Quote: Only Eight Percent

For a long time many of us have followed the work of George Barna, the Christian researcher who knew that there was something wrong when most Americans identified themselves as “Christian”. Common sense tells us something is wrong with that kind of response because if the majority were truly “Christian” then how could we be experiencing so many moral and spiritual problems today? Why wouldn’t every law passed in America conform to scriptural standards? How could America not obviously be anything other than “Christian” if such a majority claimed to be so? Why would we ban prayer in school, the Ten Commandments from courtrooms, or promote Islamic practices in our schools? Barna realized that he had to narrow the requirements in order to uncover the truth.

He chose to determine who exactly was an “Evangelical” rather than simply a “Christian” because Evangelicals were supposed to be closer to the definition of someone who practiced what they preached rather than merely being a cultural Christian in name only or someone who just “goes to church”. Barna developed a set of criteria he calls “the 9-point evangelical”. Such people are defined according to the following rules:

1. They say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today.

2. They believe when they die they will go to Heaven because they have confessed their sins and accepted Christ as Savior.

3. They say their faith is very important in their life today.

4. They believe they have a personal responsibility to share their beliefs with non-Christians.

5. They believe Satan exists.

6. They believe eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works.

7. They believe Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth.

8. They assert that the Bible is accurate in all it teaches.

9. They describe God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today.

In other words, if you ask everyone in a given room if they consider themselves to be a “Christian”, practically all the hands will instinctively go up. If you then ask, “How many of you are ‘Evangelical’ Christians?” the majority drop their arms and only 38% of hands are still in the air. But if you ask everyone to keep their hand in the air to affirm they believe in each of the above nine points as they are read one by one, the end result will be that only about 8% of the room will still be holding up a hand to affirm all nine of the basic criteria.

– D E Isom