Posted on 05/19/2015 5:20:27 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
Much has been made of the recent Pew poll that highlights America’s religious landscape. What has drawn the most attention is the apparent decline of Christianity in the U.S. “The Christian share of the U.S. population is declining,” began the piece. Many liberals took gleeful notice. The Institute on Religion and Democracy’s Mark Tooley noted, “Secularists and their fellow travelers are ecstatic. The secular utopia about which John Lennon crooned is impending. Christianity is finally dying!”
Of course, this is far from the case, as Tooley later reveals. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, points out that it’s not Christianity that’s dying, but rather “near Christianity” that is teetering. “Good riddance,” Moore concludes.
The denominations that have lost the most “near Christians” are Catholic and Mainline Protestant. According to the Washington Times, “for every person who joined the Roman Catholic Church, six others were departing.” Additionally, in the last 50 years, the proportion of Americans belonging to one of the “Seven Sisters of Mainline Protestantism” has plummeted from one in six to one in sixteen.
From the Anglicans at Jamestown, to the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and the Puritans at Massachusetts Bay, virtually all of the Mainline Protestant churches in the U.S. can trace their roots to those who literally founded America. The principles of American democracy were born in Mainline churches. The revivals during the Great Awakening were preached by men from Mainline churches. Many of the first colleges and universities in the U.S. were founded by Mainline churches. What’s more, eight of the first fourteen U.S. Presidents were Episcopalian. The spiritual and political roots of America are deeply embedded in Mainline Protestantism. What a tragic fall!
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
First you would have to kill God.
.....Yet in the southern nations, the Christian faith is growing. Look for the missionaries to head west from those countries.
Decades of re-education for millions of American children in government schools has taught them to worship Mammon and not God.
I think that is a good thing actually.
Which is, of course, the problem that besets us now and is bringing about our downfall.
If the focus isn't on eternity, then it's not God's Church.
Yes I know a person becomes a Christian by asking Jesus into their life, by personally thanking Him for dying on the Cross for their sins, turning from their sins, and that Salvation is a free gift of God.
By grace we are saved through faith and not of works lest any man should boast, I get great comfort from that.....
HOWEVER, we are also known by our fruits....if anybody tells you they are a pro choice Christian, or that they are a Christian Democrat or Liberal Christian, you know they are not Christian because those terms are oxymorons.
To vote Liberal/Democrat is to support abortion,gay marriage, and the removal of God/Christ from the classroom/public square
to vote liberal/Democrat is to harm a child
Actually, more and more fundamental churches are running into trouble with gay issues trying to insist on equal status. Many, many people have left those churches.
Instead, the evangelical churches are booming .. which the media never bothers to account for.
The other groups that have “left the church” are Catholic groups which became disenchanted over the scandal, and have not returned to church.
And, a lot of people are able to receive a church service right at home .. (especially from a church which is too far away for them to travel to once a week - or more).
I believe more Christians are praying than ever before, because Christians are not ready to surrender America to the wolves.
And that's just it. How many years have people tried to kill the Jews despite an overwhelming numerical advantage by Jew-haters to the number of Jews? God's not going to let that happen because He still has a plan to save a remnant of them.
Likewise, even if most Christians turn their backs on Christ, God will still have His select for the time of Armageddon and they will rise up when He needs them to win the battle. If Christians wither and fall away, it only means we are drawing closer to that time when Christ returns and God has his final battle with Satan - which He'll win.
Really, the Revelations of John spelled all this out centuries ago and there's no reason to believe it won't happen. What is impossible for God?
“The gates of hell” will not prevail against Christ’s Church. There will be a remnant of Christianity present when Jesus returns to judge mankind. Jesus does not make promises that He does not keep.
Liberals and towelheads are doing their best to eliminate it.
God is never impressed with numbers. He only wants those who really love Him and will follow Him.
Maybe the wheat and chaff are being separated??
For every Christian martyred two more step forward....
And Eastern nations as well.
If you take 2,000 years of Christian history, it’s been literally limited to the Middle East, Europe and Northern Africa until the New World Conquest.
IMHO we’re in the Great Falling Away spoken of in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3.
Russell Moore is a dangerous Socialist/Communitarian IMO. SBC folks ought to really dig in to his writings (especially those focusing on race).
Truer words not spoken!
See my tagline ;)
A GREAT article by same author....
The Fruit of Liberalism
http://www.trevorgrantthomas.com/2014/04/the-fruit-of-liberalism.html
Is there anything that liberalism can’t corrupt? From the conscience to communities to corporations to families, churches, schools, and government, its destruction seems to know no bounds. Tragically, the evidence is all around us.
The “human family” is where liberalism has wrought the most destruction. Using legislation and the courts, liberal support of abortion, pornography, homosexuality, the welfare state, and a redefinition of marriage, has “succeeded” in wreaking great havoc with the institution upon which our whole culture rests.
Like the “Curley effect,” this social engineering has yielded significant political gains for democrats. For once the family is destroyed, where else but Big Government will tens-of-millions of Americans look for sustenance and salvation?
The future belongs to nations that embrace Christianity, just as history favored those that did.
Once the Holy Spirit leaves, the physical husk withers and collapses. All the social programs and "good" intentions will not preserve them no matter how frantic the efforts of the unbelieving people who want to keep them going for their own purposes.
You can’t kill the Christian faith. Prosperity is not good for it though, and breeds complacency and apathy with many - but not strong believers.
Where the faith finds difficulty and persecution, it prospers and thrives.
Both would actually be good for the faith.........
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