Posted on 04/21/2019 5:20:36 AM PDT by Kaslin
One often hears dire reports in the media about the impending doom of the Christian church. But Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family recently wrote an article in the Federalist that showed such reports may be premature.
Stanton notes, “Religious faith in America is going the way of the Yellow Pages and travel maps, we keep hearing. It’s just a matter of time until Christianity’s total and happy extinction, chortle our cultural elites. Is this true? Is churchgoing and religious adherence really in ‘widespread decline’ so much so that conservative believers should suffer ‘growing anxiety’? Two words: Absolutely not. New research published late last year by scholars at Harvard University and Indiana University Bloomington is just the latest to reveal the myth.” [emphasis his]
Stanton is summarizing the research of Landon Schnabel of Indiana University and Sean Bock of Harvard University from their article in Sociological Science. They write, “Recent research argues that the United States is secularizing, that this religious change is consistent with the secularization thesis, and that American religion is not exceptional.”
But their own research leads them to deduce otherwise: “We conclude that intense religion in the United States is persistent and exceptional in ways that do not fit the secularization thesis.”
I interviewed Glenn Stanton on my radio show recently on this subject: Is the American church dying?
He told me, “You hear that everywhere, and you even hear it in the church from good Christian speakers, leaders, and pastors. They say that young people are leaving the church in droves, and there may not even be a Christian church in America in the next couple of years. And it’s just simply not true.” [emphasis his]
Stanton is the author of eight books, and he has a new one coming out soon, called, The Myth of the Dying Church, with a Foreword by Baylor’s Byron Johnson.
Stanton said the research shows that, “far from dying, “the best parts of Christianity (biblical Christianity, or what C. S. Lewis called ‘mere Christianity’) are growing in the United States and just blossoming around the world.”
He said the key is to understand the difference between the mainline churches (the older and now generally more liberal churches---and the evangelical, Bible-based churches). The former are in “freefall,” with members leaving en masse. But that’s because these churches have “long abandoned the basics of the Christian faith.”
The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that the essence of Christianity is that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; He was buried; and on the third day, He rose from the dead, according to the Scriptures.
Paul even says about these basic truths, “By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.” This is a good thing to be reminded of at this Easter time.
Yet, Stanton notes, many of the more liberal Protestant churches and their leaders have long abandoned these basics of the faith. They have also compromised on biblical morality (e.g., sexual issues, including abortion). These are the churches in America that are dying.
Stanton told me, speaking of these liberal churches, “They are bailing on the basics of Christianity, and, guess what? People are bailing on them. People are leaving those churches as if the buildings are on fire, and do you know where they are going? They are not going nowhere. They are going to the biblically faithful churches, and those are the churches that are growing. So basically what we have here is a great, great good news story. Yes, some parts of Christianity are declining, but those are the people that are compromising the faith. They might as well become Unitarians or something like that.”
I remember reading that only 20 percent of modern day Unitarian Universalists even call themselves Christians. Why pretend?
Jesus said to the professing Christians of Laodicea, “I would that you were hot or cold, but because you are lukewarm, I will spew you out of My mouth.”
In his article for the Federalist, Stanton observes, “The percentage of Americans who attend church more than once a week, pray daily, and accept the Bible as wholly reliable and deeply instructive to their lives has remained absolutely, steel-bar constant for the last 50 years or more, right up to today.”
Stanton adds, “The number of church attendees has continued to rise each and every decade over our nation’s history right up until the present day.”
So, as has been said, “The good news is: the bad news is wrong.”
True Christians are taking the time to worship the crucified and risen Christ.
He is risen. He is risen indeed.
Jerry Newcombe, D.Min., is an on-air host/senior producer for D. James Kennedy Ministries. He has written/co-written 31 books, e.g., The Unstoppable Jesus Christ, American Amnesia: Is American Paying the Price for Forgetting God?, What If Jesus Had Never Been Born? (w/ D. James Kennedy) & the bestseller, George Washington's Sacred Fire (w/ Peter Lillback) djkm.org @newcombejerry www.jerrynewcombe.com
If by “Church”, you refer to the MAINLINE PROTESTANT Denominations, the facts cannot be denied — they are dying.
If by “Church”, you mean the informal, non-denominational evangelical assemblies that are sprouting all over the country, the facts also cannot be denied -— NO. It is in fact growing.
It not just dying The left is actively trying to kill it off.
Along with western civilization.
The fastest growth is Mormon and Seventh Day Adventist, the fastest growing religion in the world is Islam. I’m not so sure that ‘growth’ is a big reason to join a specific religious type based on this information!
Maybe something about many being invited, but few allowed to enter the wedding feast????
I’m hoping that Christianity is in a state of renewal. I believe that is true.
RE: the fastest growing religion in the world is Islam
Let’s not get carried away by Islamic propaganda.
There is an argument to be made that it terms of RATE OF CONVERSION, Christianity is in fact STILL the world’s fastest growing religion.
SEE HERE:
http://bible.ca/islam/islam-myths-fastest-growing.htm
and here:
https://liveasfreepeople.com/2018/10/16/christianity-is-fastest-growing-religion-in-world/
The further you push it out of the public purview, the faster and more real it becomes. It sheds those who are not truly united in spirit. It grows exponentially in homes everywhere.
This is the most exciting time to be under the Lorship of Jesus in the United States. The worship if man’s word is ending as the “science” is revealed for what it truly is and God’s Word is proven more true than any man. He is Risen, you have a purpose and hope.
Denominations may go, but Christ’s church...the body of people who accept his sacrifice on the cross for the remission of sins...will never die. He said so.
It takes searching, over and over again, to find a new church when the ones you have known for years go bat-Shiite Social Justice Trump Hating Crazy. Church leaders are driving out believers, unless they change their beliefs to be inline with the New World Order.
In Chandler, AZ, a city of about 250,000, Cornerstone Church has over 6,000 active members.
Yesterday-—as per a request from our pastor-—”regular” members attended one of the Saturday Easter services (which was very good) to make room for all those bringing visitors to the 9:30 and 10:30 services.
Ours was packed, SRO, including a big overflow room, at 4:00.
So I would say “some” churches do not have trouble spreading the Gospel.
Mainline denominations are dying.
Believers you encounter in the course of your day are more comfortable talking about their faith than I remember ever in my life... People that love God seem to naturally love talking about him. Non-denom churches are growing to the point they can’t find properties big enough, with members of catholic, evangelical, and pentecostal backgrounds freely intermixed. And all of them have internet audiences around the world.
So, while its an increasingly hostile world, it has had an effect opposite of what you might expect. It has a way of encouraging people to get off the fence, at least within their own hearts. That combined with a natural stubbornness, people are more willing than ever to declare themselves openly, I think. I don’t know if others see what I think I see.
And doing so with the acquiescence of gullible Americans
What “American” church? The Church embodies those who worship Jesus and cannot be defined by any Nation.
Better question is, Are those who denounce Jesus in for a nasty surprise when He returns...
After the Rapture the RCC, LDS and JW will unite under the antiChrist to form a one world religion. After the Ezekiel 38 war there won’t be many Muslims left alive.
Faith for me is personal, and no wayward priest or Pope will cause me to abandon it. While many people exist without a belief in God, I wouldn't last a week. I'm too weak to travel this pot hole filled road without God's help.
He is Risen and today is a wonderful day. May God Bless us all, even those that don't believe.
It would be hard to quantify what the western church is doing. Rural churches are disappearing as members age and die. Churches more faithful to scripture are largely holding or growing.
How are people "showing up" for Jesus? 1) Conversion; and 2) Birth. The people I know with the youngest marriages and the biggest families are Latin-Mass Roman Catholics and Evangelical Protestants.
For one of many indicators, check out the March for Life. It's 99-percent young. The accounts of conversion heard there and elsewhere demonstrate a huge cohort young people--high school, college and post-college--are coming to Christ. Why? Because the Democrat-sponsored, ever-morphing culture of mediocrity and violence is brainless, groundless, and worst of all, unreliable.
It is being poisoned by liberals. I won’t sit in a pew with a bunch of queers and liberals. Don’t need that. I think “organized religion” as we know it is what is dying. People are still talking to God ... just not in public.
Scripture based churches are surviving, some are growing, including the one I attend. People today seem more hungry for His word, than before.
If the Mormons and Adventists are growing, that will sell a lot of video doorbells.
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