A dismal new report indicated that the vast majority of professing American Christians reject a core doctrine of the faith.
When researchers from Arizona Christian University asked self-described Christians if they believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, a mere 16 percent answered in the affirmative, according to survey results released March 26.
Meanwhile, only 11 percent of the overall American adult population said the same.
“Who is committed to ensuring that people grasp the basic theological building blocks of a biblical worldview?” Dr. George Barna, the director of research at Arizona Christian University, reacted.
“Where is the concern or anguish over the near-universal rejection of numerous central biblical teachings? Is the Church of God devoted to know Him and making Him [known], or has it been seduced by the distractions and distortions of our culture?” he asked.
The mass misunderstanding or outright rejection of the Trinity is indeed a massive concern.
The Bible reveals that God is one Being in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Each of the three Persons is distinct from the others, but each is truly God, partaking in the One divine essence.
If you need more of a refresher, check out this page from GotQuestions, a helpful online theology and apologetics resource.
Do you read the Bible regularly?
Though the Trinity is impossible for us to fully comprehend, the totality of the Bible leaves us with no other conclusion, and the church through the ages has said the same.
Beyond the witness of Scripture, historic documents like the Athanasian Creed help us to articulate the doctrine of the Trinity.
Christians in the Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox traditions all affirm the doctrine of the Trinity, and make clear that those who reject this doctrine do not know the one true and living God, and therefore can have no salvation.
Because each Person of the Trinity has a distinct and critical role in the covenant of redemption, those who do not intimately know the wonderful works of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit do not have fellowship with the God they profess to worship.
Somehow even the professing church in America has missed this.
“The trinity is one of the central theological foundations of Christian churches. However, that teaching is widely misunderstood, often rejected, and rarely acted upon by Americans,” Arizona Christian University concluded from the survey.
“The unfamiliarity or negligible acceptance of the trinity among self-described Christian adults raises serious ministry challenges for churches and families, in addition to creating practical dilemmas for the nation,” the institution added.
If not even professing American Christians know their own God, then how can they be salt and light in the culture, bringing about the obedience of faith and teaching our nation to obey everything that Jesus commanded?
They simply cannot.
The fact that most professing believers either misunderstand or reject the truth of the Trinity indicates that we have lost our saltiness, and are good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled.
As the Bible says repeatedly, judgment starts with the household of God.
If the American church is to have any impact in our country, especially in the face of continually deepening spiritual darkness, then we must get our own house in order.
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