Not one and the same

I read opinion letters here every day condemning Republicans and Christians, especially “evangelical” Christians, for many of our country’s ills.

John MacArthur is a pastor in California. In a recent sermon he lists four core beliefs necessary to define an evangelical Christian. They are the Bible, Jesus, the gospel, and a responsibility to communicate the gospel.

He refers to a survey of the State of Theology. Ligonier Ministries conducts a survey each year to assess the condition of Christians. The 2022 survey yielded these results. On the question of everyone being born innocent in the eyes of God, 71 percent of adults surveyed agreed and 65 percent of evangelicals agreed. The Bible teaches otherwise. Fifty-three percent of all adults and 26 percent of evangelicals agreed the Bible is not literally true. Fifty-six percent of evangelicals agreed God accepts the worship of all religions, 43 percent agreed Jesus was a good teacher but he was not God, and 38 percent agreed religious faith is a matter of opinion, not objective truth.

These results indicate many evangelicals do not believe even the foundational truths of the Christian faith. Secularism has penetrated the churches, and MacArthur says the fault lies with Christian leaders who are not willing to teach and defend these truths for fear of offending non-Christians. The Bible teaches that Jesus and the gospel are inherently offensive to a non-believer. That’s true in my experience.

The survey indicates that believing evangelical Christians are to blame for all our ills based on their faith is inaccurate, and that Republicans who claim to be evangelical Christians may not be. A person’s politics based on being an evangelical, and attacking Republicans for that, needs to be reconsidered.

MICHAEL SANDERS

Little Rock