According to the Barna Research Group, the number of non-Christians in America has risen by seven percent in the last two years. Though the United States remains a predominantly Christian nation for the time being, that's going to change if the trend continues.
And America's trend toward godless secularism isn't a recent phenomenon. America's Christian population has been steadily decreasing since the early 1950s when there were more Christians and more churches in the U.S. with less than half of the population that exists today.
Since the early 50s, America has lost 8,000 churches and 25 million Christians. According to Barna, the greatest abdication of the faith is occurring on the West Coast and particularly in Northern California where there are more secularists than there are Christians.
From Barna: The West coast is also fairly well represented among the top 15 cities, with San Francisco, CA (66%) climbing up the rankings from sixth place in 2013 to top the list as the most post-Christian city in America, and Los Angeles, CA (54%) coming in at 15th place. But other West coast cities like San Diego, CA (50%), and Portland, OR (51%) actually dropped out of the top 15 from 2013, either because of a decrease or minimal increase in post-Christian metrics compared to 2013. Other outgoing cities include Denver, CO (52%), and Cedar Rapids, IA (51%).
Is the decline and decay of the modern Christian church an anomaly? Or, is it prophetic? It's prophetic. Jesus Christ prophesied that the church would indeed decline in the last days directly preceding His return.
Here's what Christ said: "At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." (Matthew 24:10-14)
Notice that Christ tied the decline of Christianity with the increase of evil and the rise of false prophets. While the increase in evil and the rise of false prophets wouldn't seem to be related to the decline of the Christian church, they are. As more people reject the truth of God's word in the Bible, they don't believe they're held morally accountable for their behavior. And when that happens, they turn to wickedness.
But what about false prophets? They're the ones who promote aberrant doctrines that discredit the Bible and encourage evil. Here's what the apostle Paul wrote concerning the rise of false prophets in the last days: "For the time will come when people 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. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
Many of those false prophets belong to pagan religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism where some of those ex-Christians have gone. Other false prophets belong to aberrant Christian movements such as the Health and Wealth Prosperity churches, the Word of Faith and the Third Wave Movements. What makes them aberrant? They use the name of Jesus Christ to promote false and perverted doctrines not found in the Bible.
Certainly, those who've left mainstream churches to join the aberrant churches still identify as Christians. They're counted among the 56 percent of America's Christian population. But God counts them among those who've fallen away from the faith.
Why are so many people dropping out of the church? Because the church has made itself irrelevant over the past 150 years. It no longer contends for the faith by utilizing science to prove God's existence. Instead, "science" is used against the church to disprove God. Perhaps the greatest damage done to Christianity over the past 150 years has been done by the theory of evolution that Charles Darwin introduced to the world in 1859.
Though evolution is nothing but a terrible theory that's never been observed to occur and can't be proven, it's taught as factual science in classrooms throughout the world. If evolution is true, then God doesn't exist. And if God doesn't exist, then no one is morally accountable for their behavior and no judgment awaits anyone after death.
There was more than enough evidence to prove God's existence even during Paul's time. Here's what the apostle wrote: "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." (Romans 1:18-20)
And now, we have even more evidence, thanks to microbiology that's allowed us to study genetics. Modern science has allowed us to study the vast and complex design of living cells. And yet, the church continues to ignore that evidence and lose more ground on a daily basis.
And so, the church's demise is its own fault. When someone else's argument is stronger than yours, then that argument prevails. And unless you counter that argument with factual evidence, you'll eventually become an historical footnote. Just like the Christian church in America.
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