Posted on 04/29/2018 9:04:12 AM PDT by Kaslin
I’ve been tracking the decline of Christianity in America ever since serving as a youth pastor in the early 2000’s. Even back then I couldn’t help but notice the astonishing rate at which young Christians were leaving the Church. The polls have been consistent about this, and the latest Pew Research Center study (surveying more than 4,700 U.S. adults) is no exception.
If you’re a Christian, the poll offers a distressing assessment:
Our Numbers Are Shrinking – Only 56% of Americans say they believe in God “as described in the Bible.” The number of people who claim a belief in God – or who self-identify as Christian – is steadily shrinking each year according to Pew surveys conducted over the past decade.
Our Members Are Less Educated – Of those who have a high-school education or less, 94% say they believe in God as described in the Bible. But, as our collective educational level increases, our collective belief decreases. Of college graduates surveyed, only 45% believe in the Biblical God.
Our Ranks Are Aging – The younger we are, the less likely we are to believe in the Biblical God. While 65% of Baby Boomers believe in God as described in the Bible, only 43% of millennials hold a similar view (a recent Barna survey also revealed that Gen Z Americans, ages 3-18, are far more likely to be atheists than older age groups).
Our Understanding Is Withering – Of those who identified themselves as Christians, only 80% said they believed in the Biblical God. 20% said that they believed in a higher power or spiritual force, other than the God described in the Bible.
If you’re a Christian, you probably find these statistics as troubling as I do, but beneath the stark numbers - nestled in between the dire statistics - I see an undercurrent of hope and opportunity:
We Haven’t Given Up On God – Yes, fewer Americans claim a Christian affiliation or a belief in God “as described in the Bible,” but America is still a highly spiritual – if less religious – country. 88% of Americans report believing in some kind of God / higher power / spiritual force, even if that Being is not the God of the Bible. In fact, the Pew report reveals that as people move away from belief in a Biblical God, they are far more likely to move toward a belief in a higher power than toward complete atheism. These spiritual “believers” think this higher power “loves all people (69%), is omniscient (53%), has protected them (68%) and rewarded them (53%).” Even of those who claim no religious affiliation, 17% still said they believed in the God as described in the Bible, and 53% said they believed in a higher power or spiritual force. Even 18% of self-proclaimed atheists said they believed in some kind of higher spiritual power.
So, fellow Christian, before you throw up your hands over the bad news coming from the latest Pew Center Report, consider the good news: we live in a country filled with spiritual seekers who believe a higher power exists and is at work in their lives. For one reason or another, many have rejected the God of the Bible. Sadly, many may have done so without ever coming to know Him. Instead, they may only know us. Have we been able to answer their questions? Have we presented them with a reasonable, “forensic faith” capable of withstanding the scrutiny of our increasingly secular culture? Have we accurately embodied our Christian worldview? Have we shown them the love or power of God? As always, every challenge offers an opportunity. Let’s seize the moment and turn those who are seeking the Divine back toward the God of the Bible.
Evidently the Constitution is a Golden Calf to you.
So why would the decline be surprising?
If you go back and re read the book of Exodus in the Old Testament one thing stands out. The people are instructed to tell their sons and their sons sons the great things God has done for them. The retelling of the past brings both gratitude for the things God has done and the wisdom to understand why. We don’t do this much any more in churches or society as a whole if we don’t return to this practice the Republic will fall at some point,
At the 50th Anniversary of the Constitution, John Quincy Adams, in his "Jubilee" Address, delivered in New York City in April 1839, thoroughly explained the Framers' choice of republic over that of a democracy.
Today, in 2016, when confronted with a decision between individual freedom and slavery, otherwise known as liberty and tyranny, Americans who prefer freedom must be armed with ideas and principles which are "self-evident" and plain. Otherwise, they cannot fend off the onslaught of the "counterfeit ideas" of the Far Left ideologues.
When America's Founders and Framers of their Constitution wanted to convince ordinary farmers and citizens of the merits of a written "People's" Constitution to limit the powers of those to whom they entrust the powers of government, they published and circulated 85 essays, known as THE FEDERALIST.
It's time for citizens, once again, to examine those strong and clear words of Madison Hamilton, and Jay. They are just as clear for today's audience as they were then. Circulate the following excerpts to your friends. Even the least politically savvy will "get" Madison's meaning, especially in light of the power grab now going on in Washington. After all, THE FEDERALIST was the Framers' authoritative explanation of their Constitution, and directed by the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia in 1825 to be used as the text for its law school in its studies of "the general principles of liberty and the rights of man," and said by Jefferson to "constitute 'the general opinion of those who framed, and of those who accepted the Constitution of the U.S., on questions as to its genuine meaning.'":
"The house of representatives... can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as the great mass of society. This has always been deemed one of the strongest bonds by which human policy can connect the rulers and the people together. It creates between them that communion of interest, and sympathy of sentiments, of which few governments have furnished examples; but without which every government degenerates into tyranny." - Federalist Papers, No. 57, February 19, 1788
"The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust." - Federalist Papers, No. 57, February 19, 1788
"Such will be the relation between the House of Representatives and their constituents. Duty gratitude, interest, ambition itself, are the cords by which they will be bound to fidelity and sympathy with the great mass of the people." - Federalist Papers, No. 57, February 19, 1788
"If it be asked what is to restrain the House of Representatives from making legal discriminations in favor of themselves and a particular class of the society? I answer, the genius of the whole system, the nature of just and constitutional laws, and above all the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America, a spirit which nourishes freedom, and in return is nourished by it." - Federalist Papers, No. 57, February 19, 1788
"An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among the several bodies of magistracy as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others." - Federalist Papers, No. 58, 1788
"This power over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people, for obtaining a redress of every grievance, and for carrying into effect every just and salutary measure." - Federalist Papers, No. 58, 1788
"The propensity of all single and numerous assemblies (is) to yield to the impulse of sudden and violent passions, and to be seduced by factious leaders into intemperate and pernicious resolutions." - Federalist Papers, No. 62, February 27, 1788
"Every new regulation concerning commerce or revenue; or in any manner affecting the value of the different species of property, presents a new harvest to those who watch the change and can trace its consequences; a harvest reared not by themselves but by the toils and cares of the great body of their fellow citizens. This is a state of things in which it may be said with some truth that laws are made for the few not for the many." - Federalist Papers, No. 62, February 27, 1788
"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what it will be tomorrow." - Federalist Papers, No. 62, February 27, 1788
Note particularly the following words of wisdom from Federalist No. 63, and take heart. You are doing what you were meant to do when you speak out on intrusions on your liberty. According to Madison:
"As the cool and deliberate sense of the community ought, in all governments, and actually will, in all free governments, ultimately prevail over the views of its rulers; so there are particular moments in public affairs when the people, stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards be the most ready to lament and condemn. In these critical moments, how salutary will be the interference of some temperate and respectable body of citizens, in order to check the misguided career, and to suspend the blow meditated by the people against themselves, until reason, justice, and truth can regain their authority over the public mind?" - Federalist Papers, No. 63, 1788
Admiration and worship are not the same thing.
Admiration and worship are not the same thing.
Adults believe what they are taught as children.
When the godless leftists and liberals were handed the keys to the schools and pre-school the handwriting was on the wall.
They will believe when they stand in front of God on their judgement day. However, by then it will be too late.
They are if you admire something “above all else.”
I remember a long time ago that a politican’s aide corrected when I said I am a Christian. He said it’s better to say you spiritual.”
Admiring something more than anything else does not mean to the exclusion of everything else.
I have no belief in God, nor do I think I’m a god.
................................
What do you base your morality on?
Is it better than anyone else’s?
Says who?
Less educated? No: less propagandized.
A college degree alone is not evidence of one’s level of education.
Was Abraham Lincoln uneducated.
This kind of implicit elitism only strengthens the enemy.
Add question mark to line three.
Admiration of something or someone above all others is worship, whether or not you want to admit it.
What I find interesting is that your reserve your highest worship for a piece of paper, and not the Freedom it is meant to protect.
It's like praising the "jerky" while ignoring the "beef." Is not the Freedom greater than the document?
The document is the means to the end, not the end in and of itself.
Freedom is dependent on the document, but the document is hollow with out enforcement.
So do you worship the document, the Freedom, or the enforcement required to preserve both?
Your god can't protect itself.
FReegards!
But God is who needs to be admired most of all. He can’t come in 2nd or 4th or whatever.
To admire the Constitution more than the Bible is to esteem men’s words more than God’s.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.