AT WHAT AGE
ARE CHRISTIANS SAVED?

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Overview

Approximately 76% of American adults consider themselves Christians. But only about 40% consider themselves as having been saved or "born again." That is because the concept of being "saved" is largely restricted to Fundamentalist, other Evangelical, and other conservative mainline denominations. Many members of Roman Catholic, mainline/liberal Protestant denominations, and followers of other religions do have religious conversion experiences. However, they do not necessarily involve being "born again" in the religiously conservative sense. Barna Research, the largest religious polling agency in the U.S. found that the overwhelming percentage of those who are saved have experienced salvation before reaching their 14^th birthday. 

About being saved:

Conservative Christians typically believe that one must be "saved" in order to attain heaven. Since they believe that the only alternative to spending eternity in heaven is to be perpetually isolated from God in Hell, they have a very strong motivation to make certain that their children are saved. Otherwise, their family will be eternally divided in the future and some members will be eternally lost. These concerns are particularly acute for Fundamentalist parents who interpret the many descriptions of Hell in the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) literally. They believe that the inhabitants of hell are tortured forever without any hope of cessation or relief. They suffer from whippings, sensory depravation due to the darkness of Hell, unbearable heat, terrible thirst, and flesh-eating worms. Beliefs in heaven and hell motivated most conservative Christian parents to continually urge their children to be saved. Most of their children comply.

Setup of the Barna poll

Barna Research is a leading religious polling group. In 1999-NOV-12 they announced the results of their most recent religious survey. They interviewed over 4,200 individuals: over 3,000 adults and over 1,200 youths. Sampling error is within 2 percentage points at the 95% confidence interval. Subjects were considered to have been saved:

Results from the poll

Should evangelism be concentrated on children?

Barn Research concluded: 

They concluded that more evangelical programs should be directed at children and youth.

Should evangelism be concentrated on teens and adults?

An alternative way of looking at the same data is to consider the total percentage of individuals who are saved by the time that they attain certain ages:

The data can be interpreted as showing that, by the age of 18, essentially all members of Evangelical churches have probably already been "saved." More intensive evangelizing of their congregation's youth and adults would not result in many additional conversions.

Perhaps a conservative Christian congregation can make the most effective use of their resources by directing their evangelism programs outside their denomination, at adults who are are members of other faith groups.

By the age of 19, the vast majority of unsaved are probably:

Although this is where the vast bulk of unsaved individuals are located, it is particularly difficult to evangelize them, for a number of reasons:

References

1. "Teens and adults have little chance of accepting Christ as their savior," Barna Research press release, 1999-NOV-15. This release is no longer available online. However, it was publised in the 1999-OCT issue of Barna Reports, which can be ordered at: http://www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PageProduct.asp?ProductID=66

Copyright © 1999, 2000, & 2002 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 1999-NOV-12
Latest update: 2002-SEP-12
Author: B.A. Robinson