12-3-18 The Church's Role in the Gerat Falling Away

Daily Jot: The Church's role in the great falling away - Bill Wilson - www.dailyjot.com

 

We are seeing a falling away of our youth and others from the "Church." A February Barna Research study indicates, "Among those who say attending church is not important to them, three out of five Christian teens say "I find God elsewhere" (61%), while about the same proportion of non-Christians says "church is not relevant to me personally" (64%). The non-Christians' most popular answer makes sense (they're not Christians, after all), but Christians' reasoning is an indicator that at least some churches are not helping to facilitate teens' transformative connection with God." We are also seeing that this apathy about church carries over to political and societal beliefs that impact a decline in society.

 

Recent election exit polls indicate that those who do not attend religious services are more likely to support Democrats over Republicans. While there is much to disagree with both political parties, the fact is that the leadership and platform of the Democratic Party support ideals that are counter to the Holy Scriptures, ranging from lawlessness to abortion to Biblically-immoral lifestyles to enemies of Jews and Christians. Republican leadership at least pays lip service to, and in many cases, supports Biblical values. A CNN poll, for example, indicated that 68% of those who never attend church services voted Democratic. An AP VoteCast poll affirmed the CNN results, and indicated that 61% of those who attend church at least once a week voted Republican. I'm not judging here, just pointing out the facts.

 

Christian author and Revival List commentator Andrew Strom writes: "Despite the thousands in our megachurches today, soaking up the warm entertainment offered to them every week, I want to put it to you that we have lost Christianity. Despite the Christian books now found in every Walmart, and the "crossover" of Christian artists into the mainstream, and our Christian mega-stores and CD´s and DVD´s and Study-Bibles, I want to put it to you that we have lost Christianity. Despite our lavish Cathedrals in the suburbs (`Charismatic or not) with their pastel hues and comfortable pews, their projector screens and $30,000 sound systems, I want to put it to you that we have utterly lost Christianity. We left it behind when we stopped preaching "take up your cross" and turned the gospel into a success formula-`Seven Steps to your Best Life Now.´"

 

This is not just an American situation. It is found in Europe and even in Africa. A young lady in Ghana told me she left her large church because of a poor widow who was denied a small amount of assistance for food. The pastor refused her request and drove away with his wife in their Mercedes. Out of her own purse, the young woman gave the widow the money she needed and didn't go back to the church again. This is a prophetic state of many churches and why The Daily Jot ministry goes on its own to reach the unreached where they are. Christians often point to the end times prophecy found in II Thessalonians 2:3, "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first." It would be a horrible sorrow to be part of something that would cause that to happen from within.