God, according to 61% of evangelicals is simply not “up tight” about religion and exclusive devotion to Him. You know, that narrow judgmental 1st Commandment is so legalistic and non-inclusive. These evangelicals believe that God accepts the worship of all religions, including Islam. This erroneous notion rests on a decidedly pagan premise:  all religions are essentially one.

Truthxchange exists to (1) Inform the Public; (2) Equip the Church; and (3) Protect the Next Generation.   Sometimes accomplishing No. 2 requires taking a candid inventory – warts and all – of what Christians, particularly evangelicals, actually believe, as opposed to what their paper statements of faith profess to affirm.  We must look in the mirror honestly if we are serious about addressing and redressing the pressing paganism which threatens the Gospel.

For the past decade, Ligonier Ministries in conjunction with LifeWay Research has conducted a “State of Theology” survey of the US Population, including a segment of American Evangelicalism.[1]  The most recent results (compiled in 2022) reflect vast swatches of error and paganism within evangelicalism.  Because “it is time for judgment to begin with the house of God,”[2] Christians need to soberly be aware of – and remedy – the plague of paganism in the pew, correcting errant brethren with gentleness.[3]  Let’s get to the gist.

The Heresies in Our Midst

These survey results are troubling.  They reflect an increasing and corrosive trend in our churches.  Many churches tend erect a mere formalism – they look orthodox on paper (or their websites[4]) – but in actual belief and practice parishioners in staggering numbers embrace gross theological and ethical error.  In other words, while the evangelical responders affirm – not unanimously(!) – biblical authority, a final judgment, and Hell itself, they embrace theological and ethical errors utterly incompatible with orthodox Christian convictions.  

Make no mistake.  The errors affirmed and embraced by professing evangelicals do not comprise small or inconsequential matters.  They are not like choosing between arcane hair-splitting doctrines like infra or supra-lapsarianism.  These doctrinal errors are not about debating preferred millennial positions or the proper modes of baptism.  Evangelicals are instead denying in record numbers cardinal theological doctrines and ethical mandates.  They are therefore becoming saltless before our very eyes; their lights are being occluded and shrouded.  In many cases evangelicals are becoming Christian in name, but pagan in precept and practice.

Large swaths of evangelicals are embracing paganism – and they may not even know it.  Why does this matter?  Because:  One cannot live a faithful and impactful Christian life if one believes the wrong things and behaves the wrong way.  Holding heretical beliefs weakens the church’s overall theological immune system.  Unaddressed error begets greater error.  Let’s consider several of these startling results.

• As to Jesus 

Christianity revolves around, well, Christ.  Jesus of Nazareth is the central figure of Scripture, history, and the Cosmos.  And, He is the “founder and perfecter of our faith.”[5]  Evangelicals profess Jesus a lot on t-shirts and PowerPoints, but what do they profess about Him?

• Jesus:  The Only Way??

87% of evangelicals agree or strongly agree[6] that Jesus is the only way of salvation.  But wait.  Let’s not celebrate yet because this means 13% hold otherwise.   In other words they believe that trust in Jesus alone is not necessary for eternal life.  Over 10% of evangelicals embrace a view that enervates a hallmark of being evangelical:  evangelism.

But wait.  There’s more, more heretical views.

• Jesus:  The First and Greatest Creation of God??

61% of evangelicals hold that Jesus is a created being – this is the same position of the Jehovah Witnesses cult which embraces the ancient Arian heresy.[7]  This position denies basic Nicene orthodoxy[8] – and of course, the Bible’s teaching as well.[9]

• Jesus:  Great Teacher; Not God??

Similarly, and equally sadly, 44% of evangelicals contend that Jesus, while a great teacher, is not God.[10]  This too conflicts with fundamental Christian orthodoxy.  Jesus is not created in any sense, but rather, is “true God from true God.”[11]  Denying that Jesus is God and labeling Him as only a teacher, albeit a “great” one, places Him on an equal morally equivalent plane with other teachers, gurus, and holy men – hardly someone who is to be preeminent in all things,[12] and one to whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess.[13]  Confess what? That “Jesus Christ is Lord.”[14]

As implied above, errors beget more errors.  A defective Christology precipitates a mistaken pneumatology, or theology of the Holy Spirit.  And, yes, swaths of evangelicals fall here too.

• The Holy Spirit:  A Force, Not a Person??

Concerning the Holy Spirit, evangelicals seem more influenced by Star Wars than by Scripture.[15]  55% of evangelicals hold that the Holy Spirit is simply a force – an “it”– not a person.  This again apes the Arian heresy professed by the Jehovah Witnesses cult.[16]   And, this position necessarily denies the Holy Trinity.[17]

The basics of the Faith teach that the Holy Spirit is “the Lord and giver of life” who with the Father and the Son, “he [not “it”] is to be worshipped and glorified.”[18]  One doesn’t coherently worship a force.  Evangelicals who deny the Spirit’s personhood stand outside Christian orthodoxy, despite “doing daily quiet times,” listening to Spotify “praise song” compilations, planting churches, or sponsoring an African orphan.

• Holy Spirit:  Can Command Action Forbidden in the Bible??

18% of evangelicals claim that the Holy Spirit can command things contrary to or forbidden by Scripture.  Yet these same evangelicals hold – by a vast majority (87%) – that the Bible comprises the highest authority for forming one’s beliefs.  Incoherence reigns.  

Recall that the Spirit Himself “breathed out” the Scripture itself.[19]  Scripture is a transcript of God’s character and holiness.  If God the Spirit commanded something contrary to His Word, which He breathed out, He would in effect be denying Himself, which He cannot do.[20]

• What about the Big Problem, Sin?

One would think that evangelicals, with their commendable zeal of “getting people saved” would embrace a clear and cogent view of sin and its impact.  Sadly, many do not.

• In God’s Eyes, Everyone is Born Innocent??

While evangelicals pay lip service to sin, a clear super-majority (66%) holds that everyone is born innocent.  This too is a pagan view, popularized in the early church by Augustine’s foe, Pelagius.  This view erroneously teaches that we humans are “sinners because we sin” rather than the actual reality Scripture teaches: “We sin because we are sinners.”[21] A majority of evangelicals conceive of man’s big problem exactly backwards.

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