Why are 64% of American churchgoers wrong about Heaven?

Recent survey shows 64% of churchgoers do not understand the biblical way of salvation.

What are American churchgoers being taught from the pulpit these days about what happens after death? Clearly something is terribly amiss. A 2025 study by Dr. George Barna and Dr. David Closson reveals the dire situation.

Only 36% correctly affirm: “You will go to Heaven if you repent of sin and accept Christ.” The rest of American churchgoers are completely misguided regarding who goes to Heaven.

The Family Research Council released the study a few months ago. And here is what people in the pew actually think:

  • “Everyone goes to Heaven” (14%).
  • “Everyone is purified, then goes to Heaven” (12%).
  • “Don’t know” (12%).
  • “You go to Heaven if you did good deeds” (11%).
  • “You cease to exist” (7%).
  • “You are reincarnated” (7%).
  • “You go to Hell” (2%).

Why are two-thirds of churchgoers wrong about something so foundational to Christianity? If your pastor is not preaching the Gospel, you should switch to a church where the truth of Scripture is being taught.

Half of American churchgoers (49%) either do not know who goes to Heaven, or believe that everyone goes to Heaven, or think that everyone is purified and then goes to Heaven. These statistics are shocking! And remember, these are people who actually attend church!

The biggest problem is that many pastors are not firmly rooting believers in the Gospel and the truth of Scripture. How else can you account for this sorry state of affairs among American churchgoers?

Southern Baptist professor Dr. Dustin Benge said, “You don’t need massive platforms, radical ideas, and revolutionary fervor to accomplish great things for God. Do the ordinary things: Serve in a local church, Stand on the truth, Share the Gospel, Love people. God uses ‘ordinary’ people to turn the world upside down.”

The Apostle Paul would have never made an impact if it were not for the power of the Gospel. And the same is true for all of the apostles, as well as anyone who has ever been called by the Holy Spirit to preach God’s Word.

— Read on www.christianpost.com/voices/why-are-64-of-american-churchgoers-wrong-about-heaven.html

I hope you are spreading the biblical gospel in your sphere of influence and beyond.      Blessings to you!

Carl

How the Monks Deceived the People

It is amazing what you learn reading church history. For example:

In the 1500s, the city of Geneva Switzerland was the first city in Switzerland to go all in on the Protestant Reformation. The council of Two Hundred suspended certain Roman Catholic practices and then… “The monasteries were next invaded; and there were some startling revelations of frauds by which the people had been so long and so grossly deluded, and the vast superstition upheld.”

“Many of the secret machinations and impostures are too vile to be transferred to our pages; but one, which is more amusing than revolting, we may quote. A number of strange lights, or small flames of fire, would sometimes be seen moving about the churchyard at night, to the utter amazement of the people. What could they be ? was the question. “These”, answered the priest, gravely, “are souls from purgatory. They have come to excite on their behalf the compassion of their living relatives. Will fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, not freely give of their money for prayers and masses that we may not have to return to the place of torment ? was their pitiful cry.”

“The effect of this imposture was another golden harvest to the priest. But what were these livid lights and blue flames really? They were simply a number of crabs with little bits of candles stuck on their backs, the heat of which may have propelled their movements. The enlightened public, indignant at having been so long deceived, relieved the crabs of their fiery burdens, and threw them back into the cool waters of the lake.”

Source: Andrew Miller, Miller’s Church History (PICKERING & INGLIS LTD, London, 1976), p. 908. (Miller is quoting historians Waddington, vol. iii., p.275 and Wylie, vol. ii. p. 273)

What brought about these amazing changes in the Geneva citizens? They started listening to preachers who preached the whole truth from the Bible, particularly the New Testament, and, thanks to the newfangled printing press, they were able to read the Scriptures for themselves without the gloss of the priest.

Divine Light from the Scriptures banished the ignorance and superstition that had held these people in fear and gross darkness. They began to walk in the Light and the doctrine of purgatory, plus many others, was exposed as a lie and just a money-making tool of the Roman Catholic Church.

Have you seen the divine Light that comes from reading the Holy Scriptures ? Or are you still looking at the strange lights in the graveyard and listening to the priest?

Happy New Year to all. May God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be your Guide in 2025.

Carl

First Contact

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said…”

Genesis 3:1

In this Scripture from Genesis, the first book of the Holy Bible, we have an account of Satan’s first contact with the human race.

What does this fallen angelic being say?

“… has God said…”

From his first interaction with our race of beings, his goal has been to cast doubt on what God has already said.  Today, he is still using this tactic and, as a result, many people see no need to read the greatest book ever written, the Holy Bible.

Christian, be sure to reject this lie because

[19] “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? Num. 23:19

Carl