From CNS News.
Excerpt:
A study released by the Rasmussen Reports polling firm on Good Friday found that 64% of Americans believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
While Americans who believe in the resurrection remain in the majority, that number is down significantly when compared to a Rasmussen Poll that asked the same question, released a year ago.
On April 7th, 2012 Rasmussen released a poll finding that 77% of Americans believed the resurrection of Christ to be historical fact.
The difference between the two polls shows a 13 percentage point drop in the number of Americans who believe that Christ rose from the dead, since last Easter.
Additionally, this year’s poll found that 19% of Americans reject the central tenant of the Christian faith and do not believe that Christ was resurrected. That’s compared to only 7% who said they didn’t believe that Christ rose from the dead a year ago. A staggering 12 percentage point jump.
I’ve been posting some resurrection-related material lately, trying to get people to focus more on the evidence for the resurrection. But I can’t change what pastors teach their flocks on Sundays. If I had my way, pastors would be using materials like J. Warner Wallace’s “Cold-Case Christianity” to train people to make the case for the historical resurrection of Jesus. But it seems to me that most pastors are more interested in providing their flocks with praise hymns, worship and subjective experiences. None of that can demonstrate that the resurrection really happened. We need pastors who emphasize teaching real knowledge of objective truths linked to the real world.