{"id":74389,"date":"2018-10-17T09:00:35","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T13:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=74389"},"modified":"2018-10-17T07:20:26","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T11:20:26","slug":"new-research-by-ligonier-ministries-and-lifeway-research-shows-the-lamentable-state-of-theological-education-in-many-parishes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=74389","title":{"rendered":"New research by Ligonier Ministries and LifeWay Research Shows the Lamentable state of Theological Education in Many Parishes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text\">When it comes to Americans with \u201c<a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/gleanings\/2015\/november\/what-is-evangelical-new-definition-nae-lifeway-research.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">evangelical beliefs<\/a>\u201d [see below for LifeWay Research\u2019s four-part definition], the survey found that a majority say:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"text\">Most people are basically good (52%)<\/li>\n<li class=\"text\">God accepts the worship of all religions (51%)<\/li>\n<li class=\"text\">Jesus was the first and greatest being created by God the Father (78%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"text\">\u201cHowever, all these beliefs are contrary to the historic Christian faith,\u201d stated Ligonier, citing Romans 3:10 on sin, John 14:6 on God, and John 1:1 on Jesus. For example, while an overwhelming 97 percent of evangelicals do believe that \u201cthere is one true God in three persons,\u201d 3 out of 4 of them attempt to give Jesus first-place honors even though that belief \u201chas been rejected by the church down through the centuries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">Ligonier noted:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"text\">\n<p class=\"text\">Strangely, while most evangelicals strongly believe in justification by faith alone, they are confused about the person of Jesus Christ. On one hand, virtually all evangelicals express support for Trinitarian doctrine. Yet at the same time, most agree that Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God, which was a view espoused by the ancient heretic Arius.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"text\">Arius was\u00a0<a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/history\/issues\/issue-85\/how-arianism-almost-won.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">condemned<\/a>\u00a0at the Council of Nicaea in 325, and again at the Council of Constantinople in 381. Yet the number of American evangelicals who agree with his view has increased from 2016, when 71 percent agreed and 23 percent disagreed, to today when 78 percent agree and 18 percent disagree.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">\u201cThese results show the pressing need for Christians to be taught Christology, especially as the outcome has gotten worse since 2016,\u201d stated Ligonier. \u201cThere is a general lack of teaching today on the person of Christ, a doctrine for which the early church fought so hard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/news\/2018\/october\/what-do-christians-believe-ligonier-state-theology-heresy.html\">Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Hey local churches, what\u2019s your plan for training your people in sound doctrine? They won\u2019t learn it by accident or osmosis. Let\u2019s commit to teaching them. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/h8gT3raNUy\">https:\/\/t.co\/h8gT3raNUy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jen Wilkin (@jenniferwilkin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jenniferwilkin\/status\/1052306418508943362?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 16, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to Americans with \u201cevangelical beliefs\u201d [see below for LifeWay Research\u2019s four-part definition], the survey found that a majority say: Most people are basically good (52%) God accepts the worship of all religions (51%) Jesus was the first<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=74389\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434,184,167,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adult-education","category-parish-ministry","category-seminary-theological-education","category-theology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74389"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74392,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74389\/revisions\/74392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}