THE BIBLE SAW IT COMING

By Arnie Cole

When our team began publishing the SALT Index findings, I expected the numbers to be sobering. What I did not expect was how precisely the Bible had already described them.

The belief-to-practice gap, the distance between what people say they believe and how they actually live, is not a discovery of modern social science. God named it to Ezekiel more than twenty-five hundred years ago.

“As for you, son of man, your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, ‘Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the LORD.’ … They hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain. And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they do not do it.” (Ezekiel 33:30-32)

Look at what is happening in that passage. People are gathering. They are listening. They are talking about the Word among themselves. By every outward measure, something spiritual is going on. And God says plainly: they hear, but they do not do it. They enjoy the message the way you enjoy a good song. Moved in the moment. Unchanged by suppertime.

Our 2025 SALT Index surveyed more than six thousand American adults. Here is what we found. More than sixty percent identify as followers of Jesus. Fewer than one third engage Scripture regularly. Only forty percent show evidence of life change that the people around them can actually see. And for every adult who newly professes faith, roughly six people who were raised Christian are walking away.

Ezekiel’s crowd. Our numbers.

But Scripture does not only diagnose. It prescribes.

Psalm 1 describes the person who meditates on God’s Word day and night. Not once a week. Not when trouble comes. Daily. That person, the psalmist says, is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding fruit in season, with leaves that do not wither.

Our research confirms it. The believers in our study who engage Scripture daily, and keep at it over time, show measurably different outcomes on every dimension of spiritual formation we track. They report more peace. The people around them see more change. Their relationships and their witness bear more fruit. Daily time in God’s Word is not one option among several. It is the hinge.

That is the whole reason Back to the Bible exists. We did not need a survey to tell us what Psalm 1 says. But the survey tells us where the drift is, how fast it is moving, and who is still within reach. It turns a conviction into a plan.

So here is my ask of you, before you ever get to page 8. Ezekiel's question is a simple one: are you hearing God's Word, or are you doing it? Answer that honestly. Then help someone else answer it. That is what your support does. It puts God's Word in front of people who are still listening, before listening is all they ever do.