Hot Or Cold

I found the following quote in an online article titled "The End of Christian America" from Newsweek Magazine

http://www.newsweek.com/id/192583

"Let's be clear: while the percentage of Christians may be shrinking, rumors of the death of Christianity are greatly exaggerated. Being less Christian does not necessarily mean that America is post-Christian. A third of Americans say they are born again; this figure, along with the decline of politically moderate-to liberal mainline Protestants, led the ARIS authors to note that "these trends … suggest a movement towards more conservative beliefs and particularly to a more 'evangelical' outlook among Christians."

This article is based on a survey called "The 2009 American Religious Identification Survey" abbreviated ARIS. This is the same study that showed the Pacific Northwest (where I was born and happen to live) is no longer "the most unchurched region in America", because New England now has a higher percentage of people who are not regular church attenders.

The survey also shows that there has been a 10% decline in self identified Christians since the last survey in 1990.

Now, when you hear of a 10% decline, does that sound bad? alarming? somewhat less than ideal?

What the poll showed was that in 1990 86% of America identified themselves as Christian. Now the number is 76%. Does that change the perspective of whether America is still MASSIVELY Christian? I say not.

And given all the hoopla of Barak Hussein Obama as president, and all the pandering to Muslim countries, what would you guess the poll showed about the number of self identified Muslims in America? If you guessed 0.6%, you would be right.

Notice also that even the negatively cast Newsweek article quotes the ARIS authors as analyzing the trends to mean that the decline in numbers of self identified Christians came from mostly "politically moderate-to-liberal mainline Protestants". Since most of the populace in that category reside in the Northeast, it makes perfect sense to see the shift.

So what I glean from this is that when Jesus said "I wish you were either hot, or cold" (Rev 3:15), He meant what He said. It has always been a bad idea to be lukewarm, but never a worse time than now. On the other hand, people will never repent of what they cannot admit.

I conclude therefore that many lukewarm Christians have decided to no longer hold onto the pretence of being Christians. No doubt some are being overthrown in their faith, and that is bad. But the stage is being set for reality and repentance to come in like never before.

We serve a Mighty God, Whose ear is open to our cry.

And it wouldn't hurt to remember Mark Twain's observation on the topic of statistics, as we hear the media:

“Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: ‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.’”
- Mark Twain's Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review

Stay sharp. Stay focused. And realize that the most powerful spiritual weapon we have is prayer in Jesus name.

Fire for effect!

April 13, 2009, Jim Blanchard, Soap Lake, Washington,
jbpeblanchard@gmail.com

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