Skip to main content

What Do We Expect?

What do we expect? I mean, what do we really expect?

I was looking at this info-graphic recently. You can click on the image if you want to expand it. Go ahead, I'll wait. 




In it they show how very little even Evangelical Protestants agree with what has historically been perceived as absolute truth. Perhaps you've seen and read info-graphics like this before. Sadly, I can't say I was surprised by most of the numbers.

What did catch my eye was the statistic that showed only 47% of Christians strongly agree that Heaven is a real place. While it is disturbing to actually consider that half of all Christians don't actually believe Jesus is preparing a place for us, did you catch the wording?

Strongly agree?

This tells me the question was: Do you believe in heaven? And the possible answers were; Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree and Strongly Disagree. I'm going to go ahead and assume Neutral was a possible response to keep survey-takers happy. 

How do you strongly agree with something like this? If the group giving the survey believes in absolute truth, shouldn't there only be two options, Agree or Disagree? I either believe Heaven is a real place or I do not. I don't think Heaven is sort of real. 

This kind of survey taking has implications on us as we get closer and closer to Christmas. I celebrate Christmas because I believe God came to Earth as a baby, through a virgin, with a noble step-dad in Joe. I believe shepherds proclaimed the birth and that wise men brought gifts (a year or so later). I believe in this story because I believe the Bible to be true.

I don't strongly agree because that is lending emphasis where emphasis is not needed. This is absolute truth. I live by these truths with great fervor, which may bring some to assume I believe in them strongly. But save your adjectives, because if I didn't believe in it, I'd be celebrating this holiday with a focus only on myself. 

Truth matters. Do you agree or disagree?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Accountable

I recently officiated a wedding. The ceremony was simple, lovely, and ended with another couple professing to keep the covenant of marriage. But it all started with a clarification...from me. At our first premarital counseling session, as I have done with every couple I have agreed to marry, I clarified a couple of matters. First, I officiate Christian weddings, where both spouses-to-be are professing Christians. I firmly believe that marriage is difficult enough, without adding disagreements about God into the mix. Second, as a minister of Jesus Christ, I believe the pastor’s role in a wedding is to represent the blessing of God on that union. So we have several sessions of premarital counseling where we discuss married life. It’s not that I have this imaginary card in my head, with a picture of me on the front and my stats on the back. (You know, like a baseball card.) Ok, I do picture cards. Pastor cards! And being a competitive guy, I want my stats to look good. The number of coupl
Post a Comment
Read more

Patience

I am more than halfway through the last year of dropping one of my children off at school. It's my eighth grade daughter, for anyone keeping track of my family.  See, next year she will be at the high school, and her brother will drive her. He says that it's not cool for seniors to drive their freshman sister to school, but I bet it's cooler than being dropped off by your mom in a minivan.  So rather than groan about this daily responsibility, I've been reminiscing about what the drop-off line used to look like, way back in elementary school. Once our children were about halfway through their elementary years, the drop-off line became a test of patience.  Do you know which group you do not want to get caught behind in the parent drop-off line at an elementary school? The kindergartners. These little ones are barely able to walk, but now we put them in the high-pressure situation of trying to unbuckle their seat-belt, grab their backpack (which might be as tall as they a
Post a Comment
Read more

Jury Duty

I was recently summoned to jury duty. I know, groan. Except I didn't. I had never experienced it before and was curious to see what it was like.   When the day to report arrives, they separate you into groups, asking various questions to decide if you will be selected to serve. Do you know the accused? Do you have conflicts that would keep you from serving? Can you stay focused?  I wanted to answer well, if only because my kids kept wishing me luck the day before, telling me they hoped I made the team. After all, who wants to be rejected? It occurred to me that there are things you probably shouldn’t say right away if you’re wanting to serve on a jury. I know, I know, people don’t typically want to serve on a jury. But that list didn’t seem nearly as humorous to me. Here are the things you probably shouldn’t say if you want to be selected for jury. I hold myself in contempt. You can’t handle the truth. We find the defendant guilty. I believe the judge looks pretty in his robe. I’d
Post a Comment
Read more