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Mirror, Mirror on the Church Wall: Paganism in the Pews
By Dr. Jeffery J. Ventrella
Truthxchange exists to (1) Inform the Public; (2) Equip the Church; and (3) Protect the Next Generation. Sometimes accomplishing No. 2 requires taking a candid inventory – warts and all – of what Christians, particularly evangelicals, actually believe, as opposed to what their paper statements of faith profess to affirm. We must look in the mirror honestly if we are serious about addressing and redressing the pressing paganism which threatens the Gospel.
For the past decade, Ligonier Ministries in conjunction with LifeWay Research has conducted a “State of Theology” survey of the US Population, including a segment of American Evangelicalism.[1] The most recent results (compiled in 2022) reflect vast swatches of error and paganism within evangelicalism. Because “it is time for judgment to begin with the house of God,”[2] Christians need to soberly be aware of – and remedy – the plague of paganism in the pew, correcting errant brethren with gentleness.[3] Let’s get to the gist.
The Heresies in Our Midst
These survey results are troubling. They reflect an increasing and corrosive trend in our churches. Many churches tend erect a mere formalism – they look orthodox on paper (or their websites[4]) – but in actual belief and practice parishioners in staggering numbers embrace gross theological and ethical error. In other words, while the evangelical responders affirm – not unanimously(!) – biblical authority, a final judgment, and Hell itself, they embrace theological and ethical errors utterly incompatible with orthodox Christian convictions.
Make no mistake. The errors affirmed and embraced by professing evangelicals do not comprise small or inconsequential matters. They are not like choosing between arcane hair-splitting doctrines like infra or supra-lapsarianism. These doctrinal errors are not about debating preferred millennial positions or the proper modes of baptism. Evangelicals are instead denying in record numbers cardinal theological doctrines and ethical mandates. They are therefore becoming saltless before our very eyes; their lights are being occluded and shrouded. In many cases evangelicals are becoming Christian in name, but pagan in precept and practice.
Large swaths of evangelicals are embracing paganism – and they may not even know it. Why does this matter? Because: One cannot live a faithful and impactful Christian life if one believes the wrong things and behaves the wrong way. Holding heretical beliefs weakens the church’s overall theological immune system. Unaddressed error begets greater error. Let’s consider several of these startling results.
- As to Jesus
Christianity revolves around, well, Christ. Jesus of Nazareth is the central figure of Scripture, history, and the Cosmos. And, He is the “founder and perfecter of our faith.”[5] Evangelicals profess Jesus a lot on t-shirts and PowerPoints, but what do they profess about Him?
- Jesus: The Only Way??
87% of evangelicals agree or strongly agree[6] that Jesus is the only way of salvation. But wait. Let’s not celebrate yet because this means 13% hold otherwise. In other words they believe that trust in Jesus alone is not necessary for eternal life. Over 10% of evangelicals embrace a view that enervates a hallmark of being evangelical: evangelism.
But wait. There’s more, more heretical views.
- Jesus: The First and Greatest Creation of God??
61% of evangelicals hold that Jesus is a created being – this is the same position of the Jehovah Witnesses cult which embraces the ancient Arian heresy.[7] This position denies basic Nicene orthodoxy[8] – and of course, the Bible’s teaching as well.[9]
- Jesus: Great Teacher; Not God??
Similarly, and equally sadly, 44% of evangelicals contend that Jesus, while a great teacher, is not God.[10] This too conflicts with fundamental Christian orthodoxy. Jesus is not created in any sense, but rather, is “true God from true God.”[11] Denying that Jesus is God and labeling Him as only a teacher, albeit a “great” one, places Him on an equal morally equivalent plane with other teachers, gurus, and holy men – hardly someone who is to be preeminent in all things,[12] and one to whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess.[13] Confess what? That “Jesus Christ is Lord.”[14]
As implied above, errors beget more errors. A defective Christology precipitates a mistaken pneumatology, or theology of the Holy Spirit. And, yes, swaths of evangelicals fall here too.
- The Holy Spirit: A Force, Not a Person??
Concerning the Holy Spirit, evangelicals seem more influenced by Star Wars than by Scripture.[15] 55% of evangelicals hold that the Holy Spirit is simply a force – an “it”– not a person. This again apes the Arian heresy professed by the Jehovah Witnesses cult.[16] And, this position necessarily denies the Holy Trinity.[17]
The basics of the Faith teach that the Holy Spirit is “the Lord and giver of life” who with the Father and the Son, “he [not “it”] is to be worshipped and glorified.”[18] One doesn’t coherently worship a force. Evangelicals who deny the Spirit’s personhood stand outside Christian orthodoxy, despite “doing daily quiet times,” listening to Spotify “praise song” compilations, planting churches, or sponsoring an African orphan.
- Holy Spirit: Can Command Action Forbidden in the Bible??
18% of evangelicals claim that the Holy Spirit can command things contrary to or forbidden by Scripture. Yet these same evangelicals hold – by a vast majority (87%) – that the Bible comprises the highest authority for forming one’s beliefs. Incoherence reigns.
Recall that the Spirit Himself “breathed out” the Scripture itself.[19] Scripture is a transcript of God’s character and holiness. If God the Spirit commanded something contrary to His Word, which He breathed out, He would in effect be denying Himself, which He cannot do.[20]
- What about the Big Problem, Sin?
One would think that evangelicals, with their commendable zeal of “getting people saved” would embrace a clear and cogent view of sin and its impact. Sadly, many do not.
- In God’s Eyes, Everyone is Born Innocent??
While evangelicals pay lip service to sin, a clear super-majority (66%) holds that everyone is born innocent. This too is a pagan view, popularized in the early church by Augustine’s foe, Pelagius. This view erroneously teaches that we humans are “sinners because we sin” rather than the actual reality Scripture teaches: “We sin because we are sinners.”[21] A majority of evangelicals conceive of man’s big problem exactly backwards.
- Sure, Everyone sins, but Man is by Nature Good??
Another evangelical majority (55%) holds that mankind by nature is good.[22] While this was true before the Fall, it is utterly mistaken after the Fall. But no matter because 40% evangelicals also say that minor sins do not deserve eternal damnation. God evidently grades on a curve, which would make God partial, which He is not.[23] In sum, large clusters of evangelicals – and in some cases a majority of them – claim that mankind is good, innocent, and that “minor sins” certainly will not receive damnation. This means that many in the pews lack a biblical understanding of hamartiology, that is, sin.[24] And, failing to understand sin means they will not have a robust understanding of and gratefulness for redemption.
- God Accepts the Worship of All Religions??
And, God, according to 61% of evangelicals is simply not “up tight” about religion and exclusive devotion to Him. You know, that narrow judgmental 1st Commandment is so legalistic and non-inclusive. These evangelicals believe that God accepts the worship of all religions, including Islam. This erroneous notion rests on a decidedly pagan premise: all religions are essentially one. This is known as The Perennial Philosophy and it is the foundation of paganism.[25] This sort of fuzzy thinking stems from holding that religious beliefs are purely subjective, instead of being objective and objectively true.
- Religious Belief: What’s True for You??
Evangelicals – at least 39% of them – believe that religious belief consists of “what’s true for you.” In other words, they have functionally adopted a pagan’s view of truth – just like Pontius Pilate.[26] This again is pagan because it centers reality in the Self, an inherently idolatrous move. Man becomes the measure of all things; he’s the “master of [his] fate, the captain of [his] soul.”[27]
- Ethical Particulars: Pagan Sexuality in the Pew
As TxC has explained for decades, when the Truth is exchanged for the Lie, idolatry results: the creation instead of the Creator is worshipped. Yet, idols are not idle. False worship precipitates unrighteous behavior, particularly sexual deviance.[28] So, how do evangelicals fare here? Not well. Their paganism is palpable. Their errant theology correlates with errant sexual ethics and standards
- Evangelicals and the LGBTQ Agenda
While evangelicals pay lip service to biblical sexual mores – 77% say sex outside of marriage is sinful and 74% say abortion is sinful – they incoherently claim – 25% – that the Bible’s condemnation of homosexual behavior “does not apply today.” Moreover, a significant swath – 33% – imbibes the Trans narrative, saying that gender identity is a matter of personal choice – in other words that men can become women and vice versa.[29] Why?
There may be several reasons for these stark departures from orthodoxy (theology) and orthopraxis (ethics). I suspect most of them stem from a diluted orthopathos[30] – having diminished, as did the church in Ephesus, their first love.[31] How so? Is there evidence for this?
The survey informs us that evangelicals overwhelmingly profess (89%) that the Bible remains their highest authority, and that the Bible is 100% accurate in all that it teaches (77%). Yet, these same evangelicals also claim that “science disproves the Bible” (21%) and nearly half of them (47%) assert that God Himself “learns and adapts to circumstances.”[32] This means that evangelicals have embraced a pagan epistemology; they rely upon multiple standards that compete and trump the true God and His Word: science and self, since God “changes.” If God changes, then neither He nor his Word can be relied upon. This means in effect – just like the ancient pagan religions – that the evangelicals’ god is increasingly dependent upon and derives from man and his desires, imaginations, and whims. It is a god who is not the true and living God, but a deity remade in man’s image and likeness. This is decidedly mistaken and decidedly foolish, as Isaiah explained, foreshadowing Paul’s teaching about the Lie and the consequences of worshipping the creation instead of the Creator. Ponder the prophet’s point:
All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame. Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are only human. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified; they shall be put to shame together.
The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint. The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”
They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”[33]
A Way Forward: Purging Pockets of Paganism
What can Christ’s congregations do to ameliorate this situation? How can the pockets of paganism be purged? First, the church’s leaders must recognize that a problem exists. Second, they must recognize embedded paganism cannot be remedied by a retreat, conference, rebrand, or other quick fix. Rather, leaders must implement strategies and tactics that supplant paganism with the beauty of orthodoxy writ large. Here are some ways of doing so.
Every worshipping congregation possesses a liturgy, whether formal or informal. How about introducing an element with the gathered people of God connecting them to the Church universal by having them recite and confess together – every week – the core Christian truths that are true at all times, in all places, for all peoples. This could be done with the Apostles Creed, Nicene Creed, Chalcedon formula, etc. Moreover, why not offer classes that expound these foundational Christian creeds?
Next, why not offer classes that survey doctrinal history and why it matters?[34] One could then offer classes that explain and expound one’s denominational standards. For example, in the Reformed tradition accessible resources exist that probe and explain the Westminster Confession as well as the Heidelburg Catechism.[35]
Concerning ethical standards, consider incorporating into the weekly service a reading of God’s law: The Greatest Commandment, the Decalogue, from the Proverbs, from the epistles, etc. Then the congregation could study an exposition of the law of God as set forth in the church’s doctrinal standards.[36]
One way to jump start a corrective course would be to invite TxC to your church for a TruthxChange Intensive. TxC can customize presentations in an accessible and interesting way to alert the congregation to these issues and equip them to combat them – graciously and effectively. Contact TxC for more information.
Finally, at the end of the day we need to remind ourselves that surveys are not saviors. Taking a poll may be diagnostic, but will not correct the problems. Only a sinless savior – a God who became man, the second Adam – can redeem us, including from our doctrinal and ethical sins. He is the One to whom we must cling:
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.[37]
[1] https://thestateoftheology.com/data-explorer/2022/1?AGE=30&MF=14®ION=30&DENSITY=62&EDUCATION=62&INCOME=254&MARITAL=126ÐNICITY=62&RELTRAD=2&EVB=6&ATTENDANCE=254
[2] 1 Pet. 4:17
[3] 1 Tim. 2:25
[4] In another website trend, it is becoming increasingly difficult to locate a congregation’s doctrinal statement amid the flashy pitches for coffee cafes, young energetic attendees with bright smiles, and lavish facilities.
[5] Heb. 12:2
[6] All the survey results reported here combine the “agree” or “strongly agree” responses. The reader should understand that evangelicals manifest less conviction than the combined numbers indicate regarding core beliefs, such as biblical authority or pre-marital sexual activity.
[7] Why Arianism Back Then Matters Now: Jehovah’s Witnesses, https://africa.thegospelcoalition.org/article/why-arianism-back-then-matters-now-jehovahs-witnesses/
[8] https://www.anglicancommunion.org/media/109020/Nicene-Creed.pdf – this foundational creed includes relative to Jesus that He “is the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father.”
[9] John 1:1
[10] The Sadducees sect – who denied the resurrection – acknowledged Jesus as “teacher” (Matt. 22:23, 24) as did the Herodians and Pharisees, the latter group accusing Jesus of blasphemy because He forgave sins, a prerogative reserved for God alone. (Luke 5:21)
[11] See note 8.
[12] Col. 1:18
[13] Phil 2:10
[14] Phil 2:11 – and note, we also bow before the Father (Eph 3:14). If we bow (worship) the Father AND the Son, they are equal in majesty – that is, both are equally divine, which the Arian heresy denies.
[15] George Lucas’ Star Wars project intended to introduce and inject a popularized pagan cosmology to the Western world, using Joseph Campbell’s theories about myth. Peter Jones noted this decades ago. See, Peter Jones, The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back: An Old Heresy for a New Age (1992) and Peter Jones, Spirit Wars: Pagan Revival in Christian America (1997)
[16] https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/what-is-the-holy-spirit/ which heretically teaches that “The holy spirit is not a person.”
[17] Mormonism likewise denies the Trinty but for other erroneous and umbilical reasons. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/article/do-latter-day-saints-believe-in-the-trinity#:~:text=Like%20many%20Christians%2C%20we%20believe,who%20are%20one%20in%20purpose.
[18] See note 8. See also Westminster Larger Catechism Questions 9-11; and also WCF Ch. 2
[19] 2 Tim. 3:16
[20] Num. 23:19, 2 Tim. 2:13
[21] R.C Sproul made this point repeatedly. See, e.g., https://x.com/RCSproul/status/915249707974365184. See also the 1995 film, The Addiction, which explores this theme – even quoting Sproul – in the context of a modern vampire horror narrative.
[22] Basic theology teaches that man exists in a four-fold state: (1) able to sin; (2) unable to not sin; (3) able to not sin: and (4) unable to sin. See, e.g., Human Nature in its Fourfold State, https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/four-fold.html
[23] Romans 2:11, especially when it comes to sin and justice.
[24] See, e.g., G. C. Berkouwer, Studies in Dogmatics: Sin (1971)
[25] For an accurate – and seductive – explication of this, consider: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA2ZEM4T-vo – and note: this view denies the uniqueness of Jesus as the “only begotten” Son of God and instead equates Him on the same plane as Rumi, Mohammed, Buddha, et al.
[26] John 18:38
[27] William Ernest Henley, Invictus
[28] Romans 1:25-27
[29] This view directly contradicts the creational norm: “male and female he created them.” (Gen. 1:27)
[30] John Frame and I created this term during a meal we shared in August of 2002.
[31] Rev. 2:4
[32] This notion reflects process theology or perhaps the heresy known as open theism. For a scholarly and accessible refutation of this error, see, John M. Frame, No Other God: A Response to Open Theism (2001, 2022)
[33] Is. 44:9-20
[34] Excellent “starter texts” include Louis Berkhof, The History of Christian Doctrine (1991) and C. Fitzsimmons Allison, The Cruelty of Heresy (1994)
[35] See, G.I. Williamson, The Westminster Confession of Faith: For Study Classes (1964); G. I. Williamson, The Heidelburg Catechism: A Study Guide (1994); and Gordan H. Clark, What Presbyterians Believe: A Exposition of the Westminster Confession (1965)
[36] For example, the Westminster Catechisms (Shorter and Larger) expound each of the 10 Commandments. Just hearing these explications over time would buttress one’s ethical understanding. Then, for further development, one could craft a class expounding upon these particular catechism questions.
[37] Jude 24, 25