A friend directed me to some data that I will be using a lot in the years to come: a report on the beliefs of evangelicals commissioned by Ligonier Ministries. Christianity Today reports the grim results here: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/october-web-only/new-poll-finds-evangelicals-favorite-heresies.html.
I’ll summarize them by saying that most evangelical respondents are heretics. We’re not talking about disagreements about small matters, but fundamental confusion about things like whether Jesus is fully divine, whether the Spirit is a person or simply a force. There is fundamental confusion about the being and nature of God.
And it has to be corrected. I am convinced that the church needs to recover the teaching office as cardinal to the advancement of the church in the world. If we don’t, we’ve lost already.
It’s interesting to compare the results of this survey to the definition of “evangelical.” Read here.
Jeff, as I noted when you first posted on FB about the CT heresy report, I found the data fascinating. I just reread your post from a couple of years ago about predestination, about someone’s guess that 10% of attendees at the FOP meeting adhered to a classical Reformed understanding of election. I’ve heard over the years the term Cafeteria Catholicism to describe those who pick and choose which doctrines of the church to affirm. Maybe the same tendency affects all of us, at least affects our tradition in the same ways. I have not forgotten the statement of my professor Ulrich Mauser, then at Louisville, later at Pittsburgh and Princeton (now deceased): “I would rather err with the fathers of Chalcedon than invent a new system on my own.
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What a smashing comment from Mauser!
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