A group of researchers took a survey looking at the religious beliefs of American teenagers and the results were summarized into five beliefs that the researchers are calling the new American Religion. They are as follows:
- A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.
- God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most religions.
- The central goal of life is to be happy and feel good about oneself.
- God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
- Good people go to heaven when they die.
When the researchers tried to dig deeper into the most crucial questions of faith and beliefs, many adolescents responded with a shrug and "whatever." One conclusion the researchers reached is this. "It is apparent that most religiously affiliated U. S. teens are not particularly interested in espousing and upholding the beliefs of their faith traditions, or that their communities of faith are failing in attempts to educate their youth, or both." The teenagers knew much more details about the lives of their favorite musicians and television stars than about the lives of Jesus or Moses.
What really bothered me about this article is that I am not sure the researchers would not have gotten the same results if they had surveyed adult church-goers instead of teenagers. My daily encounters with both friends and relatives, especially on social media, causes me to wonder what so-called Christians really believe as it relates to the five items listed above. The lame-stream media always talk about so-and-so celebrity being in heaven after they die just because they were famous and well-liked. There is rarely any mention of God or Jesus. When there is a passing mention of religion, it is usually based on something that the person did decades ago that makes them eligible for eternal life with Jesus Christ in heaven. You know what I mean: "I walked an aisle", I signed a card", "I prayed a prayer", "I was baptized", etc.
Only God knows the heart but genuine repentance and regeneration will be followed by a life characterized by good works that reflect a "new creation". We will not walk perfectly but the sanctification process will be our lifelong experience filled with peaks and valleys as we change our focus from ourselves to God. People use the term "back-sliding" which I don't find in the Bible. Perhaps that is an excuse for failing to turn from our sinful patterns. When does back-sliding become apostasy? Certainly, we will never stop sinning this side of heaven but we should sin less with each passing moment.
Let me quote the last two paragraphs from the article. It is rather eye-opening.
"This research project demands the attention of every thinking Christian. Those who are prone to dismiss sociological analysis as irrelevant will miss the point. We must now look at the United States of America as missiologists once viewed nations that had never heard the gospel. Indeed, our missiological challenge may be even greater than the confrontation with paganism, for we face a succession of generations who have transformed Christianity into something that bears no resemblance to the faith revealed in the Bible. The faith "once delivered to the saints" is no longer even known, not only by American teenagers, but by most of their parents. Millions of Americans believe they are Christians, simply because they have some historic tie to a Christian denomination or identity".
"We now face the challenge of evangelizing a nation that largely considers itself Christian, overwhelmingly believes in some deity, considers itself fervently religious, but has virtually no connection to historic Christianity. Christian Smith (survey leader) and his colleagues have performed an enormous service for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ in identifying Moralistic Therapeutic Deism as the dominant religion of this American age. Our responsibility is to prepare the church to respond to this new religion, understanding that it represents the greatest competitor to biblical Christianity. More urgently, this study should warn us all that our failure to teach this generation of teenagers the realities and convictions of biblical Christianity will mean that their children will know even less and will be even more readily seduced by this new form of paganism. This study offers irrefutable evidence of the challenge we now face. As the motto reminds us, "Knowledge is power.""
What should our response be to this article or should we just ignore those around us and let them go deeper and deeper into this new religion? Our only source of truth is the Holy Bible, God's inspired, inerrant, infallible, and totally sufficient word. If you aren't meeting weekly with a group of believers that cherish the truth of God's word, what are you waiting for? The time is short, the fields are white unto the harvest, and the laborers are few. (Russ McKnight always followed this with: "but not too few". GOD is sovereign and he will supply the grace needed to see us through to the end. Have a blessed day. Acts 4:12
"This research project demands the attention of every thinking Christian. Those who are prone to dismiss sociological analysis as irrelevant will miss the point. We must now look at the United States of America as missiologists once viewed nations that had never heard the gospel. Indeed, our missiological challenge may be even greater than the confrontation with paganism, for we face a succession of generations who have transformed Christianity into something that bears no resemblance to the faith revealed in the Bible. The faith "once delivered to the saints" is no longer even known, not only by American teenagers, but by most of their parents. Millions of Americans believe they are Christians, simply because they have some historic tie to a Christian denomination or identity".
"We now face the challenge of evangelizing a nation that largely considers itself Christian, overwhelmingly believes in some deity, considers itself fervently religious, but has virtually no connection to historic Christianity. Christian Smith (survey leader) and his colleagues have performed an enormous service for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ in identifying Moralistic Therapeutic Deism as the dominant religion of this American age. Our responsibility is to prepare the church to respond to this new religion, understanding that it represents the greatest competitor to biblical Christianity. More urgently, this study should warn us all that our failure to teach this generation of teenagers the realities and convictions of biblical Christianity will mean that their children will know even less and will be even more readily seduced by this new form of paganism. This study offers irrefutable evidence of the challenge we now face. As the motto reminds us, "Knowledge is power.""
What should our response be to this article or should we just ignore those around us and let them go deeper and deeper into this new religion? Our only source of truth is the Holy Bible, God's inspired, inerrant, infallible, and totally sufficient word. If you aren't meeting weekly with a group of believers that cherish the truth of God's word, what are you waiting for? The time is short, the fields are white unto the harvest, and the laborers are few. (Russ McKnight always followed this with: "but not too few". GOD is sovereign and he will supply the grace needed to see us through to the end. Have a blessed day. Acts 4:12
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