Research: Majority of Americans Believe Works Are the Key to Salvation

The supreme sacrifice of Christ also goes totally against what people believe generally about God and Christ....salvation is by God's infinite grace through faith in Christ and His finished work of redemption. PLUS NOTHING.

there are no absolutes to guide or grow us morally...No wonder this country is in the mess it's in.

Kinda. The passage of 1 John 2 does talk about those who turned away from Christ (apostasy). The issue of this thread is people who still claim to be of Christ, but are not walking in His truth.

You seem to be missing one important point. The ones who stayed were walking in the truth; they were obeying the Lord, doing His will. Those who went out did so because they wanted to go their own way, they didn't want to keep on walking.

"I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, as we received commandment from the Father."—2 John 1:4

God told us thousands of years ago that even His own would turn away from His truth.

Perhaps they aren't born again and have no Life in them?


My guess is that most people think they are saved while rejecting the sufficiency of Christ's Work to atone for their sin and continue in self effort holiness, devoid of the Spirit.



I take it you reject the findings of this survey? The Pew Research has found similar results.

Amen!

Then we have a wide-Open-Mission field for:

Perhaps they aren't born again and have no Life in them?


My guess is that most people think they are saved while rejecting the sufficiency of Christ's Work to atone for their sin and continue in self effort holiness, devoid of the Spirit.



I take it you reject the findings of this survey? The Pew Research has found similar results.

Here are some of the shocking (to me) findings in the poll (2020) cited below...

"A majority of Americans, a new survey finds, no longer believe that Jesus Christ is the way to eternal salvation. Faith (generally) and good works, they say, will do the trick "

"Equally as startling, it was found that a majority of people who describe themselves as Christian (52%) believe that a person can gain eternal salvation by “being or doing good.” That includes close to half of all adults associated with Pentecostal (46%), mainline Protestant (44%), and evangelical (41%) churches. As expected, a much larger share of Catholics (70%) embrace that point of view."

This salvation-can-be-earned perspective, Barna says, fits well with other widely held views identified in the American Worldview Inventory 2020 that are at odds with biblical teaching.
Those have included:


• There is no absolute moral truth (58%)
• Basis of truth are factors or sources other than God (58%)
• Right/wrong determined by factors other than the Bible (77%)
• The Bible is not the authoritative and true word of God (59%)
• People are basically good (69%)

"“If you look at some of the dominant elements in the American mind and heart today, as illuminated by the Inventory, most people believe that the purpose of life is feeling good about yourself,” Barna says. “Most people contend that all faiths are of equal value, that entry into God’s eternal presence is determined by one’s personal means of choice and that there are no absolutes to guide or grow us morally.”

more at: https://outreachmagazine.com/resour...s-believe-works-are-the-key-to-salvation.html

No wonder this country is in the mess it's in.

I’m sorry but this is a mass of confusion to conflate believing/faith with our works. It is simply Anti-Gospel…
Here we see the two don’t mix…

Galatians 2:16 CSB
[16] and yet because we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus. This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.

Even James would disagree…

James 2:17 CSB
[17] In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.

Our faith rests in His works.

My point is that answering surveys does not reflect what people believe. How they live does.

I think that by observing how most people live in America one could conclude that;

Most people think that all the good people (which is everyone who is not hurting other people) are going to some eternal good place and the bad people (people who hurt other people) go to some place where they get what's coming to them.

And that you don't really have to do much to go to the good place. That is why they live the way they do. If they believed that there was a list of good works that would get them to the good place they will sure enough do their share of such good works. But this list of good works must not be much since people don't do much more than work, buy toys, and good food and drink and enjoy them. That isn't much of a list. My guess is that they really don't believe that you have to do much to get there.

People's beliefs are reflected by what they do; not what they write down as answers in a survey.

As far as most Pentecostals. My guess is that 80% of those in an Assemblies of God congregation would answer "No!" If you asked them "Can one be saved by observing the Law of Moses?" The other 20% would not understand the question.

If you asked them "Must Christians have good works in their lives to be saved?" You might get 80% who say "Yes" not because they believe one is saved by good works but because they are sticklers for "without holiness no man shall see the Lord" and that they believe that every true saved Christians filled with the Holy Spirit will hate sin, and love righteousness and will live a life full of Good Works because that is all they can do as a born again Christian and that backsliding and living in sin will result in eternal damnation.

They don't believe in OSAS in the sense that one can live in known unrepentant sin and still go to heaven. So one can accuse them of believing in salvation by works and they would disagree. So it is all about the question and what the authors of the survey are accusing Pentecostals of believing. They certainly do not believe in salvation by works. They do believe that if you don't obey Christ and His teachings that you will be destroyed along with the unbelievers. Cut in two. Dichotomized. Divided. Torn in pieces.

I am confident that many will be saved who never believed in Jesus.

So, instead of impugning your judgement of non-salvation for those that don't believe in Jesus, let Jesus do his work of salvation with His love and mercy.

Yet you, on this thread, judge these as not being worthy of salvation. Judge not lest you be judged. If you have little, no knowledge of Jesus, little will be expected from you. So, quit your judging and let Jesus go about His judging and salvation. Who do you think you are, judging others?

Judge your own self and no one else!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leave the judging and salvation to Jesus.

My point is that answering surveys does not reflect what people believe. How they live does.

I think that by observing how most people live in America one could conclude that;

Most people think that all the good people (which is everyone who is not hurting other people) are going to some eternal good place and the bad people (people who hurt other people) go to some place where they get what's coming to them.

And that you don't really have to do much to go to the good place. That is why they live the way they do. If they believed that there was a list of good works that would get them to the good place they will sure enough do their share of such good works. But this list of good works must not be much since people don't do much more than work, buy toys, and good food and drink and enjoy them. That isn't much of a list. My guess is that they really don't believe that you have to do much to get there.

People's beliefs are reflected by what they do; not what they write down as answers in a survey.

As far as most Pentecostals. My guess is that 80% of those in an Assemblies of God congregation would answer "No!" If you asked them "Can one be saved by observing the Law of Moses?" The other 20% would not understand the question.

If you asked them "Must Christians have good works in their lives to be saved?" You might get 80% who say "Yes" not because they believe one is saved by good works but because they are sticklers for "without holiness no man shall see the Lord" and that they believe that every true saved Christians filled with the Holy Spirit will hate sin, and love righteousness and will live a life full of Good Works because that is all they can do as a born again Christian and that backsliding and living in sin will result in eternal damnation.

They don't believe in OSAS in the sense that one can live in known unrepentant sin and still go to heaven. So one can accuse them of believing in salvation by works and they would disagree. So it is all about the question and what the authors of the survey are accusing Pentecostals of believing. They certainly do not believe in salvation by works. They do believe that if you don't obey Christ and His teachings that you will be destroyed along with the unbelievers. Cut in two. Dichotomized. Divided. Torn in pieces.

Since the majority of Americans (or people of any nation) are not saved, this is nothing remarkable. Even many "Christian" groups believe in a salvation of grace + works, or faith + baptism, or some other unbiblical idea. Even many people on Christian forums (including this one) have such false notions. The sad fact is that the true Gospel is not being generally preached.

The Gospel of Christ goes totally against humanistic beliefs and ideas. The supreme sacrifice of Christ also goes totally against what people believe generally about God and Christ. So it is not surprising to see so much spiritual confusion. Then we have theologically liberalism undermining the Gospel and promoting a "Social Gospel". Calvinism is also "another Gospel". Then we have sacramentalism as a means of salvation.

The antidote to all this nonsense is the Bible itself. Now that the Bible is freely available in any language through the internet, people should be encouraged to read the New Testament for themselves and see exactly what is written. That salvation is by God's infinite grace through faith in Christ and His finished work of redemption. PLUS NOTHING. That God justifies the one who believes, and imputes righteousness to the one who believes God and trusts solely in Christ Himself as our Salvation.

The Lord Jesus Christ Himself is our Salvation, our Resurrection, and our Life, when we receive Him as Lord and Savior. He said that He is the Bread of Life, and that eternal life is God's gift to the one who repents and believes and receives Him by faith.

The purpose and the outcome of work is to sustain THIS mortail life, NOT the next. It is NOT associated with salvation. In the white throne judgement, all will be judged by each one's work, but notice that the final verdict is NOT based upon work, but the Book of Life. Those whose names are not found in it will be cast into the Lake of Fire.

Sorry, I'm not following your first sentence.
Christians won't appear at the White Throne Judgment...

(Joh 5:24) “Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

(Rom 8:1) Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus.

But believers of work-based religion will, and that's the point. He who believes in his work will be eventually judged by his work.

I would think those who believe in Jesus and His work has passed out of judgment into life.

John 5:24 (NASB) "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.