New Barna Survey: Only 16% of Christians Believe In The Trinity?
In a new nationwide survey released by George Barna for the Arizona Christian University, only 16% of self-proclaimed Christians believe in the Trinity.
While impossible to fully comprehend, simply put, Christians believe in the “one living and true God, eternally existing in perfect unity as three equally and fully divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each member of the Godhead, while executing distinct but complementary roles in redemptive history, has precisely the same nature, attributes, and being, and is equally worthy of the same glory and honor and obedience.”
Barna notes, “The trinity is one of the central theological foundations of Christian churches. However, that teaching is widely misunderstood, often rejected, and rarely acted upon..” and the numbers show.
Only 16% of self-identified Christians have a proper understanding of the Trinity, which makes sense as most “self-identified Christians” are anything but. Only 24% of self-described born-again Christians understand the Trinity, which also isn’t saying much, but the real number is 62% of Integrated disciples, which are people with a ‘biblical worldview.’
Barna defines “biblical worldview” as believing that absolute moral truth exists; the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches; Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic; a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or do good works; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today.
Notably, people who attend a Roman Catholic church have the worst understanding of the Trinity, with 91% of them holding an erroneous view.
George Barna concludes:
“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, They mix practical and sometimes unbiblical theology and philosophical points of view into their commentary on life and world events.
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.”