The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life just released the second installment of the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey.
This is my second installment as it relates to Arizona residents and their faith beliefs.
Here we find the folks at the Pew Forum asking about the Bible. Do people, and Arizonans in particular believe that the Bible is God's word and do they believe it is true word for word.
Here is how the Pew Forum worded the question:
"Question wording: Which comes closest to your view? [HOLY BOOK]* is the word of God, OR [HOLY BOOK]* is a book written by men and is not the word of God? [IF BELIEVE HOLY BOOK IS WORD OF GOD, ASK:] And would you say that [HOLY BOOK]* is to be taken literally, word for word, OR not everything in [HOLY BOOK]* should be taken literally, word for word?
*For Christians and the unaffiliated, 'the Bible' was inserted where indicated by [HOLY BOOK]; for Jews, 'the Torah' was inserted; for Muslims, 'the Koran' was inserted; for all other religious groups, 'the Holy Scripture' was inserted."
Here is how the 578 residents of Arizona responded:
- Word of God, literally true word for word
- Arizona - 26%
- National - 33%
- Word of God, but not literally true word for word/unsure if literally true
- Arizona - 31%
- National - 30%
- Don't know/refused/other
- Arizona - 11%
- National - 9%
This, it would seem, is a substantial challenge for the Arizona church. Nearly 88% of Arizona residents are certain, or fairly certain that there is a God. Yet, only 26% of them believe that the Bible is literally God's word, with and additional 31% of them not sure.
I guess if I were a pastor, I would be working on making sure that the 31% in my flock were instructed with the truth.
Here is a video, part of a three part series, that John MacArthur is currently doing on this very topic.
Here is a post that I did back in February on the reliability of the scriptures.
Dr. Wayne Grudem speaks on the issue here, here, and here.
For the Christian, this is a critically important question. Let us all seek to work together to help the unsure 31% find out the answer. This is certainly a great place to start.