(July 19, 2018 at 11:34 am)Jörmungandr Wrote:(July 19, 2018 at 8:31 am)SteveII Wrote: I'm shocked. Including Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox, more than 99%. Kind of undercuts the whole "they don't even know what they believe" stupid comments.
Quote:Seven out of ten respondents in LifeWay’s survey affirmed the doctrine of the Trinity—that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three Persons but one God, and six in ten agreed that Jesus is both human and divine. Their orthodoxy—and consistency—ended there. More than half went on to indicate that Jesus is “the first and greatest being created by God,” a heresy known as Arianism, which the Council of Nicaea condemned in 325 A.D.
Of course, most of these accidental blasphemers aren’t preparing to revise the resulting Nicene Creed and preach a creaturely Christ. Rather, bizarre contradictions like this illustrate how many Americans don’t understand or even care what the Trinity means (although they say they believe in it, likely out of habits learned growing up in church).
Survey Finds Most American Christians Are Actually Heretics
That brings up the question that if you do not believe that Jesus is God, then can you be a Christian. There are way too many key doctrines linked to that. I don't think the case can be made.
Also, this does not help the argument that people have looked at the NT and arrived at different conclusions. It seems that a large number of people can't articulate the belief or understand how it fits into systematic theology--a.k.a. ignorance.
