So Many Heretics: Where to Start?

A recent article at The Federalist pointed me to this survey by Lifeway Research  and then to "The State of Theology" which appear to indicate that the theological IQ scores of most Americans would put them in the "trainable heretic" category.

The findings are as follows,

46% of self-identified evangelicals agree or somewhat agree with the statement, "God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Islam." 

36% of self-identified evangelicals agree or somewhat agree with this statement, "By the good deeds that I do, I partly contribute to earning my place in heaven." 

50% agreed with the statement, "An individual must contribute his or her own effort for personal salvation." 

52% agreed or somewhat agreed with the statement, "By the good deeds that I do, I partly contribute to earning my place in heaven." 

83% of self-identified evangelicals agree or somewhat agree with this, "A person obtains peace with God by first taking the initiative to seek God and then God responds with grace." 

Only 52% of self-identified evangelicals who attend church once or twice per month strongly agree with this statement, "Sex outside of traditional marriage is a sin." 

Only 48% of self-identified evangelicals who attend church once or twice per month strongly agree with this statement, "Abortion is a sin." 

61% of all participants strongly disagree with this statement, "Even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation." 

56% of participants with a graduate degree disagree or somewhat disagree with this statement, "Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation."

If this is the best that self identified evangelicals can offer, is it any wonder why the mainstream denominations which are the least evangelical are falling like dominoes to the cultural attacks on traditional Christianity?


Judging from this survey, it appears that the mission field for evangelism is us.

At least we won't have to travel very far.