Once upon a time, the vast majority of all Americans believed that the Bible was the Word of God, but now things have fundamentally changed.  With each passing year, the Bible is becoming less important to most Americans.  The results of the most recent State of the Bible survey are absolutely shocking.  The survey was conducted by the Barna Group on behalf of the American Bible Society, and it clearly shows that the Bible is becoming less important in the daily lives of Americans.  Sadly, young people are rejecting the Bible and rejecting Christianity in higher percentages than anyone else.  The Bible tells us that there will be a great apostasy in the last days, but to see it start to happen is incredibly sad.  The following are some of the most noteworthy results of the survey….

• In 2011, 54% of American adults said that the Bible has too little influence in society today.  In 2012, that number was only 47%.
• The survey found that 55% of all American adults read the Bible to be closer to God.  That was a 9% decline from 2011.
• In 2011, 53% of American adults believed that “the Bible contains everything a person needs to know to live a meaningful life”.  In the 2012 survey, that percentage fell to 48%.
• Last year, 67% of all American adults said that they want to read the Bible more.  This year, only 60% of all American adults said that they want to read the Bible more.
• 54% of all respondents to the survey this year were not able to correctly identify the first five books of the Bible.
• 46% of all American adults believe that the Bible, the Quran and the Book of Mormon “are different expressions of the same spiritual truths”.
• 36% of all American adults read the Bible less than once a year.
• According to the survey, younger Americans consider the Bible to be less important than older Americans do. Only 34% of Americans in the 18-27 age bracket believe that “the Bible contains everything a person needs to know to live a meaningful life”.  In the 66 and older age bracket, 62% believe that “the Bible contains everything a person needs to know to live a meaningful life”.

As the Bible becomes less important to most Americans, they are also increasingly coming to believe that all major religions are acceptable paths to God.

In fact, a movement known as “Chrislam” that is attempting to draw together Christianity and Islam is making inroads in churches all over America.  For example, last year dozens of churches publicly read from the Quran during their worship services one Sunday as part of an interfaith project promoted by the Interfaith Alliance and Human Rights First.

Most Americans simply do not believe that there is a single way to God anymore.  One survey that was conducted a while back discovered that 52 percent of all American Christians believe that “at least some non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life”.

For many other Americans, religion is simply not important at all.  A survey that was conducted by LifeWay Research found that 46 percent of all Americans never even think about whether they will go to heaven or hell at all.

Without a doubt, Christianity is losing its dominant role in American life.  Most Americans still consider themselves to be “Christian” in one sense or another, but the percentage of Christians in the United States is falling fast.  Back in 1990, 86 percent of all Americans considered themselves to be Christians.  In 2008, that number had plummeted to 76 percent.

So where are all of those people going?

Well, certainly a number of other religions have grown rapidly, but so has atheism.  In fact, according to the U.S. Census Bureau the number of Americans with “no religion” more than doubled between 1990 and 2008.

This is particularly true among young Americans.  According to one survey, 25 percent of all Americans in the 18 to 29 age bracket say that they have no religion.

Survey after survey has found that the younger a person is, the less likely they are going to be Christian.

Young adults in America today are far less likely to be engaged in religious activities than their parents or grandparents.  The following are some of the results of a survey of young adults that was conducted by LifeWay Christian Resources….

•65% rarely or never pray with others, and 38% almost never pray by themselves either.

•65% rarely or never attend worship services of any kind.

•67% don’t read the Bible or any other religious texts on a regular basis.

There appears to be a huge drop off in church attendance during the transition from the teen years to the young adult years.  The following comes from a CNN article….

David Kinnaman, the 38-year-old president of the Barna Group, an evangelical research firm, is the latest to sound the alarm. In his new book, “You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church and Rethinking Faith,” he says that 18- to 29-year-olds have fallen down a “black hole” of church attendance. There is a 43% drop in Christian church attendance between the teen and early adult years, he says.

But that doesn’t mean that young adults in America are fully rejecting spirituality.

In fact, spirituality and the supernatural have been at the very heart of some of the biggest entertainment phenomenons that we have seen in recent years.  Harry Potter and Twilight both captured the imaginations of millions upon millions of young Americans.

Our young people seem to have a craving for the supernatural, but they do not seem to have much of a desire for Christianity.

In fact, many music superstars have found great success by using dark imagery that fully rejects Christianity.  Satanic imagery seems to have a great allure for many young Americans today.  The following comes from a recent Fox News article….

Lady Gaga, for example, frequently uses satanic imagery in her music videos. A simple Google search of Gaga’s name yields results that suggests everything from her being a servant of the dark lord, which she does little to dispel, to her involvement with the Illuminati, an alleged secret society of powerful musicians, CEOs and politicians rumored to worship the devil.

Similarly, Kanye West has garnered attention with controversial satanic images in his music videos and joking that he is involved with the Illuminati. West’s frequent collaborators Jay Z and Beyonce are rumored to be involved with the group as well.

Rapper Tyler Okonma, better known by the stage name Tyler the Creator, has even branded himself the son of Satan in his song “Bastard.”

And with Satan’s imagery arguably translating to remarkable success for these stars, who have Grammys and gold records under their belts, experts don’t see it going away any time soon.

We need to reach these young people with the truth while there is still time.

Large portions of the church are sleeping and this generation of young people is rapidly slipping away.

We desperately need a true spiritual awakening in this country.

So what do you think about the things that you have just read above?  Please feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below….

Many times Christians in America speak of the persecution that is coming someday.  But the truth is that intense persecution of Christians is already here.  According to a new report from the Pew Research Center, two out of every three people in the world now live in countries where religion is highly restricted.  Governments around the globe are regularly killing Christians, torturing Christians and imprisoning Christians in absolutely horrific conditions.  But it isn’t just governments that are persecuting Christians.  Jihadist groups throughout the Islamic world have taken it upon themselves to slaughter those who commit “blasphemy” by preaching the gospel.  The truth is that it is a very dangerous time to be a Christian, and things are only going to get even more intense as we get deeper into the last days.

Things are really getting frightening out there.  Just consider a few of the recent reports of Christian persecution from around the globe….

*Christian organizations around the world are expressing outrage over the killing of ten Christian medical workers who were serving the poor in the northeastern province of Badakhshan in Afghanistan.  According to reports, the Christian medical workers were killed by jihadists for “spying for the Americans” and for “preaching Christianity”.

*An out of control Muslim mob in Jhelum, Pakistan slaughtered the wife and four children of a prominent Christian a number of weeks ago, but local authorities were too intimidated by the local Muslim leader to file charges.

*Two brothers were recently shot dead by Islamic extremists outside a courtroom in the Pakistani’s Punjab province.  The brothers were facing blasphemy charges after allegedly distributing gospel pamphlets.

*Jihadist organizations in Indonesia have declared their intention to establish paramilitary units in local mosques to fight “ongoing attempts to convert people to Christianity”.

*A Christian pastor in the Russian republic of Dagestan known for founding the biggest Protestant church in the region and for successfully sharing the gospel with Muslims was recently shot and killed by unidentified gunmen.

*Christians in Bhutan were disheartened to learn that the government there has proposed the kind of “anti-conversion law” that other nations have used as a pretext for persecuting Christians and shutting down the sharing of the gospel.

*In North Korea, you are likely to get thrown into prison for the rest of your life or tortured to death just for trying to bring a Bible into the country.

But it just isn’t in other areas of the world where Christianity is being persecuted.  The truth is that Christians are now being heavily persecuted inside the United States itself…. 

*A federal judge recently recently ruled in favor of a counseling program at Eastern Michigan University that kicked out a master’s student who refused to affirm the morality of homosexuality.

*A newly filed lawsuit against Augusta State University in Georgia alleges that university officials essentially gave a graduate student in counseling the choice of either giving up her Christian beliefs or being expelled from the program.

*Pastor Ronnie Wallace was recently placed under arrest in Charlotte, North Carolina for preaching the gospel in front of an abortion clinic.

*Two other Christians were arrested recently for sharing the gospel and singing hymns on a public sidewalk outside an Islamic mosque in the city of Philadelphia.

*One North Carolina pastor is demanding an apology from lawmakers in his state after he was dismissed from his chaplain duties for praying in the name of Jesus.

*Four Christians face fines of up to $500 each and up to 93 days in jail for sharing the gospel with Muslims on a public sidewalk outside of an Islamic street festival in Dearborn, Michigan.

So would you continue preaching the gospel if it meant that you would be put in jail?

That is something to think about.

The sad thing is that most American Christians don’t preach the gospel anyway.

In fact, for most Americans, God is not a very important part of their lives at all.  According to a brand new study by the Barna Group, only 12 percent of American adults say that faith is a top priority in their lives.

Only 12 percent?

Unfortunately, even many of those Americans that do consider faith to be important have been completely lulled to sleep by their “shepherds”.

All over the United States, Christians are being taught by their “life coaches” to “live their best lives now” while millions of other Christians throughout the world are literally risking their lives to advance the gospel.

Christians across America better start waking up.  The last days are upon us and a time is coming when Christians are going to be killed in staggering numbers.  We all need to decide right now what we are willing to give up for the sake of Christ. 

You better get ready.

Hard times are coming.

Did the headline above get your attention?  It should.  The truth is that approximately 400,000 U.S. nonprofit organizations, including thousands of Christian ministries, are just weeks away from losing their tax exemptions.  Why?  Well, a very sneaky provision buried in a 2006 pension reform bill required all nonprofit organizations to file tax forms the following year.  Prior to that, only nonprofit organizations that had revenues of $25,000 or more had to file tax returns.  The problem is that hundreds of thousands of nonprofit organizations did not realize this.  This new provision, which was deeply embedded in the 393 pages of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, also instructed the IRS to revoke the tax exemptions of all nonprofit organizations that failed to file tax returns for 3 consecutive years.

Well guess what?

The three years are just about up and hundreds of thousands of nonprofit organizations are about to experience a financial doomsday.

The New York Times recently quoted Diana Aviv, the president of the nonprofit trade group Independent Sector, as saying the following about the impact that this deadline is going to have….

“It’s going to be an unholy mess once these organizations realize what’s happened to them.”

And that is what this is.

A gigantic mess.

Have the Christian ministries and organizations that you are affiliated with been filing tax returns with the IRS?

Are you sure?

If not, they may be about to lose their tax exemptions.

The reality is that many politicians in Washington have been trying to figure out for a long time how to start sucking some revenue out of the nonprofit world.  In particular, many liberals have long resented the tax exemptions that churches and other religious organizations have enjoyed.

But coming out and openly proposing a repeal of the tax exemptions for churches and religious organizations would not be popular at all.

So they have to find backdoor ways to do it.

The truth is that it would be really easy for Congress to repeal this stupid provision so that hundreds of thousands of nonprofit organizations do not suddenly lose their tax exemptions.

But they aren’t going to do it.

They have got thousands upon thousands of unsuspecting victims in their legislative trap and that is just where many of the folks in Washington want them.

The reality is that we have become a nation that has so many thousands upon thousands of laws that it is literally impossible to comply with them all.

Trust me on this – I went to law school. 

So what should a ministry do that finds itself trapped by this situation?

Well, you need to contact the IRS immediately and try to get this straightened out.

For those individuals who are very upset about this, you can try contacting your representatives in Congress, but with Barack Obama and the Democrats in control, the odds that this provision will be repealed are somewhere between very slim and none.

The truth is that this is yet another example of how the U.S. government is literally getting their fingers into every aspect of our daily lives.  But as we move into the last days things are going to get far worse.  Right now in America we are only facing “soft” persecution.  In other areas of the world they are already facing torture and death for the cross, and that will happen in this country some day as well.  But in the midst of the persecution millions will turn to Yahshua (Jesus) and be saved.  This is going to be one of the most exciting times in all of history to be alive, so let us be thankful and let us take the gospel forward no matter what the opposition is.

The church in America is a complete and total mess.  A shocking new poll of the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States has revealed that only 39 percent of the members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation.

39 percent?

Yes, 39 percent.

This figure comes from the latest “Religious and Demographic Profile of Presbyterians” report which was recently released by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

What is even more stunning is that when you look at only the pastors, the numbers are even lower.

Only 35 percent of the pastors surveyed agreed with the statement that “only followers of Jesus Christ can be saved.”

So almost two-thirds of the pastors in the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States believe that there are other ways to be saved other than through Jesus Christ.

At this point it would be really east to jump all over the Presbyterians, but the truth is that this type of apostasy is common in many Christian denominations.

For example, USA Today 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.

So not only do a majority of Presbyterians not believe that Jesus is the only path for salvation, a majority of Christians throughout the United States believe this as well.

In fact, a different survey taken last year by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 57 percent of evangelical Christians in the U.S. believe that “many religions can lead to eternal life”.

What in the world?

What is happening in our churches?

How far have we gotten from the basics of the Christian faith?

In John 14:6, Jesus told us the following….

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

There is no other way to salvation.

Just think about it for a minute.

If there was any other way for our sins to be forgiven, then why did Jesus need to die on the cross?

If there were many other ways to salvation, then the death of Jesus on the cross was totally unnecessary.

Jesus could have simply 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 ever having to deal with the cross.

But the truth is that there was no other way for our sins to be paid for.

Jesus Christ, being the sinless Son of God, died on the cross to pay for the sins of all humanity.

All other religions reject this, and most of them involve jumping through “hoops” and doing good works of some kind or another in order to try to obtain the favor of a deity.

But the reality is that without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ there is no path to heaven.

Without Jesus to pay for our sins we are all still guilty.

Why can’t Christians in the United States understand this?

The truth is that the church in America is a complete and total mess.  But we knew that these days would come.  2 Timothy 4:3 tells us this…..

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.

There were also other results from the PC(USA) survey that were almost equally as shocking.  Just consider these numbers….

*Only one in six members and even fewer ministers believe that the Bible is to be taken literally, word for word.

*Only 44 percent say that they have had a “conversion experience” when they committed themselves to Christ.

So what are we to make of all this?

The reality is that the PC(USA) is not the only denomination out there that is a total mess.

Most churches do not teach Biblical Christianity anymore.

Most churches do not teach the basics of the Christian faith.

Perhaps you attend one of those churches.

If you are confused about what the Bible says about God and about salvation, then we encourage you to check out the new website that we are putting together that answers some of the most basic questions about the Christian faith.

In particular, we would encourage you to read an article that we put together entitled “What Does The Bible Say About Salvation?”

The truth is that the Bible is very clear about God’s plan of salvation, and it is the most important message that any of us will ever hear.  If you do not know where you would go if you died tonight, please do not let another day pass without finding out what God has to say about your future destiny. 

Nothing could be more important.

A play depicting Jesus as a gay man was performed in front of a packed church sanctuary in California last weekend.  Only a handful of protesters demonstrated outside of The Church of the Foothills in Santa Ana, California during the performance.  The play, which is entitled “Corpus Christi”, depicts Jesus as a gay man living in the 1950s in Corpus Christi, Texas.  This is yet another sign of how close to the last days we actually are.

The “pastor” of  The Church of the Foothills, Michael Holland, made the following comments regarding the decision by his church to host the play….

“The Bible does not condemn homosexuality as an orientation, it condemns certain homoerotic acts which had nothing to do with people being in love, like we’re doing today.”

“Jesus was about love and inclusion and affirming people as children of God, and that’s what we’re doing tonight.”

The Church of the Foothills has hosted same sex marriage rallies in the past and held the very first same sex wedding in the Tustin area back in June.

Just what in the world is going on when the vast majority of Christians are no longer shocked to hear about a play that depicts Jesus as a homosexual?

Just what in the world is going on when that play is actually performed inside a packed church?

The truth is that a huge number of churches have completely abandoned the Bible and have instead surrounded themselves with “pastors” and “priests” who will tell them whatever they want to hear.

In 2 Timothy 4:3, the apostle Paul told us that days like these would come…. 

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 hour is late and we are living in the last days my friends.  The church mentioned above is just one example of the rank apostasy plaguing the church in America.  The truth is that the vast majority of “ministers”, “pastors” and “priests” currently “serving” in the United States should immediately resign.  The truth is that the majority of churches in the United States should immediately close their doors in disgrace. 

The “church” in America is in an advanced state of apostasy.  Very few churches in the United States ever preach about sin, judgment, heaven or hell anymore.  Very few churches in the United States believe in the basic doctrines of Scripture anymore.

That is why so many people are leaving these dead denominations.  Nobody should sit there and listen to these jokers as they openly deny the Word of God.  If you are sitting there in a dead, apostate church it is time to get out.

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.