Posted on 05/26/2015 8:18:48 AM PDT by Kaslin
"This is a Christian nation," said the Supreme Court in 1892.
"America was born a Christian nation," echoed Woodrow Wilson. Harry Truman affirmed it: "This is a Christian nation."
But in 2009, Barack Hussein Obama begged to differ: "We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation."
Comes now a Pew Research Center survey that reveals the United States is de-Christianizing at an accelerated rate.
Whereas 86 percent of Americans in 1990 identified as Christians, by 2007, that was down to 78 percent. Today only 7 in 10 say they are Christians. But the percentage of those describing themselves as atheists, agnostics or nonbelievers has risen to 23. That exceeds the Catholic population and is only slightly below evangelicals.
Those in the mainline Protestant churches -- Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians -- have plummeted from 50 percent of the U.S. population in 1958 to 14 percent today. By accommodating the social revolution of the 1960s to stay relevant, mainline churches appear to have made themselves irrelevant to America's young.
The decline in Christian identity is greatest among the young. While 85 percent of Americans born before 1945 still call themselves Christians, only 57 percent of those born after 1980 do.
If we want to see our future, we should probably look to Europe, where Catholic Ireland just voted in a landslide to legalize same-sex marriage and where cathedrals and churches are being turned into tourist attractions and museums and even bars and restaurants.
What are the causes of a de-Christianized America?
High among them is the Supreme Court, which, since the Earl Warren era began, purged Christianity from all public schools and the public square -- and has been met with a puzzling lack of resistance from Middle America to the secularist revolution being imposed upon it.
Second, an anti-Christian elite captured the cultural heights -- the arts, elite universities, popular culture, the media -- and began, through movies, books and magazines, an assault on Christian beliefs and morality.
Third was the social revolution of the 1960s, which began with the arrival of the baby boomers on campus in 1964. Five years on, Woodstock Nation was wallowing in the mud, listening to Country Joe & the Fish.
The counterculture of the '60s would be used as a foil to build 49-state landslides for Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, but then the '60s views and values were embraced by the elites and came to dominate the culture in the time of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Given his baggage, "Slick Willy" of Yoknapatawpha County would have been a comic figure in the 1950s. Today he is the Democratic Party's beau ideal of a statesman.
Many churches came out to meet the cultural revolution halfway. The results were irrelevance and scandal -- too many Elmer Gantrys in televangelist pulpits and too many predators in priestly cassocks.
What are the consequences of a de-Christianized America and West? Si monumentum requiris, circumspice. (If you would seek its monuments, look around you.)
Half of marriages end in divorce. Fewer children are being born, and of these, over 40 percent are out of wedlock. Record drug use rates and dropout rates and soaring crime rates that have declined only because we have an incarceration rate that rivals South Africa's.
Despite astonishing advances in medicine, we have far more and far more varied and deadly STDs.
As Christianity dies, individualism, materialism and hedonism replace it. "Selfies" could be the name for the generation for whom Easter Sunday long ago took a back seat to Super Bowl Sunday. More than a million abortions a year, assisted suicide and euthanasia are seen as the milestones of social progress in the new America.
"Panem et circenses," bread and circuses, were what the late Roman Empire was all about. With us, it is sex, drugs and rock, with variations on all three.
Historically, as the faith dies, the culture and civilization to which it gave birth die, and then the people die. And a new tribe with its own gods comes to occupy the emptying land.
On the old and new continents, it is the native-born of European ancestry who are de-Christianizing, aging and dying. And the nations they created are the ones depopulating.
To occupy Rome, the barbarians came from the east and north. To occupy the West, they are coming from the south. And like the Romans of the fourth century, we seem paralyzed and powerless to stop them.
Christianity was the founding faith of the West. That faith and the moral code and culture it produced once united this disparate and diverse nation and civilization.
As Christianity fades away and the moral code and culture it generated recede into irrelevance, what will hold us together?
Economically, we are dependent on foreigners for the necessities of our national life. Our politics are poisonous. Our racial divisions, once ameliorated by shared belief in the same God and Bible, are rawer than they were in the 1950s.
As for equality, diversity and global democracy, who will march and die for that?
Historian Arnold Toynbee said it well: "Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder."
A video about Marxist’s infiltration and subversion of America and a key entity, The Frankfurt School (= Columbia U.). Long but very historically enlightening. Very anti-Christian.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uHbLE8n6xE
I would NOT have quoted President 'Birth of a Nation' Wilson to bolster my argument here. He did some quite un-Christian things as president.
Jesus Christ: You can’t impeach Him and He ain’t gonna resign.
What is it that the “Mainline Protestant” organizations have in common? Most are moving away from Biblical teaching and pushing secularism into their congregations. No wonder “Christianity” is “dying” in America. Many Christians aren’t interested in their version of what religion should be. The farther they move from what the Bible teaches then obviously the further from Christianity they become.
Ah yes, thye Catholic mind can see nothing but the affront to Catholicism ... you must be so proud.
This is a good article, but approaches the issue from two very faulty premises: (1) that this has been a Christian country at any time in recent history and (2) that caesar gives even the slightest rip what Christians think.
I get the sense that a lot of Christians are uncomfortable with the idea that caesar is going to do whatever caesar is going to do. Apparently there is this idea that one happy morning, caesar will have an epiphany and start to act in a virtuous and Christian manner. So other than the most wishful of wishful thinking, what evidence do we have that this might happen?
Our Lord and Savior had some wise words about caesar and how we should give caesar that which is caesars, and give God that which is God’s
Indeed. But you are very incorrect on how that works. Here you stated how you don't care if the state allows a legal cohabitation arrangement involving 3 men, one transgendered dwarf, and a yak. When I pointed out that because you have this liberal ungodly attitude, then you will also not care when churches and individuals will be forced to conduct ceremonies with “3 men, one transgendered dwarf, and a yak.” To which you took caesar's POV.
What is wrong with you?
In my earlier post I sought to point out the folly of Christians getting overly concerned over caesars definition of licensed cohabitation. Note that I chose my words carefully. I called it licensed cohabitation, not marriage. What caesar approves with a so-called marriage license has nothing whatsoever to do with the sacrament as practiced by Christian churches. The sooner we draw that distinction, the better. Obviously you didn’t catch it. I’ll try to be clearer when I post in the future.
As for posting history, pehaps you should go a little further back where I’ve explained in extremis the difference between the licensed “marriage” as defined by caesar and that defined by God. If you want caesars blessing, then by all means get the cohabitation license. If not, then perhaps Christians should skip that step. In any case, it’s caesar’s construct, not God’s.
PS. With regards to taking caesars POV, nothing could be further from the truth. Keep in mind that he who sets the rules generally decides or at least influences the outcome.
We play politics by caesars rules. We spend billions of dollars and countless hours seeking to sway caesar’s POV. So how’s that been working out in your estimation?
Since the 1960s the government schools have been completely godless in their worldview. So?...Why are we surprised that godlessness is growing?
Children learn what they experience.
If the schools are compulsory and a single-payer socialist entitlement. They will learn to be comfortable with compulsory socialism.
It the K-12 schools and the government functionaries that run them trash every First Amendment Right of the children and treat them in many ways like prisoners, then the children will learn to be comfortable with government abuse.
While there are many reasons America is less Christian, the government schools are a **major** reason that it is.
Bump for Jesus
Pat is right, and it has made me feel very depressed about our country these days. I just don’t like the society America has turned into. Although I have heretofore thought it something of a craven surrender in the culture wars, perhaps an inward-turning, smaller, faithful Church using the Benedictine solution is what we and civilization needs to ride out the storm until better times come?
The dilution and elimination of sin and its consequences by churches and society are at the root of much of our societal troubles. It was a corrdinated and organized effort that has had devastating results. The ultimate anti-personal responsibility campaign against the West and humanity at large.
With devastating consequences both in this life and (most importantly) eternally...
Anyone who reads history can see the straight line from Luther to a totally secular society whether they’re Catholic or not.
As an apologist for Catholicism (profession or amateur) have you looked into the developments happening in Rome and the scientific connections of Rome through Jesuits? What would you make of the assertion by a Vatican representative that Rome is ready and willing to baptize aliens, if they want it? What do you make of the Vatican astronomers who are complaining of UFOs interrupting their observatory work in AZ? Do you think these UFOs are alien craft from other star systems or are they demonic in origin, from dimensional regions ‘in the neighborhood’? What do you think will be THE great lie following the Rapture of the Church? How will Rome explain the disappearances world-wide?
This is a good thing. Christianity is not where you are born, your last name or any other thing than a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I expect a real purge to take place, because eventually it will cost a lot more than a few dollars and a few hours a week. It will cost careers, prestige, success and so much more up to and including life.Maybe we can all strive to be that kind of Christian who would give up everything... Maybe I will start today.
Twist a portion of a verse here, take another out of context there, and bingo, Protestants can come up with anything from Christ allowing sodomy to Christ surrendering to Satan, then "prove" their fantasy well enough to keep their Self and Self Alone delusion going.
Besides, were there any such surrender of Christ to Satan followed by a mass evacuation of those Christ said would suffer for Him (i.e. Christ contradicting Scripture by evacuating His sheep), those who accept without qualms mass infanticide with "contraceptives" and deny the power of the Holy Spirit by throwing out part of the Old Testament in the garbage sure wouldn't be the people who were evacuated.
Protestant deceived "Christians" ignoring and rationalizing the slaughter of Christians who are Catholic, as they're doing right now with the mass slaughter going on in the ME, is what will be happening more and more often. All the while, the Protestant and Protestant derived "Christians" will go on about their lives just like the unjust did in the days of Noah.
The "six finger" crowd are a barrel of laughs, especially when they're yelling the same lies about the Catholic Church that the Romans yelled about the early Christians they slaughtered. Meanwhile, those deceived by the diabolical delusion of Protestant doctrine are so blind they ignore the anti-Christ rising in Constantinople, that other Roman city on seven hills.
Lets take a look at the coming event ...
John 14 Jesus tells the disciples that He is going to prepare a place for them and that He will come to take them there to be with Him THERE, not here, There. Jesus gives clues as to this happening by comparing the scene to bridesmaids awaiting the bridegroom, and calling the Church the Bride of Christ, the Body of Christ (the two shall be one, and not in a sexual sense a spiritual sense blessing a human marriage) through Paul's letters. Then in 1st Thess 4 Paul describes the departing, when Jesus comes in the air to gather away His bride to be with Him in His Father's House, where the bema seat judgments happen prior to returning tot set foot on Earth again, eventually splitting the Mount of Olives from the top down.
For many centuries now the Catholics have taken the term 'apostasia' to mean a departing from Mother Church as in following heresies, while the Protestants have taken apostasia to mean revolting against the apostasy of Catholiciism. The use of the word as written in the day the Pauline letters were written indicates the true meaning is connected to what followed immediately in Pauls letter and the purpose of the letter.
μή τις ὑμᾶς ἐξαπατήσῃ κατὰ μηδένα τρόπον· ὅτι ἐὰν μὴ ἔλθῃ ἡ ἀποστασία πρῶτον καὶ ἀποκαλυφθῇ ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ὁ υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας,
ἀποστασία is the Greek word we will focus upon for deeper meaning. The context in 2Thess2:3 is the 'departing', the falling away, the apostasy, the rebellion, as translated differently in ages of church disputations. But the use in Paul's day is revealed by the text and to what he is writing the letter to accomplish, namely a comforting that the Great Tribulation has not happened yet.
Here is the English, with the Pauline meaning, starting at verse one of 2Thess2:
"Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the DEPARTINGoccurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.
Notice how taking apostasia to mean 'apostasy against the Gospel' or 'rebellion against mother church' would make the passage say something out of context to the previous two sentences and what followed? Paul is once again attempting to reassure people who had been led into believing that the coming of the Son had already happened.
At this point you may be insisting in your soul that this is my 'private' interpretation, and not sanctioned by Mother Church. GOOD! You are seeing the essence of why I'm doing this! I want to open your eyes to the truth of what the Word of God reveals. Unless the indwelling Holy Spirit is taken out of the way, the restrainer removed, the man of sin cannot be 'unrestrained' and saunter upon the scene! The Rapture of Jesus' Church, His Body is how He intends to do this removing of the restrainer. And you may be sure that the great lie satan will feed the 'left behinds' will align in some lying fashion with this departing, which has been mistranslated for so long now.
Are you insisting that to come in the clouds is the same as stepping upon the Earth? Well then, how do you explain Jesus appearing to Saul on the road to Damascus, and Steven seeing the Lord standing at the right Hand of The Lord God Almighty? Jesus need not set foot on Earth to call away His Bride. It is a supernatural event, occurring in the twinkling of an eye. That twinkling can now be measured, as the time interval necessary for a photon traveling at 186,000 miles per second to pass from one side of the cornea to the other, a time span pressing the Planck limit of time, 10-43 second.
The transformation of those here on Earth will be truly so fast that the trasntion will not register in consciousness before the believer is gone from their body of 4D reality. John says that when He appears we will see Him as He is BECAUSE we will be like Him. To see a being greater than 4D is impossble for a being who is only 4D. The scene in Daniel 5 shows that clearly,a s the being of greater dimensional reality had to 'reach down' into Belshazzar's 4D realm for the King to see the fingers writing ont he wall. The body remained in a greater dimensional setting while the hand reached into Belshazzar's realm.
Jesus proved the concept when He left the rock tomb without rolling away the stone, when He appear in a locked and shuttered room without using a door or window, when He appeared ont he road to two disciples then disappeared when He blessed the supper and broke it for their consumption.
There are numerous scenes given in Scriptures (see Elisha and his student surrounded as offered in 2Kings6:15-17, etc) which display the reality of a multi-dimensional Universe all around us which we cannot sense because we are 4D beings still. At the Rapture, believers dead and alive will be made into greater dimensional beings, so we will see Him as He really IS AS WE ARE TAKEN into the clouds to meet the Lord IN THE AIR. The lie perhaps reinforced by Rome, will be a doozy to explain that event! Don't be here when that deception arrives.
Anyone who read History can see the Catholic Church is not what it claims to be, for the first Pope was not recognized until hundreds of Years after Peter was executed, and indulgences are not man’s to sell, and murdering in torturous ways is not the work of God’s spirit of Truth. And I could go on and on, but I sense you are a closed heart unable to hear it. The Catholic Church even asserts they sacrifice Jesus over and over with his real presence in the Eucharist! That cannibalistic ritual reveals what is behind Catholicism and its Nicolaitans hierarchy.
Where does the Bible say 'evacuate.' Good generals do marshall their troops before a final assault. In Revelation 19 we do see Jesus Christ doing such before His second coming. The same chapter also shows His 'troops' coming with Him. They get there somehow. And Christ feeds them and celebrates with them before the assault---Second Coming. So beyond that is speculation.
Revelation 19:
Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” 8 And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
9 Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.” 10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
11 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. 13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. 15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
Marshall the troops, feed them, equip them for battle. Good generals do that. Of course I will await the Roman Catholic infallible teaching on these verses if you would like to share.
Everyone eats wedding cake while picking up their magic deuce gear and ammo . . . gotcha.
"Take up your cross and follow me", is routinely interpreted by the Self and Self Alone crowd to mean "live any way you like and rest assured you won't have to suffer for following Christ" which is why they've stopped teaching nearly everything they taught only fifty years ago and now all promise either an evacuation that avoids suffering or that with enough faith you can just Blab it and Grab It.
By their fruits shall you know them and our nation that's always been 70% or more Protestant is without a doubt the perfect, shining, example of a nation where Christian morality reigns, right?
Christians aren't promised they'll be evacuated, marshaled at a party, or spared suffering just because some huckster here and there can sell that sizzle.
Sorry, I realize how appealing that bogus stuff is but people not preparing to suffer with Christ are just dust waiting to be dust in the wind as soon as the screws are tightened. That's obvious from the fact that very few people in the US, a "Christian" nation, and especially blabbermouth anti-Catholics in the US, care about Christians being slaughtered by the thousands in the Middle East.
People who claim to be Christian but who care a lot more about who is elected in Israel than about tens of thousands of Christians being slaughtered are under a powerful diabolical delusion, it's that simple. And all the Rupture, take me away ! trash is part and parcel of that delusion.
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