In 2025 Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research partnered to publish “The State of Theology” (thestateoftheology.com). They sought to answer: What do Americans believe about God, the Bible, and salvation. Here are a couple of their key findings.
U. S. Adults (i.e., people of any and every belief system) were asked, “Does God love all people the same way?” Eighty-three percent said “Yes.” The authors note that this is unsurprising, given cultural assumptions that God must love and forgive all people regardless of their posture toward him. What is surprising is the response of “evangelicals” to the same question.
“Evangelicals” are defined as people who strongly agree with four statements: 1) The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe. 2) It is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior. 3) Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin. 4) Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation.
As I see it, those four points provide a pretty good summary of what it means to be an evangelical Christian. Note, then, the implications of point 4: “trust” (i.e., faith) is necessary to receive salvation and eternal life; correspondingly, people who do not trust in Christ do not receive the gift of God’s eternal love.
And yet, remarkably, ninety-four percent of evangelicals affirmed the claim that God loves all people the same way! The authors from Ligonier and Lifeway regard this as a “major misunderstanding” of God’s Word. It seems, then, that many church-going people are holding to mutually contradictory claims.
Let’s let John 3:16 settle this: Yes, God loves the world. Further, believing in God (i.e., faith) is necessary to receive eternal life. And yet, those do not believe take the path toward “perishing.” Thus our calling: to cherish and to share the love of Jesus!
