Most Christians Miss The Mark

[Bible guild Mule]

When It Comes To A Biblical Worldview

Labels are both easy and comfortable. Christian, Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, born again. It isn't hard for a man or woman to call himself or herself a Christian, even a born again Christian. But do they really know what that entails?

Two recent surveys shed light on just how far from Biblical beliefs those who identity as Christians actually are.

The most recent survey was conducted across the United States by the American Culture and Faith Institute (ACFI) and included 3,000 adult respondents.

Read more at: link  

[cristobela]

Some of these questions are vague and can confuse people who are aware of certain Bible verses,

e.g.

Quote:

It is not possible to earn your way into Heaven: yes 37%, no 63%

It depends on what you mean by "earn" and the verses that come to mind when you answer that.

If they're thinking that "earn" means:

Definition of earn
transitive verb
1 a : to receive as return for effort and especially for work done or services rendered
   b : to bring in by way of return • bonds earning 10 percent interest

2 a : to come to be duly worthy of or entitled or suited to • she earned a promotion
   b : to make worthy of or obtain for • the suggestion earned him a promotion

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/earn

And these verses come to mind:

• Romans 2:7 (NIV)
  
  7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.
  
  
• Matthew 19:16-17 (NIV)
  
  16 Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
  
  17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
  
  
• Galatians 5:19-24 (NIV)
  
  19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
  
  22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
  
  
• Luke 13:24 (NIV)
  
  24 “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.

Then yeah, it IS possible, through effort, to get into the kingdom of Heaven / the kingdom of God, even though God did us a favor (grace) in providing the atonement sacrifice, the wisdom/know-how, the renewal of our mind and heart/inner-being, and the enabling power to overcome the flesh (the Holy Spirit, who is Christ/God coming to dwell inside of us, and if we heed His voice over the flesh's voice and the demonic voices/influences around us, then we can overcome the flesh and enter the kingdom of Heaven).

Such a born-again believer who defines "earn" like that ("effort") and is aware of Biblical verses like the above, describing effort in order to enter into the kingdom of Heaven, would answer, "no", for that reason. It's not "not possible". And not necessarily for what "Christianity" teaches in church, but for what the Word of God says.

That's why I'm not a fan of most surveys very much. If people are NOT defining their words 100% the same way, then it's almost useless in telling us what they really believe—much less, how they were thinking in the process of answering the question and why. On top of that: the questions are inherently biased towards how a specific denomination teaches the Word (whoever composed the survey), or the specific verses of Paul's epistles that the Christian had in mind to the exclusion of the rest of Paul's epistles, and is not necessarily being reflective of the whole message that is written.

Let's not distort Paul's epistles (which are hard to understand according to Peter i.e. 2 Peter 3:15-17) to deny the rest of what Paul said in his epistles (e.g. Romans, Galatians, that I quoted above), on top of denying what Jesus said. Paul is not above his teacher and thus is not teaching anything contrary, nor different to, Jesus (nor to himself) when interpreted correctly. God's grace does not negate effort on behalf of the individual in order to enter the kingdom of Heaven.

• 2 Peter 3:15-17 (NIV)
  
  15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
  
  17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position.