Survey

December 2022 Merry Christmas! Page 19

Heaven is NOT earned!

Over a third of Evangelical pastors believe that 'good people' can earn their way into Heaven

This is so crazy, how can Evangelical pastors actually believe that a person can earn their place in Heaven, when scripture is clear about this? One of the scriptures that tells us this is Ephesians 2:8-9. It says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." The only true way into Heaven is to have a relationship with Jesus. John 14:6 says, "Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me." Otherwise, you are saying that we don't need Jesus.

At least a third of senior pastors in the United States are believing a person can earn a place in Heaven just by being a good person, according to a nationwide survey.

These findings were very surprising responses as part of a survey this year by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University.

This survey examined dozens of different beliefs held by their pastors. The research found that in addition to believing, humans can actually get salvation and get into heaven based on their own good works, one third or more of the senior pastors surveyed believe that the Holy Spirit is not a person, but is "a symbol of God's power, moral truth is subjective, sexual relations between two unmarried people who love each other is morally acceptable." Also, biblical teaching on abortion is "ambiguous."

At least a third of the pastors surveyed also said they believe "socialism is preferable to capitalism and that allowing property ownership facilitates economic injustice." The researchers said that could point to an "increase of cultural and political influence into the church."

Other data said earlier this year that they found just 37% of Christian pastors have a biblical worldview. The latest CRC report said that research across all the major United States denominations had shown that a "loss of biblical belief is prevalent among pastors in all denominational churches."

The survey focused on roughly half of those beliefs, said that a large percentage shockingly had rejected biblical teachings on some of the most basic Christian beliefs.

Evangelical pastors, 43% said they do not believe that the personal assembly of money is provided by God for the individual to manage those resources for God's purposes.

Also 39% of surveyed Evangelical pastors said there is truly no moral truth and that "each individual must determine their own truth." Around the same percentage of 38% said that human life is sacred, while 37% said having faith, in general, is more important than what you have faith in or more correctly, who one has faith in.

I find this statistic significantly sad that three in ten Evangelical pastors do not believe that their salvation is based on having confessed their sins and accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

George Barna from the CRC Director of Research, said that the results could be connected to another trend that he had observed in the data. He said, "While studying the spiritual behavioral patterns of pastors, it became evident that a large share of them does not have a regular spiritual routine. There was a correlation between possessing biblical beliefs and a consistent regimen of Bible reading, prayer, worship, and confession." He also said, "In some of the denominational groupings, a majority of pastors do not engage in those foundational spiritual practices on a regular basis."