| Topic: |
Religions > Bible |
| User: |
"Russ T. Nale" |
| Date: |
20 Feb 2006 08:27:11 PM |
| Object: |
The Concept of Holiness Baffles Most Americans |
The Concept of Holiness Baffles Most Americans
February 20,2006
(Ventura, CA) The concept of holiness is woven throughout the
Bible and is one of the foundational teachings of many Protestant
churches. From Old Testament passages such as Leviticus 19:2 (in which God
says, Be holy because I am holy) through the more than two-dozen times in
the New Testament where Gods people are described as holy, there is little
doubt that holiness is a central tenet of the Christian faith. However, a
new nationwide survey conducted by The Barna Group indicates that most
adults remain confused, if not daunted, by the concept.
Holiness Is Possible
Overall, three out of every four adults (73%) believe that it is possible
for someone to become holy, regardless of their past. Only half of the
adult population (50%), however, says that they know someone they consider
to be holy. And thats more than twice as many who consider themselves to
be holy (21%).
The views of born again Christians are not much different from the
national averages. Among born again adults, three-quarters (76%) say it is
possible for a person to become holy, regardless of their past. Slightly
more than half of the born again group (55%) say they know someone who
they would describe as holy. And roughly three out of ten born agains
(29%) say they are holy, which is marginally more than the national norm.
The adults most likely to say they know someone they consider to be holy
are those who describe holiness primarily as possessing a positive
attitude toward God and life. Adults who think of holiness as a spiritual
condition are among the least likely to identify anyone they know as holy.
The Meaning of Holiness
When pressed to describe what it means to be holy, adults gave a wide
range of answers. The most common reply was I dont know, offered by one
out of every five adults (21%). Other responses fell into categories such
as being Christ-like (19%), making faith your top priority in life (18%),
living a pure or sinless lifestyle (12%), and having a good attitude about
people and life (10%). Other response categories included focusing
completely on God (9%), being guided by the Holy Spirit (9%), being born
again (8%), reflecting the character of God (7%), exhibiting a moral
lifestyle (5%), and accepting and practicing biblical truth (5%). Once
again, the responses of born again and non-born again adults were
virtually identical.
Not Obsessed With Holiness
Holiness is a matter embraced by the Christian Church, but it is not one
that many Americans adopt as a focal point of their faith development.
This is partially because barely one-third of Americans (35%) contend that
God expects you to become holy. A larger share of the born again public
believes God has called them to holiness (46%) but that portion remains a
minority of the born again population.
The types of people most likely to say that God expects them to become
holy are evangelicals, Revolutionaries, people with a biblical worldview,
and ethnic born again adults. In each of these segments, a majority stated
that they firmly believe God expects them to be holy. The survey results
also indicated that young adults (39 or younger) are less likely than
middle-aged and older adults to believe that God expects holiness of His
people.
To discover how holiness fits within a biblical worldview, read George
Barnas book,Think Like Jesus click here
Reflections on Holiness
The new survey findings, when combined with existing knowledge about the
state of faith in America, caused the surveys director, George Barna, to
suggest that churches need to take this body of information seriously.
Realize that the results portray a body of Christians who attend church
and read the Bible, but do not understand the concept or significance of
holiness, do not personally desire to be holy, and therefore do little, if
anything to pursue it. However, the data identify a remnant that
understands holiness, wants to live a holy life, and is engaged in its
pursuit. The challenge to the nations Christian ministries is to foster a
genuine hunger for holiness among the masses who claim they love God but
who are ignorant about biblical teachings regarding holiness.
Pointing to data from several of his recent surveys on spiritual maturity
in the U.S., Barna noted, To initiate the education of people regarding
holiness, we must arrest their attention and teach its importance. To
align their hearts with the notion of being holy, we must move them away
from a cheap grace theology and replace peoples self-absorption with focus
on God and His ways. To help them pursue holiness, we must help them
comprehend and accept biblical theology regarding God, Satan, the purposes
of life on earth, the nature of spiritual transformation and maturity, and
the necessity of bearing spiritual fruit.
Research Background
The data in this report are based on a nationwide telephone survey
conducted by the Barna Research Group. The OmniPollSM survey involved
interviews among 1003 adults during the January 2006. The maximum margin
of sampling error associated with the aggregate sample of adults is 3.2
percentage points at the 95% confidence level. People in the 48
continental states were eligible to be interviewed and the distribution of
those individuals coincided with the geographic dispersion of the U.S.
population. Multiple callbacks were used to increase the probability of
including a reliable distribution of qualified individuals.
The Barna Group, Ltd. (which includes its research division, The Barna
Research Group) is a privately held, for-profit corporation that conducts
primary research, produces audio, visual and print media, and facilitates
the healthy development of leaders, children, families and Christian
ministries. Located in Ventura, California, Barna has been conducting and
analyzing primary research to understand cultural trends related to
values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors since 1984. If you would like to
receive free e-mail notification of the release of each new, bi-weekly
update on the latest research findings from The Barna Group, you may
subscribe to this free service at the Barna web site www.barna.org.
Born again Christians are defined as people who said they have made a
personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life
today and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go
to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus
Christ as their savior. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves
as born again.
Evangelicals meet the born again criteria (described above) plus seven
other conditions. Those include saying their faith is very important in
their life today; believing they have a personal responsibility to share
their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; believing that
Satan exists; believing that eternal salvation is possible only through
grace, not works; believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on
earth; asserting that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches; and
describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created
the universe and still rules it today. Being classified as an evangelical
is not dependent upon church attendance or the denominational affiliation
of the church they attend. Respondents were not asked to describe
themselves as evangelical.
Revolutionaries were classified on the basis of meeting 11 specific
criteria. They had have a clear sense of the meaning and purpose of their
life; describe their relationship with and faith in God as the top
priority in their life; consider themselves to be "Christian"; read the
Bible regularly; pray regularly; deem their faith to be very important in
their life; contend that the main objective in their life is to love God
with all their heart, mind, strength and soul; describe God as the
"all-knowing, all-powerful being who created the universe and still rules
it today"; have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is
important in their life today; believe that when they die they will go to
heaven only because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus
Christ as their savior; and say that their faith in Christ has "greatly
transformed" their life.
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=================================================================
--
Russ T. Nale
http://grace.break.at
God is still speaking
http://www.stillspeaking.com
To send e-mail, remove "youhat" from address
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: The Concept of Holiness Baffles Most Americans |
21 Feb 2006 12:49:36 PM |
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"Russ T. Nale" <His_child2005yourhat@yahoo.com.au> wrote in message
news:His_child2005yourhat-2002062055000001@h-66-167-183-141.chcgilgm.dynamic.covad.net...
The Concept of Holiness Baffles Most Americans
February 20,2006
(Ventura, CA) The concept of holiness is woven throughout the
Bible and is one of the foundational teachings of many Protestant
churches. From Old Testament passages such as Leviticus 19:2 (in which God
says, Be holy because I am holy) through the more than two-dozen times in
the New Testament where Gods people are described as holy, there is little
doubt that holiness is a central tenet of the Christian faith. However, a
new nationwide survey conducted by The Barna Group indicates that most
adults remain confused, if not daunted, by the concept.
Often one of the things which confuses folks is that they aren't sure what
holiness is. Some, for example, wouldn't consider things Jesus did as holy,
such as turning water into wine. Holiness is often thought of in terms of
the world's values. I remember asking someone, who was criticizing another's
"filthy conversation" (2 Pet 2:7), if he wondered if the criticism of
world-filthy language might be the spiritually filthy conversation. The
scriptural concept of holy is the record of the one who is holy, and
holiness might best be described as emulating Him. Can we be holy? No, not
by our will. Holiness doesn't come by our works, but by the works of faith,
His works in us. Holiness is attained by letting Him live in us, dying to
ourselves, and letting His will lead us into holiness.
Another reason for the confusion is that few give holiness much thought. Why
be holy? Scripture tells us run the race to receive the prize: "Know ye not
that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run,
that ye may obtain" (1 Cor. 9:24). What prize? Something which has vanished
over the centuries, as men drifted from scriptural theology to them agin' us
theology, is the prize we should obtain. The prize we desire is to be
chosen: "For many are called, but few are chosen" (Matt 22:14), not simply
salvation which is received by many: "After this I beheld, and, lo, a great
multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and
people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed
with white robes, and palms in their hands" (Rev. 7:9). It is the holy who
ascend into heaven when He comes. The rest who obtained not the prize, are
still grafted into the promise of salvation.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Seek ye the Lord while he may be found (Is 55:6)
Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles
be come in (Rom 11:25)
Why then say the scribes that ELYH (Elijah) must first come? (Matt 17:10)
I will send you El YH (LORD God) the prophet before the coming of the great
and dreadful day of the Lord (Mal 4:5)
Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his
servants the prophets (Amos 3:7)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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