Tags
culture, faith, humor, insanitybytes22, love, Mondays, opinion, statististics
Oh good grief, why do people say such things? The rumors of our demise have been highly exaggerated. All in good humor here, but I myself may be chronically on the verge of collapse, especially on Mondays. However, that does not mean faith is in decline or the church is in decline, or Christianity is about to go the way of the dinosaurs.
“But Pew research declares….” Why in the world would we be listening to Pew? “Pew” is a word we use for something that smells funny. It would be a pretty sad state of affairs if one’s faith was dependent on a public opinion poll.
I love the old testament, especially the KJV, for its melodramatic language, “don’t faint, don’t give up the ghost.” Those words are more relevent today than ever and they always speak so well to the angst, misery, and woe of my soul. Don’t faint!
The truth of the matter is that Christianity has grown expontentally worldwide and even in the US. We are fast approaching a time when there are more Christians alive on the planet than the sum total of all Christians who have ever graced the planet. Even in the US, if you look at the last 50 years you may see some decline, but go back 100 years and what you really see is tenfold growth. Perspective is everything.
All in good humor here, while I can’t speak to the quality of all those Christians, I can certainly speak to the quantity. The numbers are there, the sheer volume is undeniable.
“…upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it.” Also, we were told to take the good news to all the nations and that is precisely what is happening.
This guy here is NOT “the rock” of which I speak, but he is awfully cute and sometimes Mondays just call for some gratutious “Rock” pictures.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
That’s what I love about you – you always look at the positive.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wishful thinking. It would affirm their weird views on the meaning and purpose of the Church. On this view the Church is not meant to mediate Christ to the world, but to create a place where all the self-appointed “righteous” can congregate and devour each other for not being righteous enough.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Loved this post! Great points!
The title of your post is what leftists would like us all to believe. After all, the Dems kicked God out of their yearly dreadful and awful convention years ago.
People who still believe the propaganda being spewed against those of us who believe in, and love, Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior are being duped into the lies of the enemy of our souls.
Christian song writer and singer, Brandon Heath, wrote a song entitled, “Leaving Eden.” Within the lyrics, he contrarily quips, “If it weren’t for my TV, I wouldn’t know what is real.”
In our current age of liars and those who steadfastly (and ignorantly) support them, how can we trust what a stinky “research” poll says anyway?
Pew… you stink! Go take a bath!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Christine, please don’t lump all Dems and leftists into one category. I’m Christian, a Democrat, a liberal and the DNC had several prayers during the DNC. God wasn’t left out, and isn’t left out – and certainly isn’t left out of my life. We have to stop the name calling, I beg of you. Whoever you are voting (or not voting) for, please let’s be respectful and show one another grace.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Susan,
What I should have written was, “the far leftist Democrats responsible for the platform agenda had voted to not include God in the platform.” I’m not certain whether or not they were successful with that. Do you know the answer? Also, I saw the video clip of many Dems in the audience booing when God was mentioned. Very sad…
No matter what political organization it is, there isn’t any that I (personally) totally agree with. However, I cannot possibly belong to one that is so severely pro-abortion as the Democratic party certainly shows that it is. As a Christian, that is an issue that I can’t compromise on. I am pro-life and to those who tell me all the reasons for their decision to be pro-abortion I simply say, “Choose life…your mother did.”
LikeLike
“Dems in the audience booing when God was mentioned. Very sad…” Yes, I thought so, too.
As far as pro-choice dems, I can’t call them pro-abortion. I don’t think most are. I think it’s more a matter of government policy and legalism, at least for me. I’m definitely pro-life, but have a difficult time with having the government telling me what to do with my body. For me, it’s a moral issue, not a legal one, and we can’t legalize morality.
LikeLike
To IB,
Can you please provide a link to the Pew Research poll that you wrote about in this thread? I can’t seem to find it at their site or when I do an online search for it. Thanks!
Christine
LikeLiked by 1 person
Here’s one,
http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much!
LikeLike
Susan,
You stated that we can’t “legalize morality.” What happened in 1973 was that 9 men in black robes legalized death to babies in the womb! What would Jesus have to say about that?
Besides, our Founding Fathers had a lot to say about how religion and morality would play a huge part in not only the birth of our nation, but its ultimate survival.
Quotes of the Founding Fathers
The Importance of a Moral Society
LikeLike
Adams also said, ““The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
Please hear me when I say I agree with you about Roe v. Wade. But Jesus warned us we had to carry these things within our hearts.
Just as we have attempted to wipe out racism with laws, we can see it still exists in the hearts of many.
All I’m saying is we must seek other ways to change behavior other than externally. We must seek to change hearts and minds so that change is transformational.
LikeLike
I actually believe you’re both right, we cannot legislate morality, we must change hearts and minds. That’s what Jesus Christ does, He changes hearts and minds, He calls us to our higher selves. The problem being you have to have that Christian foundation in order to self govern. Freedom itself is dependent on people’s willingness to examine where our hearts are wrong. Without the law, we have no standard in which to measure and also no desire to self govern. So in my state marijuana, abortion, and homosexuality, are all not just legal, but fast approaching desirable, encouraged, things to be be pursued. To even suggest any of those things could have a downside in any context at all, is now socially unacceptable. This has happened in just the past few years. So the law matters, it helps to establish morality in the eyes of the culture. This is especially important for younger people who just have no idea what the long term consequences of some behaviors can be.
LikeLike
“That’s what Jesus Christ does, He changes hearts and minds, He calls us to our higher selves…Freedom itself is dependent on people’s willingness to examine where our hearts are wrong.”
So true, IB – with or without law, with or without Christianity. I absolutely get your position on this – I think I just come from a different perspective.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Susan, I’m going to disagree with a nit on political philosophy. You can’t legislate morality is a fallacy I’ve heard all my life. But eventually I realized that all legislation is about morality. Legislation is a legal mode within a democracy or a republic. It is creating a legal code that says that this is what we as a society agree is right and can enforce on ourselves and each other. If we truly believed that you can’t legislate morality then we could not choose anything to be against, not theft, not kidnapping, not murder. Abortion is no less taking away a right of another human entity than any of the above, the right to life, its simply one that a very vocal group has demanded the right to do, sadly successfully. We absolutely could enforce it against every depraved doctor or other person who wrongly claims helping women to end innocent lives is now good instead of evil. We choose not to. But our choosing not to does not change the nature of what legislation is not the immorality of what they are doing. 😦
My heart grieves over it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You know, I’ve read this over and over again. I understand the passion behind it. I agree with the concept. I do believe we can legislate behavior. We legislate against the things of which you speak: theft, kidnapping, murder, and segregation (which you did not list).
Do those things still occur? Yes – because people still hold immorality in their hearts. That’s the distinction I’m making here. And the further problem with focusing on lawmaking is that we refuse to come to the table with the people on the other side of the debate, but instead, continue to vilify them, making monsters of them (“depraved doctors”) instead of seeing them as individuals, choosing to see them through Jesus’ eyes.
When we do that by obeying His words (love your enemy), we will find ways to change their hearts first, causing them to change their own behavior and to find ways to change the hearts of the very women they serve.
That Good News mission, I believe, will be much more successful than changing the law.
LikeLike
Somewhere recently I saw a saying, “the heart learns long before the brain.” It made me laugh, but there’s some truth to that.
LikeLike
I think so too! 😀
LikeLike
The passion is no more and no less than I have for any other political philosophy . I have a hard time understanding why some people are willing to come across as if they dismiss the ideas of laws and governance all together and couldn’t care less that such ideas matter and have led to untold millions of physical and spiritual deaths. Why say things that aren’t true as a means of keeping bad laws? If in fact the philosophy holds and passes muster for you that ideas matter and that laws are the legislation of morality then why would any other form of taking innocent lives still be worth fighting to keep good laws about? Or is your political philosophy really that laws don’t matter to Christians. In a sense they truly do not. But that is a very different discussion than just claiming that a, b, and c ways of harming others should be laws of God and man and x, y, and z ways of attacking your fellow men or killing them is not of interest to me. I feel relatively safe assuming that you do truly care about humans and suffering and the depravity that snuffs out life. But I don’t understand how you draw a line to accept some forms and of evil as unpolitical and others as the opposite.
I don’t oppose abortion solely because God does. I also oppose it because it aligns with all of my political philosophies to use the force of government to protect the most innocent from violent crime that otherwise are defended by no one once the government decides to abdicate that role.
LikeLike
Dead? Not hardly. Had an interview with Christian Radio Station Friday that is going strong and has for 40 years. It has as big of an audience as it ever had. Want to listen? Visit http://www.dlhavlin.com and click the link for the Pete O’Shea program
LikeLiked by 2 people
They can never rid this world of the remnant that is ever growing. I shutter to imagine Pew and others thoughts the day we are all called home! Good post!
LikeLiked by 1 person
IB, I agree with you. Christianity is growing exponentially across the world. And as it’s growing, we must embrace each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, even when we don’t agree on everything. (BTW, a pew is also a seat in a church. 😉 )
We have to remember we are the Church, and we must build ourselves upon the heart and mind, the words and theology – the Rock – of Jesus, as we both so aptly wrote about previously.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Gratuitous Rock. :p
LikeLiked by 1 person
“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
I know you already said that, but I figured it was worth repeating, as it is a huge promise
The evil ones can say whatever they want. God disagrees and He told us so.
Who we gonna believe?
The field is ripe for the harvest, the work just needs laborers.
Awesome post IB
LikeLiked by 2 people
Pingback: Truth vs. Opinion Polls | Talk Wisdom
What nowadays we call the Middle East was at one time the heart of Christianity – Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt were the Christian heartland as much as Greece or Rome. Socially conservative North Africa was the equivalent of the Roman Empire’s Bible Belt. We are talking about churches founded by the Apostles themselves, the churches where the New Testament was composed.
And yet God allowed these Christians to bicker with each other and grow listless and when the Arabs came in they folded like a deck of cards. The minority who stayed true to the faith got a thousand years of dhimmitude and now Christian communities that are 2000 years old are facing extinction. They are figuratively and even literally being crucified. What is so great about the churches in America that they can’t be ground underfoot like the churches founded by Paul and John?
I’m not predicting persecution but a collapse of numbers and institutions. What makes it so impossible to happen here when it has happened elsewhere? Who still goes to church in England, Ireland, or Germany? What is left of the Russian Orthodox?
And if it does happen here what are you going to do?
LikeLiked by 1 person
“What is so great about the churches in America that they can’t be ground underfoot like the churches founded by Paul and John?”
Nothing, nothing at all…except God shed His grace on us and that changes things significantly. America and Americans are unique in the history of the world, not better, not superior, but uniquely placed within a culture and period of time. I believe we are meant to take a stand, that we were deliberately designed for a time such as this, that history is unfolding just as God wants it to. I suspect there will be some persecution, many people may well fall away. I’m not suggesting it’s going to be smooth sailing or an easy road, but this is a Christian nation, founded on Christian values and we’re going to stand. Our disunity, our diversity, our constant bickering, are not just flaws, they are also our strengths, our innate defiance, and one thing that makes us a bit like trying to herd cats.
The culture of France is French, Ireland is Irish, Germany is German. It is far easier to herd one cohesive group in the direction the enemy wishes them to go than it is to herd a bunch of rugged individualists who once fought their own homeland for freedom and than promptly descended into civil war and fought for the same, against our very own selves.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You mean the same rugged individualists who made Kim Kardashian a star and who routinely vote for the president who promises them more free unicorns?
LikeLike
Well who doesn’t appreciate a picture of the Rock to cap off their Monday, thank you for that I! 😉 I keep hearing about the demise of Christianity here in the U.S. too but I just don’t see it happening. Even if the numbers are shrinking, which is very debatable, I think many Christians and churches are regrouping, getting back to basics and growing stronger in faith and that is not a bad thing at all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
‘.Nothing…………except…………God………………..grace……………that changes things significantly……….’ Yes it do. 😉
Good call ms bytes, and a comment worthy of a highlight reel.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The problem IB is that you are right – self proclaimed Christianity is growing. However it is more and more being associated with a building where one goes to get Christianity – Running a bit low jest drop by for a recharge. Those who see Christianity as a personal relationship with Christ is diminishing – according to the poles.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good points, Paul. The local church, the family church, can be hard to find these days. Mega churches, Christianity as an institution, has come into existence. Reminds me of that joke, who wants to be in an institution? I try to remember “we are the church.” Church is not a building, it’s a group of believers who follow Christ.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hear that Christianity is on the decline all the time but that is a false narrative some people wish were true.
I have been spending less time online and more time ministering to people in the real world lately and there is a definite hunger for God.
If anything, I would say godlessness is in the decline.
LikeLike
Amen! I see a real hunger in the world for the word. People have been feasting on to many empty calories. They need some actual sustenance.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Feasting on empty calories is right, I like that.
Now that I think about it, I like that a lot. Empty calories cause a sugar high that requires more empty calories when it wears off. It’s a vicious circle.
LikeLike
I agree. I cringe inside when I hear those comments. Jesus is alive, and therefore Christianity isn’t going to die out. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Christianity is undergoing exponential growth worldwide. The following is the # of Christians though out history:
1900: 600,000,000
2016: 2,300,000,000 (+1,700,000,000)
2050: 3,150,000,000 (+850,000,000)
2100: 4,000,000,000 (+850,000,000)
Now, numbers for non-religion:
1970: 1,100,000,000
2016: 1,200,000,000 (+100,000,000)
2100: 1,000,000,000 (-200,000,000)
It’s obvious Christianity wins out.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Christian? What does this mean? To me as a Christian it means knowing, serving, following, and trusting in Jesus Christ. However, if one says a Catholic is a Christian yet they pray to mother mary to ask her son for forgiveness instead of going to the Only One born from a virgin in Bethlehem yet grew up in Nazarene then crucified for all to have access to salvation. Since Jesus is the only way to salvation then those who call themselves Christian but believe there is another way to be saved (tithing, attendance, thinking oneself at least not as bad as that guy, etc) if a Morman who believes Jesus Christ is a brother to the dragon could call themself Christian yet only if they have trusted only in The One whom died for their sins. So is Christianity becoming scarce? Let’s go to the word of God when narrow is the path but only few will take it. (Few)
My point is that when someone says they are a Christian ask them what that means to them. For studies are showing that 70 % of Americans claim Christian but only 20+ claim Jesus Christ is the only way. So is this the true Christian or are you talking about those that just believe there is a God? I hope you are right that Christianity is growing but the president claimed he is Christian yet his fruits don’t show this. I hope he is a Christian. America won’t even teach Christianity in public schools. Why? Because its gov’t. Hmmm funny that in the beginning of public schools was started by Christians and grammar books were written with bible study in mind. If America was becoming more Christian then we would have no problem with bands playing amazing grace at school rather than townfunk. What is more sad us even the one who claim Christian say religion and religious things should not be taught at school. Would Jesus Christ say that? Would these Christians be followers of Christ when they stand against spreading the word of God anywhere but in public (gov’t) buildings? I hope you can see where I am trying to explain that not all who claim Christian follow Jesus Christ. Their are some who even try saying Jesus Christ didn’t hate so homosexuality is ok in churches because its about love. Yet who is Jesus Christ? God’s son! Part of God. Come to not change the laws but to fulfill them. We allow repetitive thieves in churches but we don’t celebrate their thievery with a ceremony so why do some churches celebrate homosexuality with the marriage ceremony? Would this be something Jesus Christ would do? How long will this behavior be tolerated? Yet still planned parenthood has stood in churches on Sunday asking or thanking the congregation for donations that are to help ladies with birth decision. Because of my strong feelings on this matter I won’t go into what I think Jesus Christ feels about that. My question is where is the overwhelming amount of Christians as laws change against Christian values? Wolves have infiltrated and we slept. Thank God for those sheep belonging to Jesus Christ but I hope that I am forgiven as being a American who allowed so many babies to die and who allowed to many children to be taught to tell God He got their sex wrong or that I’m to scared to say God Bless to a person in public. But then my 15 year old has asked the dentist the gas station manager and the many nurse’s he’s seen if they are Christians and always they say yes but the gas station manager doesn’t believe Jesus Christ is the messiah but just a prophet for the gas station manager is Muslim. The dentist believes there is a God rather he is Buda or someother higher being or there just another name for God. Yet they always say their Christian.
LikeLike