Study: Majority of Self-Identified Christians Don’t Believe the Holy Spirit is Real

The Story

According to a new study, more than half of self-identified Christians in America say the Holy Spirit is not a real, living being.

The Background

The latest report from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University shows that self-identified Christians in America tend to hold beliefs that are thoroughly unbiblical—even on basic issues of theology.

Determining how many Christians are in America depends on how we limit the term. For example, the vast majority of American adults (69 percent) still self-identify as “Christian.” If we consider only those who consider themselves to born-again Christians, the number drops to about 35 percent of the population. Self-identified evangelicals constitute 28 percent.

The study breaks it down even further by classifying “theological born-again Christians” as those who say that “when they die they will go to heaven, but only because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.” The smallest group in the study are labeled as “Integrated Disciples” since they hold such beliefs as that the Bible is the accurate and reliable Word of God, that God is the all-knowing, all-powerful, and just Creator of the universe who still rules the universe today, and that every moral choice either honors or dishonors God. This group is a mere 6 percent of the population.

Of self-identified Christians, 58 percent contend that the Holy Spirit is not a real, living being but is merely a symbol of God’s power, presence, or purity. Surprisingly, those who identify as born-again Christians are even more likely to hold that view (62 percent), and half of “theological born-again Christians” also deny the Spirit is a being. Even among those with the most biblical worldview—the “integrated disciples”—40 percent hold an unbiblical view of the Holy Spirit. Read More