09 November 2008
Is the whole world crazy or is it just me?
11/09/2008 06:53 PM
There is something to
be said about not going with the flow. It's kind of
cool to go against the grain sometimes. It is 2008,
over 31 years since Star Wars was originally released
in theaters. In most of the national retailer's ads
during Halloween, I kept seeing Darth Vader costumes
(my son has been Vader for the past 3 Halloweens).
Vader is one of those characters who is always at or
near the top of the lists of all-time favorite movie
villains. We see Al Pacino's face from Scarface on so
many T-shirts, and that movie is not exactly a new
release either. I think people aren't necessarily
attracted to the bad actions of these characters, as
they are their independence in choosing their
actions. That in and of itself is not necessarily a
bad thing, but we have to remember that we're all
going to be influenced by something. It's also
important to note that in the fictional cases of
Vader and Pacino's Tony Montoya, they both die, with
the lives they wished to live slipping from their
grasps. Sigh. Insert dramatic pause here. There's the
rub. It's all fun and games until someone goes down.
And we all go down baby. Also, no matter how
independent we think we are, we're all going to
influenced by something. So what influences us these
days? What influences you? What shapes your beliefs?
Even though I say this as a huge Star Wars fan, I
hope it's something other than a man-made movie. A
2004 research study from the Barna Group suggests
that only 5% of Americans hold to a "Biblical"
worldview. The question that should come to mind, is
not, "Why are there only 5% of Americans who hold to
a Biblical Worldview?!?!?" Not, "You mean to tell me
that 5% of Americans out there are Jesus Freaks that
actually hold to these Biblical World views?!?!?!?"
The question that I choose to ask is, "According to
the Barna study, what defines a 'Biblical
Worldview?'" So I proceed to to my homework, and find
out what actually constitutes a "Biblical Worldview"
according to the study. I ended up at the following
page in the Barna Group's website:
http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=194
From this page on the Barna Group's website, I learn that "The Barna Group has been tracking how many people possess a 'Biblical worldview.' The organization defines such a life perspective on the basis of several questions about religious beliefs. The definition requires (here we are!) someone to believe that absolute moral truth exists; that the source of moral truth is the Bible,; that the Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches; that eternal spiritual salvation cannot be earned; that Jesus lived a sinless life on earth; that every person has a responsibility to share their religious beliefs with others; that Satan is a living force, not just a symbol of evil; and that God is the all-knowing, all powerful maker of the universe who still rules that creation today."
So, according to the Barna Group's own analysis on their site, it's actually 5% of adults that have a Biblical worldview. I'll buy that. When I "buy that", I'm essentially buying into not only the thought process of the results, but what that would look like reflected on society. So, yeah, I look around and think that society looks like the study suggests. It's not like we're Sodom and Gomorra at this point or anything, though that could be debated, and we're not exactly living in a police state. The truth is that many people who do not hold to a Biblical worldview, hold to some sort of moral compass. This is why you have people that feel they are "good" people. If the Barna Group were to do a study of whether or not people feel they are "good people" or are going to heaven (and they may have done so already), I'm sure there wold be a greater percentage of folks who feel this is true than folks who hold to a Biblical worldview. These values may have been ingrained in them from their parents, society, heck, maybe even Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood taught them about what is right and wrong. But a specific Biblical worldview is something different. Looking at the criteria above shows us that people are answering questions that determine if they hold to a Biblical worldview or not, they are not answering the question, "Do you hold to a Biblical worldview?" because the definition is not defined in the question. So I'm looking at the criteria above, and taking a page out of Jeopardy, I'll phrase them again in the form of questions to make the issue a little clearer:
So based on these questions, I'm personally looking at a score of 8 out of 8 here as far as holding to a Biblical worldview. I guess I'm outnumbered as far as most Americans go, but that's okay, I know the church has my back, right. We can stick together on this. But just to be sure, it's good that the Barna Group did this same study among "Protestants", and their results show that the percentage of Protestants who hold to a Biblical worldview increases to a whopping... 8%! Yes, that's 8, as in eight, ocho in Spanish, huit in French, baat in Cantonese, and as in Andre the Giant was the Eighth Wonder of the World. Eight, eight, eight is great, eight's the number I just can't... wait, important news for you my king, a new baby has been seen, she is well and doing fine... good grief it's princess number nine. Remember that? Anyway, back on topic. Does this sound right to you? Only 8 out of 100 self-professed Protestant Christians believe what the Bible teaches is truth. When Catholics were asked the same questions, the number dropped to less than one half of one percent! This doesn't necessarily mean that the person sitting next to you in the pew doesn't believe the central truths of the Bible, though it may. I actually believe that we would probably see more of a breakdown of the numbers from church to church. If a church is teaching and preaching the Bible, the Gospel, the Cross, Sin, Salvation... see where I'm going with this, essentially teaching truth, then the probability of their members actually holding to Biblical world views should go up. If a church is teaching and preaching things like how you too can be God someday, a good old-fashioned "name it and proclaim it" message, or that there are many roads to heaven, then I would think that in some churches in America, there may actually be thousands and thousands of people (even tens of thousands in some individual churches) who would not hold to Biblical world views (and I would question their salvation as well as their right and privilege to call themselves "Christians.") Of course, that's why I feel the majority of these churches are some of the larger churches that America has. People themselves should not decide on what they need to hear in church. And when I say "people," I'm including Pastors too. Pastors themselves should not decide what their congregations need to hear. Pastors need to hear from God what their congregations need to hear. Any Pastor would disagree with that statement is not disagreeing with me but with the God of the Bible. I was watching an interview with a Pastor who said that he does not focus on the Jesus, or the cross or sin, because gospel (and I'm using a lowercase "g" here) means "good news" and that's what he's doing, sharing "good news." Now the Gospel (uppercase "G" here) is in fact "Good News." It is good news to know that the punishment for our sins has been paid. It is bad news to know that the punishment for our sins (and I mean "our" as in all of our) is death. Yes, the Gospel is Good News. In general, I think it's safe to say that people don't want to hear that there is punishment for sin, but shouldn't they hear the truth? If your house was on fire, but I didn't want to upset you by telling you, would I be doing you any favors?
This week, I had someone ask me if I thought that the "whole world" was crazy and that I was the only one right?
If it weren't for the circumstances, then I would have found it more comical. But would it matter if I were the only one right? When we use the people around us as our barometer for truth, we set ourselves up for trouble. I personally have no problem standing on the Bible as truth. Whether or not the whole world sees things the same is not the issue for me. Paul said to the Galatians, "If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up."
I admire Paul's conviction here. Paul knew what it was to be pleasing to men. When he was a Pharisee, he was respected by his peers and had authority. Paul was proud of what he accomplished as a Pharisee. When he was persecuting the early church, I personally believe that Paul thought he was really doing right. God creates people for specific purposes, and he gives them certain personality traits and talents. I believe that the conviction that Paul displays in his and other New Testament accounts is the same conviction he felt when he was a Pharisee serving who he thought was God. When Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, and realized that Jesus was God, Paul changed teams, but kept the same traits and talents. if Paul wanted to please men, he knew how to do it. But Paul wanted to be pleasing to God. And we can't give Paul total credit here either. The credit and the glory has to go to God. If God were not so high above everything else, if God were not much greater than anything Paul had ever known or seen, Paul would not have served Him as strongly as he did. If we're not feeling the pressure of serving Christ, then we are not really serving Him. The world has it's own way. This Barna Study shows that. And the world's way has already infected the church, and based on the fact that only 8% of Protestants hold to a Biblical worldview, the world has already taken the effectiveness out of the majority of churches. But God can do more with that 8% than the world can do with the other 92%. If God needed the other 92%, He'd have them. We don't have to worry when God is in control. It's not like He's against the ropes against Satan and is trying to muster the strength to get back out there. The victory was won at Calvary. GOP Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin made a comment during the 2008 presidential campaign saying that in basketball, you don't cut the nets down until after you've won the game, implying that Barack Obama was getting ahead of himself at the time with his anticipated victory. I thought that was a great quote at that point in the presidential campaigns, but it doesn't quite apply to God, does it? God's already won the game. He did His job for His role. Our role is to stand up for Him, stand strong in Him, and stand proud for Him. So what is your worldview? Re-read those questions, research them in the Bible, and ask yourself what you really believe, who you really trust, and who you really serve. The odds say that you'll believe the world and trust yourself. I'm praying that you're more of a rebel than that. You can't be a Christian if you're not in Christ. You can't be in Christ if you don't believe His Word. Trust the Bible. Until next time.
Grace and Glory.
![thoughts[1].html-2a](page5_blog_entry1_1.png)
http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=194
From this page on the Barna Group's website, I learn that "The Barna Group has been tracking how many people possess a 'Biblical worldview.' The organization defines such a life perspective on the basis of several questions about religious beliefs. The definition requires (here we are!) someone to believe that absolute moral truth exists; that the source of moral truth is the Bible,; that the Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches; that eternal spiritual salvation cannot be earned; that Jesus lived a sinless life on earth; that every person has a responsibility to share their religious beliefs with others; that Satan is a living force, not just a symbol of evil; and that God is the all-knowing, all powerful maker of the universe who still rules that creation today."
So, according to the Barna Group's own analysis on their site, it's actually 5% of adults that have a Biblical worldview. I'll buy that. When I "buy that", I'm essentially buying into not only the thought process of the results, but what that would look like reflected on society. So, yeah, I look around and think that society looks like the study suggests. It's not like we're Sodom and Gomorra at this point or anything, though that could be debated, and we're not exactly living in a police state. The truth is that many people who do not hold to a Biblical worldview, hold to some sort of moral compass. This is why you have people that feel they are "good" people. If the Barna Group were to do a study of whether or not people feel they are "good people" or are going to heaven (and they may have done so already), I'm sure there wold be a greater percentage of folks who feel this is true than folks who hold to a Biblical worldview. These values may have been ingrained in them from their parents, society, heck, maybe even Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood taught them about what is right and wrong. But a specific Biblical worldview is something different. Looking at the criteria above shows us that people are answering questions that determine if they hold to a Biblical worldview or not, they are not answering the question, "Do you hold to a Biblical worldview?" because the definition is not defined in the question. So I'm looking at the criteria above, and taking a page out of Jeopardy, I'll phrase them again in the form of questions to make the issue a little clearer:
- Does absolute moral truth exist?
- Is the source of moral truth the Bible?
- Is the Bible accurate in all of the principles it teaches?
- Do you believe that eternal spiritual salvation cannot be earned?
- Did Jesus live a sinless life on earth?
- Does every person have a responsibility to share their religious beliefs with others?
- Is Satan a living force, not just a symbol of evil?
- Is God is the all-knowing, all powerful maker of the universe who still rules that creation today?
So based on these questions, I'm personally looking at a score of 8 out of 8 here as far as holding to a Biblical worldview. I guess I'm outnumbered as far as most Americans go, but that's okay, I know the church has my back, right. We can stick together on this. But just to be sure, it's good that the Barna Group did this same study among "Protestants", and their results show that the percentage of Protestants who hold to a Biblical worldview increases to a whopping... 8%! Yes, that's 8, as in eight, ocho in Spanish, huit in French, baat in Cantonese, and as in Andre the Giant was the Eighth Wonder of the World. Eight, eight, eight is great, eight's the number I just can't... wait, important news for you my king, a new baby has been seen, she is well and doing fine... good grief it's princess number nine. Remember that? Anyway, back on topic. Does this sound right to you? Only 8 out of 100 self-professed Protestant Christians believe what the Bible teaches is truth. When Catholics were asked the same questions, the number dropped to less than one half of one percent! This doesn't necessarily mean that the person sitting next to you in the pew doesn't believe the central truths of the Bible, though it may. I actually believe that we would probably see more of a breakdown of the numbers from church to church. If a church is teaching and preaching the Bible, the Gospel, the Cross, Sin, Salvation... see where I'm going with this, essentially teaching truth, then the probability of their members actually holding to Biblical world views should go up. If a church is teaching and preaching things like how you too can be God someday, a good old-fashioned "name it and proclaim it" message, or that there are many roads to heaven, then I would think that in some churches in America, there may actually be thousands and thousands of people (even tens of thousands in some individual churches) who would not hold to Biblical world views (and I would question their salvation as well as their right and privilege to call themselves "Christians.") Of course, that's why I feel the majority of these churches are some of the larger churches that America has. People themselves should not decide on what they need to hear in church. And when I say "people," I'm including Pastors too. Pastors themselves should not decide what their congregations need to hear. Pastors need to hear from God what their congregations need to hear. Any Pastor would disagree with that statement is not disagreeing with me but with the God of the Bible. I was watching an interview with a Pastor who said that he does not focus on the Jesus, or the cross or sin, because gospel (and I'm using a lowercase "g" here) means "good news" and that's what he's doing, sharing "good news." Now the Gospel (uppercase "G" here) is in fact "Good News." It is good news to know that the punishment for our sins has been paid. It is bad news to know that the punishment for our sins (and I mean "our" as in all of our) is death. Yes, the Gospel is Good News. In general, I think it's safe to say that people don't want to hear that there is punishment for sin, but shouldn't they hear the truth? If your house was on fire, but I didn't want to upset you by telling you, would I be doing you any favors?
This week, I had someone ask me if I thought that the "whole world" was crazy and that I was the only one right?
If it weren't for the circumstances, then I would have found it more comical. But would it matter if I were the only one right? When we use the people around us as our barometer for truth, we set ourselves up for trouble. I personally have no problem standing on the Bible as truth. Whether or not the whole world sees things the same is not the issue for me. Paul said to the Galatians, "If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up."
I admire Paul's conviction here. Paul knew what it was to be pleasing to men. When he was a Pharisee, he was respected by his peers and had authority. Paul was proud of what he accomplished as a Pharisee. When he was persecuting the early church, I personally believe that Paul thought he was really doing right. God creates people for specific purposes, and he gives them certain personality traits and talents. I believe that the conviction that Paul displays in his and other New Testament accounts is the same conviction he felt when he was a Pharisee serving who he thought was God. When Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, and realized that Jesus was God, Paul changed teams, but kept the same traits and talents. if Paul wanted to please men, he knew how to do it. But Paul wanted to be pleasing to God. And we can't give Paul total credit here either. The credit and the glory has to go to God. If God were not so high above everything else, if God were not much greater than anything Paul had ever known or seen, Paul would not have served Him as strongly as he did. If we're not feeling the pressure of serving Christ, then we are not really serving Him. The world has it's own way. This Barna Study shows that. And the world's way has already infected the church, and based on the fact that only 8% of Protestants hold to a Biblical worldview, the world has already taken the effectiveness out of the majority of churches. But God can do more with that 8% than the world can do with the other 92%. If God needed the other 92%, He'd have them. We don't have to worry when God is in control. It's not like He's against the ropes against Satan and is trying to muster the strength to get back out there. The victory was won at Calvary. GOP Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin made a comment during the 2008 presidential campaign saying that in basketball, you don't cut the nets down until after you've won the game, implying that Barack Obama was getting ahead of himself at the time with his anticipated victory. I thought that was a great quote at that point in the presidential campaigns, but it doesn't quite apply to God, does it? God's already won the game. He did His job for His role. Our role is to stand up for Him, stand strong in Him, and stand proud for Him. So what is your worldview? Re-read those questions, research them in the Bible, and ask yourself what you really believe, who you really trust, and who you really serve. The odds say that you'll believe the world and trust yourself. I'm praying that you're more of a rebel than that. You can't be a Christian if you're not in Christ. You can't be in Christ if you don't believe His Word. Trust the Bible. Until next time.
Grace and Glory.
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