Numbers

Recently released LifeWay Research data projects a decrease of approximately 50% in Southern Baptist membership by 2050 if the current 50-year trend continues. The numbers also show that recent membership "growth" numbers have sunk into the negative.

A factor which may be contributing to the latest apparent decline is a resolution adopted at last year's SBC convention encouraging member churches of the denomination to "clean up" their membership rolls by removing names of inactive or non-participating members and those who have moved on to other churches or denominations, so that the rolls reflect a composition of individuals who actually participate in the life of the church. Thus, the latest negative figures may simply be a correction in data that may have already been a reality in terms of actual bodies in the pews. Even so, the trend appears to show that the numbers are not increasing, and may be dropping.

Denominational numbering, while arguably necessary, can be problematic. For example, events such as "high attendance Sunday" can be reduced to a particular congregation's ability to attract people through the front door on a particular Sunday rather than focus on making disciples over the long term on a day-to-day basis. And while downward-attendance trends that last for years may signify an issue of concern, a temporary reduction in attendance over a period of several months because the pastor is preaching some hard truths (albeit "in love"; Eph 4: 15) may in reality signify a church that is being restored to spiritual health.

Good preaching can result in an increase or a decrease in numbers over the short term, depending on the maturity and spiritual perception of the audience. The apostle John describes, in chapter 6 of his gospel, a sermon Jesus preached to an immature multitude that was so difficult "...from that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him. (v. 66)" Of the twelve who remained was one who would eventually betray Him.

The correct response to the numbers news would seem to be for each congregation to evaluate whether they are faithfully proclaiming the truth of the gospel in love and whether each member of the local body is doing their part to edify the church and make disciples. The response should not be to repeat mistakes of the past in which an emphasis on numbers distracted some shepherds to the point of de-emphasizing doctrine and sound teaching for the sake of an entertainment-focused service designed solely to attract more people.

Truth Entrusted

A LifeWay research study conducted in August 2009 indicates that 65% of "Millennials"--young adults born between 1980 and 1991--identify themselves as Christians.

But while 2 out of 3 profess to be Christians, approximately the same number of this particular group of young adults, who were under 30 at the time of the survey, indicated they rarely or never read the Bible. Since the survey was conducted on people within the US, the availability of the Scriptures cannot be seen as a factor in the lack of attention the Sacred Text receives from this age group.

In this, it would appear that Nathaniel Hawthorne's caricature of the imposter posing as Bunyan's Evangelist is gaining increasing results today. In The Celestial Railroad he dispenses pasteboard squares as substitutes for the antique parchment roll that had been borne by Christian in Bunyan's classic, The Pilgrim's Progress. Whatever substitute those who neglect God's word find today, the results appear evident in other survey responses.

For example, on two issues which go to the heart of essential Christianity, survey responses reveal a significant disparity in the 65% who claim Christianity and those who are even able to comprehend what basic Christianity affirms. 53% do not believe the Bible is God's word or is 100% accurate. 50% do not accept that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. Of those who do believe it, only 31% strongly agree. And, in perhaps the most shocking display of ignorance of the truth, 50% say they don't believe Jesus was without sin. These facts: that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible and entirely truthful word of God, that Jesus is the only way to eternal salvation, and that He qualifies to atone for our sin by virtue of His perfectly righteous life lived entirely without sin, are foundational Christian truths which the believer must accept. They are not the only doctrines the follower of Christ must affirm, but they are not negotiable.

The doctrinal wandering in the generation which is just now moving into adult roles of leadership and authority is symptomatic of a drift that has been underway for some time in the wider population of professing Christians in America. Too many in the Church have relegated doctrine and theology to a diminished role for too long and the consequences of this lack of clarity are becoming more obvious. We need to take seriously Paul's admonition to the younger Timothy in 2 Tim 2: 2:

And the things which thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men,who shall be able to teach others also.

It's generational.

Five Points...of Christmas

...being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.

Philippians 2: 6,7

In these two verses Paul supplies a brief christology containing five nonnegotiable propositional statements. Think of it as the Christmas Story in its very essence. Leave out one of these truths and you will miss the gravity of the event in Bethlehem for which an ordinary manger was appropriated as the royal basinet for the King of kings.

First, He pre-existed His human conception and birth, or better, pre-subsisted, since, being God, His power to be came from His own essence as the Creator rather than from the dependence a created being has upon the Creator. The present participle conveys the eternal precedence of His being.

Secondly, as God in very essence, though He was rightfully entitled to every Divine privilege and prerogative, He did not cling to or grasp these entitlements when He humbled Himself as Paul describes in these verses.

Thirdly, He "made Himself of no reputation", or literally from the Greek text, He "emptied Himself," not of attributes or essence, but temporarily of His lofty position high above the heavens and the earth, and of His unapproachable splendor on His exalted throne. Instead, He lay as a helpless newborn in a feeding trough for animals as His family struggled to comply with an edict issued by a pagan dictator.

Fourthly, He "took upon Him the form of a servant." The extent of this servanthood is described in the rest of verse seven and in verse 8, stating that Jesus became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. The purpose of His being conceived as a human in the womb of His virgin human mother, so He could be born as a human infant, and grow up as a man, was so He would go to the cross and pay the sin-debt that we could not pay.

Finally, He "was made in the likeness of men." And this addition of the human nature to the fully Divine nature of God the Son, the eternal Logos, is permanent. Even after His crucifixion and resurrection Jesus Christ remains, for all eternity, the God-Man, fully Divine and fully human, a dual nature in one Person.

We might call them the Five Points of Christmas. If they are not the core of your Christmas celebration, then you are celebrating something other than Christmas.

Essential Evangelicalism

The state of Evangelicalism is the subject of Phil Johnson's blogpost yesterday. He compares the current character of the movement with Evangelicalism's foundational doctrines and finds that many of these truths have been vacated by a large number who claim the title. Many teachings which were previously considered essential and settled have increasingly been re-opened to negotiation by postmodernists who have commandeered the movement while others who might still hold technically to the historical essential truths have allowed themselves to be distracted by fads, trends, and PR concerns.

John MacArthur makes a similar case in chapter 7 of his book, The Truth War, pointing out that methodology and pragmatism have replaced theology and faithful proclamation of the truth in modern evangelicalism. On page 149 MacArthur says,

"The sad truth is that the larger part of the evangelical movement is already so badly compromised that sound doctrine has almost become a nonissue."

So neo-evangelicalism has both been infiltrated by those pretenders who deny the historical Scriptural truths of the faith and by those who deny that these truths can be affirmed with any certainty. In addition, there are those who are willing, when pressed, to acknowledge the validity of the foundational doctrines but are distracted by chasing the latest trend in pragmatic methodology, marketing, or showmanship. Still others fail to assert the truth out of fear that its bold proclamation will dishearten would-be "seekers".

Interestingly, the more wishy-washy and devoid of orthodoxy the mainstream denominations become, the more they continue to lose membership. But even were this not the case, gaining membership into an undefined organization which borrows a few labels but does not identify its core beliefs is not the goal of the Church. The Church must boldly proclaim and teach the truth. There will be those who accept and receive it, and there will be those who reject it. Let them at least have the opportunity to hear it.

The Substitute

Why would the Son of God, in anticipating the cross, state that He was "exceeding sorrowful, even unto death" (Matthew 26:38; also see Mark 14:34)? Why would the gospel writers describe Him as sorrowful, troubled, (Matt 26:37, Mark 14:33) and in such agony that "His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground." (Luke 22:44)?

There was no evil scheme that man could devise that could cause this response in Jesus; even though humanity would reveal its wickedness in full force on the day Christ was crucified, He feared no attack His enemies or this world could form against Him.

There is only one explanation for the agony and distress our Lord had concerning His mission and it is not the anticipation of any physical or mental distress men could inflict.

The reason for Christ's anguish was not that He would endure man's evil deeds, but that on the cross He would (and did) pay in full the sin-debt of believers by suffering, as our Substitute, the full measure of God's wrath and punishment for our sins. While the result was joyful the process was mournful, and it was the temporary separation from the Father which caused the Son to be distraught. It was the vicarious payment by the innocent Lamb of the sin--debt elect sinners could never have paid that caused His grief.

Those who deny that He went to the cross for the purpose of paying this debt deny the gospel.

Of Surveys and Salvation

The Pew Forum has released a follow-up survey subsequent to the previous U. S. Religious Landscape Survey to focus on the question of what Americans who profess to be Christians believe concerning the exclusivity of their faith.

The previous survey of 35,000 Americans found that 70% of professing Christians and 57% of those who identify themselves as evangelicals believe that "many religions can lead to eternal life". In a previous post I suggested that perhaps respondents were thinking of many denominations within the Christian religion rather than other religions outside of Christianity when answering this survey question.

This suggestion was raised by many who analyzed the results, and the Pew Forum proceeded with the subsequent survey which included a much smaller sample of 2905 adults. It clarified to the people being surveyed that the exclusivity of Christianity compared to non-Christian belief systems was in view and, as expected, the results were significantly different. While the numbers of professing Christians who don't understand what Christianity is remains dramatically high (my conclusion, not the survey's), the Religious Landscape Survey's 70% of those who feel "many religions can lead to eternal life" drops to 52% that feel at least some non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life (a distinction in both number and degree) when the ambiguity is removed from the question. That 52% of professing Christians erroneously allow for the possibility that some non-Christian belief systems may result in salvation is still cause for great concern.

Among Protestant evangelicals surveyed the results went from a 57% majority in the previous Religious Landscape Survey to less than half (47%) in the current survey who feel many religions can lead to eternal life. Therefore, it appears there was some misunderstanding of the question in the first survey.

Another issue I pointed out in my previous post on the Religious Landscape Survey is the question of the extent to which someone who identifies themself as a Christian or evangelical actually understands or practices the faith with which they identify. I pointed out in a blog post in July 2008 that a LifeWay Research study found that 80% of evangelicals reject the idea that eternal life can be obtained through a belief system outside Christianity when an evangelical is identified as someone affirming certain minimal doctrinal beliefs and attending church at least once a month.

In my blog post last summer about the Pew Forum's Religious Landscape Survey I had written:

For example, we think of an evangelical as one who attends church regularly, yet according to the survey, only 58% of those who said they were evangelicals claimed to attend church at least once a week. It would be interesting to know how the regular attenders would respond to the "many religions" question.

The recent Pew Forum Survey shows 60% of evangelical Protestants who attend church at least weekly affirm that theirs is the one true faith leading to eternal life, double the figure for those who attend less than once a week. Thus an obvious distinction between a said faith, or religious category selected by default (e.g., someone's relative belongs to a particular religion or the respondent attended a particular church as a kid) and a practiced faith is also going to affect the answer given. Obviously we don't know which respondents fall in which category but a further clarification of minimal doctrines and church attendance such as the LifeWay survey attempted would be helpful.

Interestingly, only 2% of the respondents believe in Universalism, or the erroneous belief that everybody goes to heaven.

According to the Pew Forum, nearly 80% of the U. S. adult population claims to be Christian, but only 17% affirm the Protestant doctrine of faith alone in Christ alone. The message to us evangelical Protestants is: America is a mission field. Let's proclaim the gospel. The message to the church: Let's make disciples.

Infinite Condescension

The humble circumstances of the birth of Jesus Christ (relative to, say, an earthly king's baby being born in the royal trappings of a palacial estate) offer a veiled glimpse to our human perception of the magnitude of our Lord's voluntary descent. The extent to which He emptied Himself (Phil 2: 7) when He added a perfect human nature to His eternal divinity and became the Babe Who would be born of a virgin in the manger in Bethlehem is a scale of measureless length.

This fathomless step by the the sovereign Creator, Who is without beginning or end (Heb 7:3), subsisting in His very essence as God (Phil 2:6), was only a first step when He became flesh (John 1:14).

As Paul describes in Philippians 2: 8, the voluntary obedience of God the Son to God the Father continued as He "became obedient unto death, even the death of a cross."

The extent of the humility He endured and the lengths He covered to save us from our sins are a sobering reminder of how desperate and helpless was our plight.

As Charles Wesley wrote,

Light and life to all He brings, Risen with healing in His wings. Mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die, Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.

For those who believe in Him, every day is a joyful Christmas indeed.