Is America Becoming Godless?

No shock to me.

The number of Americans who identify as having no religion has risen 266 percent since 1991, to now tie statistically with the number of Catholics and Evangelicals, according to a new survey.

People with no religion – known as ‘nones’ among statisticians – account for 23.1 percent of the U.S. population, while Catholics make up 23 percent and Evangelicals account for 22.5 percent, according to the General Social Survey.

Those three groups now represent the largest the religious groups in America.

The survey has tracked a broad swath of American trends since 1972, offering comprehensive insight into the evolving face of religion over more than four decades.

As the ‘nones’ have ascended, the number of mainline Protestant Christians has fallen 62.5 percent since 1982, to now account for just 10.8 percent of the U.S. population, according to the survey.

The number of Catholics has gone up and down over the decades, cumulatively decreasing more than 4 percentage points from 27.3 percent in 1972.

Reasons?

• The Mainline Protestant denominations are generally dead (don’t preach a personal relationship with the God of Creation and are void of the Holy Spirit).
• Catholicism is cultural (and also generally void of a personal relationship with the Messiah and the infilling of the Holy Spirit).
• More and more “Evangelical” churches won’t preach about sin and repentance like they did even 15-years ago.

People want the real deal. When we preach that Jesus died for our sins, was raised from the dead, is sitting at the right hand of the Father, and that the Father/Son/Holy Spirit are one, and that He is coming back to judge the world and take home His people, and that surrendering  to His will is your only safe option–PEOPLE RESPOND.

The apostle Paul recognizes this  when he says in II Corinthians 5:20, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”

Notice what Paul is saying there.  Not only is it true that he is an ambassador, but he implores, or pleads. with people to be reconciled to God, and he does so as if God were actually making that appeal through him.

And Paul was so committed to this that he was willing to go to prison for it–and did!