VENTURA, CA – The renowned Barna Group recently released the results and analysis and its latest survey conducted among 3,100 Americans. The purpose of the survey sponsored by Probe Ministries was to further define select worldview components of respondents labeled as Christian American across a range from Born Again to Unaffiliated.

For those who have been aware of previous Barna worldview surveys and those of the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, the results are disappointing but not surprising.

The Results

The survey determined which participants are Born Again Christians based on their responses to the following two questions:

• Have you ever made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in your life today?
• What best describes your belief about what will happen to you after you die?

The be classified as Born Again, respondents had to respond with a “Yes” to the first question and “I will go to heaven because I confessed my sins and accepted Jesus Christ as my savior.”

According to multiple news agency headlines, the most popular finding was that 60% of adults under 40 say Jesus isn’t the only way to salvation; equal to Buddha, Muhammad. This finding is copasetic with previous surveys of Christian Americans, all of which indicate that American is not the Christian country we have all long purported it to be.

The eight-page summary primarily focused on “the startling degradation in worldview beliefs of Born Again Christian over just 10 years.” Amidst the charts and analysis, Probe Ministries somehow determined that “The percentage of Born Again Christians with a biblical worldview has been cut in half over the last decade.”

The report also concluded that the reasons for the decline are

• Christians are paying more attention to the growing influence of the media.
• Pastors are not consistently teaching biblical theory.

A Different Perspective

This writer believes that the evidence is what it is but that the assumptions made to validate the outcome are misleading, if not entirely erroneous. Therefore, I offer the following alternatives.

• Pastors should never teach biblical theory – whatever that is. The Bible is the true, complete, and inerrant Word of God. Jesus asked the Father to sanctify His disciples through His truth because His Word is truth. (John 17:7)
• Media has influence only when people allow it a priority status to what the Word of God says. That happens either when we believe the media, ignore the Bible, or both. It happens when we equate the accuracy and importance of media to – or give it greater credibility than – the Bible.

The Word of God is alone our standard of truth. If we are ignorant of it – for whatever reason – we will begin to believe whatever “seems right” in our own eyes. When we do that, we are on the path to destruction and death. (Proverbs 21:2) We might even consider that the Bible is only theoretical.

Ultimately, each of us will be accountable for whether we have submitted ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ or have chosen another way.

The choices we make are our own. Regardless of what we may think, the Word of God clearly teaches that Jesus Christ is the only Way, Truth, and Light. No one comes to the Father but by Him.

This is the crux of a Biblical worldview.

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