(Blog) America Still Believes in the Supernatural; but not God's Supernatural - Ep. 997 - October 16, 2026

America Believes in the Supernatural, but Doubts the Bible

Belief in the supernatural doesn't necessarily mean belief in the miracles recorded in Scripture. For Christians, that gap matters because our faith rests on God's supernatural power, including the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In episode 997 of The Smith and Rowland Show, we discussed Americans' openness to spiritual realities alongside their uncertainty about biblical truth. The figures that opened our conversation raised a concern about what people believe and where they place their trust.

What Americans Believe About Biblical Miracles

The article we discussed, "America Still Believes in the Supernatural, Just Not Necessarily the Bible," cited the American Bible Society's 2026 State of the Bible Report. Its central observation was that a more secular America hasn't abandoned belief in realities beyond the physical world.

Here are the figures cited in the discussion:

The contrast concerns biblical authority. More Americans express belief in the supernatural generally than in these particular miracles.

During the conversation, we clarified that the article described Americans' beliefs, rather than a survey limited to Christians. Even so, we raised the possibility that the same divide exists within the church.

People may believe in God, heaven, hell, angels, demons, spiritual attacks, and divine intervention while remaining uncertain about the events at the heart of Christianity. That leaves a question about which account of the spiritual world they trust.

Spiritual Curiosity Without a Biblical Foundation

The article challenged the assumption that education, scientific thinking, or sophistication necessarily eliminates supernatural belief. Many Americans still believe that unseen forces affect the physical world and that life continues after death.

Their hesitation concerns accepting Scripture as the authoritative explanation of those realities.

The article put the concern this way:

What happens to a nation that remains spiritually curious but becomes increasingly disconnected from biblical truth?

Jeff asked whether an appetite for supernatural experiences, separated from confidence in God's Word, leaves people open to demonic influence. Alan agreed about the danger but made a distinction: disconnection from God doesn't automatically mean someone has knowingly connected with the powers of darkness.

He compared that condition to an astronaut becoming disconnected from the spacecraft. The person is adrift, without the connection needed for safety. He also used the picture of an unplugged light: without its source, it can't give light.

Both illustrations point to the same concern. Spiritual interest alone doesn't provide a sound foundation for understanding spiritual experiences.

Christianity Depends on God's Supernatural Power

Christianity cannot lose its supernatural foundation and remain intact. The resurrection of Christ is central to the faith, and the virgin birth belongs to the same account of God's miraculous work.

Throughout Scripture, God acts beyond ordinary human ability. The parting of the Red Sea and Jonah's encounter with the great fish belong to that biblical testimony.

We discussed how an approach governed entirely by human explanation can begin to remove those events from the faith. The Red Sea becomes something smaller and easier to explain. Jonah becomes only a parable. Eventually, the same approach reaches the virgin birth and the resurrection.

Our concern is making intellectual certainty a condition that God must satisfy before we trust His Word.

Jeff connected attacks on biblical confidence with the serpent's question to Eve: "Did God say?" In his view, the strategy remains the same, eroding trust in what God has spoken.

That makes the issue larger than whether someone accepts the general possibility of miracles. Christians are dealing with the testimony of Scripture about who God is and what He has done.

Rejecting Hell Raises Questions About Heaven

During the discussion, Jeff referred to another article on Prophecy News Watch about a Halloween-season promotion associated with part of the Methodist Church. According to that article, the promotion declared that hell isn't real.

We weren't describing every Methodist congregation or every Methodist believer. Our objection concerned the teaching itself.

If we reject Scripture's testimony about hell, what grounds remain for accepting its testimony about heaven? Both concern realities beyond what our eyes have seen.

The conversation acknowledged the limits of our descriptions. Scripture gives images of torment, heat, and the need for water in its account of judgment. It also describes heaven with streets of gold. Yet those descriptions don't mean we can fully explain either destination.

Eternity was another part of the discussion. As we said, forever is a long time.

Jeff also expressed his belief that there are degrees of experience in both heaven and hell. His point was that neither will necessarily be identical for everyone. The broader concern remained our willingness to receive biblical teaching about realities we haven't personally seen.

What One Lutheran Group Preserved

Our conversation about biblical foundations led to an account Alan had read about a Lutheran group that chose to preserve its traditions.

A hymnal and a decision made decades earlier

Alan recalled that roughly 60 years earlier, the group had recognized a broader movement toward more liberal church practices. Its response centered on preservation rather than a political argument over liberal and conservative labels.

The group kept its hymnal and traditional songs. Alan remembered a collection of approximately 437 hymns that the group had reviewed and agreed to retain.

In the account he discussed, which he connected with Barna's research, the group's membership had remained stable or grown by about 1% to 2%. Other denominations in that comparison had declined by 40% to 50%. Alan didn't identify the Lutheran body by name.

Why the songs mattered

Our interest went beyond attachment to familiar music. We value the old hymns because so many contain biblical truth set to music.

Preserving those songs also preserved a way for congregations to remember and sing Scripture's teaching. That gave the example weight in a conversation about churches losing contact with their foundations.

We also made clear that tradition isn't automatically good or bad. The biblical instruction to hold fast to what is good gives preservation a purpose beyond keeping something merely because it's old.

Revival, Church Changes, and the Old Paths

We reflected on the revival beginnings of several Christian movements, including the Methodist and Lutheran churches, the Baptist tradition, and the charismatic movement. The discussion also connected America's beginnings with the preaching of the Great Awakening.

Our concern was what happened when later generations stopped preserving the truths and practices that had shaped those beginnings.

Jeff described the temptation to enter the "improvement business." Preaching, music, and church practices become subjects for continual revision, yet changes don't automatically produce stronger churches or deeper biblical knowledge.

Looking back over those changes, he argued that many supposed improvements had taken churches farther from their foundations.

This led to the biblical language of the old paths and the responsibility to establish markers for the next generation. We acknowledged that we hadn't abandoned our own foundations, but perhaps we hadn't spoken about them enough.

The responsibility also runs in both directions. While fathers can fail to pass down the faith, children can reject what their fathers tried to give them. Generational loss can't always be explained by one side's failure.

Even amid denominational disagreements, we affirmed that those who have been born again are brothers and sisters in Christ. The concern is the tearing apart of believers and their shared foundations.

The Warning About Seducing Spirits

An appetite for supernatural experiences creates danger when people lack biblical knowledge. We connected that concern with Paul's warning in 1 Timothy 4:1:

"In the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils."

The verse describes people departing from the faith while continuing to respond to spiritual influences. Seducing spirits and doctrines of devils are supernatural, but their supernatural character doesn't make them trustworthy.

Jeff mentioned that he had recently taught on this passage and planned to address it again in Morganton. He saw it as a direct description of the concern raised by the article: people can reject the body of biblical truth while remaining open to spiritual claims.

We also connected that vulnerability with the signs and wonders associated with the Antichrist. In our understanding of the end times, those signs will appeal to people who want supernatural experiences without submitting those experiences to Scripture.

The warning extends to the church. We referred to the biblical warning about deception so persuasive that, if possible, it would deceive even the elect.

The conversation briefly included speculation about whether the Antichrist could have a Muslim and Jewish background. We acknowledged that we don't know his identity. The concern was the deception itself and the need for biblical grounding.

The Battle Over the Soul of America

We discussed the national implications alongside references to Iran, the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, and Russia's war with Ukraine. Jeff also mentioned a figure of 300,000 Houthi fighters and said he hadn't realized the group's reported size.

Those conflicts formed part of a larger point: we believe America's deepest struggle concerns its spiritual condition.

Jeff used Joe Biden's phrase, the "soul of America," and agreed that the nation's soul is at stake. In our conversation, that meant the country's relationship with biblical truth and the authority of God's Word.

We connected America's beginnings with people whose desire to worship God led them across the ocean in small ships. Their journey required trust beyond what they could control or explain.

That history informed our concern about the present. A nation may retain an interest in spiritual things while losing confidence in the biblical truths that helped shape it.

Belief and Lasting Confidence Aren't Identical

Later in the conversation, Jeff reflected on a mistake he had made: assuming that when people said they believed the Bible was God's Word, their statement meant they trusted what it said.

Some accepted biblical miracles as events belonging to the past but struggled with God's supernatural activity in the present. The question of time exposed a gap between their profession of belief and their expectations.

Alan then asked whether a person can believe without feeling fully convinced. We pointed to the biblical plea, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief," as an acknowledgment that faith and uncertainty can exist together.

Jeff distinguished a moment of belief from the enduring confidence described in Hebrews. He connected that confidence with laying aside hindrances and running the race with patience.

In that discussion, confidence meant a settled spiritual constitution that supports endurance. It holds beyond a passing moment of assurance.

We agreed that waiting until every uncertainty disappears can become its own obstacle. Trust can begin while questions remain.

The Child Who Trusted His Grandfather

Alan shared a story about a grandfather and his young grandson, who was standing on a porch. The grandfather invited the boy to jump and promised to catch him.

The child wanted to jump, but he hesitated. Then his grandfather said, "Trust me."

The boy jumped.

Alan used the story to explain how a person can act on trust without first reaching complete intellectual certainty. The child had a relationship with his grandfather and a promise to rely on, even though he hesitated over what would happen next.

In our discussion, faith involved that willingness to trust God's character. A person may have enough understanding to make a decision while still lacking answers to every question.

Alan described how trust can mature into a settled knowing: God has our best interests at heart. That confidence concerns God's character, even when we can't predict the outcome of a particular situation.

Trust When Grief Leaves Questions Unanswered

Jeff shared that he had learned that day of the unexpected death of a 32-year-old friend. The man had been found in bed, and at the time of the conversation, no one knew why he had died.

That news gave the discussion of trust a painful, immediate context. Trusting God doesn't guarantee that we can explain what happens to us or to people we love.

Jeff recalled hearing Walter Brueggemann respond to the question "Why is this happening to me?" with "Why not you?" He used that thought to challenge the expectation that believers should be exempt from suffering.

His point was that trust must extend beyond the consequences of life on earth. God's care cannot depend on every event making sense to us.

The loss remained unexplained. Our conversation didn't supply a reason for it. Instead, Jeff affirmed his belief that God holds our best interests in His heart even when we face outcomes we don't understand.

What Parachuting Taught Jeff About Hesitation

Jeff also drew on his experience jumping from airplanes with a parachute.

He explained that leaving the aircraft required a forceful, committed jump with the right body position. When a jumper hesitated instead, the parachute risers could strike the neck and leave painful bruises.

He used that experience as an illustration of hesitation in the Christian life. In his view, reluctance to trust God can bring its own pain.

The story connected with the grandfather's invitation to the child, but it added another detail: hesitation itself can have consequences. Trust involves a decision to act on what we believe about the one who holds us.

That was the practical weight of our discussion. Biblical confidence concerns how we live when uncertainty remains, including moments when moving forward feels costly.

Trusting Scripture Without Solving Every Miracle

As the conversation returned to biblical miracles, we affirmed our trust in the virgin birth, the resurrection, and God's parting of the Red Sea.

Jeff emphasized that he meant the Red Sea, with an actual body of water miraculously divided, rather than an explanation designed to reduce the event to something ordinary. We also affirmed the account of Jonah and the great fish.

Neither of us claimed to possess an intellectual explanation for how God accomplished those events. Our confidence rested in trusting the Bible as God's Word.

We discussed the limits of approaching Scripture only through the reasoning mind. In our understanding, walking in the Spirit involves receiving God's testimony rather than treating our ability to explain it as the final authority.

Alan brought the issue back to a simple decision. A person can acknowledge uncertainty and still decide to trust what God has said.

Memorizing more information or having greater intellectual ability doesn't remove that decision. The question remains whether we trust God and His Word in the situation before us.

Biblical Faith Requires More Than Spiritual Interest

America's openness to the supernatural doesn't settle the question of its confidence in Scripture. Spiritual curiosity can remain strong while trust in biblical miracles weakens.

For us, the central issue is trust in God. That trust includes receiving His Word and relying on His character when grief or uncertainty leaves us without answers.

Christian faith rests on the God who acts supernaturally, whether or not we can explain how He does it.

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