The Great Falling Away

The chart says it all

Indeed, we're living in prophetic times. In what way? The Christian church has been losing members by the tens of thousands over the last several years, particularly in the western world where secularism is replacing Christianity as the dominant belief system. And the collapse of the end time church was foretold by Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago.

Here's what Christ said concerning the last days on earth directly preceding His return: "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." (Matthew 24:10-11)

Many young people see Christianity as the outdated belief system of their parents and grandparents. To them, any belief in a holy, sovereign God who created the physical universe in six literal days is considered primitive superstition. 

Orianna O'Neill, 21, a student at Beloit College in Wisconsin offered the typical opinion of millennials who've been taught that religion is for old-fashioned, simple-minded folks, but not for young hipsters: The idea of (conservatives) not believing in global warming is contributing to the notion that religious people are not intelligent.  

According to a recent Pew Research poll conducted of people who profess to believe in God, 89 percent of Americans still profess some belief which is down slightly from 92 percent in 2007. However, those who claim to believe in God "with absolute certainty" dropped to 63 percent from 71 percent in 2007. 

The trend is most pronounced among young adults, with only half of those born from 1990 to 1996 absolutely certain of their belief in God, compared to 71 percent of the "silent generation," or those born from 1928 to 1945. 

Why are so many young people turning to atheism? Because they've been indoctrinated into godless humanism from the time they entered kindergarten. For decades, many people have been taught in public and even private schools that life is nothing but the product of random evolutionary forces that began in a primordial mud pond millions of years ago.

If that's true--and it isn't--then God doesn't exist. And if God doesn't exist, then the 10 Commandments, the Bible and God's transcendent moral laws are nothing but human constructs that are meaningless. And that means that there's no moral accountability to a heavenly authority and no judgment at death for one's behavior during their lifetime in this world.

The effects of godless humanism upon society are staggering. Crime, violence and moral depravity have exploded across much of the world over the past 60 years. The traditional family unit, the moral foundation of a strong civilization is crumbling. Marriage, except for the newly created version of same-sex marriage, is becoming extinct. More babies are born out of wedlock in western society than at any other time in history.

In the late 1930s, only about two percent of babies were born out of wedlock in the United States. And today? Jordan Weissman of slate.com wrote this: Americans, having children outside of marriage is very much “the new normal,” as the New York Times once put it. In a study tracking the first wave of millennials to become parents, a team from Johns Hopkins University recently found that 64 percent of mothers gave birth at least once out of wedlock. Almost one-half had all of their children without ever exchanging vows.

The blame for the moral decay that's ruining western civilization can be traced to the Christian church that stopped contending for the faith back in the 19th century. But why? Because many theologians began to doubt the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible. Instead, they foolishly believed that all world religions offered truth and the Bible was just one of many truths. And they began to teach that.

Christianity degenerated from "the Way and the Truth and the Life" (John 14:6) to just another religion, no different than Buddhism, Hinduism or Sikhism. And as Christianity's moral influence began to fade, moral relativism took over. Such things as abortion, homosexuality and same-sex marriage that were considered abominations for centuries were now considered virtuous. And those who opposed them were now considered bigots and racists to be shunned and scorned.

Concerning the world's prophetic descent into darkness and depravity in the last days, the apostle Paul wrote this: "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people." (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

That's a direct result of the church's declining influence upon the world. When people no longer believe in God, they fall into depravity. That results in escalating crime, violence, high out-of-wedlock birthrates, poverty, suicide rates, drug and alcohol additions etc. 

Nearly 3,000 years ago, King Solomon wrote something simple and yet profound: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and discipline." (Proverbs 1:7) Certainly, fools reject moral authority because they hate rules and accountability. 

But the church also has its share of fools. And those fools planted the seeds of the moral destruction of western civilization in the 19th century that have come to fruition in our modern times.

Evil in the Church

Methodist and Episcopalian ministers lend their support for abortion

During an encounter He had one day with a group of Pharisees that had challenged his authority, Jesus Christ said this: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10)

Christ made that statement in the context of His mission on earth; that He had come to bring eternal life to those who put their faith and trust in Him. But He also taught a universal and unchanging truth: That the One and only true God is all about saving and protecting life. Remember that Allah commands Muslims to persecute and kill those who reject Islam. So it's important to understand who God really is and what His word commands us concerning life.

For nearly 2,000 years, the Christian Church upheld God's word concerning the sanctity of life and the preservation of those who were either defenseless, weak or too infirm to protect themselves against oppressors. However, in recent years, that's changed as a growing number of churches have astonishingly jumped on the "Pro-Choice" bandwagon.

Pro-Choice is a synonym for abortion, and it's also a misnomer. You're either pro-life or you're pro-death. There is no middle ground. Pro-Choice is nothing but a sophistic term that's used to sanitize evil. Thus, any church or para-church organization that claims to promote the Bible as the absolute word of God and yet supports abortion isn't Christian at all, no matter what it says. 

Jesus Christ is all about life. Abortion is all about death and destruction rather than about family planning. Those who encourage and support abortion are just as guilty of murder as those who perform that ghastly procedure. 

However, Laura Young, a pastor with the United Methodist Church doesn't agree. She not only supports abortion, but she also condemns Christians who want to do away with that barbaric practice. Young skewers the biblical definition of love by claiming that it's hateful to protest at abortion clinics: Christianity, like most faiths, is founded on love. Watching protesters shouting judgment and hate based on what they call religion is horrible. Is that loving God? Is that loving your neighbor as yourself? 

What kind of love encourages the murder of those who can't defend themselves? Where does the Bible advocate the slaughter of unborn babies in the name of love? Young condemns Christians who try to dissuade women from getting abortions. When an abortion occurs, both the pregnant woman and the doctor who performs the procedure are guilty of murder. And yet Young labels Christians as haters who try to prevent that from happening. How sad and tragic.

Jeffrey Walton, a spokesman for an organization called the Institute on Religion and Democracy believes that all people of faith should support abortion, and those who don't and protest at abortion clinics are really in the minority.

Here's what he said: As faith leaders committed to justice, honesty, and liberty, we are troubled by the decades-long campaign of harassment against Planned Parenthood and those they serve. Our faiths demand care for those marginalized by poverty and other oppressions (Sic). Faith leaders have supported Planned Parenthood for nearly 100 years because of our shared goals: every person — regardless of income, race, or religion — deserves access to safe, affordable, high-quality health care. 

That's high quality bull. Abortion isn't health care--it's murder. And Young, Walton, et al. who promote abortion under the guise of high quality health care and Christian love should be ashamed of themselves. There's simply no place in the church for such an abomination.

The very fact that such evil is tolerated and promoted in the modern church is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Nearly 2,000 years ago, the apostle Paul warned that "in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons." (1 Timothy 4:1) Only a demonic spirit in the service of Satan would teach that God approves of abortion.

And Paul followed that up with this: "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)

Finally, Christ warned that in the last days, "many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people." (Matthew 24:10-11) 

You aren't a Christian if you support abortion. And those who call themselves Christians who support that procedure have fallen away from Christ and have betrayed the unborn who they're commanded by God to protect. Shame on them.

The Last Days: Part II

Shortly before He went to the cross to die for the sins of the world, Jesus Christ revealed several prophetic events that would occur shortly before He returned.

Among those events were these: "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." (Matthew 24:10-13)

What did Christ mean? He revealed that in the end times, many people would abandon the church to follow false prophets who would tell them what they wanted to hear. (2 Timothy 4:3) While most people associate prophets with religion, prophets can also be associated with secular ideologies. 

Prophets are usually considered to be folks who claim they can foretell the future. But they can also be teachers who offer ideological worldviews that contrast with the biblical Judeo-Christian worldview. Thus, people such as Charles Darwin and Karl Marx can be considered prophets because they offered worldviews that contrasted and contradicted the biblical worldview.

Darwin offered a godless worldview that claimed life began millions of years ago in a primordial mud-pond via random chemical processes. Marx offered a utopian, socialistic worldview that claimed the majority of crime, violence and poverty resulted from class warfare between rich and poor. Spread the wealth around, Marx reasoned, and the world would have peace. 

Darwin's theory of evolution was so terrible that it was dismissed by many scientists as nonsense. Eminent scientist and astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle said this: The chance that higher life forms might have emerged in this way is comparable with the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junkyard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein. 

Even the brilliant Albert Einstein who was an agnostic, dismissed Darwin's theory of evolution as scientifically impossible. Einstein reasoned that if the physical universe came about via a primordial "Big Bang", all the organic material would've been sterilized by the intense heat from such an explosion, making life impossible.

Nevertheless, Darwin's bizarre theory gained traction and took off. Millions of people throughout the world believe that they are the descendants of apes and monkeys. They don't believe the Bible's claim that God created the physical universe and fashioned human beings in His own image. (Genesis 1:1-26) By dismissing the biblical revelation of God's creation, these people either deny God's existence or they redefine Him into an energy source who's not a personal being.

And so, as the logic goes, if the biblical account of creation is a myth, then so is God. Thus, God's laws and commandments are nothing but human constructs that can be changed or eliminated. And if God is a myth, then no one is morally accountable for their actions. There's a direct correlation between the decline of the Christian church in the world and the rise of lawlessness. When people no longer believe in God, they inevitably fall into depravity and wickedness.

Thus, the rise of lawlessness, predicted by Christ 2,000 years ago, is directly related the collapse of the Christian church. Why has the church collapsed? Because it stopped contending for the faith right about the time Darwin introduced his terrible theory of evolution in 1859.

The church offered no rebuttal to Darwin's theory and godless leftists, who were desperately seeking anything they could use to deny God's existence, found their answer in evolution.

Concerning those who reject God despite the irrefutable evidence, Paul wrote this: "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. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles." (Romans 1:18-23)

Without God, mankind is like a rudderless ship hopelessly lost at sea. Without a commitment to a faith that demands purity and separation from the world, the church becomes a museum piece to be treated as a relic from the past. And without the guiding light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the world grows more dark and evil with each passing day.

Shame on the UCC

During his three-year ministry in ancient Israel, Jesus Christ often used agricultural examples to explain spiritual principles. For example? When he taught this parable of the wheat and the tares.

Here's what He said: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared." (Matthew 13:24-26)

What did Christ mean? He meant that throughout history, Satan has opposed God by counterfeiting the Lord's works in order to deceive God's people. In the ancient times, the devil encouraged the Jews to create their own religious system and reject God's covenant He established with Israel through Moses. That system perverted many of the laws and commandments mandated by the Mosaic Covenant, and it added many additional laws written by the rabbis that violated the covenant (Deuteronomy 4:2).

That's the religion that many Jews continue to follow today. It's a sham system that orders its adherents to bow down to the rabbis and obey their teachings. And it's a system that's designed to steer its followers away from Calvary into a works-system that can't save anyone.

Satan also has his own church. Soon after Christ established His church 2,000 years ago via His crucifixion on the cross for all sin and His resurrection from the dead, the devil established a counterfeit that offered a perverted gospel that added and subtracted to its tenets. In the early days, some churches taught such heresies as arianism and docetism. Later, the Roman Catholic Church appeared and denied the biblical gospel of salvation by faith alone in Christ (John 3:16, Romans 10:9-12, Ephesians 2:8-9) and replaced it with an unbiblical gospel of works.

Today, many churches promote an unbiblical, ecumenical gospel that legitimizes all religious paths while denying what Christ stated: "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the (Heavenly) Father except through me." (John 14:6) Though Christ clearly taught that He alone is the only way to eternal life, many churches now deny that. And by doing so, they've called the One who they claim to represent a liar.

One example of that is the United Church of Christ that claims to be a Christian denomination and yet promotes a very anti-Christian gospel and agenda. If you read the UCC's statement of faith, you'll not find a single reference to the biblical gospel that mandates faith alone in the crucified and resurrected Christ as the only path to eternal life.

Rather, you'll find this: The UCC has no rigid formulation of doctrine or attachment to creeds or structures. Its overarching creed is love. UCC pastors and teachers are known for their commitment to excellence in theological preparation, interpretation of the scripture and justice advocacy. Even so, love and unity in the midst of our diversity are our greatest assets. www.ucc.org

And, you'll find this: We believe that God calls us to be servants in the service of others and to be good stewards of the earth's resources. 'To believe is to care; to care is to do.' And this: We believe in the power of peace, and work for nonviolent solutions to local, national, and international problems.

While those statements may sound commendable to many people, they promote a false, universal gospel rather than the genuine biblical gospel. A church's most vital mission is to call sinners out of the world into salvation and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. All other objectives are secondary to that mission. If a church either denies that mission or makes it secondary to some social cause--no matter how noble that cause may seem--then it's defied the Great Commission of Christ (Matthew 28:16-20) and failed its responsibility to preach the gospel.

And the UCC not only doesn't preach a biblical gospel, it's also become an organization that increasingly opposes Israel and sides with the enemies of the Jewish state. Recently, the UCC's General Synod voted overwhelming (508-124) to divest economically from companies that do business with Israel because the UCC claims that Israel unlawfully occupies land that rightfully belongs to the Palestinians.

The Rev. Mitri Raheb, a "Christian Palestinian" who lives in Jordan, applauded the UCC's decision and said this: "For Palestinians living under occupation or facing systematic discrimination as citizens of Israel, enduring the destruction of their homes and businesses, the theft of their land for settlements, and living under blockade and siege in Gaza, this action sends a strong signal that they are not alone, and that there are churches who still dare to speak truth to power and stand with the oppressed."  

For the record, there was no Palestine when Christ walked the dusty roads of ancient Israel. Palestine was created by Roman Emperor Hadrian in 130 A.D. when he voided Israel after he quashed the Bar Kochba rebellion that sought to win Israel's independence from Rome.

Prior to Hadrian's edict, Palestine (Philistine) had existed as an ancient maritime kingdom located along the southwest coast of the Great Sea until about the 2nd century B.C. Those who claim to be Palestinians today are not the descendants of the ancient Philistines.

Rather, they are a mixture of Turks, Bedouins, Persians, Arabs, Egyptians and Assyrians who migrated to that land over the 1,800 years between Hadrian's edict and 1948 when the United Nations voted to declare Israel a sovereign nation once again. Thus, the modern "Palestinians" have absolutely no right to claim that land for themselves. It doesn't belong to them. And it never did.

As a Christian denomination, the UCC ought to know that. The UCC ought to know that the modern Palestinians were given their own homeland by the UN. And that homeland is Jordan. But instead, the UCC has chosen to oppose Israel and side with the enemies of God. By doing so, and by rejecting the biblical gospel to preach a worthless ecumenical one, the United Church of Christ has joined with Satan. No sincere Christian should ever belong to such a wretched organization as this one.

Sadly, the existence of such corrupt churches as the UCC fulfills biblical prophecy concerning the great apostasy (falling away) of many denominations in the last days. Christ said this: "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." (Matthew 24:10-11) And the apostle Paul wrote this: "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)

Shame on the United Church of Christ. And shame on any church that misuses the Lord's name (Exodus 20:7) to promote a false gospel that denigrates Israel and sends people into eternal damnation.

Apostasy and the End-Time Church

E.W. Kenyon: Doctrines of Demons

According to prophecy, as the time nears for the return of Jesus Christ, the Christian church will increasingly abandon biblical truth for dangerous heresies and unbiblical doctrines that are demonically inspired.

Concerning this prophetic fall, that's also known as the great end time apostasy, the apostle Paul wrote this: "The (Holy) Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron." (1 Timothy 4:1-2)

Paul followed up that prophesy with this one in his second letter to fellow apostle Timothy: "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)

Are Paul's prophecies being fulfilled? Yes they are, and their fulfillment began in the 19th century with the advent of "New Thought" theology that's known today as "Positive Confession" or "Word of Faith" theology. What is New Thought-Positive Confession-Word of Faith theology? It's the belief that human beings have the power to be healthy, wealthy and successful by putting faith in their own faith and verbalizing it.

Where did that heresy come from? It originated from three heretical theologians named E.W. Kenyon, Phineas Parkhurst Quimby and Ralph Waldo Trine who believed that human beings suffered from failure, misfortune, poverty and sickness because they thought and confessed negatively. According to the logic of New Thought, people possess the power to reverse their fortunes if they merely take dominion over their circumstances, and think and confess positively. 

In other words, if you are sick, you profess the opposite. If you're poor, you profess great wealth. If you're a failure in school, in personal relationships, at work etc., you profess yourself to be successful. Though that's complete nonsense, Kenyon, Quimby and Trine were absolutely convinced that positive confession worked.

The New Thought gospel was picked up in the 20th century by positive confession preachers Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Schuller who taught that mankind's worst nemesis was poor self-esteem rather than sin. In fact, Schuller taught that human beings committed bad deeds (sins) because of low self-esteem rather than the influence of evil in their hearts.

Peale and Schuller corrupted the souls and minds of tens-of-thousands of people by denying the reality of sin and redirecting the blame for man's evil behavior toward poor self-esteem. Schuller even claimed that Christ died on the cross not for sin but rather for poor self-esteem. If that was true then Christ must have negatively confessed himself into his crucifixion.

Many other preachers have utilized the New Thought-Positive Confession gospel to enrich themselves at the expense of their gullible followers. Mega-preachers such as Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Joel Osteen, Fred K.C. Price and Benny Hinn have become obscenely wealthy by peddling the lie that positive confession works. It certainly works for them. However, it doesn't work for anyone else.

New Thought-Positive Confession-Word of Faith has occult roots and is also related to Humanistic Psychology. Quimby practiced hypnotism that has its roots in eastern mysticism. While at Emerson College, Kenyon became immersed in metaphysics that's a first cousin of Gnosticism. And Trine also became involved with metaphysics as a young man growing up in New York state.

Not surprisingly, New Thought philosophy has heavily influenced "Christian Psychology" that's become a substitute gospel in many churches today. New Thought-Positive Confession has seduced many people into turning away from God and trusting in themselves and self-esteem for their happiness and well-being.

Where does the Bible tell us to place our faith? In our own faith? In positive confession? In high self-esteem? Rather it tells us this: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." (Proverbs 3:5-6) And it says this: "Cast all your anxiety on him (Jesus Christ) because he cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7)

Faith in God and reliance on Christ has always worked and will continue to work. Why did Kenyon, Quimby, Trine et. al. promote a dangerous heresy that doesn't work and has never worked? Because they had no faith in God, that's why.

And because of that, they promoted a false gospel. Here's what Paul warned the early believers concerning those who peddle false gospels: "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!" (Galatians 1:8-9)

Christianity's Prophetic End

The Numbers tell the story

Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ revealed that in the last days directly preceding His return, many people would abandon the church: "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." (Matthew 24:10-11)

Since the dawn of the 20th century, millions of people have left the Christian church. Since the early 1950s, 8,000 churches have gone out of business in America while 25 million members have left the faith. Recently, a Pew Research study revealed that 70.6 percent of Americans currently identify as Christians, which is down from 78.6 percent in 2007.

While 70.6 percent is still a majority, America's Christian population is trending in the wrong direction. And when you consider that America's overall population is growing, the church's declining membership means that Christianity is rapidly losing its influence in America.

Furthermore, as the Christian population declines, America's population of atheists and agnostics is growing. According to Pew: People who self-identify as atheists or agnostics (about 7% of all U.S. adults), as well as those who say their religion is “nothing in particular,” now account for a combined 22.8% of U.S. adults – up from 16.1% in 2007. The growth of the “nones” has been powered in part by religious switching. Nearly one-in-five U.S. adults (18%) were raised as Christians or members of some other religion, but now say they have no religious affiliation.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/12/5-key-findings-u-s-religious-landscape

And while Christianity wanes in America, religions such as Islam and Hinduism are growing, albeit at a slower pace than America's atheist and agnostic population. Muslims now account for nearly one percent of America's population, up from .04 percent in 2007 while Hindus now account for .07 percent of the population, up from .04 percent in 2007.

Certainly, Christianity is also disappearing in places such as the Middle East, Southeast Asia and in Northern Africa. But that's being caused by Islamists who are persecuting and murdering Christians by the tens of thousands. In the west, Christianity is in rapid decline because the faith has lost its influence over the culture.

Christianity's decline throughout the west can be traced back to the late 18th century when the European seminaries began to reject the Bible as the authoritative word of God and instead, began embracing universalism. What's universalism? It's the fallacious belief that all religions are equal, valid, and divinely inspired.

While that's ludicrous, that belief lowers Christ to the level of an ancient social activist and it promotes confusion. Why confusion? Because many religions contradict each other concerning the definition of God, sanctification and the path to eternal life. For example, Christianity promotes the Trinity while Islam and Rabbinic Judaism deny the Trinity.

Here's what the Koran says about the Trinity: O followers of the Book! do not exceed the limits in your religion, and do not speak (lies) against Allah, but (speak) the truth; the Messiah, Isa (Jesus) son of Marium (Mary) is only an apostle of Allah and His Word which He communicated to Marium and a spirit from Him; believe therefore in Allah and His apostles, and say not, Three (thalathatun). Desist, it is better for you; Allah is only one God; far be It from His glory that He should have a son, whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth is His, and Allah is sufficient for a Protector. (Sura 4:171)

Hinduism promotes millions of gods while Buddhism claims there is no God. Contrast that with what Christ said: "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the (Heavenly) Father except through me." (John 14:6) 

So many competing belief systems promote confusion that in turn promotes doubt. Worse yet, the church failed to answer Darwinism when it appeared in the 19th century. Darwinism, i.e. evolution, is a terrible theory promoted as factual science that claims life wasn't created by God but instead occurred millions of years ago in a primordial mud pond via random chemical processes.

Though evolution can't be proven and has never been observed to occur, it's embraced by millions of people throughout the world, and particularly in the west. The Christian church's failure to counter this lie has contributed significantly to its demise. If people no longer believe in God then they view religion as an outdated belief system created by primitive men.

Certainly, the church's demise is the fulfillment of prophecy. When the church stopped contending for the faith, it wrote its own epitaph. In his second of two letters to fellow apostle Timothy, the apostle Paul urged Timothy to "guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have departed from the faith." (1 Timothy 6:20-21)

Had the church heeded those words, the world would undoubtedly be a much different and better place than it is today.

Christian Causes and Islamic Effects

Islam: Growing quickly in America

Where does Islam enjoy its greatest growth? In areas where a spiritual vacuum's been created because of the declining influence of Judeo-Christianity.

And those areas are Western Europe and North America. When the Christian church has been strong, those areas have withstood the onslaught of deception from false religions and pagan creeds. But when the church has been weak--as it currently is--then anything goes. And usually what goes is Christianity's influence.

What happened to the church? The church forgot that it was commissioned by Jesus Christ to call people out of the world and into God's kingdom through the gospel. Instead, the church foolishly tried reforming the world and subsequently lost its power. Sadly, there's not much difference today between the world and the church.

Nearly 2,000 years ago, the apostle Jude warned the early church to either "contend for the faith" (Jude 1:3) or risk losing the faith to deceivers and false teachers who would come in and pervert the gospel. In what way? By redefining Christianity as just one of many paths to God.

The church heeded Jude's words until about the late 18th century when ecumenicism, religiosity and liturgical rot began to destroy the church from within. The church lost its power and along with that, its faith. And once the faith began to wane, the faithful began to leave the church in droves.

In his second of two letters he wrote to the early church in Corinth, Paul warned the Corinthians never to rely on human power rather than the Holy Spirit to spread the gospel: "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

One of the pretensions that has set itself up against the knowledge of God is Islam. It's holy book the Koran contains numerous historical inaccuracies and contradictions concerning God, the creation of the physical universe, Abraham, Moses, Mary, Jesus etc. And yet despite that, Islam continues to expand and flourish in the western world.

But why? If Islam is a false religion that can easily be proven so, then why does it flourish? Because the Christian church refuses to confront Islam. And also because Islam provides a counterfeit path to redemption and heaven. Those who believe Islam will bring them eternal life will get a surprise when they enter eternity. Islam then, provides an effective weapon for the devil and his fallen angels in preventing the salvation of human beings.

Let the apostle Paul; explain it: "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 6:10-12) 

Like all false religions, Islam is demonically inspired and empowered. It not only serves up spiritual deception but it provides a tool for Satan to persecute Christians and Jews. And Islam only flourishes because the Christian church failed to contend for the faith and utilize the power of the Holy Spirit to demolish Islam's theology. 

Islam isn't divinely inspired. It's a combination of perverted biblical stories and Arabian myths. And anyone who possesses even a rudimentary knowledge of history should be able to figure that out after they've read the Koran.

How fast is Islam growing in America? Let tellmeaboutislam.com explain it: "There are now as many as 7 million Muslims in the United States, half of them American-born. In recent years, Americans of African, European, Southeast Asian, Latin American and American Indian descent have left their parents' spiritual paths to follow Islam, a religion that includes more than 1 billion believers from nearly every country."

Here's what those new converts have embraced: Four conflicting accounts of Muhammad's reception of the Koran (Sura 2:97, 15:8, 16:102, 26:192-194, 32:5, 53:2-18, 70:4, 81:19-24), two conflicting accounts of God's creation of the physical universe (Sura 7:51, 41:9-12) and the incredible claim that Christ's mother Mary was the sister of Moses (Sura 19:28).

There are many more contradictions and historical mistakes in the Koran. And contrary to the popular belief that Islam is a colorless religion unlike Christianity that's considered the "white man's religion," Muhammad was a racist. He taught that on Judgment Day, only whites will be redeemed while blacks will be condemned to hell. (Sura 3:106-107)

Had the Christian church pointed these things out, Islam never would've gained any traction in the west. But the church failed to do so. And now, look what's happening. As the Bible clearly states, you reap what you sow. (Galatians 6:7)