believe. He must forsake his sins and then go on to forsake himself. Let him cover nothing, defend nothing, excuse nothing. Let him not seek to make terms with God, but let him bow his head before the stroke of God's stern displeasure and acknowledge himself worthy to die.
Having done this let him gaze with simple trust upon the risen Saviour, and from Him will come life and rebirth and cleansing and power. The cross that ended the earthly life of Jesus now puts an end to the sinner; and the power that raised Christ from the dead now raises him to a new life along with Christ.
To any who may object to this or count it merely a narrow and private view of truth, let me say God has set His hallmark of approval upon this message from Paul's day to the present. Whether stated in these exact words or not, this has been the content of all preaching that has brought life and power to the world through the centuries. The mystics, the reformers, the revivalists have put their emphasis here, and signs and wonders and mighty operations of the Holy Ghost gave witness to God's approval.
Dare we, the heirs of such a legacy of power, tamper with the truth? Dare we with our stubby pencils erase the lines of the blueprint or alter the pattern shown us in the Mount? May God forbid. Let us preach the old cross and we will know the old power."
I appreciate those, like Tozer, who boldly proclaim truth from the heart of God. I see them at prayer meetings and I have preached in some of their churches – God give us more of them!
A devious, witty man-centered false Christianity saves no one, however, it does fit well with those who want that counterfeit "new cross" Tozer wrote about! |
