New Study Finds Only 20 Percent of Evangelical Universalists

You might recall a couple of weeks ago a Pew poll was released which made the following startling claim:

Among the more startling numbers in the survey, conducted last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: 57 percent of evangelical church attenders said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life, in conflict with traditional evangelical teaching.

At that time, I pointed out that such a belief is in total contradiction to all Christian teaching.

LifeWay Research, which is associated with the Southern Baptist Convention, did it's own research and found radically different results.

From the Christian Post:

LifeWay Research, associated with the Southern Baptist Convention, found that only two out of 10 evangelicals – as defined by their belief system rather than what church they attend – agreed with the statement that eternal life can be obtained through religions other than Christianity.

Why such a difference? It comes down to a few critical factors. One of those factors is how the term "evangelical" is defined.

"When we define evangelicals as not just those who sit in pews but who agree with certain evangelical beliefs, we find a different picture than was widely reported in the news about the recent Pew study," said Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research, the research arm of LifeWay Christian Resources, in a statement.

The “evangelical” beliefs were based off of The Barna Group’s definition, which include saying one’s faith is very important to one’s life; a commitment to sharing one’s religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; believing that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works; believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and asserting the Bible is accurate in all its teaching, among other criteria.

In the Pew survey, evangelicals were defined only as those attending evangelical churches. The church I attend is one of the most Biblical churches you'll ever find...and I guarantee you that there are a significant number of people who attend our church (especially the "show-up-for-preaching-and-go-home-for-the-week" crowd) who are probably no more Biblical in their worldview than the guy who's down at the casino while they're spending that 1 hour a week in church.

Some believe another factor may have skewed the Pew results. It comes down to some people defining "denomination" as "religion."

Other critics of the Pew’s definition of evangelical explained that many Christians when asked the question if they belief other faiths other than their own can lead to eternal life mistakenly consider their denomination rather than the Christian religion in their response.

It's not terribly common anymore to use "denomination" and "religion" synonymously, but some people still do. And you'll find that though there are many Christian denominations (Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Methodist, Pentecostal, Church of God, non-denominational, etc.) all believe in Jesus Christ as Savior. Some may vary on doctrinal issues like baptism and such, but all believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation, and also believe that their brethren in other denominations will still join them in heaven (even if their brethren ARE wrong about baptism :-) .

LifeWay asked the question this way:

“How much do you agree/disagree: If a person is sincerely seeking God, he/she can obtain eternal life through religions other than Christianity.”

Two out of ten believing other religions have the answer to eternal life is still too high, given that the Bible is crystal clear that Jesus is the ONLY way to salvation, but it's less alarming than 57%.