Are we witnessing the decline of Christianity in America? When you examine all of the most recent poll numbers, the answer is inescapable. Christian churches in America are losing members rapidly, and this trend is especially dramatic among young Americans.
According to a stunning new survey by America's Research Group, 95 percent of 20 to 29 year old evangelicals attended church regularly during their elementary and middle school years. However, only 55 percent of them attended church regularly during high school, and only 11 percent of them were still regularly attending church when in college.
Those numbers have got to be incredibly sobering to the evangelical Christian leadership in the United States.
The reality is that young Americans are deserting the Church in America in droves.
The other day we came across an article in Advertising Age that blew us away. The article was discussing marketing and religion, but what impacted us so profoundly were some figures from the American Religious Identification Survey by the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society & Culture at Trinity College.
According to that survey, 15% of Americans now say they have "no religion" which is up from 8% in 1990.
That would be bad enough news for evangelical Christianity.
But there is some more news from that survey that is much worse.
In that same survey, 46% of Americans between the ages of 18 to 34 indicated that they had no religion.
Forty. Six. Percent.
It is important to realize that not all of those 46 percent are unbelievers. According to a survey by Bohan Advertising/Marketing, the Barna Group and the United Methodist Church, 62 percent of Americans in that age group consider themselves to be "spiritual", and 43 percent of them have prayed to some higher power in the last 2 months.
But what it does mean is that almost half of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 do not identify themselves with any particular religion.
And when you look at more recent poll numbers for Christianity in particular, the numbers become even more staggering.
Another new survey by the Barna group reveals that less than 1 percent of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 23 hold a Biblical worldview. This new poll data clearly demonstrates that the youngest adults in America are clearly rejecting traditional evangelical Christian teaching.
The Barna survey defined "a Biblical worldview" as holding all of the following six key beliefs:
1) Believing that absolute moral truth exists.
2) Believing that the Bible is completely accurate in all of the principles it teaches.
3) Believing that Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic.
4) Believing that a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or by doing good works.
5) Believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth.
6) Believing that God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today.
So what do all of these poll numbers mean?
They mean that evangelical Christianity has totally lost almost an entire generation of American young people.
Meanwhile, the Christian Science Monitor recently published an article about the "coming evangelical collapse" that they believe is coming. They openly predict that "within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants."
Ouch!
The reality is that nearly all Christian denominations are rapidly losing members at this point.
The most recent American Religious Identification Survey demonstrates this fact very clearly. According to that survey, the percentage of Americans who call themselves Christians has dropped more than 11% since 1990. The survey also reports that Catholics, Baptists and other mainline Protestant churches have seen very large drops in numbers.
However, Islam, Wicca and eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism showed large gains in the survey.
The long-term trends look even more frightening for the churches in America. According to LifeWay Research, membership in Southern Baptist churches will fall nearly 50 percent to around 8.7 million Americans by the year 2050 if current trends continue.
But even more bad news for evangelical Christianity in America is that those who still call themselves Christians do not necessarily hold to traditional Christian beliefs any longer. Two other recent surveys reveal that the majority of American Christians believe that accepting Jesus Christ as savior is NOT the only way to eternal life.
USAToday recently reported on an almost unbelievable new survey that found that 52 percent of American Christians believe that eternal life is not exclusively for those who accept Jesus Christ as their savior.
A different survey that was taken last year by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 57 percent of evangelical Christians in America believe that "many religions can lead to eternal life".
That shocking study revealed what many evangelical leaders have known for a long time - large number of "Christians" in the United States are throwing traditional Christian doctrines into the dumpster.
Evangelical Christians have traditionally been those who follow the teachings of the Bible most literally. But these new surveys indicate that even a majority of them do not believe in the most fundamental precepts of the Christians faith any longer.
For example, in John 14:6 Jesus says the following:
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
If there was another way for our sins to be forgiven, then why did Jesus need to die on the cross? If there were other ways to salvation, then Jesus could have come down to earth, pointed out a bunch of other ways to get to heaven, and then could have gone back up to heaven without having to deal with the cross.
But the reality is that there was no other way for our sins to be paid for.
And yet these new surveys reveal that a majority of American Christians now believe that there are plenty of other ways to get to heaven.
The Pew survey referenced above also revealed that 45% of Americans say that they seldom or never read their religion's holy books.
Perhaps if more American Christians were actually reading the Bible they would know what is truth and what is error. Instead, American Christians have surrounded themselves with preachers and self-help coaches and "feel-good" ministers who tell them what they want to hear, who always make them feel comfortable and who never, ever tell them about sin, holiness or the judgment of God.
The current situation in the churches of America reminds us of 2 Timothy 4:3.....
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
The reality is that past generations of America faithfully filled up churches across the nation that were preaching the Word of God, but today the vast majority of Americans stay home from church each week, and many of the churches that are still drawing crowds are watering down their messages as much as they can in a desperate attempt to hold on to the people who are still there.
Dave Olson, the director of church planting for the Evangelical Covenant Church, has done some really interesting research into the church attendance patterns of Americans.
Olson's research found that the percentage of Americans that regularly attend church is only 18.7%.
In addition, his research shows that if current trends continue, the percentage of the U.S. population that attends church each week in 2050 will be about half of what it is today.
All of these polls and surveys tell us the same thing:
Christianity in America is in a serious state of decline - especially among young people.
Many Christian leaders who read this article will try to deny it or will try to make excuses.
But all of these polls are not lying.
The truth is that we need to examine ourselves.
Is God moving where you worship? Do our churches look like the authentic Christian movement that we read about in the book of Acts? Are our lives significantly different from what we see in the world? Are our services lifeless, joyless exercises in futility? Do we truly have great love for one another and a passion to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ?
If we want any chance to win back the next generation, then we are going to have to get back to the real thing. If you do not have "the real thing" in your church, then it is time to start asking yourself some really hard questions.
While I agree that apostasy is rampant, it is important to remember that the decline in church numbers is also due to the false teachings that have invaded the pulpit. Many of us have turned to home meeting simply out of necessity because we could not go along with the ‘vision’ many churches have caught recently. The falling numbers are indicative of more than just a lack of conviction by the laity.
Your days are numbered (thank Darwin for that!).
G
Excellent news! Perhaps a second Age of Enlightenment has arrived. And this time we can finally put religion behind us
Although much of what you are saying can be disheartening it also lets us know that in these last days we have tremendous opportunity to reach the lost and it starts with defining a biblical worldview in the next generation. http://worldviewyouthevangelism.com/
Today,tragically, truth is like a vending machine, with choices available according to one’s mood or personal need. If you want power, you press A4 and the dispenser produces “The Secret.” If you want wealth, press A5 and the dispenser produce Scientology. If Discipleship is too difficult, press A6, and Nichiren Buddhism will show how good karma can insure successful reincarnation. If Christianity is your choice, choose from the menu to select the worship-style or denomination that will satisfy your personal needs. If you are not hungry, press the black button marked “nihilism.” There is only one Way,one Truth, one Life. Consumer Christianity is NOT the answer.
lol. Religion = fail. There’s more to life than pretending there’s something out there that’s so above us we let life fall by the way-side. Your children and grandchildren will most likely not care for your religion or religion for that matter. Gear up. Because what you fear is coming, and it’s not the end of the world. It’s the end of religion. The world will be a better place without it.
Some of you need to open up your eyes, Jesus is the only way to heaven, if you read the bible it says that these times will come and they are here, it’s not about religion it’s about a personal relationship with Christ.It’s your chioce, choose life(Jesus) and live.
I agree with Johnny above. In addition, Jesus is not “religious”….men are and organized churchianity for the most part is a false representation and teaches the world about a false Christ, not the the true Word of God (John 1:1) who is the REAL Jesus. The only way to get to know Him is to seek Him with all your heart, ask Him to show you the truth and READ His Word FOR YOURSELF. You can’t have a relationship with Him through some “pastor”, most of whom teach false doctrine. Again, I’ll repeat for those of you who lump Jesus Christ in with worldly religion, Religion is MAN made and MAN controlled. Jesus Christ is NOT relgious, He is TRUTH (John 14:6) and the TRUTH will set you FREE. Get to know Him before it’s too late. We are living in the last few days before God’s wrath is about to be unleashed on an unsuspecting, media downloaded and brainwashed world.
Wow, some of these comments are pretty interesting. I would say that the first comment is probably right, our churches have been infiltrated by leftist liberal wolves in sheeps clothing, preaching that Jesus is NOT the only way to heaven (Rob Bell, Brian McClaren, etc) through the Emergent Church movement. Its a cult that looks so much like the real church that people are flocking to it, and I think these Christians who are growing up under that false teaching are skewing these numbers. I think they are real Christians, but have been fooled. Rob Bell and Brian McClaren are the biggest apostates of our time. WAKE UP AMERICA!
You lament the decline of Christianity like it’s a bad thing, when it’s actually a sign that civilization might be beginning to outgrow the superstition and evil that is religion. There is nothing good about religion, except that those who adopt its delusions find comfort in them. We grown-ups prefer the world of reality, uninhabited by ghosts (“holy” or otherwise). We get along fine without having to pretend there are such things as virgin births, talking snakes, magical gardens, vicarious human sacrifice and zombies coming out of their graves. Such fastastical tales are for children. Actually, they are not. No child should be taught these stories as anything other than the fairy tales they read in the brothers Grimm. GOt a problem with that? I am mizlee AT aol DOT Com.
Trouble is, Lee Picton, there is nothing of substance worthy to replace Christianity. Islam is filling the vacuum. So is immorality. But I’m fairly certain those rooting for “the fall of religion” don’t accept the idea of morality to begin with. Get ready for anarchy and chaos in the coming decades. You’ll discover that our culture will come to miss the so-called “superstition and evil that is religion” that has served this nation well. Oh, I forgot. The anti-religionists probably don’t believe that our nation, our culture, our legal system, our success was well-served by religion. Oh well, I’m blowin’ in the wind again.
The wicked have taken over America, while nominal wimpy Christians are too preoccupied with their feelings, worshiping the trinity of self, composed of “ME, MYSELF, and I” and in search for a Jesus that is more in touch with their feelings, and for a Jesus that is more harmonious with their own perversions. They don’t see Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords; they see Jesus as Wimp of Wimps and Dumb of Dumbs. These so-called wimpy Christians talk the talk but they do not walk the walk. They know all the songs, and the Christian lingo, but they wobble and fall down when they are supposed to stand up against the wicked, therefore they are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked, and separated from Christ. The proof is all around you, we live in a nation technologically advanced in the midst of religious freaks gone wild, who in reality are like spiritually undeveloped babbling baboons, easily manipulated by the vultures of Washington DC, and the buffoons of the mainstream News Media. In Matthew 10: 16, Jesus said, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” But today’s typical so-called Christian is as gullible as a toddler, and as dumb as a house.
I understand that this decline is a sign of the times, but it’s the attitude from nonbelievers that angers me. When I was a child, it was strange for someone to say they “didn’t believe in God”, but we accepted the belief and went on as if it never happened. Nowadays, I feel like I have to bite my tongue around most people. Like, my belief in Jesus Christ and our eternal Father in Heaven is something to be ashamed of.
I can’t say one word about my religious beliefs without a bunch of trolls biting my head off and trying to correct me. I believe in God, and I will continue to do so for the rest of my days. No matter how advanced science progresses, I will always know that our discoveries are the unraveling of God’s work.
I don’t mind the non-believers thinking what they want to, I just hate when they shove their anti-God propaganda down my throat. It makes me sick. You have your belief and I have mine. So, with that being said, bring on the trolls.
The thing I don’t understand is why our sins must be paid for. I mean, it sounds like a Walmart. WHY can’t God forgive our sins without a lot of earthly churchy stuff? I mean, isn’t He all-powerful? Who are WE to tell him what he can and can’t do? WHY is accepting Jesus more important than being good and doing good things? I have a neighbor who lies, cheats and steals, but is going to heaven because he has accepted Jesus into his heart. I, on the other hand, am going to hell because I haven’t, even if I am a good person. Something is wrong here.
And WHY did God have to send his son to live on earth in order to atone for original sin and reopen the gates of heaven? Did He make rules He can’t violate? He certainly changed His mind LOTS of times, and violated His own rules – in the Old Testament, it is absolutely CLEAR that Jews are the chosen people, not Christians (or Mormons, etc), yet when the Jews didn’t accept Jesus as savior, they became the UNCHOSEN. Didn’t God KNOW they would do this? WHY did he make such a mistake, and if He could just ‘fix’ that one, why couldn’t he just change his mind and open the gates?
And, finally, why did the gates get closed in the first place? Adam and Eve were immortal, unless they ate the apple. So, they couldn’t go to heaven (couldn’t DIE!) so there was no reason to have gates to keep anyone out or in. The whole Bible thing sounds like something made up by people to modify other peoples’ behavior. And not very well made up at that – there are LOTS of DIRECT CONTRADICTIONS in the bible – Genesis Ch 1 and 2 claim respectively that animals were created before and after man. Both CANNOT be right. One is definitely WRONG!
And don’t answer these with the usual I got in church: “God works in mysterious ways.” Yes, mysterious and pretty much random ways.
The church in this country is weak and ineffective, it has no influence on the culture whatsoever. These modern evangelical churches are the worst. They have these nice big buildings and they all play this modern contemporary Christian music. Many of them even have coffee shops and book stores, it’s more like a business than a church. I like to call it “Jesus Incorporated.” All this jumping up and down and shouting halelujah business is a bunch of nonsense! And most of the people that attend these things have absolutuely no clue as to the founding of this country, they have no clue as to how government and economics works, they believe that it is an unrelated issue. They don’t teach that the Bible applies to all areas of life, nor do they seem to care. Where are the preachers blasting our corrupt politicians from the pulpit? They are nowhere to be found! And the reason for that is because they are a 501c3, a government registered church, they have sold out. They are too scared to speak the truth about what’s going on in this country because the IRS might come and shut them down, and they’d lose their tax-exempt status. In other words, they fear man instead of God. I have been involved with a church like this. I have tried to reach out and help others by getting involved in church groups only to be shunned at every turn. I have repeatedly tried to contact people in charge of these activities, but they don’t bother to even acknowledge my messages, it’s like I don’t exist! They’re just like the rest of the world, I’d rather hang around athiests and pagans, at least they make no pretense about things! The preachers back in the 17 and 1800s had a better understanding of the Bible than most preachers today do, the modern day ones don’t have a clue! I believe in God and the Bible, but this modern day religion crap sucks!
See even after reading why their religion is failing they STILL don’t get it. Let me make it very clear to you Christians out there. People gravitate away from your religion because it so invasive. We don’t want you to bother us! Leave us alone and let us believe what we want to believe. It’s our god given right to have free will and we don’t need your help or your religion.
Dear Justin Case,
Your accusations against God, the Bible, and Christians are very serious and should be answered. I pray to the Lord that I can shed some light. Please bear with me.
You ask in the 1st paragraph “why our sins must be paid for” and why accepting Jesus as our payment is “more important” than good deeds; then pointing to some Christians’ hypocritical lives, you ask how it is fair that these people go to heaven while “better ones” don’t.
First, not all who claim to be Christians are true Christians, especially in latter days, in which the Bible predicted that many claiming acceptance of Christ are really wicked wolves who will fall away from Him when persecution comes. Yet second, true Christians still sin (the Bible says we have 2 natures warring within us – evil & good). So just considering our mixed deeds, do we deserve heaven while others don’t? NO! In fact, none deserve heaven – none are good, for all sin is rooted in rebellion against God, to live life as we want and not how our Maker wants and knows we should live.
You see, no matter how many times a driver obeys the law, if he speeds just once, he deserves a ticket. But our sins are worse than that. Why is it that killing a person is given a worse punishment than killing a flower? Because the person is much more valuable than a plant – he can think and make and love. But isn’t God infinitely more valuable than anything else – the Being and Source of infinite thought, creativity, love – eternally existing and ever-present across the universe? If shooting a person carries the price of death, then wouldn’t punishment for “shaking our fist” at God have a price of infinity?
How can God forgive a sin worse than murder? Not that He lacks power – but He is holy, just. To turn away His eyes from any sin would make Him like an all-powerful, corrupt sheriff – trashing justice. And we can’t tip the scales with good deeds, for who can equal an infinite price?
Only God. Because God is infinite in value, He alone can pay the infinite price. Yet He owes us nothing – He could have given all of us justice, eternal punishment to pay an infinite price. But NO! Our Creator of the galaxies and atoms and flowers humbled Himself and came down to earth embodying a human body. He is Jesus Christ, man and God united, without sin. And even before time’s beginning, He knew that He would die on the cross in our place, to pay in 1 day what we could never in an eternity of days.
For us who’ve believed and loved His unthinkable sacrifice, He already has wiped away our infinite debt, giving us His perfect goodness. Now His forgiveness won’t contradict justice. For on the cross, His mercy and justice are wedded forever. Praise His wisdom!
Dear Justin Case,
Sorry for long responses, but I want to thoroughly answer your questions. Please bear with me.
You ask in the 2nd paragraph why God had to send His son to “atone for original sin and reopen the gates of heaven,” as if He can’t change His rules; when in fact, you point out, He “changed” His rules many times, like making the Jews His chosen people, then when they rejected Christ, “unchoosing” them (like He didn’t foresee this rejection beforehand) and replacing them with the Christians. If He could change like this, can’t He just as easily “forget” original sin and let men into heaven?
This change, this forgetting of sin, would involve more than changing rules; God would have to violate His inner value of justice – His holiness. Sin is too terrible for that. But to save space, please refer to the above post for why sin is too serious for God to just forget.
Regarding original sin, Adam was man’s chosen representative before God, our best “marksman at the contest,” and when he missed the mark, sinning that original sin by aspiring to be a god by eating the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, the rest of mankind was doomed, cursed, because surely we can’t be better than our best shot. That’s why original sin looms terribly on us.
And no, God did not “violate” His rules in the Bible. His inner core of values remains changeless; only His plans are different for different eras and His responses differ, depending on whether people reject or repent.
Actually, Israel exemplifies these principles – if only some groups of Christians interpreted His Word right! For the Jews are NOT “unchosen” – they are still God’s chosen people! Christians haven’t replaced them, but have joined them as children of God. In fact, the Apostle Paul in Romans 11 defends their chosen status despite unbelief – “God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew” (Romans 11:2).
And yes, God foresaw that the Jews would disbelieve in Christ! Isaiah actually prophesies Israel’s rejection of Christ: “He was despised, and we did not esteem Him” (Isaiah 53:3b). God knew before the beginning of time that they would hate Him and kill Him on a cross. For the payment of sin on the cross is the axis of God’s plan of salvation, a glorious, unthinkable plan of bringing infinite good out of infinite evil.
Without Israel’s rejection, there’d be no salvation, no revelation of the mercy of God.
Yet today, God still has a plan for Israel – to which we are witnesses. For Israel, after 2,000 years, has miraculously been brought back to their land. NO OTHER destroyed nation has resurrected like this after thousands of years! In His Scriptures He had predicted, even before their official nationhood, that they would sin and be scattered as exiles, but then brought back by merciful God to His Promised Land. And just as He brought them back, so He will destroy their enemies when they repent, ushering in the Age of Peace and the Reign of Christ, our holy King.
So to God be the glory, for He works an abundance of good out of evil.
Dear Justin Case,
Last night I hoped I answered your first two questions, and now I hope I can answer your third. Please bear with me.
In the 3rd paragraph, you say that the Bible is full of contradictions and was written to regulate the masses and you also ask why the “gates of heaven” had to exist in the first place if Adam and Eve were immortal, so they wouldn’t ever come to heaven’s gates because they wouldn’t die.
I’m not sure what you mean by heaven’s gates existing before Adam sinned. Heaven doesn’t have literal gates – despite the popular (non-biblical) image of Peter holding the keys to this gate. If you mean that these gates represent the barrier keeping man from heaven, then they came into “existence” when Adam sinned, as God can’t forget justice by rewarding sinners with heaven. But God always knew that Adam and Eve would sin, for this was part of His plan to bring in Christ and the cross, a gift of infinite worth.
Then you claim that men, without inspiration from God, wrote the Bible to control others. Maybe the religious elite wanted to be self-righteous. But no! All over the Bible, all men are shown to have faults, to be weak & in need of God. In fact, those most likely to want to control others – kings, prophets, pharisees – often are recorded with the most warts. Even Biblical authors like Paul & Jonah recorded examples of their sins. Man’s snobbery would not write this – only God could be the ultimate Author of this Handbook for living.
And regarding Biblical “contradictions,” they’re resolved when men read the Bible in its narrative and historical context. Like Genesis 1 & 2. They’re complementary, not contradictory. 1 refers to the chronological creation of the universe, while 2 focuses on man’s creation. 2 can’t be a separate account, for it doesn’t explain the creation of the sun, moon, & stars, 3 things every Near Eastern creation account tried to explain.
Regarding the “different” chronology of animal creation, Genesis 2 just didn’t mention the animals until after they were relevant to man. Wayne Jackson in “Are There Two Creation Accounts in Genesis?” also notes this: “William Green pointed out that when noted scholar Franz Delitzsch (1813-1890), an advocate of the Documentary Hypothesis, first authored his famous commentary on Genesis, he employed this argument as a proof of a discrepancy between Genesis 1 and 2. However, in the last edition of his work, after his knowledge had matured, he repudiated this quibble and argued for the harmony of 2:19 with chapter 1 (Green, 1979, p. 26).”
Actually, the Bible is the BEST-evidenced ancient book. Time and again archeology has proven its events, places, and peoples accurate. And the evidence for Christ’s resurrection is skeptics’ worst hurdle – some, when they studied the evidence to disprove the resurrection, actually became believers and wrote whole books defending it (like Case for Christ & Resurrection Factor).
Because modern scholarship now must admit that the New Testament was written within the lifetime of Jesus’ & the Apostles’ generation, legends COULDN’T form, for all Christ’s still-living enemies would’ve shot Christianity dead for fabrication. Yet this tiny religion spread faster than fire even as thousands of converts were martyred. And the Apostles, though they had abandoned Jesus at His death, were the most transformed & fearless of all martyred preachers.
Why did they preach Christ risen to their deaths, without any gain in this world? Because they SAW Him risen with their own eyes. Unlike every other religious martyr in history, they didn’t die on faith, but SIGHT!
And because they knew and died on the certainty of Christ risen, so we in faith can live and die KNOWING we have the truth. And as more of God’s prophesies are fulfilled, revealing the coming of Antichrist’s persecution (before God’s righteous judgment), I pray He gives me & other Christians the strength to suffer and die for His name.
For yes, Christianity is declining. Not because it lacks evidence, for that evidence is multiplying; but because the pride of man has grown so great. With all our technology & knowledge, men ask, “Why must God tell us what to do? We are our own Masters!” We are like rebel children, running to the fire & mocking our Father’s warning, “It is bad! It will hurt you!” But we say, “No, it is pretty. I want the fire.” Can we blame Him then, when mankind has burnt itself?
Yet though God has foretold Christianity’s fall, yet He has promised to save a remnant. He will give us strength to endure war, famine, & martyrdom until He Himself comes in the clouds, saving us & battling the wicked until His kingdom of peace is established.
Please, Justin Case and all who’ve read this far, check out the evidence yourselves. Here are just a few places to start: In the Beginning by Brown, Resurrection Factor by McDowell, & 4truth.net. Absolutely nothing is more important than your relationship with the living God, who is Jesus Christ. I pray that He opens your heart to Him, to love Him as He first loved us.
Hello Justin Case! Your post contains a lot of questions that I think we all should have answered. You ask “why our sins must be paid for” with “earthly churchy stuff.” And you’re right. Our sins cannot be undone by our feeble attempts at goodness. Like RY said above, one sin ruins a “perfect” record, and nothing but perfection enters presence with God (because if God accepted things less than perfect, He would undermine His own holiness). So “earthly churchy stuff” cannot get us into Heaven. Bottom line: We all should never even get close to God. But the paradox is that God wants to bring a people to Himself. But He cannot just close His eyes and let dirty sinners enter His presence. So what does He do? He needs to satisfy the moral demands of justice and the moral desires of love. So He takes it upon Himself to pay the penalty for our sin against Him. The anger that should result from a sin against God can only be appeased by God Himself, since we are too trapped in our own sinful subconscious to do any worthy good for Him. God’s plan is actually quite simple: He pays our ransom so we don’t have to. Thus, the scales of justice are satisfied and His love for us is possible. That is why doing good works is not the defining factor in being a Christian. Good works by us DO NOT get us into Heaven; it’s the work of Christ that does. All we need to do is recognize that Christ paid for our personal sin and gives us the gift of Heaven. Good works result from our intense gratitude and love for what Christ has done for us.
Regarding your neighbor, it is quite possible that he is not truly saved. Receiving Christ is not like signing an impersonal paper; it is something that changes a person deep inside. Someone can say that he is a movie buff, but if his house is not filled with DVDs or if he cannot name the stars of a new film, clearly he is just giving lip-service. He might think he’s what he says he is, but his actions prove otherwise.
About the “rules He can’t violate” – it’s true there are rules, primarily His standards of justice, love, holiness, and truth. And the chosen Israelites are still chosen. Those who believe otherwise (like many Christian denominations and sects) are misguided about what God intends with His people. God never “unchose” Israel; He simply is allowing Gentiles a chance to enter His kingdom, too. Israel is still God’s people; Paul the apostle makes special note of this: “God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! (Romans 11:1).” Thus, we Gentiles are “grafted” into the olive tree of Israel (Romans 11:17); we did not become the tree. God knew exactly what was going to happen – that Israel would reject Him; Israel had to reject their Messiah if Christ was to be crucified (and mankind was to be saved). “But by their [Israel’s] transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles (Romans 11:11).” God so loved the world that He allowed the people He already saved to deny Him so that He could bring salvation to people who never knew Him. God works out even these “errors in our eyes” for His purpose.
Adam and Eve. Heaven is where God is, and before the Fall, God did dwell in the Garden. So technically they were in Heaven. When they sinned, they could not keep company with God anymore, so He moved His presence form earth to His primary abode (what we call Heaven). Only when people sinned did the separation between God and man appear. Sin needed to be dealt with before harmony with God could be achieved.
Contradiction may seem profuse, but, as RY said above, the best proof is that the critics changed their minds (in this case, Franz Delitzsch first argued against, then for, the Genesis harmony). Many “contradictions” are simply paradoxes – things that seem contradictory, but are explainable by careful reading of the text, the context, and the historical or theological emphasis of the passage(s). Another critic, Sir William Ramsay, also changed his mind: He assumed the book of Luke was unhistorical, filled with errors, until he realized it was the most accurate roadmap for his Middle Eastern investigations.
The Bible is no ordinary book, and true Christians are no ordinary people. Persecution through the centuries have tried to eradicate both, but always they have revived again. Even at this time, when maybe it is declining here, it is rising in another region of the world, where missionaries are always at work.
Feel the greatness of God and let His love touch your heart – and you will know a joy only God can give. Life wasn’t meant for living for yourself. I pray that soon you’ll find fulfillment in living for eternity – living for God.
The reason that Christianity is failing is simple. It’s the end of times. The whole Christian religion and the church system is going to fall. They are gonna be exposed for the satan worshippers that they are and people are going to run out by the millions preaching the Kingdom of Yeshua. As is is right now they are preaching the testimony of christ or the testiomony of the church. Those are not right. In the original bible, which was written in Hebrew, there was never a mention of any church, it was a tabernacle with a very different meaning, also christ was never in there either. Christ is not his name!!! If you are praying to Christ then you are praying to Satan! Everything that the churches are and stand for is of Satan. Please before you judge anything I say look it up and research for yourself. Train yourself to think and to have a mind of your own. Do not look only unto the King James Version of the bible or the “preacher”. The Jewish bible has it the closest. The King James Version is very different from the one it was translated from. Don’t take my word for it, look it up. Also remember you are perfect in every way. Do not let any “preacher” tell you otherwise. Yeshua does not make mistakes. The bible says we are born of his flesh and called by his name. We are made in his image. If that is not perfection I don’t know what is. Do not tell me I sin. Yeshua didn’t go through that pain for nothing. His blood washed it all away and his blood is alive and protects me now. If they told you that though you would have no reason to go to church to give them your money. The church doctrines started thousands of years ago and the same ones are in place today. Everyone of them are blinded and for some reason they cannot see the truth. In the church system you have everyone sitting in the congregation and one man standing above everyone and preaching at you. This is not how it should be!! Get a group of people together and discuss Yeshua with each other with all people sharing testimony and learning from each other. Usually when one person leads a group of people in such a way that the churches do it is often times considered a cult. Yeshua is finally starting to open peoples’ eyes and reveal himself. The end of time is near.
Im not here to argue or debate. People that are going to deconvert will, with or without my help. I will say this, christians can believe whatever they want, but when they start to impose their buisness into my life, that is when I can get really angry. I will be happy once christianity drops to nothing, because that means that the false religion was wiped out once and for all.
Ex christian, seven denominations, Pagan
Jesus is the WAY, the TRUTH, & the LIFE. He is historically proven! He is not a made up figure. Jesus is the WAY, there is NO OTHER WAY! There is a DEVIL, the father of EVIL that is roaming around & tearing up the weak minded. If you think this is a joke, take a look around and see the evil around you. It is clear. God is real. God is the creator of this universe. Try to figure out how all this happened to be, and if you are wise about it, it will point to GOD! There is no other answer. God has made himself known in creation, but people by the droves are rejecting Him because they are being deceived by the Devil that he does not exist. But if you believe there is evil out there, you better believe there is an even greater force out there, and that comes from God! The King of kings, the Lord of lords.
Oh, jolly good!
So human civilization is finally leaving the stone-age, then?
Just hope those single-minded Muslims would keep up with western views,
or else we’ll be in for a hell of a ride…
“Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.”
-Thomas Jefferson
Oprah Used To Go To Sunday School
“According to a stunning new survey by America’s Research Group, 95 percent of 20 to 29 year old evangelicals attended church regularly during their elementary and middle school years. However, only 55 percent of them attended church regularly during high school, and only 11 percent of them were still regularly attending church when in college… 46% of Americans between the ages of 18 to 34 indicated that they had no religion… According to the Barna Group and the United Methodist Church, 62 percent of Americans in that age group consider themselves to be “spiritual”, and 43 percent of them have prayed to some higher power in the last 2 months.
But what it does mean is that almost half of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 do not identify themselves with any particular religion.
And when you look at more recent poll numbers for Christianity in particular, the numbers become even more staggering.
Another new survey by the Barna group reveals that less than 1 percent of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 23 hold a Biblical worldview. This new poll data clearly demonstrates that the youngest adults in America are clearly rejecting traditional evangelical Christian teaching.
The Barna survey defined ”a Biblical worldview” as holding all of the following six key beliefs:
Believing that absolute moral truth exists.
Believing that the Bible is completely accurate in all of the principles it teaches.
Believing that Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic.
Believing that a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or by doing good works.
Believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth.
Believing that God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today.” http://signsofthelastdays.com/archives/the-decline-of-christianity-in-america”
Given the information above, I conclude there is a problem in the church that transcends anything we can imagine, and there’s no sidestepping the issue or ignoring its relevance to the future of the church as we know it. These facts are a ticking time bomb that will explode sometime in the next generation and result in even more dead churches and lost Kingdom opportunities.
It’s always been true that the college experience literally removes fledglings from the nests that long provided nurture and support and forces young people to try their wings. Given the “progressive” nature of most higher institutional educators, traditional values are challenged, at best, and ridiculed at worst. But, to be fair, isn’t college supposed to expose new world views and encourage eager young minds to consider alternative intellectual and spiritual options to their previously guarded existence’s?
It’s almost as if higher education says, “Okay. Your parents have had you long enough. Now it’s our turn to mold your mind toward a better, more enlightened view of the world.”
Unfortunately, they may be right. The traditional views and values held by mainstream Christian denominations don’t cut it with young adults. In fact, the continual decline in church identification and involvement outlined above suggests traditional “Church values” don’t cut it with adults either.
One conservative reaction to such volatile rhetoric (not to mention the factual realities) is to assume that the current generation of parents and offsprings have simply “wandered away from the truth … which, by the way, we still posses.” To fall for such logic, however, suggests that what’s needed is a good dose of the old time religion. Or, for people to get saved and find Jesus as their personal savior.
Unfortunately, that school of thought which prevailed for centuries rests on a cracked foundation that’s crumbling under the pressure of the new reality. Getting saved use to be the panacea for all personal and social maladies. Unfortunately, people no longer see their condition as a malady, but instead prefer freedom of spirit to just be acceptably spiritual without being a Christian.
It’s no longer a virtue to be called a Christian. In fact, it’s a liability when dealing with the hoards of people who leave the church because it, or the God it peddles, has failed to live up to it’s billing.
I suggest there are a number of related primary reasons why people jettison the Christian faith system as they are doing around the world. And, none of my list has to do with their personal immorality or lack of spiritual awareness. Here’s may take on what they may be:
The foundational issue, from which all the others flow is this: The rhetoric of Christianity doesn’t jibe with reality. For example, saints say many things about God’s love, yet for most people on this earth, life really sucks.The experience of trying to get through the day, much less the year, suggests that God isn’t all He’s cracked up to be, and He’s certainly not as loving or personal as gushing church ladies claim He is to them. He’s remote, silent and distant – at best – and destructive, hateful and mean-spirited at worst. Read the Bible if you don’t believe that.
Most church goers were raised to believe what the pastor or the denomination said it true. Therefore, the initial exposure to church tradition is given to children, usually in sunday school. (Oprah used to go to sunday school in Mississippi.) And, despite all the talk about Christian’s being loving people and the church a safe place, individuals, congregations, and denominations bicker all the way to heaven. And worse, pastors and priests have regular morality break downs as they lead their flocks to the promised land. The average, unversed, believer blindly follows their denomination’s intellectual champions, most of whom lived in the middle ages, or earlier. To question established church doctrine usually creates looks of fear or anger, and the status of the seeker’s eternal soul is placed in doubt. “You must obey the home office if you want to continue to be part of this loving circle of believers.”
The scripture is possibly the primary source of the disenfranchisement of one-time Sunday School children. The fundamentalist is adamant that any who don’t believe the Bible comes directly from God’s lips to man’s ears is ostracized, if not worse. The other view of the Bible that it’s man’s attempt to explain, experience and define God, simply blows the “spiritual chaff” out the church’s back door. The studies show that viewing the Bible through the first lens repels people away from the church and ubiquitous dogma defines Christian faith and practice, mostly because the church lady can’t explain away the problems the Bible creates. So people leave. Rigid views no longer represent the truth, nor are they the best way to keep the pews full of eager worshippers.
There are serious contradictions in what people intuitively feel is right. Dark, heavy lines divide Christians among themselves, and from society. Confusing social issues such as abortion, homosexuality, the role of women both in the church and in the market place and the very nature of truth itself (Jesus) are too easily addressed by much of the church. “Why do Christians make everything into black and white issues?” That used to work, but it doesn’t now. Thinking and individual experience trumps the one time virtue of being absolutely sure that your way is the only way.
The language of the church is confusing, if not misleading. Therefore people want to go where others speak plainly and honestly, not according to an unseen approved script passed down from headquarters or heaven. When marginal believers – or restless unsettled individuals – encounter words like: “God told me … What is God saying to you?” or the classic, “Jesus is my personal savior and my best friend”, the back door can’t be close enough.
I don’t know what the answer is, but I suspect it’s found dwelling within the confines of the following divine traits:
Truth
Honesty
Relevance
Tolerance
Charity
When Christians turn their faith into a system, it fails to attract people to the Light. In fact, it drives them away to lesser lights. This is a post- modern age full of people who no longer believe they have to toe the line and believe or behave according someone’s clearly failing principles.
Today, to reach people for Christ, something has to change. Specifically, He must be lifted up and made relevant. It takes personal discipline and dedication to relate to HIm, however, and nothing else – not the Bible, the church, its traditions or other Christian dogma can take His place. He said if He was lifted up He would do the heavy lifting of drawing all people to Him.
So, showing up and sitting thorough worship, even participating in it, isn’t enough to lift Him high enough for someone outside the chapel walls to see who He is.
Faith must first be personal, flexible and somehow made valuable enough to pursue it as Jesus suggested His followers ought to. Right now, the demographics of the crumbling church prove it’s currently not any of those qualities for millions of fleeing potential saints.
The Lord said He would build His church and not even the power of Hell can stand against it, but fortunately, this isn’t a pitched battle between believers and Beelzebub just yet. It’s more of a battle between comfortable good and uncomfortable best. Unfortunately, it seems the church has settled for good because the price of best is too high to pay.
Hey just out of curiosity does anyone have the 2010 numbers for church attendance so we can see if Olson’s estimates were correct?
How can religious People continue to believe that Christianity make people moral. Christianity it responsible for the genocide of millions of people, many burned at the stake. Christianity was founded by pedophiles and has been a haven for them for 2000 years. The following study by the federal bureau of prisons, might surprise the people who claim that religious people have greater morals as 80% of inmates are Christians, while they account for less than 50% of the population, where as atheist account for 0.2 percent of inmates yet make ip 16% of the population. Here is the link: http://www.holysmoke.org/icr-pri.htm
Also pew research recently published a study that shows that of all the groups athiest were the most knowledgable of religions. You can google for that or. Go to peweesearch.com
Evangelical Christianity is on the decline and you’re surprised about it? It’s fairly obvious to me that as the buffer of moderates have fallen away, you have been left with the most vitriolic and hateful individuals at the core. You’ll never attract any interest in your brand of faith as long as the Religious Right is calling the shots for you. What have the pious, arrogant, self appointed oracles of truth given society at large except for a healthy dose of ignorant Teabaggers and how to effectively justify hatred for gay folks. Nice message. These people demand blind faith in authority – theirs and if you don’t submit to their will and tow the line, you will be beaten over the head with holy books or threatened with Hell fire non stop. You must submit to their review in order to appear worthy to God. How attractive is that?
Do you really think that any of the Televangelists have a message that is pertinent to young people anymore? Television is old technology that is clung to by old people gullible enough to fall for the money traps laid out for them. Christianity was once about modesty and integrity. How does the Crystal Cathedral reflect this? How does Joel Olsteen climbing into an 80 thousand dollar luxury car to drive to his multi million dollar mansion reflect this? These are just two examples out of hundreds. Sex scandals, willful ignorance, Pat Robertson etc.
Just look at how many of the commentators here have decided that everyone outside of themselves are “wicked” and that’s what’s wrong with the system. No other explanation is warranted in their minds. Yep, that’s it. No shades of gray, no uncertainties, just black and white. Do you think that young people are interested in this mentality? They watch old Christian hate mongers like Freddy Phelps out in Topeka and are having a hard time telling the difference between him and the Rick Santorums of the world. I can’t blame them for wanting nothing to do with Christianity. I left the fold and became a Freethinker and a Diest
once I realized that I simply couldn’t stomach the arrogant certainty, the “Us vs Them” mentality, the biblical cherry picking and the deceit.
I say good riddance to organized Christianity.
This is Due to the fact that lies, and pseudo sciences cannot exist on a public forum i chat often in a room where people of all faiths and freethinkers, come to debate, and it is always one sided. there are more christians in the room but each logical and philosophical stance they make is dismantled.
Why?
Because your religion and god are used to validate hate and only propagate through fear and doubt, no wonder you are setting your sights on africa.
ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL
I am happy to hear this news. The delusion that strikes will strike no more, and the Masters of this World again shall rise; Men again revere their olden gods, and churches fall from grace.
Heh heh, your days are numbered as a christian
Watch as your religion FALLS
It is written ” Let no man deceive you for the Day of Christ shall not come except there come a falling away first, and then the man of sin (Antichrist of antichrists) shall be revealed, the son of perdiction” 2Thess Ch 2:3. Yes, they will come a time when the majority of it’s members faith in Christianity falls away the gospel of Christ as it has been preached per the Word. And a new “something” will come from a new “personality” who will give to the world all the sweet things they want to hear and believe. God already knew the christian institution would run it’s course or shall we say fail him. That why this verse is in His word well in advance. God prophetic word lives today…still!!
Another indication is Israel’s return as a nation…what a coincidence in timing!! The churches stumble…now the season is ripe for Israel’s redemption or shall we say their Messiah to come….At Last! Such a reality is also in the Bible….only in the Bible and with each passing day the reality of God’s prophetic word is being seen by faith!! Perhaps, those who choose unbelief will see things by sight…such is the message of the Book of Revelations. Grace will still be in operation but the rules of engagement are very different for those who see at last!!
I believe the only cause of the fall of Christianity is the Church’s stagnation. They don’t try and modernize themselves (OK, the Pope has now a channel in Youtube, and all…). It is the same thing, you have to kneel in thar hard wood every sunday! And the guilty for all of this were the Romans (yes, the Romans). Who would like to follow a religion founded by those who executed its own savior? What upsets me the most is that Constantine converted the whole Rome not out of faith, but out of fear that the Roman Empire would be divided into two religions. And what sbout the atrocities commanded by armies and armies of crusaders? Huh? When there were only politheistic religions, each group centented in following his own religion without try and convert the other side. And when a fanatical says that the Christian God is the only one? God was based of Jehova, the Jewish god! It doesn’t even have a name! It is called only by the Latin word for gods in general: DEUS!
And what about Jesus. What is the problem that he probably was married and had children. HE WAS A JEW, AND THERE IS A PERIOD IN A JEW’S LIFE HE HAS TO MARRY SOMEONE!
As for myself, Had I need to chose an individual cult, I would choose the cult of Anubis, the Egyptian god of death. I have a fatalistic view, after all.
People are leaving in droves because they are finally being given the chance to question their beliefs. If you did that a hundred years ago, you could die to an angry mob, suffer social ostracism, or worse. The only thing that really kept people following such doctrines were threats to their life and well-being. Not only this, but their teachings are based on perpetuating a kind of ignorance by trapping them in a bubble of fear. If you question God, then you will burn in hellfire. Critically thinking about a belief requires a temporary suspension of it, which their doctrine is designed to inhibit. Because critical thinking is important to the modern world, it is impossible for a religion that relies on such induced stupor to last, and rightly so. We are far better without it. I say good riddance.
I’m a solipsist myself. Just trying to stop thinking about all of you Christians, Muslims and Jews. Gnnnnnngggh!! Gnnnggghhh!! I’ll get you out of my head.
why should we think to pray when MILLIONS of jews who lived a more “holy” life than any of us were slaughtered in gas chambers, concentration camps, etc, etc, while praying for their lives?
Christianity in decline? What great news. It’s certainly well past the time when humanity finally grows up, discards the ridiculous and mallicious myths fabricated centuries ago by desert nomads, embraces science and the goals of the Enlightenment, and finally gets around to creating a genuinely egalitarian society free of priests, pastors, and mullahs who control through fear. Perhaps we can then get on with the business of assuring every human on the planet with a decent shot at life. The world will be a much, much better place when no one believes in God. Religion promises much and delivers nothing.
Jesus was a stand up dude, you people with your fail religions ruined his good name.
Great news! Violent crime, all crime rate, and progression of science has reached new boundaries within the last 20 years. Atheists consistently score higher on IQ tests, STAY MARRIED LONGER, divorce less often, have fewer abortions, have lower crime rates, and make more money than their christian counterparts.
WAKE UP FASTER AMERICA!
The idea of a heaven isn’t paradise to me. I don’t want heaven, nor do i want hell. Your god created hell, and he admits to doing all the evils of the world. The number one thing that de-converts people to christianity is actually reading the bible. Most christians have never read the entire bible or studied all of it before selling their souls to superstition and lies. I don’t need a god threatening me to hell to be a good person, no one does. And be realistic here, people…when you take polls and someone says they are a chrisitan, we know they are not… there’s a lot more to being a christian than just slapping a label on your forehead. Most christians aren’t christian like at all. Love is key, not scripture, not a book written by women hating men, realise this and be free from guilt that plagues mankind. I love you all and i hope you all realize there’s more to life than fear and preaching from a book you don’t understand.
We may be closer to the tribulation than most expect. Search biometrics, vein pattern reccognition, hand geometry, the river Euphrates and the dams built, Kevin Warwick, via chip, the gospel preached throughout the world, people call good evil and evil good, false prophets, sexual immorality,etcetera. Remember, God is loving, caring, just, omniscent, omnipotent, omnipresent, patient, and wrathful. Hell is indeed there, but it is our choice, while we are now alive in our tangible bodies, where we go once we die. And then- it becomes finalized. Something to think about. Without God what is the point of anything? Everything you gain you would loose. People would rather be of the world than trust in God that has never changed. Some may think that He has, but He has not. The fulfillment of the old ceremonial laws does not negate anything. We do still have the moral laws to live by. This is why Jesus and Paul both stressed the laws of the ten commandments. Most people want a convenient God, assuming God always forgives. He is loving, but He commands better of us. He demands us to live holy and be a holy people.
“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever; That a revolution of the wheel of fortune, a change of situation, is among possible events; that it may become probable by Supernatural influence! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in that event.”
–Thomas JEfferson
–Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII, p. 237.
Benjamin Franklin
Signer of the Declaration of Independence and Unites States Constitution
“Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by His Providence. That He ought to be worshipped.
That the most acceptable service we render to him is in doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them.
As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, is the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see;
But I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more respected and more observed; especially as I do not perceive, that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in his government of the world with any peculiar marks of his displeasure.”
–Benjamin Franklin wrote this in a letter to Ezra Stiles, President of Yale University on March 9, 1790.
I see many people leaving “the church” for many reasons.
It has deceived many, because they are nothing but corporations. What is 50c3?
False sabbath day worship. True Sabbath = Saturday
The bend for FEMA. Remember, Hitler also loved Romans 13.
God will always be on the thrown no matter what anyone says. Soon everyone will know and believe. Keep talking, keep bragging, keep making fun and laughing. But know this, one way or another all will know that Jesus is Lord and all will confess him as King and Lord while on their knees.
so…46% of Americans don’t have faith?
Good on them…shows that they have brains and are willing to use them
It’s about time that the savage religion of Christianity dies. Since its inception, it has but caused harm to people all over the world. The witch hunts, the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the invasion and murder of Native America. They were all caused by christianity and its savage doctrines of “belief,” which basically means to follow without asking questions. Have any christian ever seen a soul? What are you people talking about? Save my soul from what? Is it on fire or something? Have you ever been to heaven? How do you know it exists? How do you know that “the word of god” wasn’t just some very charismatic person urging people to do his bidding just like Adolf Hitler? Why are they’re so many versions of the bible? Did your god stutter or make a mistake somewhere that you need to revise your bible frequently? Wake up and become intellectuals. Stop being savages stuck in the dark ages.
I find it rather disturbing but in do time things will change. America has become too materialistic, what is there to hold us together if not our faith? This is how Rome became an Empire. By abandoning what made it great and abandoning its faith and I fear we are following in their footsteps. Again, I do believe that this will be reversed. Yes we know Rome fell because of external conflicts such as the military being too far stretched, invaders from all sides. But they also fell because of internal problems such as crippling debt. Rome fell because the people fell to secularism and materialism. America can’t do the same.
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Matthew 16:18
These are Jesus’ words. I’ll believe him over any man any time. If the One who created, loved and died for the Church says it will never be destroyed that’s good enough for me. What we see before us is part of the apostasy that is predicted to occur in the last days. Let God be true and every man a liar.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” -John 3:16
“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” —John 3:17
The Churches message is one of forgiveness for those who are lost and without Christ.
Most people in the world will never come to know Christ as their savior and that is sad but that’s because they love their sins more than anything else.
“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).
There is good news though.
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9
God loves you and has prepared the only way for you to get to his wonderful Heaven. Please turn to him and from your sin’s, seek his forgiveness and except his gift of grace.
There was a time when christianity ruled all of Europe – it was known as the dark ages. People proclaim the virtue of faith, like that is a good thing. All it does is shut off critical thinking. Religion poisons everything and when its cold dead hand is finally thrown off, we will all be the better for it.
Mother of Many comment hit the hammer on the nail of it. People are turned off by materialism and greed sow a seed in dollars and get a return blessing. I thought Jesus said Paid in Full but Prosperity teachers have ruined the message of the Cross and all that Jesus paid for free with PAY IN FULL instead! Romans 8:32 said God with His Son freely gives us all things.
This is wonderful news! After generations of people abusing each other with messed up cult of a religion its finally starting to end:). I hope to live long enough to see many churches (particularly the evangelical brand) abandoned due to a lack of followers.
Please stop asking these christians question. There is no logic in christianity and for them to try to explain there superstion makes about as much sence as finding the sience behind the bad luck of a black cat that crosses your path. Superstition is a primitive belief system that has no logic. I almost want to puck when I listen to them defend and argue for their religion. The truth is in this country there r not allowed to kill nonbelievers as they did in the old days and anybody with a hint of reasoning doesn’t want there backwards thinking superstition in their life. life can be very fulfilling without christ. Any god that would create all the people on the earth and allow us to do the things we have done to one another isn’t worthy of reverence Especially the attrocities commited at the hands of christians. It is really a hipocritical state for a group of people to try to cover up their own history and then go around telling everybody else that they r wrong. I don’t want anyone to feal pain and suffering but there would be a lot if the christians had to suffer the same fates that they had impossed onto to their compitition. I can’t wait till the collapes of christianity.
I think the church has done its ownself in. I use to attend church and read my bible. I got tired of seeing how racially segragated churches are compared to the rest of the world. I could not reconcile all the hate you hear coming out of the mouths of evanglical christains. Finally I read my bible not 1 time but several and the more I read it the more I can to the same uderstanding as others who have commented here that maybe this book is not all that it claims to be. Jesus said no man comes to the father except through him. He also said ask anything in his name and he would do it and we all know that is not true, so what makes anything else he said anymore reliable?
Lots of Haters on this blog. Most highly uneducated. “It’s amazing how opinionated people can be about a book they’ve never read.” First of all, ATHEISM, not religion, is responsible for more deaths than anything else without a close second. Hitler, Stalin, Mao Tse Tung just to name a few. All these murderers were atheists and married to the false religion of evolution. The Bible is the most documented and reliable piece of writing we have today. We don’t need translations as one put it, we already have the Greek and Hebrew texts with over 30,000 manuscripts to prove their viability. To discredit them because they were “written by men” would also mean we need to abandon ALL history pre-1100 AD because they were also written by “men”. Hey Atheists; without religion, what do you base your morals upon? What is your purpose? Why are you here? If you believe in the fairy tale of evolution (no proof) there isn’t any purpose. You are a mere accident. DNA probability science proves that there is a creator. The chance of one DNA molecule coming into existence by chance is 10 to the 117,000 power. Anything 10 to the 50th would never happen. Dawkins explains this through “Directed Panspermia”, aliens brought it to Earth. Hahahaha! So I guess ET died for our sins. So the question comes up, where did the aliens come from? Wake up people, Jesus Christ is definitely who he said he was, the Bible is the inspired word of God and most of these anti-Christian comments are nothing more than people LOVING their own sin. It’s an easy out to dismiss God as if hiding behind your own ignorance is going to bail you out someday when you stand before Him as we all will. Do the research (no, not a google search) and you will find the Bible to be reliable and Christ did indeed die for your sins. It’s sound scientifically, historically and evident through the millions of changed lives.
This news is inspiring, there is a chance for the world yet to be rid of the absolute insanity that has threatened it’s very existence–the church, just one of the insidious religions stemming from Abraham.
hopefully the jews and muslims will also shrink in numbers and we can live without the tyranny they have wrought on us for thousands of years.
It can’t happen soon enough.
The decline of present day Christianity is long overdue. It was never representative of the teachings of Christ. Also, the fundamentalists are always making news and look like wack-o’s to anyone with average intelligence. They go on campaigns against Harry Potter, and the rest of us say “is this for real?” I ask myself, do they really believ you can fly on a broom stick if you go to witch school? ************! I think they should go after Jason and the Argonauts and the Sinbad movies too.
The subject is too big to cover here – but, if Christianity does not dump the dogma and reform itself, it will fade away like the Bronze Age. Most people now see religion as big business. If Jesus were here today he would be railing against it.
You do realize that young minds are thinking about science right? They want to explore their world. When a young mind thinks, it realizes that the bible is wrong. The only reason you and other Christians can’t accept reality is that it has become engrained in your mind. Religion is dying because science is proving more and more things in the bible wrong. Eventually, religions will die out when people overall realize that it is bogus.
Some things never change though (like your thought process). Hitler was a believer in Christianity and was FULLY BACKED AND SUPPORTED by Rome and the current pope.
Atheists (and humans in general) derive morals from what is accepted by society. Morality in general comes from the golden rule, but also from that we are social animals who would rather work together and thrive than kill, steal, and rape each other. We don’t want to live in fear from each other. By working together, we can do greater things (pyramids, space stations).
Evolution is not a religion. It is a natural process by which organisms adapt to their environment. It is an on going process. If an environment changes too wildly, many organisms die out (dinosaurs). We didn’t evolve from monkeys. We share a common ancestor. Humans and modern apes evolved differently which produced two very different organisms.
Also, the whole DNA with a chance of 10 to the 117,000 power? The earth has been around for billions of years. That is a lot of time, and if you have that long, eventually it will happen. The chances are poor of flipping one million coins with all heads coming up. But if you have enough time and keep trying, eventually it will happen and you would get one million heads.
I laugh hysterically when the claim ” It’s sound scientifically, historically”. Science has bashed religion constantly. Did you know that modern medicines such as penicillin are created using ideas such as evolution? The church has condemned such ideas as the earth not being the center of the universe. Do you believe that too? I hope you are old. That way you won’t poison the world much longer.
For all those who do not agree nor believe in Jesus Christ, when He comes,you will all say “So it’s true” and cry “I’m sorry God I didn’t know?. What will you do when you die now and found out that everything about God/Jesus Christ is true, but it is too late to repent? I shudder just thinking about that. I thank God that He sent Jesus Christ so we will have the chance to be saved from eternal death. “thank you Lord”.
Looks like education is working. Slowly though. There are people still holding on to certain bits out of fear and/or habit, comfort, tradition, symbolism, etc. But how many firmly held supernatural beliefs have to be turned on their head by critical thought and experimentation before we say, “okay, we messed up by investing ourselves in completely unfounded beliefs in the supernatural; we invested our entire beings in a rediculous fairy tale for centuries only to find that it cannot possibly be true. Its not a total loss, because the “holy books” we wrote include beautiful illustrations of our philosophies about how we should treat people, ourselves, the earth, etc. (the selected collection of writings we call the bible didn’t create those philosophies, as history shows; the man we call Jesus who may or may not have existed was of course not the first to have the idea that we should “treat our neighbor as we treat ourselves”). So, lets take the rediculous parts, the physically impossible parts, the racist parts, the exclusionist parts and, YES, throw them in the dumpster. And lets start over, beginning with what we KNOW, and lets continue to question what we know, experiment, adjust philosophies and science as new evidence begins to reveal we were wrong about something. For centuries, we would claim we knew the absolute truth about a thing until the evidence piled up so high that it was screaming in our faces – then we would grudgingly, and only slightly, change our religous beliefs and interpretations of holy books to make them fit with what experience and logic and science had undeniably demonstrated (e.g. World is flat, Earth is center of universe, creation story, evolution, etc.). Then we would claim that new interpretation was the absolute truth and ignore the inconsistency of the fact that we had previously claimed something else was absolute truth.” When do we say, “We’re not gonna do that anymore because it doesn’t make sense.” Well, it looks like that is what is happening. It can’t happen all at once because we don’t all share one consciousness; we are not all realizing the same things at the same time. But when I realize something, I talk about it, and act on it. And because we have evolved to the point of living in highy developed communities, all my neighbors are exposed to my adopted and adjusted ideas and theories – and because of how advanced technology is, there is plenty of information avilable for everybody to test their new ideas and decide what the more reliable and consistent theories are. And there are universities for them to cut their teeth on, and really have their ideas challenged, allowing them to realize more things and change more. The trend is a positive one for us. Eventually, people will give up the idea of a God as being just as rediculous as the idea that the world is flat, or that all the things on earth just appeared a few thousand years ago and man was shaped out of clay by a giant man-like being in the sky. And then what do we have left to fight over? Ah yes, oil and water…but at least we’ll have one less thing. Don’t waste your energy rebutting me here because I won’t be back. Spend that energy doing some critical thinking. Since it looks like this is a christian website, I’ll explain what that is for you: it is OBJECTIVELY analyzing something using all relevant information available. Stop ignoring all the greatly reliable knowledge out there because it is what will really set you/us free. Stop believing whatever your emotions or your first intuition tell you, because our emotions, by definition, are stupid. There is nothing sacred or noble about unquestioning faith. It is only irresponsible, lazy, and gluttonous. We have begun (in the last 1000 years) to shift the focus of our energies to places that need it, like medicine and science and forward thinking philosophies. Don’t turn your back on that progress; don’t be an ostrich. Reject what doesn’t make sense and the people who push it; speak out against them; question them to their faces; make them explain the things that don’t make sense; ask the tough questions, and don’t be shy or embarassed about it – but also don’t be mean or angry about it or make fool of them in public, because we all made the same mistakes, but we’re learning. Embarassing people in public will just make them run back to their church for comfort; for someone to tell them they are right and that other person was wrong. Lets all keep learning together – not try our best to forget or ignore what we’re learning, as this article suggests.
This is my last comment because frankly your website is full of rebell-
ion. The Bible is truth..it’s just incomplete truth. Out of all the bo-
oks Torah-Psalms-Gospels-Quran all in one way or another have been re-
written or changed by writers of the day except the Quran. It is in its
original form since being revealed by the God of Abraham Allah. More good news: no one is born into original sin…that’s man made; God cho-
oses no particular people over others…we’re all born equally and in equity; if your religion is so true why are your church pews so desert-
ed? The mosque I attend is packed every Friday. People argue about Je-
sus constantly but never about a book. If you have to go around evange-
lizing and converting then maybe your religion is incomplete. People all
over America and the world are turning to Quran because a book never argues. The truth is that people are born into FREE WILL and not sin. The truth is that there is no manifestation of God but only God’s au-
thority. No one is born free. We’re created to follow the truth of being
complete. It’s sad to see the churches empty but truth has to stand on its own.
Christianity has caused an amazing amount lot of suffering (inquisition, burning millions of people at the stake, etc.) and wars (20 or more crusades), all in Jesus’ name. Shame! Jesus is know as ‘the prince of peace’. He taught non-violence (turn the other cheek, resist not evil, even ‘love your enemies’). How could the church practice the opposite of the one its church is founded upon? If they couldn’t get Jesus’ basic message right after almost 2000 years, how can they get anything right? Clearly the church has never been worthy of belief in anything they say. The only way they could keep the flocks together for so long was through persecution, fear, and guilt. They can’t do it anymore because of laws and because of the internet. Thank God.
If you’re looking for a reason why young people are abandoning your religion:
ar·ro·gance noun \ˈer-ə-gən(t)s, ˈa-rə-\
Definition of ARROGANCE:
An attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions
“When men are most sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken, giving views to passion without that proper deliberation which alone can secure them from the grossest absurdities” – David Hume
To Steve@ To all you Christians that are now complaining that atheists and scientists are shoveing their beliefs down your throats, what the hell do you think you have been doing to non-believers since the Mayflower landed? I still have people knocking on my door every sat or sunday telling me about something I probably know more about then they do since my parents shoveled it down my throat all of my life until I said NO MORE. How does it feel to get a taste of your own medicine??
How can you say Jesus is the only way to heaven. There are religions way older then Christianity. As far as religions go, Christianity and Moslems are very new on the market.
You do not even know WHO wrote the bible yet you belive every word of it. At the beginning of every book and chapter in any version of the bible is a disclaimer that you, they or who ever wrote that particular bible states that they assume so and so wrote it. Out of all the books attributed to Paul only 6 or 7 have now been authenticated and the rest are forgeries, claimed to be written by Paul but have been proven frauds. This is by your own biblical theologians. Who wrote Hebrews?? No one knows. So how can you even say that Jesus even said the words that through him was the only way. Where was he when human were coming out of the trees and forming societies. When they were becoming Homo Sapiens?? Were was he then??
I believe Jesus was a man, but just a man. I believe that he tried to send a message of unconditional to everyone. That all men are brothers and created equal in god’s eyes. Yet the Christians I have been raised with and forced to be around had no love in their heart for anyone but themselves and the people who where just like them. They were judgemental, had superior attitudes, as if they were better then anyone else. They hated gays and lesbians. They tried everyday to stop a womans right to have an abortion. That’s unconditional love?? If you are so worried about the children then why not try to help the ones that are already here instead of standing in front of abortion clinics makeing a already difficult decision worse instead of supporting a woman’s decision and be their to give her some of that uncontitional love that Christians are so well known for. You do not know this person, you do not know why she made this decision, you do not know any of the reasons she choose to terminate her pregnancy. What she needs at this time in her life instead of yelling Baby Killer at her, I’m sure that makes God so proud of you, is love and support with no questions asked.
Non judgemental Christians. I can honestly say I have never met one!!!
People are leaving churches because they are low life people in the first damn place.They stole land from indians,they enslaved Black Africans,and they claim god gave them America.How can a Christian steal someboby elses car,drive to church and preach in the pulp that God blessed them.If they came here to teach Indians about God,why couldnt they stay inEuropeand teach the people who were persecuting them.Christians are liars.