Preface: If what I write in the following post is true....then to take this literally.....we.....the church.....are responsible for what America has become.....not the liberals....or the progressives....at least not primarily....for it is us that had the guidelines and the remedies and the hedge.....but were not vigilant.....and did not protect them. Why would this be important? We seem to act and pray as if only others would change....and that if our political party would be in power....we would be great again....but we would in fact only want to return to when we first abdicated our responsibility. Donald Trump is evidence for this. We should have written him off the first time that he attacked someone's appearance....or tweeted something atrociously arrogant....or told us that our best times were ahead of us when God very clearly tells us that judgment is ahead of us....but we chose instead to claim that he was a Jehu....sent to redeem us....or a Cyrus....sent to restore Israel and thus assuage any guilt we may have in not trusting in Christ alone. If we would understand this....we might begin to pray for mercy and forgiveness....not power and prosperity. It's past time....decades past time....to stop patting ourselves on the back....and accept some of the blame for not only what we have become as a country...but our actively helping build it as such.
There's a survey out there that has been keeping track of various American trends since 1972....(GSS survey....it's on Drudge right now)....one of those trends naturally being religious belief. The latest results from 2018 show that Americans are becoming much less religious. Well no surprise there....but there's more to it. There are a number of specifics one could look at but I want to zero in on what they identify as 'religious ideologies'....particularly ....what percentage of respondents call themselves 'Evangelical'....and what percentage were classified as 'no religion.'
In 1982 almost 23% of respondents called themselves Evangelical....while only about 5% claimed no religious identification....or 'no religion' as the survey labels it.. This is right about the time when God began to move mightily in America......this I know from personal experience and what I saw happening all around me at that time. (Christian bookstores were everywhere....and Billy Graham's crusades were a staple on television)
Evangelicals peaked the first time in about 1985 at about 27% and then again in about 1993 at 30%.....30% folks....three out of ten people considered themselves Evangelical! Those claiming 'no religion' were still well below 10%! Then things started to go downhill. Today.....in results from their 2018 survey....Evangelicals are in a pretty steady decline and sitting about 22%. Those who fall into the 'no religion' category are in the midst of a steady upward climb and sit about 23%....slightly more in number than Evangelicals.
Theses are just figures until you put a few words around them. Things were reversed in the past twenty-five years. Preaching of the gospel....and the cross of Christ....and even of Christ.....has tanked in America. To use a phrase from the vernacular.....good luck finding a church tomorrow that will preach Christ. They will use the name....but there will be no power....there will be singing and praising....but little to no genuine worship....sacraments but little understanding of them....some will preach discipline (or those things that we are to do)....but other than a possible liturgy and the prayers and the fellowship....it will be missing that for which we are primarily meeting....the proclamation of Christ in power and glory. That's us folks. That why we are collapsing....and that's part of the reason why we were taken in hook, line and sinker by Donald Trump.
When Opie's The DaVinci Code (the film) came out in 2006 I basically ignored it. Oh it came up in conversation....and there were protests in print....but I wasn't going to pay money to see it and forgot about it. Well it was basically put in my lap yesterday....(the reason isn't necessary to go into).....my wife was away at a high school musical.....so I watched the movie. Now there was nothing in it I had not known back in 2006....but finally seeing it....with one of America's top actors in the main role....and this along with reading the results of this latest survey....the collapse of America's youth became a little more clear. If this is what they took dates to see at the theater.....where the bloodline of Jesus....through Mary Magdalene....was passed on through the ages.....culminating in the the heroine of Ron Howard's film....then that is just one more piece of the puzzle on why America is today what it is....a divided nation....ignorant of its Creator....faddish in its evangelicalism....powerless in its preaching....yet thinking itself well on the way to making America great again!
Note: If you should leave church tomorrow feeling as malnourished as when you went in....you might want to try this. Google 'Michael Horton sermons'.....at the top you will see a link to SermonAudio.com....go to the bottom of the page and listen to the 39 minute sermon titled "The Embassy Of Grace." It's a wonderful sermon on the gospel.....and you will most definitely feel nourished!
There's a survey out there that has been keeping track of various American trends since 1972....(GSS survey....it's on Drudge right now)....one of those trends naturally being religious belief. The latest results from 2018 show that Americans are becoming much less religious. Well no surprise there....but there's more to it. There are a number of specifics one could look at but I want to zero in on what they identify as 'religious ideologies'....particularly ....what percentage of respondents call themselves 'Evangelical'....and what percentage were classified as 'no religion.'
In 1982 almost 23% of respondents called themselves Evangelical....while only about 5% claimed no religious identification....or 'no religion' as the survey labels it.. This is right about the time when God began to move mightily in America......this I know from personal experience and what I saw happening all around me at that time. (Christian bookstores were everywhere....and Billy Graham's crusades were a staple on television)
Evangelicals peaked the first time in about 1985 at about 27% and then again in about 1993 at 30%.....30% folks....three out of ten people considered themselves Evangelical! Those claiming 'no religion' were still well below 10%! Then things started to go downhill. Today.....in results from their 2018 survey....Evangelicals are in a pretty steady decline and sitting about 22%. Those who fall into the 'no religion' category are in the midst of a steady upward climb and sit about 23%....slightly more in number than Evangelicals.
Theses are just figures until you put a few words around them. Things were reversed in the past twenty-five years. Preaching of the gospel....and the cross of Christ....and even of Christ.....has tanked in America. To use a phrase from the vernacular.....good luck finding a church tomorrow that will preach Christ. They will use the name....but there will be no power....there will be singing and praising....but little to no genuine worship....sacraments but little understanding of them....some will preach discipline (or those things that we are to do)....but other than a possible liturgy and the prayers and the fellowship....it will be missing that for which we are primarily meeting....the proclamation of Christ in power and glory. That's us folks. That why we are collapsing....and that's part of the reason why we were taken in hook, line and sinker by Donald Trump.
When Opie's The DaVinci Code (the film) came out in 2006 I basically ignored it. Oh it came up in conversation....and there were protests in print....but I wasn't going to pay money to see it and forgot about it. Well it was basically put in my lap yesterday....(the reason isn't necessary to go into).....my wife was away at a high school musical.....so I watched the movie. Now there was nothing in it I had not known back in 2006....but finally seeing it....with one of America's top actors in the main role....and this along with reading the results of this latest survey....the collapse of America's youth became a little more clear. If this is what they took dates to see at the theater.....where the bloodline of Jesus....through Mary Magdalene....was passed on through the ages.....culminating in the the heroine of Ron Howard's film....then that is just one more piece of the puzzle on why America is today what it is....a divided nation....ignorant of its Creator....faddish in its evangelicalism....powerless in its preaching....yet thinking itself well on the way to making America great again!
Note: If you should leave church tomorrow feeling as malnourished as when you went in....you might want to try this. Google 'Michael Horton sermons'.....at the top you will see a link to SermonAudio.com....go to the bottom of the page and listen to the 39 minute sermon titled "The Embassy Of Grace." It's a wonderful sermon on the gospel.....and you will most definitely feel nourished!
