Christianity in Decline; Is Man Failing God or Is God Failing Man? (testimony, believing)
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I think you missed the part where I said "in particular in America, and in general worldwide", or words to that effect.
The point I am trying to make is that if God wants Christianity to survive He is going to have to make a gigantic outpouring of the Holy Spirit of the magnitude that occurred on Pentecost. Failing that, Christianity's numbers will continue to dwindle. Young people simply see no reason to join it. They don't see prayer being answered; they don't see God involving Himself in human affairs in any meaningful way; indeed, atheists like Lawrence Krauss and Richard Dawkins plead, "Please just show us the slightest bit of empiric evidence that a God exists and I will happily change my position."
God remains silent.
We have ben told many times by Jesus and the other NT writers that "Christianity" that is genuine Christians will be a minority at the end, not a majority. His spirit is on those who are truly believers and obedient followers, the rest just can't see it. They want it their way not God's.
Matthew 7:21-23 21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
THis is directed at "believers" and the word "many in the context of Mat 7 means the majority.
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
The majority are not doing God's will, which very obviously means more than just declaring Jesus as Lord.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
They do "works" they see as doing God's will and ... either aren't or are not ALL God wants.
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
The majority, regardless of what they say and do are not doing the will of the father and their knowing Jesus does not mean he knows them. These words of Jesus are directed at the majority of those claiming to believe.
Pentecost was a one time event. It is not needed today, as True Christiana are doing the will of God because of the leading of that spirit.
Where's the proof? So many bible readers can't understand that you can't take the Bible literally. God needs to show himself. People can't believe in things they can't prove to be true.
We have ben told many times by Jesus and the other NT writers that "Christianity" that is genuine Christians will be a minority at the end, not a majority. His spirit is on those who are truly believers and obedient followers, the rest just can't see it. They want it their way not God's.
Matthew 7:21-23 21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
THis is directed at "believers" and the word "many in the context of Mat 7 means the majority.
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
The majority are not doing God's will, which very obviously means more than just declaring Jesus as Lord.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
They do "works" they see as doing God's will and ... either aren't or are not ALL God wants.
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
The majority, regardless of what they say and do are not doing the will of the father and their knowing Jesus does not mean he knows them. These words of Jesus are directed at the majority of those claiming to believe.
Pentecost was a one time event. It is not needed today, as True Christiana are doing the will of God because of the leading of that spirit.
Jesus said ..... Have I been with you so long and yet you do not know me. Because we read the Bible like a history we think Jesus is speaking to a man called Philip. We couldn't be further from the truth. Man is failing himself with his many concepts of God that cloud the reality that the one they seek is already with him.
It's no secret that the number of people identifying with Christianity is plummeting like a stone.
This is shocking, considering that:
Jesus said that the gates of hell would never prevail against His church, but it seems that secularism, not satan, is to blame for this astonishing demographic shift. Whatever the cause or the reason it is clear that Americans in particular and the world in general simply have no use for Christianity as civilization moves through the 21st century.
Bishop John Shelby Spong has been one of the voices crying in the wilderness that unless Christianity "gets it act together' Christianity, as we know it today, will not survive the next 50 years.
Many conservative Christians 50+ take heart in the belief that the church in nearing the end times and all true Christians will be raptured. Well, Jesus better come soon or at the rate things are progressing there will be no "true Christians" to rapture.
How could Christianity have taken such a bad turn? Did the world just grow up? Did the Internet with all the libraries of alternative thought that the Christian hierarchy tried to shield us from for so many centuries for fear of people finding out the tarnished truth, finally do Christianity in?
I believe, as do many theologians, that the rise of the Internet and the decline of the numbers of young people identifying with Christianity is no mere coincidence. They are intrinsically linked to one another and as the Internet continues to grow and more and more young people avail themselves of the damming information about the church's sordid past, the numbers will continue to plummet. What's to be done?
God simply has to make Himself known if He wants to save His church. Make an appearance--work an unmistakable miracle--send another prophet like Moses to part the Red Sea or something, but He'd better do it quick, because once this generation of 50-somethings dies out in the next 50 years or so, it's anybody's guess whether there will be anything of traditional Christianity left. The statistics don't lie.
"Why not consider that secularism is a tool of the devil.
Church membership is falling because mentioning how Christians influenced the early formation our the greatest nation in the world is no long taught in American History. Church membership is gaining in other parts of the world(South America,k China and South Korea)
Sprong is one of the most liberal theologians in the world and he can't prove anything he says about the Bible or Jesus. He was part of the Jesus Seminar, a group of liberal theologians, picked to try and make the theology of Robert Funk acceptable.
He made rules that that guaranteed the outcome he wanted. They had to vote on what Jesus said was true or not. That is hysterical. Liberal theologians who reject the inspiration of the Bible, to vote on what is true or not. They determined that only 18% of what Jesus said and did, was true. The fly in their ointment is they did not offer on bit of evidence to back up their opinions.
Dead flies made the oil of the perfume stink(Eccl 10:1). The oil of the perfume of liberal theology is full of dead flies.
If anyone wants to learn the truth about Christianity, avoid liberal theologians like the plague.
Atheists don't hate God they just don't believe God exists ...... Christians on the other hand believe in God and Jesus but can not agree on the message that they are meant to be giving to the world. Atheists see where Christianity has been and what it has done over the last 2000 years and see how disjointed it is.
NO even worse they also hate everyone who believes in God and a jealousy for those with mental and emotional capacity to have faith and Obedience !
Well Christianity is certainly not declining in Africa, parts of Asia and parts of the Middle East. In the future there be more Christians living in Africa than Europe and North America.
yes and the athiest keep telling everyone how the real christians are not here now and how we declining in numbers ..
when in fact even in the usa among the youth the counter culture is in rebellion against the liberal education system ultra nastiness and all it's brainwashing in all levels of culture .
God has put two trees in everyone garden( in every heart and every mind, Akiana is proof enough )
and in spite of the media and education systems underhanded dealings with American youth. The youth have had enough of their lies. I mean 99 % of all statistics are made up and the youth will be the proof that man was created to Love in purity and Worship in holiness and believe in the spiritual . GoD is the yen to our yang. humanity knows it is missing something it can not find on it's own.
How about some just HATE what evils xians do in the name of their tyrannical sky god.
but God isn't allowed to hate what men who hate Him( see " Tyrannical sky God") do in the name of their twin gods Nothingness and Chances?
historically Cain has been way more destructive than Abel was !!!!!! and all out of jealousy maybe?
The five fastest growing religions by conversions (new adherents per year, in millions):
1.Christianity........2,501,396
2.Islam...................865,558
3.Buddhism.............156,609
4.Sikhism.................28,961
5.Baha'is..................26,333
The five fastest growing religions in terms of absolute numbers (new adherents per year, in millions):
1.Christianity.................25,210,195
2.Islam.........................22,588,676
3.Hinduism....................12,533,734
4.Chinese folk-religions.....3,715,548
5.Buddhism.....................3,687,527
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