One out of two American Adults do not believe that the Bible is literally true. 50% of WE THE PEOPLE do not believe that the Bible is literally true. That is according to the findings of a recent survey conducted by the CHRISTIAN POST.
Another survey conducted by LIFE WAY RESEARCH found that 48% of Americans believe:
THE BIBLE, LIKE ALL SACRED WRITINGS, CONTAINS HELPFUL ACCOUNTS
OF ANCIENT MYTHS BUT IS NOT LITERALLY TRUE.
And yet another survey found that 44% of all American Adults do not believe the Bible is 100% accurate in all that it teaches.
Then comes the Barna Group’s recent survey which found that only 4% of American Adults and 6% of professing Christians hold a BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW.
Those are really fascinating conclusions, are they not? Like all surveys, they are partially true, indicators, generalities, and conclusions reached on the basis of survey information by the respective survey companies. But, as with every survey, there are indeed some facts and some truth, however little. Surveys should never be taken as literally true as these surveys claim that half of American Adults do not take the Bible as literally true.
But if the Bible is not literally true (and it is), then no teaching, document, or sacred treatise of any kind is true, absolute, but merely insightful, a guide, little more than human inspiration. With the many different types of cults and religions in this world today, without a document that is literally true and authoritative:
ANYTHING GOES.
Anything. In short, you could believe anything you wish and what you believe and what you determine as truth, especially spiritual truth, is as good as, as right as, as authoritative as the view of anyone else. ANYTHING GOES.
If the sacred writings in the Bible, all 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, are nothing more than helpful accounts of ancient myths, then the spiritual wisdom it contains, the historical accounts of great men and women led by God Almighty, the codes of ethics including the 10 Commandments are little more than advisory, opinions, moral generalities to be followed or not, to be believed or not. If the Bible is not accurate in all that it teaches, if the Biblical worldview of Scripture is no more than a collection of the great thinkers, then the Judeo-Christian Bible is no different than any other sacred writing, has no more authority, and is little more than a collection of interesting stories, historical accounts, and ancient myths. According to these surveys, one out of two American Adults, including Christians, believe just that. What a tragedy that Americans have such a low view of Scripture and the Bible, not recognizing or believing that it contains the truth, the inspired Word of the Living God. It is no wonder that Americans see Scripture as really irrelevant. If it is one of many, then a form of UNIVERSALISM exists. Truth is everywhere or perhaps DEISM. There is a God, but that God is mysterious, vague, and hard to know, or perhaps as even some secular philosophers admit, there is a GREATER POWER, but that is all that human knowledge can ascertain.
It is just simply impossible to be a Christian, a real Christian, and not believe fully and completely in the authoritarian, truthful, factual accounts, anything but mythical, in the 66 books of the Bible. Those books are for the TRUE BELIEVER, the real Christian:
THE INSPIRED WORD OF GOD.
They are for us the written gift of revelation. Those books are Holy-Spirit-inspired. They contain the truth of life here and eternal life hereafter. They are, those words are, absolute, uncompromising, accurate in every way and authoritative. No other sacred writings measure up. No other human understanding or spiritual insight can compare. Our Bible contains the Holy Revelation and words of God Almighty. And, the full expression and development of the ultimate spiritual facts and truths in the words of Jesus Christ:
I AM THE WAY
THE TRUTH
THE LIFE
NO MAN COMETH TO THE FATHER BUT THROUGH ME
That is not mythological, advisory, a spiritual possibility, but rather:
THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH.
So, my fellow Christians, when it comes to your Bible, HIS BIBLE:
READ IT
BELIEVE IT
LEARN FROM IT
APPLY IT
TEACH IT
BE THANKFUL FOR IT
There is no other truth, spiritual truth. The real Christian knows that the Bible is truth, literal truth. It is accurate, accurate in every way. The Bible offers every Chirstian a Biblical worldview which is absolutely necessary and enlightening in this skeptical day and age. The Bible is more relevant and necessary today than ever.
Read it. Treasure it. Ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom, and divine interpretation of the truth therein. No Christian, no real Christian, can ever doubt that the Bible is not the inspired, truthful, accurate:
WORD OF THE LIVING GOD!