If there is any lesson from the research is that Christian Religion is not much different than the people of Israel. They have an idea of God but feel free to believe anything that allows them to live as they please. There is so much confusion it leaves one reason to suspect that a majority of Christians are well… not really Christian at all except in name only.
Don’t expect the trend to be stopped anytime soon but it is time for those who are genuinely disciples of Jesus Christ to recognize what is happening in churches as well as the culture. In the meantime the like the name as it gives them a sense of false security.
The majority of American Christians do not believe that Satan is a real being or that the Holy Spirit is a living entity, the latest Barna survey found.
Nearly six out of ten Christians either strongly agreed or somewhat agreed with the statement that Satan “is not a living being but is a symbol of evil,” the survey found.
Forty percent strongly agreed with the statement while 19 percent of American Christians somewhat agreed.
In contrast, about 35 percent of American Christians believe Satan is real. Twenty-six percent strongly disagreed with the statement that Satan is merely symbolic and about one-tenth (9 percent) somewhat disagreed.
The remaining eight percent of American Christians responded they were unsure what to believe about the existence of Satan.
Interestingly, the majority of Christians believe a person can be under the influence of spiritual forces, such as demons or evil spirits, even though many of these same people believe Satan is merely a symbol of evil. Two out of three Christians agreed that such forces are real (39 percent agreed strongly, 25 percent agreed somewhat).
Likewise, most Christians in the United States do not believe that the Holy Spirit is a living force. Fifty-eight percent strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement that the Holy Spirit is “a symbol of God’s power or presence but is not a living entity.”
Only one-third of Christians disagreed with the statement that the Holy Spirit is not just symbolic (9 percent disagreed somewhat, 25 percent disagreed strongly). Nine percent expressed they were unsure.
Interestingly, about half (49 percent) of those who agreed that the Holy Spirit is only a symbol but not a living entity, agreed that the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches. The Bible states that the Holy Spirit is God’s power or presence, not just symbolic.
“Most Americans, even those who say they are Christian, have doubts about the intrusion of the supernatural into the natural world,” commented George Barna, founder of The Barna Group and author of books analyzing research concerning America’s faith.
via Most U.S. Christians Don’t Believe Satan, Holy Spirit Exist| Christianpost.com.