Have  you seen The State of Theology survey put out by Ligonier and LifeWay (strange bedfellows) last week? While not the most scientific poll ever conducted, most of its findings probably reflect the general spiritual condition in the United States of America.

Warning: This blog post starts out a little dry, but fairly soon you’ll be screaming, “Yo mama — where did that come from?”

The poll focused on two groups: professing evangelicals and Americans at large. The evangelicals represented offer a troubling picture of Biblical and doctrinal illiteracy that made me wonder whether or not the majority of them possess any solid critical thinking skills. And do they read the Bible carefully?

Two questions in the form of statements particularly demonstrate both a deplorable inability to think logically and a disregard for the importance of sound doctrine.

The response to Statement 2 seems encouraging:

The results here appear to indicate that 97% of evangelicals have a solid Trinitarian theology. In isolation, you would naturally assume that they therefore understand the eternal deity of Christ, wouldn’t you?

Not so fast. Look at the evangelical response to Statement 6:

78% of evangelicals agree that Jesus is a created being! If you’re not screaming “yo mama” upon reading that finding, you ought to be! Either Jesus is God the Son, existing from all eternity with the Father and the Spirit or He is a mere created being. God, by definition, cannot be created.

And if you want to object that the wording of Statement 6 constitutes a trick question, let me suggest that perhaps its wording demonstrates either an inability or an unwillingness to think carefully before responding. The phrase, “created by  God,” should be enough to set off five alarms in a Christian’s head.

At least, it should if that Christian knows sound doctrine and can assimilate it through critical thinking.

Ladies,  that’s precisely why I write those Monday Bible Studies. That’s why I link to so many articles on how to study Scripture in Saturday Sampler. We need to know Biblical doctrine at least well enough to know Who Jesus is.

At the very least.

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