Good times produce decline and hard times In the hard times, God separates the wheat from the chaff. And in the end, those hard times produce strong men and women of God. Today, I am going to show you where I believe Christians and the church are at in God's refining His people for a stronger tomorrow. So lets's get started.
According to Gallup News in an entry March 25, 2024 titled “CHURCH ATTENDANCE HAS DECLINED IN MOST U.S. RELIGIOUS GROUPS”, Three in 10 U.S. adults attend religiously services regularly, led by Mormons at 67% by Jeffrey M. Jones.
Out of Washington, D.C.—As Americans observe Ramadan and prepare to celebrate Easter and Passover, the percentage of adults who report regularly attending religious services remains low. Three in 10 Americans say they attend religious services every week (21%) or almost every week (9%), while 11% report attending about once a month and 56% seldom (25%) or never (31%) attend
PROTESTANT/CHRISTIANS: 30% attend every week/13% almost ever week.
ISLAM/MUSLIM: 28% Every week/10% almost every week.
CATHOLIC: 23% Every week/10% almost every week.
JUDAISM/JEWISH: 16% Every week/6% almost every week.
MORMONS CHURCH: 21% attend every week and 9% almost every week.
BUDDHISM/BUDDHIST: 12% Every week/2% almost every week.
HINDUISM/HINDU: 7% Every week/6% almost every week.
ATHEISM/NONE: 2% Every week/1% almost every week.
The article points out that beyond Protestants, Catholics and those with no religious affiliation, that other religious groups each represent 2% or less of the U.S. population. The article reports that nearly all faiths are seeing declines in regular church attendance and that Church attendance will likely continue to decline in the future, given younger Americans’ weaker attachments to religion.
SO WHAT?
Is this a bad thing? NO. This trend is simply uncovering God's separating the authentic Christian from the cultural Christian-a separation of the wheat from the chaff. Unfortunately, for some churches this might means less tithe or income monetarily speaking.
THE POINT
The central point of today’s entry is this: God is sifting so called “Christians” in America and the West before rebuilding an authentic, Christ centered, conviction based, biblically literate church. If we look more carefully, we can see that He has already started doing so in many Islamic countries throughout the world. Examples of explosive, authentic, church growth includes countries such as Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, China among others. Sadly, the West, especially in America, churches are filled with soft, cultural Christian teaching and medeocre, saltless Christians. Christians in America, understandably more often than not take their freedom of religion, access to unlimited Bibles and biblical materials for granted. As a consequence, most people who confess to be Christians are more cultural then authentic.
THE CHAFF-THOSE WHO BUILD THEIR HOUSE UPON THE SAND
When the culture comes immorally unraveled as we see today, the established Christian moral and ethical standards comes under fire and challenged as the norm. As a result, Christians fall into "APATHY" under "FOTU" (Fear Of The Unknown). And today's cultural Christian is unprepared to face the immoral, evil attacks on Christians and all mankind due to their being biblically illiterate. "49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” (Luke 6:49).
THE SECULAR FLOOD OF ADVERSITY
When the flood of the secular world, government and culture rise, the cultural Christian fails in their faith or what they considered to be an authentic faith to begin with. In many cases, those falsely assumed to be authentic Christians are not only shaken out but washed away into the godless-cultural landscape of the modern culture And sadly, in many if not most cases, their faith dimmishes and their lives often fall apart.
THE WHEAT-THOSE WHO BUILD THEIR FAITH-HOUSE UPON A ROCK
On the other hand, the authentic Christian (the wheat) who build their house on a firm foundation, digging into the Word of God and building his or her house deep, laying their foundation on the ROCK of God and His Word, when the floods of cultural compromise and immoral failure come, the house is not shaken because it has been build well and on God’s Truth. Consider the following:
46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? 47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.[a] 49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” (Luke 6:46-49).
IN CONCLUSION: It’s a fact that throughout history, good times produce atrophy and human decline which lead to hard times. But it's in the hard times that God separates the wheat from the chaff. In the end, those hard times produce strong men and women of God. I believe that we are well into the cycle of hard times which is clearly separating the wheat from the chaff. The numbers are in and according to Gallup News in an entry March 25, 2024 titled “CHURCH ATTENDANCE HAS DECLINED IN MOST U.S. RELIGIOUS GROUPS”, it's become clear that three in 10 U.S. adults attend religiously services regularly. As for PROTESTANT/CHRISTIANS: Only 30% attend every week and 13% almost ever week. Interestingly, ISLAM shows that MUSLIM only go to Mosque weekly 28% of the time and almost every week 10%. This seems to indicate that the secular, material driven culture in the West and throughout the world is effecting all relgions. Even for CATHOLICS, only 23% attend church every week 10% almost every week.
Going back to May 14 of 2019, The Christian Post wrote an article called "God is separating the wheat from the chaff in our country" (United States) by David Hoffman, Voices Contributor wrote: "Speaking of Jesus, John the Baptist, Matthew 3:12 says, "His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He is clear His threshing floor, gathering His wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire". This this particular verse has eschatological significance, in application, it's valid on some level as to what God is doing in our modern culture in the United States and beyond.
Many Christians find themselves in the dilemma, having to face the truth of their faith and if they will chose to stand up for Christ or stand down and get absorbed into the godless, secular culture. Those who are committed to Christ are committed to living "righteously" and committed to an actual, pure and undefiled life according to biblical leading and the Holy Spirit. Now, more than ever before, the lines of separation are being drawn, God is purifying His church in the United Stated and in Europe.
God is now revealing people's hearts., As he does this, a separating similar to what is seen in Matthew 3:12 is occurring right before our very eyes. We can be assured of one thing which is that God is not finished working in our nation. We can also be assured that He will not use a compromised church. God does not use the compromised, sinful, or egotistical to display His power. It now becomes clear that the current state of the church in America and Christians all across the country are finding themselves having to choose. Look around you. Can you see the WHEAT from the CHAFF?
