Posted on 04/04/2024 9:59:10 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Conventional wisdom tells us that religious faith is on a downward slope, particularly when it comes to Christianity. Of course, there aren’t many ways to separate nominal Christians from genuine believers when compiling statistics, but many measurements show that Christianity is on the decline in the West.
The state of Christianity in Europe can be discouraging. The continent that was once the heart and soul of Christendom is increasingly godless. But is there encouragement on the horizon? One podcaster and writer thinks so.
Justin Brierley, the author of “The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God” and host of the “Unbelievable” podcast, writes in The Spectator that the tide of secularism in the UK might be turning back toward Christianity. He points out that Britain’s churches are seeing a resurgence years after the “New Atheists” began to declare the end of religious faith.
Brierley begins by relating a visit to an Evensong service at St. Bartholomew the Great, the oldest church in London, with the historian and author Tom Holland. Even though his typical worship experience isn’t high-church like St. Bart’s, Brierley found the “smells and bells” engaging and beautiful.
Holland considered himself an agnostic, although the research for his best-seller “Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World” led him to reconsider faith in Jesus. He hasn’t made the leap yet, but it’s encouraging that he is trying to embrace the church experience. Holland, Brierley writes, “came to realize he was still essentially Christian in terms of his beliefs about human rights, equality, and freedom.”
“Holland is not alone as an agnostic trying out church again,” Brierley continues. “In contrast to the usual ageing demographic of many Anglican churches, the congregation of St. Bart’s seems to mainly consist of young professionals, both male and female.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
No the west is not the west anymore
With God, anything is possible.
A positive article and thank you for it.
YES!!!!
First, the current worldwide restoration of the true GOSPEL of the GRACE of CHRIST (not law but grace) fulfilling Jude 3.
Followed by a merciful worldwide incoming of souls to Jesus (the world is sick and tired of religious rules and regulations they cannot keep) before that great and terrible day of the wrath of the Lamb fulfilling Luke 14:23.
When in Washington DC, I still like going to the Evensong at the National Cathedral, even though the place has become a pit of woke, BLM, sodomist politics.
God willing it will happen. God knows I have hoped and prayed for it but I rely on the will of God.
On a very positive note, in our church we are having so many young people and so many children it’s heartwarming.
Well said.
My thoughts exactly.
One can but hope and pray this is true.
1) Huge world-wide revival before the judgement day.
2) The world goes directly to judgement day.
Unless the USA commits to a Nineveh style revival, where everyone sits in sackcloth and ashes confessing their sins, no, revival will not come.
We can only pray and hope.
Prayer For Mercy For The Nations
Father, You alone are the almighty God Who is abounding in mercy and loving-kindness. Father, You have shown great patience and long-suffering to so many people down through the centuries and yet we know that Your justified and perfect wrath will one day fall on the nations of this world if we continue to disobey Your laws and turn our backs on the God of our Salvation and His anointed Christ and Saviour Son.
Lord, we have strayed far away from Your ways and have become like a flock of straying sheep without a shepherd. Lord, we have become a rebellious people and we have followed the devises and desires of our own hearts and indulged in the sinful lusts of our fallen flesh. We are not worthy to be called your children. Lord, we confess that we have offended a holy God and we have disregarded Your holy ways. We have been quick to follow in the paths of unrighteousness and have wandered far away from the road of righteousness, that You in Your grace have designed for us to walk in, and Lord, there is no health in us, nor do we deserve Your pity or Your kindness.
But Lord, You have proved down through the centuries that You are a forgiving God and a God of tender-kindness. Slow to anger and of great long-suffering mercies. Oh Lord, we confess our faults and failings, our sins and our rebellions prideful hearts and we pray that You would restore us.
Forgive us Lord, and teach us Your ways. Raise us up again to be a nation that loves and trusts You, and Lord, we pray that one day very soon, You would send You Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come and take up His eternal rule on earth. Lord, we pray for that day when the earth will be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.
Lord, in Your justice remember mercy we pray. Pity Your creation and draw many out of the miry clay back into Your arms of loving forgiveness. In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
Source: https://prayer.knowing-jesus.com/prayer/prayer-for-mercy-for-the-nations-957
A nine-month novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe, patrons of the America’s who appeared for and was instrumental in the conversion of 9 million pagans in Mexico within 10 years: https://novena.cardinalburke.com/
Think if a person who becomes ill and his situation looks bleak. Then he is given the right medicine and revives.
We are never too far gone for God to heal us. We just have to have enough medicine, His grace, to be able to.
It is not His will that anybody perishbut that they come to repentance unto life because He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that they turn and live (II Pet. 3:9; Ezekiel.
So it would be like Him to bring about a last minute ingathering of souls before the Rapture.
The last verse is Ezek. 33:11.
Faith can probably be tracked by an inverse relationship to the obesity rate and screen time hours per day. Fat, entertained, and comfortable people generally seem to have less faith.
Freegards
But not everyone will be saved. There will still be those who reject Him no matter what.
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