Biblical knowledge of end times

Our view of the future is key to how we live our lives. If we have hope in a sure eternity, we anchor our souls to a solid belief which helps protect our minds now and when we one day face the prospect of dying. Just as importantly as facing death, even young people benefit from firm hope as they confront potential disappointments in life with family, work, marriage and health. This includes not only personal tragedies but also failing to meet expectations you once possessed for your life. 

 

Teleios recently conducted a survey regarding biblical knowledge of end times. There were 678 responses. Most responders were: female (67%), <35 years old (73%), from the United States (60%) and evangelical (74%). See full results here - End times: What young evangelicals believe? - Teleios, Inc. (teleiosresearch.com).

A plurality of respondents (38%) believed that prophetic literature in the Bible should be interpreted in a normal literal way; otherwise, how the original author intended it, whether a letter, poetry or symbols related to an actual event.

Regarding specific questions about the end times, when a response was provided, participants mostly answered in a biblically consistent way. For example, for the Rapture, the majority identified that it will occur at a time only known by God (78%), when believers will be taken to meet Christ (58%). For the Tribulation, 51% noted that it was a 7-year time period and 42% knew it will happen just before Christ's return to the earth. Respondents indicated clearly 'eternity' is a believer's lasting presence with God (71%).

For the Kingdom of Christ, 36% thought it is a time of peace and prosperity on the earth. However, 57% believed Christ’s Kingdom is heaven, which may not be the case as these locations are described differently in scripture (Daniel 7:27).

Nonetheless, the total percent of correct biblical answers were relatively low (30-55%) even though the percent of wrong answers were generally even lower (<30%). Those marking unsure' typically were between 10-20%.

Wellbeing scores were generally good (4.5; scale of 0-6 with 6 being best) and consistent with our past research. However, those who demonstrated a greater knowledge of eternity as represented in the book of Revelation reported on average better wellbeing (P=0.03).  Interestingly, this finding is consistent with Revelation 1:3 itself in that it promises those who read it persistently will be blessed (happy).

 

These findings indicate that when young evangelicals answer questions about biblical end times they typically are correct. However, the overall percent of those answering correctly was low. This shows a need for better education about Christ’s second coming from pastors and lay leaders to help fortify young evangelicals and their hope in salvation.

 

Unfortunately, teaching about end times is often avoided because of controversy surrounding several different types of end times interpretations including Calvinist versus pre-millennial theologies. However, this problem may be resolved by simply teaching scripture in a literal, normal fashion.

 

Importantly these data also demonstrated better wellbeing for those aware of end times scripture. 

 

Thank you for reading my blog. Return again soon as we continue discuss the amazing facts of the Bible and analyze the encouraging findings from Teleios’ research.

 

William C. Stewart, MD

 

Email – info@teleiosresearch.com

Website – http://teleiosresearch.com

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Disclaimer – This blog and its content are provided only as information and are intended for visitors 18 and older. No content on the website should be taken as advice or recommendation to any personal or institutional situation. The views expressed are those of the author alone and not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Teleios. Both the blog and the contents are subject to change at any time without notice. Although I endeavor to ensure that the blog and the content are current and accurate, it may contain errors. I do not represent that the blog or the content is current, accurate or complete, or appropriate for your specific requirements. I do not accept any liability from any person for the blog, the content or any other information (or the use of such information) I provide. I do not have a seminary degree, but I have trained myself in the scriptures to teach and provide this information. For any specific question, I suggest you contact experts in that field and/or do your own research into the scriptures.

 

How Christianity can impact wellbeing!

 

Teleios has previously shown that Christians who adhere to their faith report better general wellbeing than those who do not routinely practice their faith, and the more one adheres generally to their faith the better their wellbeing (1,2). Here is compelling evidence!

 

Wellbeing is improved in Christians or religious people in Christian countries, affecting:

·       Demographics – All age groups (10 years and older), both genders, and African-American as well as Caucasian races (2-11).

·       Broad wellbeing effect – Specific wellbeing related measures such as: sense of purpose, satisfaction, hope, stronger social relationships, and ability to forgive (1,12).

·       Social measures – Vital areas of life such as the family, career, a sense of community and socialization.

·       Family life – Christianity is associated with good health and higher levels of education and less substance abuse in the children (13). Family religiosity predicts better functioning for parents (14), better social network, and ties with families of friends (9). Further, church promotes happy marital relationships by encouraging spouses, especially the men, to live decent lives and to treat their partners decently (15).

·       Careers – Christianity helps people’s ability to make career decisions and assists them to being open to a variety of career options. They also have been shown to have more positive feelings toward work (16,17).

·       Service – Those who serve in or outside the church have better wellbeing questions including contentment, peace, joy, purpose and community acceptance (1).

·       Practice of the faith – Those who practice the faith especially engaging in prayer, praise, fellowship, church attendance, studying the Bible and outreach to others have better wellbeing than those who do not. Further, the more one practices their faith the better generally will be their wellbeing.

·       Physical health, healthy and patient populations – Christianity assists wellbeing in specific diseases including: glaucoma, rheumatoid arthritis, various cancers, chronic pain, fatigue, diabetes, diabetic eye disease, congestive heart failure, and HIV (18-23).

 

Teleios recently explored the effects of Christianity by evaluating evangelicals versus non-believers and self-reported levels of wellbeing. This is the first survey, to our knowledge, evaluating wellbeing in young Christians versus non-Christians. These findings make sense based on prior research. The survey was conducted on two Instagram accounts frequented by adolescents and millennials; one being mostly followed by Christians and another by the general population.  See full results here - Christians have better personal wellbeing than non-Christians.

 

There were 1186 responses. The majority of responses were: female (68%), < 30 years (76%), and primarily from the United States (40%) and Europe (16%). The respondents identified themselves as: evangelical Christians (33%), social Christians (29%), Christian seekers (5%) and non-Christians (33%).

 

Personal wellbeing was better among evangelical Christians (4.6, on a scale of 0-6 with 6 being highest) compared to social Christians (4.1), Christian seekers (4.0) or non-Christians (4.3, P=0.001). The findings for wellbeing were also supported by further results that evangelicals were more content (P=0.001), at peace (P>0.001), and joyful (P=0.002) than the other groups. No differences between groups were observed in feelings of guilt (P=0.426).

 

We do not know all of the factors associated with good wellbeing and Christianity, but here are a few good potential reasons:

·       A sure confident relationship with God leaving guilt behind

·       A source of truth for daily living which helps avoid unethical people and damaging situations while allowing you to conduct a healthy life with good professional and family relationships

·       A confident hope for the future, and that no matter what happens in this life as well as in death, you have a sure home with God

 

In summary - Our gracious and loving God has provided us a wonderful salvation and a way through scripture to live a wise, fruitful and joyful life. Join us again soon for another exciting blog in the benefits of scripture.

 

William C. Stewart, MD

 

Email – info@teleiosresearch.com

Website – http://teleiosresearch.com

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/TeleiosResearch

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Disclaimer – This blog and its content are provided only as information and are intended for visitors 18 and older. No content on the website should be taken as advice or recommendation to any personal or institutional situation. The views expressed are those of the author alone and not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Teleios. Both the blog and the contents are subject to change at any time without notice. Although I endeavor to ensure that the blog and the content are current and accurate, it may contain errors. I do not represent that the blog or the content is current, accurate or complete, or appropriate for your specific requirements. I do not accept any liability from any person for the blog, the content or any other information (or the use of such information) I provide. I do not have a seminary degree, but I have trained myself in the scriptures to teach and provide this information. For any specific question, I suggest you contact experts in that field and/or do your own research into the scriptures.

 

 

References

1.       MacIlvaine WR, et al. Association of strength of community service to personal well-being. Community Ment Health J 2014;50:577-82.

2.       MacIlvaine WR, et al. Association of strength of religious adherence to quality of life measures. Complement Ther Clin Pract 2013;19:251-5.

3.       Francis LJ, Kaldor P. The relationship between psychological well-being and Christian faith and practice in an Australian population sample. J Sci Study Relig 2002;41:79-184.

4.       Francis LJ, et al. Religiosity and general health among undergraduate students: a response to O’Connor, Cobb, and O’Connor (2003). Pers Indiv Differ 2004;37:485-94.

5.       Leondari A, Gialamas V. Religiosity and psychological well-being. Int J Psychol 2009;44:241-8.

6.       Koenig LB, Vaillant GE. A prospective study of church attendance and health over the lifespan. Health Psych 2009;28:117-24.

7.       Krause N. God-mediated control and change in self-rated health. Int J Psychol Relig 2010;20:267-87.

8.       Hamilton JB, et al. Reading The Bible for guidance, comfort, and strength during stressful life events. Nurs Res 2013;62:178-84.

9.       Smith C. Religious participation and network closure among American adolescents. J Sci Study Relig 2003;42:259-67.

10.    Demir M, Urberg KA. Church attendance and well-being among adolescents. J Belief Values 2004;25:63-8.

11.    Markstrom CA. Religious involvement and adolescent psychosocial development. J Adolesc 1999;22:205-22.

12.    Stewart WC, et al. The source and impact of specific parameters that enhance well-being in daily life. J Rel Health 2016;55:1326-35.

13.    Caputo RK. Parent religiosity, family processes, and adolescent outcomes. Fam Soc: J Contemp Soc Serv, 2004;85:495-510.

14.    Agate ST, et al. Praying, playing, and successful families: an examination of family religiosity, family leisure, and family functioning. Marriage & Family Review 2007;42:51-75.

15.    Wilcox WB, Wolfinger NH. Living and loving “decent”: religion and relationship quality among urban parents. Soc Sci Res 2008;37:828-43.

16.    Duffy RD, Blustein DL. The relationship between spirituality, religiousness, and career adaptability. J Voc Behav 2005;67:429-40.

17.    Martinson OB, Wilkening EA. Religion, work specialization, and job satisfaction: interactive effects. Rev Relig Res 1983;24:347-56.

18.    Stewart WC, et al. Association of strength of religious adherence to attitudes regarding glaucoma or ocular hypertension. Ophthalmic Res 2011:45:53-6.

19.    Chen S, et al. Prevalence and correlates of supportive care needs in oral cancer patients with and without anxiety during the diagnostic period. Cancer Nursing 2010;33:280-9.

20.    Cotton S, et al. Exploring the relationships among spiritual well-being, quality of life, and psychological adjustment in women with breast cancer. Psychooncology 1999;8:429-38.

21.    Matthews D, et al. Effects of intercessory prayer on patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Southern Medical Journal 2000;93:1177-86.

22.    Silvestri G, et al. Importance of faith on medical decisions regarding cancer care. J Clinical Oncology 2003; 21:1379–1382.

23.    Stewart WC, et al. Review of clinical medicine and religious practice. J Relig Health Mar 2013;52:91-106.

 

Can you identify unbelievers in your church?

 

Welcome back to my blog. Thank you for taking time to read it. We are continuing our series about exciting research findings from Teleios! Today let us explore the incidence of unbelievers a.k.a. “tares” in the church.

 

Christ promised in Matthew 13 that there would be tares in the church. A tare is a plant that resembles wheat but cannot be correctly identified until harvest); so, Jesus’ term means those who appear as a Christian, but really are not true believers. Christ indicated tares would be difficult to differentiate from true believers until the end times. Nonetheless, since the church includes unbelievers, we should try our best to discern their identity, so we might help them come to faith (1 John 2-4).

 

We investigated the potential incidence and effect of tares in the church by surveying users of the Instagram account, Instapray, often visited by young adult Christians. In total, 1526 individuals participated and 73% described themselves as evangelicals. Just over half had at least some college education and the average age was 23 (More data - An important subset of unbelievers).

 

We evaluated the potential incidence of tares by asking participants how they were saved in a multiple-choice question which included no responses indicating ‘saved by grace’. To answer the question correctly the participant had to choose ‘other’ and supply the correct answer. 

 

The second question then asked respondents if they were ‘saved by grace through faith alone.’ After seeing this, participants could not return to the prior question and change their answer. 

 

Interestingly, in the first question only 25% knew the correct response was not available and supplied an answer under ‘other’. Of these, approximately 60% included some statement regarding being ‘saved by grace or faith without works’, approximately 16% of the total survey population.

 

In contrast, the second question, which provided the right answer as a choice, was selected by 95% of participants. These two questions created a spread of 16% - 95% (79% difference) between those who could express salvation by grace without a written prompt versus having to read the correct answer. 

 

This is important to pastors and lay teachers because, it suggests at a minimum, a significant percent of people identifying as church attending evangelicals do not clearly and/or confidently understand their salvation; and might be a tare. Additional survey questions found that these potential tares often demonstrated several other attributes:

• Reduced adherence to the Christian faith
• Lower levels of wellbeing
• Greater levels of guilt
• Less favorable opinions of church leadership

Why is this information important? It may explain some of the difficulties in the modern church in accomplishing efficient and effective ministry. We found through our prior surveys that a significant minority of congregants come to church with alternative agendas than a biblically based purpose which include reasons of especially power and self-seeking attention. 

 

If the church considers those with persistent alternative agendas, may not actually be Christian, it might help the leadership know how to help them. They need to hear the gospel! All the attention and approbation in the world will not solve their problem. 1 John 2-4 clearly states those who do not agree with the basic doctrine of Christ, do not show love or obedience, other church membership should lovingly question their salvation.

 

Thank you for joining me today. We'll discover more about the Tare survey results in next week's blog. Please join me then.

 

William C. Stewart, MD

 

Email – info@teleiosresearch.com

Website – http://teleiosresearch.com

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/TeleiosResearch

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Disclaimer – This blog and its content are provided only as information and are intended for visitors 18 and older. No content on the website should be taken as advice or recommendation to any personal or institutional situation. The views expressed are those of the author alone and not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Teleios. Both the blog and the contents are subject to change at any time without notice. Although I endeavor to ensure that the blog and the content are current and accurate, it may contain errors. I do not represent that the blog or the content is current, accurate or complete, or appropriate for your specific requirements. I do not accept any liability from any person for the blog, the content or any other information (or the use of such information) I provide. I do not have a seminary degree, but I have trained myself in the scriptures to teach and provide this information. For any specific question, I suggest you contact experts in that field and/or do your own research into the scriptures.

 

 

 

 

Something on which to meditate

 

Welcome back to my blog. Thank you for taking time to read it. 

 

We have been discussing the exciting research findings from Teleios! Over the past several weeks we have shown that peer-reviewed medical literature and Teleios scientific studies support improved wellbeing with Christianity in both healthy individuals and those suffering with disease! 

 

Today let us explore meditation versus church attendance. Why do that? The world constantly tries to replace God with something they consider just as good, but consistent with their goals. Their biggest desire is to replace God with the state where everyone is individually tethered to the government for their life’s sustenance. 

 

On a more personal level, the world often encourages the practice of meditation as a help to wellbeing. We see this in advertisements, particularly from drug companies, who wish to depict people in some pastoral setting maintaining some impossible postural stance, supposedly taking the company’s new medicine, and enjoying good wellbeing! Of course, God or prayer would never be considered in such ads.

 

Further, meditation is frequently used in the medical literature as a secular method to increase wellbeing for patients and at the same time avoid suggesting or endorsing religion.¹ However, surveys show individuals who attend church, at least occasionally, and the vast majority believe God exists. Our culture generally does not live in fields doing slow motion exercises as depicted on drug advertising. Accordingly, we reviewed the medical literature to compare the effect of meditation to church attendance on wellbeing in physically healthy subjects. 

 

Our review included 37 articles and showed that several types of meditation practices, and church attendance of a variety of denominations, provided improved general wellbeing among physically healthy populations (read more details here https://teleiosresearch.com/church-attendance-meditation-wellbeing/).  

 

However, such a simple solution as replacing religion with meditation has several potential problems:

• Meditation is a religiously based practice derived from Hinduism.² Therefore, the practice of meditation does not completely avoid religion.
• The long-term effect of meditation over a person’s lifetime has not been well studied. In contrast, historically, people that attended church their whole lives have done so without known general detrimental clinical effects.  
• Meditation only is practiced by approximately 9% of individuals in the United States; whereas church attendance is a foundational institution in American culture, attended by 70% (at least once monthly to yearly).^3,4
• Christian church attendance is associated with other specific findings, not associated with meditation, which might positively contribute to general wellbeing such as: 
• Community service
• Prayer
•  Socialization
• Praise
• Confidence in a positive relationship with God based in a biblical definition of eternal life as a free gift through faith in Christ’s sacrifice.^5-8

• Further, improved wellbeing is associated with adherence to the Christian walk.  
• The articles we reviewed did not differentiate the quality of Christian practice of participants, as church attendance is only one activity. Teleios has shown those who adhere more closely to their Christian faith have improved wellbeing. Accordingly, such practices might lead to improved wellbeing over what meditation would allow. A well-designed prospective study would be needed to show this. 
• In contrast, the several medical studies that have showed religion had no positive impact on wellbeing, the practice of the patients’ religion was internal (self-focused) much like meditation is by nature. Christianity at its heart is a service and love for others.

 

Our review of the medical literature suggests meditation and church attendance may offer a benefit to wellbeing. However, the complete practice of Christianity, which may include church attendance, generally provides better wellbeing than church attendance alone.  

 

1.     https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=meditation+well-being

2.     http://www.religionfacts.com/hinduism/practices  

3.     https://nccih.nih.gov/research/statistics/NHIS/2012/mind-body/meditation

4.     http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/09/13/what-surveys-say-about-worship-attendance-and-why-some-stay-home/

5.     https://teleiosresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/CV-TELEIOS-GCC-I-CTCP-2013.pdf

6.     https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12848838/

7.     https://archive.org/details/basictheology0000ryri

8.     https://teleiosresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/CV-TELEIOS-GCC-II-CMHJ-2013.pdf

 

William C. Stewart, MD

 

Email – info@teleiosresearch.com

Website – http://teleiosresearch.com

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/TeleiosResearch

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/TeleiosResearch

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/TeleiosVideos

X - https://x.com/TeleiosTweets

TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@teleiostiktok

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/teleiosresearch

 

Disclaimer – This blog and its content are provided only as information and are intended for visitors 18 and older. No content on the website should be taken as advice or recommendation to any personal or institutional situation. The views expressed are those of the author alone and not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Teleios. Both the blog and the contents are subject to change at any time without notice. Although I endeavor to ensure that the blog and the content are current and accurate, it may contain errors. I do not represent that the blog or the content is current, accurate or complete, or appropriate for your specific requirements. I do not accept any liability from any person for the blog, the content or any other information (or the use of such information) I provide. I do not have a seminary degree, but I have trained myself in the scriptures to teach and provide this information. For any specific question, I suggest you contact experts in that field and/or do your own research into the scriptures.