Do you know what you believe?

Recently I heard about a poll being taken about what Christians believe and why.  I was astonished to find out that the Christians surveyed knew little to nothing about their  faith.  I was even more astonished to find that the atheists which participated in the poll knew a lot of what we believe.

Although I can’t say that I am surprised, I am disheartened by the fact that we as Christians know so little about the truth that we are supposed to be living by.  People all over North America call themselves ‘Christians’ and according to studies that have been done have little to no difference in their lives from those who consider themselves ‘Non-Christians’.  I no longer wonder why that is.  If we don’t know anything about our faith and history, how can we live it out.

I think this needs to change in our society.  Jesus came that we might ‘know the truth’.  And according to recent polls we know very little of the truth.  I took part in the survey which can be found on the internet, which includes some of the core doctrines of our faith as well as the history of our faith, and to be honest while I scored better than 71% of the people who took part of the survey I only correctly answered 57% of the questions.  I was a little disappointed in myself.  8 years of studying in bible school and I was only 57% correct.

This isn’t to put a damper on the Christian church.  But it is a call to awaken to who we are and what we actually believe.  I know I am looking to deepen my understanding of our history as well as our faith.  It is important that we know what we believe and why, otherwise we will be unable to defend our faith in the world around us.  And, to quote Alexander Hamilton “‘Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything”.  If we don’t know what we are standing for and why, we will be taken in by everything else around us that seems to be good.  I welcome you to join me on the journey of discovery.