A recent study revealed the number of born-again Christians who believe Jesus was sinless during His time on earth has declined significantly. That fact comes as no surprise to Bible scholar and author Dr. Michael L. Brown.
A nationally syndicated columnist, Brown says it is “just another sign of the degree of biblical illiteracy within the church.
“If Jesus was not sinless, there is no gospel, there is no salvation, there is no redemption, there is no Bible,” Brown told Charisma News. “If Jesus was not sinless, He was not the divine Son, and He could not die for our sins as a perfect sacrifice.”
These days, 56% of born-again Christians, which make up about one-third of all U.S. adults, do not believe those claims.
Other prominent ministers, such as R.T. Kendall and Mario Murillo, are equally appalled at the survey’s numbers—and with a great portion of the church.
Since the COVID pandemic began in 2020, fewer born-again Christians agree that Jesus lived a sinless life, according to The American Worldview Inventory 2023. The fact that church attendance has dropped by some 15 million people weekly since the pandemic might have something to do with it, says the study released by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University.
The study shows that, between 2020 and 2023, the share of those who say they believe Jesus did not commit sins during His lifetime on Earth fell from 58% to 44%.
The pastor of Westminster Chapel in London for 25 years who received a doctorate from Oxford University, Kendall, an author and evangelist, says “the shock that ‘born-again’ evangelicals would deny the obvious teaching in holy Scripture—Jesus’ sinlessness—becomes more and more shocking every day.”
Kendall says we need look no further than 2 Timothy 4:3-4 for the explanation.
“Paul said that the time would come when people would not tolerate sound doctrine but look for teachers to teach what they want to hear. Peter was sure that he would neve deny the Lord, but Jesus told him that he would—and he did. But he repented.
“I pray for those who have denied holy Scripture. I am baffled that people who claim to be born-again evangelicals could question the clear teaching about Jesus being sinless.”
Murillo says its all there in black and white in the Bible, in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
“The real question is not whether Jesus sinned, but is the Bible the Word of God?” Murillo asked. “If Jesus sinned, then the Bible is a lie because it clearly says ‘who never sinned.’ Moreover, if He sinned, we are not saved because He could not be the offering for our sin. He would need a savior Himself.”
These “born-again” Christians who deny Jesus’ sinless nature should also remember the words of the apostle John in Revelation 22:19, “And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life and out of the Holy City and out of the things which are written in this book.”
Bible teacher Kyle Winkler agrees with Brown and says believing Jesus sinned would “invalidate the entire plan of salvation.”
“God always intended the law with its requirement of the sacrifice of defect-less lambs to foreshadow Christ,” Winkler says. “If He was not perfect, sinless, then He doesn’t meet the requirement of b eing able to forgive and cleanse sin. … A sinful Jesus is not Christianity. A sinful Jesus is no hope for us. He must be—and He was—sinless.”
Pastor and Ambassador for Christ Doug Stringer says today’s Christians—and the church—often fail to grasp and appreciate Jesus as the “Perfect Sacrifice” for our sins and the “amazing freedom He won for us on the Cross through his covenant blood.
That is the reason that many give in to the poison that our culture is trying to feed us about our Lord and Savior, and their choices will cost them in the end.
“In the ever-increasing anti-Christ environment we are living in today, we must continue to move from milk to meat, from the superficial to the fullness of Christ. There is no doubt that that many would like to be justified by excuses of the flesh rather than understand what if means to be justified by faith in Christ, even to the degree that some would rather deny or change the truth’s of God’s Word, His nature and character to fit those fleshly desires. Choices always have consequences, regardless of how much we may try to excuse them, justify them, or even try to legalize them.”
Kendall says the consequences of these Bible skeptics are dire.
“Not only is the inspiration of holy Scripture at stake, but the nature of atonement is at stake,” Kendall says. “The Old Testament teaching about the spotless lamb—Exodus 12:5 and 1 Peter 1:19—is at stake. Jesus’ most stupendous statement that He would fulfill the law (Matt. 5:17) is at stake.”
In essence, “open theism,” which these Christians are practicing, is unacceptable to Christ.
“The denial of these historic principles was almost certainly preceded or paralleled by the ever-increasing acceptance of open theism, which denies the inspiration of holy Scripture, but also God’s omniscience and omnipotence,” Kendall says.
Despite all of that, faith in God and in the Bible continues to decline in America. And Kendall says he wonders if it will ever stop.
“I keep saying to myself, ‘Surely the theological decay among professing evangelicals cannot get any worse,'” he says. “But it does. I pray that God would strike me down and take me to heaven before I could follow this trend. The time is long overdue that the church will be awakened before the coming of the Lord.” {eoa}
Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.
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