Our Nation’s Spiritual Decline
Dear Christian Friends,
In our January newsletter, I gave some disturbing statistics from Gallup polls. According to Gallup, from 1976 to 2005, the number of Americans who believe that the Bible is the word of God has decreased from 38% to 32%. Since then, my friend Matt Bromberg showed me some poll results from George Barna that are even more frightening.
According to Barna, only 9% of Americans have a biblical worldview. But less than ½ of 1% of Americans aged 18-23 have a biblical worldview! (Perhaps this is one reason we are having such a hard time finding young men to live in our evangelism house.) Of those who say they “have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is important in their life today and that they are certain that they will go to Heaven after they die only because they confessed their sins and accepted Christ as their savior,” only 19% hold a biblical worldview.
So what does Barna consider to be a biblical worldview? “A ‘biblical worldview’ was defined as believing that absolute moral truth exists; the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches; Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic; a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or do good works; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today. In the research, anyone who held all of those beliefs was said to have a biblical worldview.”
That certainly is reasonable. So if only 19% of those who consider themselves to be born-again Christians hold to these views, what is happening with the other 81%? Certainly, many are false converts – they think they are saved but really aren’t. The rest, I suppose, are confused by bad teaching or perhaps did not understand the questions that were asked. Of course, it is possible to hold a “biblical worldview” and not be saved.
In another Barna survey, only 51% of Protestant pastors have a biblical worldview. There are many theologically liberal Protestant churches, so I was not surprised to learn that only 27% of United Methodist pastors have a biblical worldview. But only 44% of Pentecostal or charismatic pastors have a biblical worldview! The number is highest with Southern Baptists—but only 71% of them have a biblical worldview. Almost twice as many white senior pastors (55%) have a biblical world view as black senior pastors (30%). That possibly reflects the influence of “liberation theology” (the belief that Jesus came to liberate people from economic oppression) in many black churches.
So what are the doctrinal issues that “born again” Christians have the most difficulty with? Only 53% of “born again” Christians believe that it is “impossible for someone to earn their way into Heaven through good behavior.” How could they get that one wrong? Only 62% of “born again” Christians believe that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life while He was on earth. Certainly, we’re talking about a lot of false converts who think they are saved.
I hope you aren’t too confused by all these statistics. Here is what I think they are saying: First, many of the pastors in evangelical churches, and especially Pentecostal and charismatic churches do not have a biblical worldview. If you attend such a church, most likely you belong somewhere else. Many of those who think they are “born again” Christians are either false converts or confused by poor teaching. Finally, only ½ of 1% of adult Americans between age 18 and 23 have a biblical worldview.
Many of these young adults were raised in evangelical churches. We are losing almost all of them. America is in the process of rapidly becoming a pagan nation – if we do not reach our youth with the true gospel of Jesus Christ. For the past 150 years, we have been sending missionaries to other nations. But we have neglected our own nation. The United States is in danger of becoming even less Christian than the Third World nations that have been the focus of our missionary efforts.
Dealing with Discouragement
Everyone who is involved in Christian ministry will experience times of discouragement. After Elijah’s great victory over the prophets of Baal, he ran into the wilderness after being threatened by Jezebel. He felt that he was the only one left who was faithful to God, but God assured him that he had 7000 left who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kings 19:18).
The ministry of Paul the apostle had its moments of victory, but largely it was one of tremendous suffering and opposition. He was beaten at least eight times, stoned, shipwrecked, and spent many years in prison. Other Christians questioned his apostleship and several of his closest friends deserted him. When Paul and Silas were jailed at Philippi, at midnight they were singing praises to God. Paul wrote most of his epistles from jail, yet they are filled with joy and encouragement. At the end of his life, Paul wrote from prison, “At my first defense, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me” (2 Tim. 4:16-17).
The Bible promises us that if we are to serve God we will suffer persecution, afflictions and tribulations. We will be rejected by the world and often also by other Christians. There will be times when we won’t understand why God does something or doesn’t answer some prayer. Peter writes us, “Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you; But rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ’s sufferings” (1 Peter 4:12-13).
Many American Christians have been taught, and come to expect, that the Christian life will be easy, that problems should be small and easily overcome through faith in Christ. When persecution comes from witnessing, they think they must be outside God’s will so they stop witnessing. “Yes and all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12).
True disciples of Christ have always known that the Christian life is not easy. In fact, it is very hard. It will include much persecution, afflictions and suffering. There will be times of disappointment and discouragement. Yet we must persevere in the work God has called us to do.Today, American Christians find that they can have a pretty comfortable life, without persecution or too many afflictions, by not witnessing for Christ or by watering down the gospel so it doesn’t offend anyone. Many have fallen for this temptation. Don’t let it happen to you.
“Endure hardship, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man who wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. The farmer who labors should be the first to partake of the fruits.” (2 Tim. 2:3-7)
Coming Events
Note: Outreaches are subject to change. Call (510) 761-6120 to confirm outreaches or for more information.
Friday March 5, 19, 26 Witnessing in San Francisco neighborhoods. 7:30 – 10 PM (Call for location.)
Saturday March 6, 20, 27 San Francisco or Berkeley Evangelism Outreach (outreach location depends on weather. Call Sat. from 8-10 AM for location.)
Saturday March 13 Transformed Conference Calvary Chapel, 1175 Hillsdale Ave., San Jose 1-5:30 PM. Ray Comfort, Kirk Cameron, Todd Friel. Free.
transformed@wayofthemaster.com
Ministry News and Needs
We have set the dates for our annual SOS-San Francisco outreach: July 16-24. Please consider taking time off work so you can attend this important outreach. Please pray that God will help us in planning the outreach, and that He will call many laborers to bring in a great harvest of souls this summer.
On Friday February 12, we were planning to witness at Powell and Market St. When we arrived, about 40 high school students from Colorado were right in front of us. I started preaching, and several of them asked me questions. Most were silly, like “Can God make a rock He can’t move?” Still, I had a good dialog with them. Later, we saw a group of high school students from Southern California. They were a school choir, and five of them were Christians who were also part of a youth worship group. I invited them to sing some worship songs. Later, we met a group of Mormon students from Brigham Young University. They took tracts from us, but didn’t want to talk.
Thank you again for your prayers and financial support for this ministry. We still have three openings in our Oakland ministry house. We are looking for men in their 20’s or 30’s who are spiritually strong and are committed to evangelism. We need to train younger believers in evangelism – to reach a new generation and help us continue this work of evangelizing San Francisco and Berkeley. We are also open to having older Christian men live in this house. Please pray that God will bring the right people for our house. It is very difficult to do these outreaches with such a small outreach team.
Yours in His love,
Larry Rosenbaum
