Bad News About Those Who Actually Read and Believe in the Bible

[Angela53510]

Christianity Today has a very sad article on how belief in the Bible is dropping again in the US. (I am sure it is the same in most Western Countries, including Canada!)

Bible Society Takes 'More Accurate and Hopeful' Stance on Scripture Skeptics | Gleanings | ChristianityToday.com

The number of Americans who read Scripture at least four times a week and believe that it is the inspired word of God has fallen to just under 1 in 5, according to new research from the American Bible Society (ABS).The same percentage of Americans (19 percent) are now "antagonistic" toward the Bible, reading it less than once per month and believing it is a book of teachings written by men that contain stories and advice.
Thus, the "percentage of Scripture haters now equals Scripture lovers," notes the [original] press release for the 2014 edition of ABS's annual State of the Bible report, conducted by Barna Group. The main reason: millennials.

What are the reasons for this decline is not posited in the article, but my thought is that by demeaning the verity of Genesis 1-11, the entire truth of the Bible is cast into doubt.

Another good reason, is that people who are amoral or immoral simply are against the Bible, because then their lifestyles that involve blatant sins would require repentance.

It seems like we are living in a time, where the hearts of people grow cold.

"And then many will fall awayand betray one another and hate one another. [SUP]11 [/SUP]And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. [SUP]12 [/SUP]And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. [SUP]13 [/SUP]But the one who endures to the end will be saved. [SUP]14 [/SUP]And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." Matt. 24:10-14

Interesting that this passage which talks about false prophets, lawlessness also says the gospel WILL BE proclaimed throughout the world. That would be another interesting topic for studying. And what are we personally doing to proclaim the gospel? Hard question for those of us who are disabled!

 

[Spokenpassage]

Hi Angela,

People act according to what they really believe in, not according to what they merely pretend to believe in. If there is a falling, I believe it's a one of a pretending faith, a faith not grounded in Christ. I believe there is two types of faith concerning this specific topic (there could be more).

1. Genuine saving faith
2. Theoretical faith

Theology (as a whole) in the scriptures has a tremendous affect on us through saving faith, it is a gift of God. It has a deadening effect on the spiritual life if its treated as mere theory to begin with. It should not only teach us to live a righteous life, but to inspire us to live righteously. It should be treated as truth entirely.

 

[SonInMe]

Its quite clear why people do not believe in the bible.

1. Most are not saved. Many go to church, but the gate is narrow. Its always been this way.

2. Liberalism. The postmodern thinking. Man's knowledge. The ideal that humans have ''evolved'' and are better than some backwoods ancient people's ''myths''. Christians sat by and either did not vote against the liberal ideal or even worse, embraced the lie of compassion because it made them feel good.

Disagreements in theology should never demean the bible's inerrency because all viable theologies MUST be based on actual scripture, not the misinterpretation or in the case of young earther's the addition to scripture, making claims the bible does not, in any way address.

 

[proverbs35]

The Top 20 Countries where Christianity is Growing the Fastest | Disciple All Nations

That isn't exactly what I was looking for, but I remember reading an article that said that Christianity was declining in the West, but on the rise in the East. It was very interesting. Hope the link I provided really buttress those stats.

 

[Tintin]

I think Christian Today does some good things but they're part of the problem. They support theistic evolutionary beliefs because they hold to them. They're friendly with BioLogos - the Christian organization that actively seeks to stamp out a belief in the literal history of the Bible etc. That's disturbing and very, very wrong.

 

[crossnote]

Did the article say if the rate of those antagonistic to the bible was rising or dropping?

 

[doseofreality]

Did the article say if the rate of those antagonistic to the bible was rising or dropping?

yes it does, the rate is rising.

Since 2011, antagonism toward the Bible has risen from 10 percent to 19 percent of those surveyed. During the same period, the percentage considered "Bible-friendly" dropped from 45 percent to 37 percent, while "Bible-engaged" remained steady. The percentage of those considered neutral toward the Bible, 26 percent in 2014, has remained statistically unchanged.

 

[SonInMe]

Just a fyi, an old earth position does not in any way support evolution. A common mistake by those who consider science to be anti-christian.

 

[Bushido8000]

I would say it's because churches are ran like individual BUSINESSES instead of working together for common good and people associate churches with belief in Christianity. Tell your local pastor that your going to visit another church next Sunday and watch his reaction.

Churchianity has more or less taken over Christianity in the U.S. on a church-level. The problem is that unbelievers have caught Churchianity in it's lie. They have found out that it's just another corporation, and they unfortunately associate Churchianity with Christianity

 

[SonInMe]

Faith comes by Grace and there is only one source of Grace....God.

Revelation opens the Truth of the bible. Lotsa people study the bible and have no clue what its about. All you have to do is look to the shows done by the History and Discovery channel on the bible. Seculars cannot understand the Truth of the bible because it has not been revealed to them.

Churches should be responsible and it is an organization that handles monies and bills. That should be done well under biblical principles for finances.

I like bells and whistles. I do not think church has to be boring but ad campaigns for Jesus Christ, wether it be posters, a nice building, effective praise and worship will only intorduce people to the Truth. They cannot save them.

God saves. The Holy Spirit reveals the Truth of the bible.

The Truth is, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ is alive.

 

[crossnote]

Just a fyi, an old earth position does not in any way support evolution. A common mistake by those who consider science to be anti-christian.

First of all your equating evolution with science...ehhhh.
Secondly old earthers are the ones using an unscientific method by allegorizing the creation account when even our Lord took it literal.

Mark 10:6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.

But you are right TRUE science is not anti christian.

 

[gb9]

most folks, even " church people" do not read the Bible. they only read the same verses over and over. many pastors only preach the same re-hashed sermons on the same verses over and over. as it was stated above, many have caught on to this and confuse this with real Christianity, which is not what is found in many churches.

 

[Tintin]

Just a fyi, an old earth position does not in any way support evolution. A common mistake by those who consider science to be anti-christian.

Evolution doesn't = science. Also, I understand that the Old Earth position doesn't directly support evolution, except it kind of does in that it tries to make sense of the so-called billions of years of geological evidence (uniformitarinism). If scientists have a bias, which all do have, then their presuppositions and therefore, conclusions are all tainted by their belief systems. In this case, uniformitarnism shapes their beliefs about the world having to be billions of years old. And if you believe in an Old Earth then you have to believe the Great Flood was local, but that would make God a liar (besides the many other details that point to it very much being a global flood). It's much more reasonable to take the Bible as it's written and understand that much of the fossils and geological data is evidence of the Great Flood. It's very important that we don't import foreign ideas into the Bible (billions of years or evolution etc.) Start with the Bible, see what evidence there is around you, then return to the Bible. If what you believe you see is different to what the Bible says, you need to change your views to fit God's Word, not the other way around. We all have to do that with our Bible reading in one form or another.

 

[paulsfam4]

the decline started when they took prayer out of schools this was done by socialist liberals they don't want people to worship God they want people to depend on the state this was started back in the 1930's the goal ishttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZJF3HalQOU to take apart the family also.

 

[skipp]

The United States is a culture in the process of moral decay so this doesn't surprise me any.

 

[doseofreality]

the decline started when they took prayer out of schools this was done by socialist liberals they don't want people to worship God they want people to depend on the state this was started back in the 1930's the goal ishttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZJF3HalQOU to take apart the family also.

Nobody took prayer out of schools in the sense that prayer is not allowed. Any student may pray anytime they want as long as it does not interfere with normal class time and does not impede on the religious freedom of other students.

In other words you have the right to pray but not to ask or force anyone else to pray with you.

What was taken out of schools was "official sponsored prayer" where all students were expected to say prayers. This had to do with religious freedom and separation of church and state. A public school cannot constitutionally endorse any religion over any other. Any government institution must be secular despite whether or not the majority of individuals are religious.

Religious freedom is an individual liberty and to protect that liberty the role of the government must be unbiased and neutral toward any single religion.

America is NOT a christian nation, it is a SECULAR nation founded on a secular constitution which was written by both religious and non-religious men.

I will get off my soap box now

 

[cinder]

In other words you have the right to pray but not to ask or force anyone else to pray with you.

What was taken out of schools was "official sponsored prayer" where all students were expected to say prayers. This had to do with religious freedom and separation of church and state. A public school cannot constitutionally endorse any religion over any other. Any government institution must be secular despite whether or not the majority of individuals are religious.

Religious freedom is an individual liberty and to protect that liberty the role of the government must be unbiased and neutral toward any single religion.

America is NOT a christian nation, it is a SECULAR nation founded on a secular constitution which was written by both religious and non-religious men.

I will get off my soap box now

I guess it's time for me to get on my soapbox. First please do your own investigation of American history if you haven't (don't just believe what you were taught in school, it was biased and over simplified). This article seemed balanced to me and should be a good start.

It is certain that not all of the founding fathers were Christian (by the standards most would hold to in this forum at least), but all the evidence points to the fact that they generally believed in a higher power and the power of prayer. Christianity is part of the fabric of American history. Several of the colonies were founded for the purpose of "religious freedom" though practically it sometimes became "in this colony we can have everyone practice Christianity the way we believe it should be practiced".

Which brings us to the Constitution and the first amendment. In writing the Constitution, the founding fathers were taking their second crack at forming a national government (the first one under the Articles of Confederation was simply too weak). For many reasons they wanted to limit the national government's power and one of the big things they had seen in Europe was the government mandating religious practice. So they wrote the in the first amendment "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof". In other words, Congress does not have the right to tell anyone how to practice their faith, nor can they outlaw something on purely religious grounds. That's it. The phrase "separation of church and state" is not found in any of the founding documents of the USA (if memory serves, it came from a personal letter Jefferson wrote to a friend).

Western Secularism is not impartial about religion, it is based upon the assumption that all religion is man made. That if there be any God, he is not capable of revealing himself to mankind in a definitive way. Interestingly enough, this secularism is a post Christian phenomenon (even communism was developed as a theory in historically christian Europe) living in prosperous Christian societies seems to have been the necessary soil for denying the existence of a spiritual realm (maybe I'll have to think that through enough to write a coherent blog on it). It's also interesting to note that Christians in historically religious countries (of other religions) see secularism in their countries as an opportunity for religious freedom because it means, not that there will be no religious influence in the government, but that the government will not have the power to force people to be in a certain religion.

So did you seriously just tell me that I don't have the right to ask people (let us assume this is in a non-religious context) to pray with me? What if my religion tells me I should make that request or offer such help? G. K. Chesterton (who many modern people have never heard of because he argued so eloquently against many modern ideas about 100 years ago) put it best when he said “Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it.”

And this is why we see the evidence we do in the article, young Americans don't believe in or read their Bibles because they have grown up in a world where the entire public sector has told them by default that God is unimportant and irrelevant. We have given him no place in our society for the past 40 or 50 years, and we are simply seeing the consequence.

 

[skipp]

You can't just blame the schools for this. Schools don't raise children.