Survey Data from George Barna’s “Real Teens”

·         96% of teens claim that they believe in God.

o        Of these, two thirds believe in the God described in the Bible (the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect Creator of the universe who still rules the universe today.)

o        The remaining third is a split between New Age, narcissistic, and eastern views of deity.

·         86% of teens describe themselves as Christian.

·         Only 3 out of 10 self-described Christian teenagers claim to be “absolutely committed” to it.

·         About 6 out of 10 teenagers say that they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their lives.  However, of these…

o        16% do not know what will happen after death.

o        24% believe that their salvation is based on something other than grace.

o        60% believe that they will have eternal salvation because of their confession of sin and acceptance of Jesus as savior.  These are what Barna refers to as “born again” teens.  These teens are about one third of the population.  However, of these…

§         40% of “born again” teens believe that Jesus committed sins while He was on earth.  This statistic is important and disturbing.  If Jesus was not sinless, He could not be our Savior.  For salvation to take place, we need a sinless substitute, a “lamb without blemish.”  Unfortunately, I do not believe that we can consider these 40% of “born again” teens to be truly saved.

§         50% of all “born again” teenagers believe that a person can earn his or her way into heaven!  (One is not yet saved if he believes that he is earning his way into heaven.)

§         68% of “born again” teens view the Holy Spirit as a symbol of God’s presence of power, but not a living entity.  This amounts to a denial of the Trinity.

§         55% of “born again” teens believe Satan is not a living being, but only a symbol of evil.

§         50% of “born again” teens agree that all religious faiths teach equally valid truths.

·         60% of teens believe that the Bible is totally accurate in all of its teachings.

·         However… 75% of teens believe that a central message of the Bible is that God helps those who help themselves.  (Note: This is not something that the Bible teaches.  The Bible teaches that we need GRACE… the undeserved favor of God.  “God helps those who help themselves” is a quote from Ben Franklin, not the Bible.)

·         Only 1 out of 3 teens accept the Bible’s teaching that people who do not consciously accept Jesus as their savior will be condemned to hell.

·         Only 4% of the teen population is what Barna categorizes as “evangelical.”  (This number is down from 10% in 1995.)  To be considered evangelical, all of the following must be true about them.

(1)    They must have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important to their lives.

(2)    They believe that they will have eternal salvation because of their confession of sin and acceptance of Jesus as savior

(3)    They must describe their religious life as very important

(4)    They must affirm Jesus’ sinless life

(5)    They must believe in an omnipotent and omniscient deity who created the world and still rules the world today

(6)    They believe the Bible is totally accurate in all it teaches

(7)    They accept personal responsibility to evangelize

(8)    They believe that Satan exists

(9)   They believe salvation is possible by grace alone.