{"id":15036,"date":"2021-09-13T14:51:12","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T18:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=15036"},"modified":"2021-09-13T14:51:12","modified_gmt":"2021-09-13T18:51:12","slug":"is-the-holy-spirit-real-most-american-christians-dont-think-so-new-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2021\/09\/is-the-holy-spirit-real-most-american-christians-dont-think-so-new-study-finds","title":{"rendered":"Is the Holy Spirit Real? Most American Christians Don\u2019t Think So New Study Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15042\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15042\" style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2021\/09\/holyspirit.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15042\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2021\/09\/holyspirit.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"527\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15042\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A new study from Arizona Christian University shows that while most Americans who identify as Christians believe in God, more than half reject some biblical principles and teachings, including the Holy Spirit\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n<p>For most Christians, the Holy Spirit is the third divine person of the Trinity. Is it also recognized as God&#8217;s power in action.<\/p>\n<p>This finding was featured by the Cultural Research Center of Arizona Christian University in the American Worldview Inventory survey. This survey included a representative sample of 2,000 adults.<\/p>\n<p>The study found that majorities don\u2019t believe in moral absolutes. Most also believed that having faith held more significant value than which faith you pursued, the <em>Christian Post<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToo often, it seems, people who are simply religious, or regular churchgoers, or perhaps people who want a certain reputation or image embrace the label \u2018Christian,\u2019 regardless of their spiritual life and intentions,\u201d George Barna, the lead researcher at the Cultural Research Center said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018Christian\u2019 has become somewhat of a generic term rather than a name that reflects a deep commitment to passionately pursuing and being like Jesus Christ,\u201d Barna said.<\/p>\n<p>The data found that some groups of Christians like self-identified evangelicals and born-again Christians, have views most closely associated with a biblical worldview. There were similar beliefs among the two groups.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom a sociological standpoint, self-identified born-again Christians are the siblings of self-identified evangelicals. There is tremendous overlap between the two niches: in fact, roughly seven out of 10 consider themselves to be part of both segments,\u201d according to the study.<\/p>\n<p>About 62 percent of people who identify themselves as born-again Christians believe that the Holy Spirit isn\u2019t real or a living being but a symbol of God\u2019s power, purity and presence. Some believe that if a person does enough good in this life, they can earn their way to heaven. Each of these views challenge a biblical worldview.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs the groundbreaking American Worldview Inventory surveys have demonstrated, just 6% of U.S. adults possess a biblical worldview. Labeled \u2018Integrated Disciples\u2019 for their demonstrated ability to assimilate their beliefs into their lifestyle, this group consistently \u2014 albeit imperfectly \u2014 comes closest to reflecting biblical principles into their opinions, beliefs, behaviors, and preferences,\u201d Barna said.<\/p>\n<p>What are your thoughts on the study? Do you believe the Holy Spirit is real? Share your thoughts in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new study from Arizona Christian University shows that while most Americans who identify as Christians believe in God, more than half reject some biblical principles and teachings, including the Holy Spirit\u2019s presence. For most Christians, the Holy Spirit is the third divine person of the Trinity. Is it also recognized as God&#8217;s power in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":565,"featured_media":15042,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2204,3411,3408,2495,875],"class_list":["post-15036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christian","tag-christian-study","tag-holy-spirit","tag-study","tag-survey"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is the Holy Spirit Real? Most American Christians Don\u2019t Think So New Study Finds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2021\/09\/is-the-holy-spirit-real-most-american-christians-dont-think-so-new-study-finds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is the Holy Spirit Real? Most American Christians Don\u2019t Think So New Study Finds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A new study from Arizona Christian University shows that while most Americans who identify as Christians believe in God, more than half reject some biblical principles and teachings, including the Holy Spirit\u2019s presence. For most Christians, the Holy Spirit is the third divine person of the Trinity. Is it also recognized as God&#8217;s power in&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2021\/09\/is-the-holy-spirit-real-most-american-christians-dont-think-so-new-study-finds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-13T18:51:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2021\/09\/holyspirit.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"527\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lesli White\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is the Holy Spirit Real? 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Is it also recognized as God&#8217;s power in&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2021\/09\/is-the-holy-spirit-real-most-american-christians-dont-think-so-new-study-finds","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2021-09-13T18:51:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":527,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2021\/09\/holyspirit.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Lesli White","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2021\/09\/is-the-holy-spirit-real-most-american-christians-dont-think-so-new-study-finds","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2021\/09\/is-the-holy-spirit-real-most-american-christians-dont-think-so-new-study-finds","name":"Is the Holy Spirit Real? 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