Posted on 09/18/2022 8:12:56 AM PDT by ChicagoConservative27
Governments, “media” Hollyweird and athiest groups and the courts
Have all contributed to the decline of faith
When will they ever learn?
Priorities?
Organized “religion” is BS anyway. They just want your money, your FREE services, and to conform you into their “religion” instead of promoting “FAITH” which is what God wants.
God wants your HEART, not your money. He wants you LOVE, not your “works”. He wants your devotion, not your adherence to some church “religion”, pastor, priest, or minister.
Attend church if you want to, but please be aware it is NOT a get out of jail (hell) free card. It is not so you can sin all week and be forgiven on Sunday.
Just remember, your church is FULL of hypocrites. Full of NON-CHRISTIANS (FAKERS) that can lead you astray.
Time spent just between you and God is far more beneficial.
What are churches doing to be relevant to people in modern times?
(I visited a church where they handed out ear-plugs at the door! Even using them you could not discern the people singing as the ‘band’ was breathtaking loud.)
But then Jesus did say we would enter a time where these things would be apparent and grow worse...as the great deception covers the world.
Olivia, we did not do the Sunday morning sports. (Five kids). What would we refuse to give up for the worship of God? Soccer??
As I write believers are in prison because they went to church under threat of death/prison/exile.
What do we teach our kids when we take them to sportsball instead of church?
Sunday is the day of assembly. We don’t get to reschedule like it’s movie night!
Sports are fun and have some profit. But worship and church life are paramount.
Yes. Churches being operated as businesses with the intent to keep on growing that business, without any regard to the real costs.
That’s a sign when the tail is wagging the dog.
It is God who organized the church. He very clearly lines out the authority structure. He tells us not to forsake the assembling together, gives instruction for the conduct of public worship etc. it is not something we do “if we want.”
Yes some churches go corrupt. As Jesus clearly lines out in Revelation when he addresses the seven CHURCHES. Note he did not address individual believers but addressed the churches, praising and admonishing them. He set them up. He sustains them. He supports them. We are all to be part of a faithful church.
These reports have been outmformdecades- 3018 showed there isn’t a huge decline like all the h3adlines breathlessly indicate
There are more recent articles too
God is not dead
The obituary for American Christianity has been written again and again, but the data tells a different story
Younger generations are so addicted to stimulants in society churches offering “moving ‘expereinces’ to further enhance emotions.
A lot of this suffocatesf the Holy Spirits actual work He does in the hearts and souls of the people. When they leave they ‘feel’ good.
I was never religious even though I grew up in a church school. There are hundreds of millions of people like me who dismiss the claims of the various organized religions as superstition.
And it has nothing to do with the Left.
I’m an outspoken Constitutional Conservative and I am passionate about religious freedom, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights.
I think religious freedom is crucial even though I’m not religious because it a proxy for freedom of thought. Obviously, the state should not have the power to control what we think (believe). By protecting religious belief, the Constitution protects freedom of thought.
However, I do not subscribe to any of the elaborate “systems” of belief, like Christianity, which purport to know all sorts of specifics about the purpose of creation and the afterlife that simply can’t be known.
These belief systems always depend on some revelation by someone who supposedly returned from the dead to reveal the details of creation, Heaven, etc.
I acknowledge that human science and our five senses can only discover a fraction of what exists - and it is fair to call that unknown portion of existence the spirit realm. I have no disagreement at all with conjectural thought (belief) about this “spirit realm”, and even respect it.
After all, we should be inquisitive and open-minded about the unknown. Therefore, it is completely unconstitutional for the state to try and suppress these conjectures.
But let’s face it, there are many things we just can’t know - and although investigating and conjecturing is a healthy instinct - claiming knowledge we don’t possess is not.
There even a word for it: superstition.
It was the persecution of the Church that kept Catholicism strong in Ireland for centuries, at least on paper.
It was when the Church was no longer persecuted and Ireland voted for legalized abortion that everyone realized how little of the Faith was really there.
Most people still believe in the existence of God but fail to see His relevance toward mankind. God is seen as a heartless and demanding God because of the difficulty of life in general. People have lost hope in God because of his remoteness. We are continuously reminded that God is in charge i.e. God is the cause of all mayhem, unhappiness and cruelty that surround us. Any FReeper has a better explanation — be my guest. But don’t base your explanation on faith, faith, faith. Faith is a strictly spiritual thing. We are not to live on bread alone, but neither can we be sustained by spirit alone. My 2 pennies worth.
The Devil is in the details.
Mainline Protestant churches are dying. Were they really Christian post WWII?
Hispanic Catholics are becoming Pentecostal Evangelicals.
From a leftist perspective, Pentecostals are less Christian than my view of Mainline Protestants.
The study seemed to mix “Christian” with “being affiliated”. I consider myself a Christian. But I am not “affiliated”.
It’s less about people losing religion and more people just being real about themselves. Most Christians in the US are Christian in name only. Same as most middle eastern countries that claim they are 99% Muslim. Everyone there will tell you they are Muslim out of fear if they told the truth. Same stigma used to be in the US but that has since died away. The truth is sad but at least its honest.
It’s called separating the wheat from the tares. Until they mature you can’t tell which is which.
My experience also is there a a big problem with organized religion and it’s hypocritical “leaders”, including pastors. Hurts my heart, as it was always such a joy to share Sundays with neighbors and friends. When our pastor (young, fairly recent Liberty U grad) presented us with a contract to sign pledging a weekly contribution of a given $$ amount, I started looking for a new church.
We are in the midst of the Great Falling Away. Read Revelation to find out what happens next. Time is running out.
John 3:16
King James Version
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
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