When ‘evangelical’ Means Everything But The Gospel

For the past 30 years, I’ve pushed back against the critics who’ve said Christians need to abandon the label “evangelical.” I’ve argued that we shouldn’t let political associations or cultural baggage rob us of a word with such rich theological heritage. The term has deep biblical and historical roots that predate and transcend contemporary controversies.

But even I have to admit the label I love has become nearly meaningless in our current American context. What once signified adherence to core biblical truths—the authority of Scripture, the necessity of personal conversion, the centrality of Christ’s atoning work—now functions more as a political identifier than a theological one. As historian Thomas Kidd once said, “In American pop culture parlance, ‘evangelical’ now basically means whites who consider themselves religious and who vote Republican.”

What once signified adherence to core biblical truths now functions more as a political identifier than a theological one.

Perhaps it’s time we concede it is indeed a political label since, as the 2025 State of Theology survey reveals, it doesn’t seem to signify much that’s distinctively orthodox Christian. As the survey shows, self-proclaimed evangelicals in the United States hold beliefs that would have rightly been considered heretical by previous generations of Bible-believing Christians.

Doctrinal Disaster

The State of Theology survey, a project produced by Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research, finds unorthodox views are common among evangelicals. Consider these doctrinal disasters.

On Human Nature

Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of evangelicals believe “Everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God,” while 53 percent affirm that “Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.” This isn’t merely getting a theological nuance wrong; this is a fundamental rejection of the doctrine of original sin that undergirds the entire gospel message. If humans are basically good and born innocent, why did Christ need to die? Rather than being the center of God’s redemptive plan, the cross would be an unnecessary stumbling block (1 Cor. 1:23).

On the Trinity

Despite 98 percent of evangelicals affirming belief in the Trinity, a majority have no understanding that the Trinity is composed of three persons. More than half (53 percent) believe “The Holy Spirit is a force but is not a personal being.” How can any Christians claim to believe in “one God in three persons” while denying the personhood of one of those persons? This would suggest many evangelicals are simply parroting creeds they don’t understand.

On God’s Love

Perhaps most telling, 94 percent of evangelicals believe “God loves all people the same way”—a higher percentage than the general American population (83 percent). This moralistic therapeutic deism masquerading as Christian doctrine erases the biblical distinction between God’s general benevolence toward all creation and his special, saving love toward the elect (Eph. 2:4). It reduces the gospel to a warm sentiment rather than a plan for divine rescue.

On Exclusive Worship

Nearly half (47 percent) of evangelicals also believe “God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.” (Perhaps this is why almost one in five Muslims in America self-identifies as “evangelical.”) This finding is particularly devastating given that all the survey respondents—100 percent—claim, “The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe.” How can Scripture be your highest authority when you reject Christ’s exclusive claims about true worship (John 14:6)? This is also the group that strongly agreed with the statement “Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation”—which makes the response even more confusing.

Church Attendance Crisis

The reason for this theological ignorance becomes clearer when you see how few evangelicals recognize the importance of the church. Only 61 percent of evangelicals believe “Every Christian has an obligation to join a local church.” This individualistic approach to faith adopted by one-third of the movement perfectly explains why evangelical theology has become so confused.

When believers disconnect from the ordinary means of grace—the Word preached, the sacraments administered, and congregational discipline exercised—they inevitably drift into error. When so-called evangelicals receive more spiritual formation from social media, talk radio, and cable news than from a local church, their drift into heretical beliefs becomes all but inevitable.

Admittedly, too many churches have made themselves unattractive by adopting the model of a social club or a political action committee. But the local church is still essential because it’s the institution Christ established to guard the gospel, shepherd his people, and equip the saints. When evangelicals view church membership as optional, they’re essentially saying that Christ’s design for the Christian life is dispensable.

Whatever its flaws, the local church is the way God chooses to carry out his plan. As Jared Wilson has said, “Your weird, messy church . . . is God’s Plan A for your world. And there is no Plan B.”

Path Forward for Church Leaders

The cure for theological confusion is theological clarity. Church leaders must return to the fundamentals of pastoral ministry: teaching, correcting, and discipling. Here’s how we can begin addressing this doctrinal crisis.

Recover Catechetical Instruction

The survey results show the need for basic theological education. Implement catechism classes for all ages. Use proven resources like the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Baptist Catechism. Or implement one of the modern approaches, such as the New City Catechism and the Gospel Way Catechism. These documents exist precisely to prevent the kind of theological confusion we’re witnessing.

Exercise Church Discipline

When church members publicly embrace beliefs that contradict Scripture—like universalism or Pelagianism—it requires a pastoral response. This doesn’t mean being harsh, unloving, or excessively punitive. But it does mean taking doctrine seriously enough to correct error and, if necessary, exclude those who persist in teaching false doctrine.

Emphasize Membership Requirements

Stop treating church membership as automatic on profession of faith. Institute membership classes that clearly articulate what the church believes and expects every member to profess. Make it clear that joining a local church isn’t signing up for a basket of consumer services but covenanting with other believers under the authority of Scripture.

Don’t Dumb It Down

We pastors often think we need to lower the bar on the theological content of our sermons so it doesn’t go over the heads of our congregation. While we shouldn’t use unnecessarily complex jargon, we need to train all our people on basic theological literacy.

Mortimer Adler’s approach to education offers a helpful model for how we can do this. The philosopher likened the differential capacities of children to containers of different sizes and said that equality of educational treatment succeeds when two results occur: “First, each container should be filled to the brim, the half-pint container as well as the gallon container. Second, each container should be filled to the brim with the same quality of substance—cream of the highest attainable quality for all, not skimmed milk for some and cream for others.”

Whatever its flaws, the local church is the way God chooses to carry out his plan.

Preaching and teaching in the church should take the same approach. Use theological vocabulary from the pulpit and explain it for every level. When you preach about sin, explain the doctrine of total depravity in a way that all can grasp. When you preach about salvation, explain substitutionary atonement clearly and coherently. Train your congregation to think theologically about everything. Whether their capacity for understanding is a half-pint or a gallon, fill them to capacity with the cream of God’s truth.

Connect Doctrine to Life

Show how orthodox theology leads to transformed living. The problem isn’t that doctrine is irrelevant to daily life. The problem is that we’ve failed to demonstrate its relevance.

Take, for example, the doctrine of total depravity. When parents truly understand that their children are born with sinful hearts rather than coming into the world as innocent blank slates, they’ll approach discipline as heart transformation rather than mere behavior modification. They’ll rely on the gospel to change their children from the inside out rather than using rules to merely manage external conduct. Right thinking about God’s holiness should produce holy living. And right understanding of human sinfulness should produce humility and dependence on grace.

Let’s Stop Managing Decline

Church leaders can either continue to lament theological compromise or take steps to return to the historic Christian faith that actually deserves the name “evangelical.” The choice will determine whether future generations inherit a robust, biblical faith or an empty shell of cultural Christianity that can tell you whom you should vote for but not how many persons are in the Trinity.

The gospel is too precious to be sacrificed on the altar of political expediency or therapeutic sentimentality. It’s time for pastors and church leaders to choose: Will we shepherd evangelicals toward biblical orthodoxy, or will we continue managing the decline of American Christianity?

We’ve already waited far too long, for this assessment isn’t new (read The Gospel Coalition’s analysis of past State of Theology surveys: 2016, 2020, 2022). Every year we delay, another generation grows up thinking that being “evangelical” means holding certain political positions rather than certain theological convictions. Every Sunday we fail to catechize our people, we cede more ground to the therapeutic deism that has already captured so many evangelical hearts and minds. We need to take action now if we want the gospel to survive in recognizable form among those who claim to champion it most ardently.

The State of Theology survey has—once again—given us the diagnosis. The question is whether we have the courage to finally apply the cure.

Addendum: In the survey, evangelicals were defined by Lifeway Research as people who strongly agreed with the following four statements:

• The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe.
• It is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior.
• Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin.
• Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation.