Paganism’s Welcome Mat:  The Church’s Failure to Catechize

Sanctify them in the truth[1]

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.[2]

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.[3]

The Dicta edition will be shorter, but unfortunately, not sweeter.  Why?  The reliable pollster and scholar, George Barna, has released the results of a disturbing survey.[4]  Here, on the cusp of Holy Week – 1700 years after the Nicene Creed defined and defended Trinitarian orthodoxy – we learn of the abysmal theological understanding of swaths of self-identifying American Christians.  In particular, a large majority of Americans, including professing Christians, reject the Trinity.  Let’s get to the gist.

Christian Identity: Then

From the church’s earliest practices, becoming a Christian was both a matter of identity and community.  The gatekeeping to both centered on the sacrament of baptism.  The early church practice involved extensive teaching (catechizing) those seeking to convert and then – and only then – did they receive the sign and seal of covenant membership, baptism.[5]  Critically, a profession of faith always accompanied the sacrament.  Stephen Presley describes the process:

Most of the catechumens – those seeking to become members of the church – had been going through the process of discipleship for around three years, studying Scripture, praying, and worshiping with the church.[6] 

As the candidates approached the baptismal waters, they were asked a triad of questions relating to the true and living God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The only valid and known Christian confession was a Trinitarian one.[7]  It’s no surprise then that the earliest Christian Creeds organize their teaching around the Trinity[8] – one could say it’s the fundamental of all fundamentals.

Christian Identity: Now

Today, sadly, though Jesus calls us to “love the Lord your God with all your  . . . mind,”[9] we cannot do so if our minds are empty.  And this is precisely what Barna found regarding the Trinity:

Two out of three Americans claim to be Christian, leading to the expectation that they embrace the core teachings of their chosen faith.

Yet, a new research report from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University shows that only 11% of American adults, and only 16% of self-proclaimed Christians, believe in the trinity.[10]

Perhaps these numbers reflect folks swimming in the polluted rivers of the broader mainline groups. Surely, we would think (hope?) that those rigorous “born-again” evangelicals possess a more solid theological core.  Not so.

Barna found that “theologically identified Born-again Christians” fared only slightly better:  Only 24% of these folks believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.[11]  And understand, this survey did not probe detailed depths of the Trinity, like homoousios,[12] or the hypostatic union.[13]  No, this survey simply pondered whether these self-identified Christians believed in the three divine persons disclosed in Scripture:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Tragically, an overwhelming number did not – meaning that they would not quality for baptism or church membership.[14]

The survey’s demographic breakdown reflects that the church has failed to impact the theological formation of the next generation, whether pew-sitters or the broader population.  The theological ignorance is stunning.  Note the meager segments who believe in all three persons of the Trinity:  Gen Z, 8%; Millennial, 7%; Gen Z, 11%; and Boomer, 18%.  Moreover,

Those least likely to embrace the trinity are under 45 years of age, residents of the northeastern states, Asians, singles who have never been married, and homosexuals.[15]

What fuels this ignorance other than ecclesiastical abdication?  Barna posits that today’s “influencers” deform and deflect theological development and formation.  Today, the “apostles” instructing and “discipling” our culture appear ubiquitously on glowing rectangles, which we consume without thought:

“It could be argued that the primary theologians influencing the spiritual views of America these days are figures such as Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, Russell Brand, Jordan Peterson, Megyn Kelly, and Bill Maher.”[16]

This is because

“They mix practical and sometimes unbiblical theology and philosophical points of view into their commentary on life and world events.[17]

Yet the church remains culpable:

Meanwhile, many Christian churches are focused on delivering multi-part series that are not effectively developing or bolstering an integrated, biblical worldview that congregants can rely upon to counteract popular, secular takes on reality.”[18]

Barna’s laments this situation, and then directs probing questions to the church:

“Who is devoted to obsessively building a solid theological foundation for the masses?” he asked rhetorically. “Who is committed to ensuring that people grasp the basic theological building blocks of a biblical worldview? Where is the concern or anguish over the near universal rejection of numerous central biblical teachings? Is the Church of God devoted to know Him and making Him know, or has it been seduced by the distractions and distortions of our culture?”[19]

No wonder Peter informs us that “judgment begin[s] at the household of God.”[20]  Let’s get back to fundamentals.  Jesus tells us the reason He was born:    

Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”[21]

Becoming a Christian involves repentance “leading to knowledge of the truth.”[22]  That truth sanctifies us.[23]  Sanctification comes via prayerful instruction in the truth, including the foundational truth about the person and nature of the true and living Triune God.  This is the One – and the only one – we must love with our entire being, including our minds. 

This Triune God is the Creator God, whose “center” is everywhere and whose “circumference” is nowhere.[24]  And, His Son, the Lord, is the Alpha and the Omega,[25] the One who is to have preeminence in everything.[26]  The Spirit is the “Spirit of truth.”[27]  We indeed hold to the truth of the Trinitarian faith, as Ligon Duncan explains:

Christianity is a Trinitarian religion; that is, we believe in one, and only one, true and living God. We are monotheists, but we also believe that the one and only living and true God exists in three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These three are one.[28]

Let’s grasp – and glory in – the Holy Trinity!

[1] John 17:17a

[2] Hebrews 5:12, 13

[3] 2 Cor. 13:14

[4] https://www.arizonachristian.edu/culturalresearchcenter/research/ – see in particular Report No. 3

[5] This is a separate question from whether the children of those converts also received this sacramental sign and seal.

[6] Stephen O. Presley, Cultural Sanctification – Engaging the World Like  the Early Church (2024), 23

[7] Id. at 24

[8] See, e.g., the rich and robust Trinitarianism contained in the first four ecumenical creeds described here:  https://heidelblog.net/creeds/

[9] Matt. 22:37

[10] https://www.arizonachristian.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/AWVI-2025_03_Most-Americans-Reject-the-Trinity_FINAL_03_26_2025.pdf

[11] The percentages are 60, 82, and 42 respectively, with only 24% believing in all three.  https://www.arizonachristian.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/AWVI-2025_03_Most-Americans-Reject-the-Trinity_FINAL_03_26_2025.pdf

[12] This literally describes the persons of the Godhead being “of the same substance” – Jesus is not LIKE God; He IS God – “very God of very God” as the Nicene Creed puts it.  There exists a co-equality and co-eternality of Father and Son (and Spirit).

[13] This notion describes how Jesus, in His Incarnation, can be both 100% divine and 100% human without confusion or mixture of these natures.  The Formula of Chalcedon (451 AD.) sets forth the orthodox articulation of this.  https://anglicansonline.org/basics/chalcedon.html

[14] The trendy “seeker-sensitive” slogan “belong before believing” fails to reflect the actual dictates of Scripture or the overwhelming practice of the first Christians.  Converting involves BOTH identity and profession, liturgy and conviction.  See, Stephen O. Presley, Cultural Sanctification – Engaging the World Like the Early Church (2024), 25

[15] Id.

[16] Id.

[17] Id.

[18] Id.

[19] Id.

[20] 1 Peter. 4:17

[21] John 18:37

[22] 2 Tim. 2:25

[23] John 17:17

[24] Attributed to Thomas Watson, https://gracequotes.org/quote/gods-center-is-everywhere-his-circumference-nowhere/

[25] Rev. 1:8, 21:6, and 22:13

[26] Col. 1:18

[27] John 15:26, 16:13

[28] Ligon Duncan, A Trinitarian Blessing, https://rts.edu/resources/a-trinitarian-blessing/