Tag Archives: Christianity

Increase in criminal attacks on churches has hit a new level up 800% over the last six years

Church-vandalism

Important Takeaways:

  • While the Biden administration cracks down on the Christians Democrats and the press smear as extremists, church attacks are up 800 percent in the last six years, according to a new report from the Family Research Council (FRC).
  • In February, the conservative group published the report, “Hostility Against Churches Is on the Rise in the United States.” It identified 915 acts of hostility against churches between January 2018 and November 2023.
  • “Although the motivations for many of these acts of hostility remain unknown, the effect is unmistakable: religious intimidation,” said FRC Center for Religious Liberty Director Arielle Del Turco in a press release. “They send the message that churches are not wanted in the community or respected in general. Our culture is demonstrating a growing disdain for Christianity and core Christian beliefs, and acts of hostility towards churches could be a physical manifestation of that.”

Read the original article by clicking here.

Gen Z ditching Christianity

Gen-Z-is-Gay

Important Takeaways:

  • The 41 million Gen Z voters who will decide the 2024 election are by far the most LGBTQ cohort to date, and they’re ditching Christianity, conservatism and the GOP: survey
  • Gen Zers are by far the most LGBTQ generation in US history, and they are turning away from religion and the Republican Party in droves, says a survey with big implications for this year’s presidential election.
  • A Public Religion Research Institute survey shows that Gen Zers, who were born between 1997 and 2012, are the most racially, ethnically and sexually diverse and progressive generation to date.
  • Alejandra Caraballo, a Harvard academic and male-to-female trans- influencer, said the survey results showed that: ‘It’s over for white Christian male hegemony in the United States.’
  • Only 27 percent of gen Z adults say they’re white Christians, compared to 54 percent of baby boomers. A third of them describe themselves as not affiliated to any religion, a bigger share than in any cohort except millennials.

Read the original article by clicking here.

Dr. David Jeremiah points to hope even though so many seem to be leaving the faith

Knocking on Door

Important Takeaways:

  • A Shift Away From Biblical Faith: Why Are So Many Quitting Christianity?
  • The Pew Research Center has tracked viable data for years and studied the trends. Their projections are disheartening…
    • In 2020, 64% of people of all ages were Christian. This number will shrink to between a little more than half (54%) and just above one-third (35%) of all Americans by 2070.
    • Over that same period, “nones” (people who are religiously unaffiliated) will rise from the current 30% to somewhere between 34% and 52% of the U.S. population.
  • But do not despair! There is hope in the headlines. And while what is happening in the church shocks us, it is not a surprise to God. The falling away of the church is prophesied in Scripture and points to the soon return of Christ. And for His own, the faithful and redeemed, salvation is secure.
  • This “falling away” isn’t new. Throughout history, many have embraced Christianity, only to abandon it later. Even the first Christians faced this challenge. Demas, a coworker of Paul, initially supported him but eventually left, “having loved this present world” (2 Timothy 4:10).
  • The core issue isn’t that people are falling away from church or even falling away from the faith. We’re talking about falling away as Judas did, from Jesus Himself. We’re talking about branches that cut themselves off from the vine. These are people who have—these words are stark—“trampled the Son of God underfoot . . . treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and . . . insulted the Spirit of grace” (Heb. 10:29).
  • How can this happen?
  • They Fall Away Because They Are Deceived
  • The Bible very clearly warns that spiritual deception will lead many to fall away from Christ in the end times.
  • “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:1–2).
  • There are those who receive the Gospel with joy but lack a strong foundation. These individuals seek solutions rather than a Savior and want the blessings of belief without fully committing to Christ. During times of temptation, they fall away (Luke 8:13).
  • But, don’t despair. There’s still hope. God knows those who are His, and He will bring them home safely. Jesus said: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:28).

Read the original article by clicking here.

So what would happen if AI really could think for itself?

Revelations 13:14 “…by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth…”

Important Takeaways:

  • Is AI a Threat to Christianity?
  • While most theologians aren’t paying it much attention, some technologists are convinced that artificial intelligence is on an inevitable path toward autonomy
  • In fact, AI may be the greatest threat to Christian theology since Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.
  • For decades, artificial intelligence has been advancing at breakneck speed. Today, computers can fly planes, interpret X-rays, and sift through forensic evidence; algorithms can paint masterpiece artworks and compose symphonies in the style of Bach. Google is developing “artificial moral reasoning” so that its driverless cars can make decisions about potential accidents.
  • “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race,” Stephen Hawking told the BBC in 2014. “Once humans develop artificial intelligence, it would take off on its own, and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded.”
  • While concerns mostly center on economics, government, and ethics, there’s also “a spiritual dimension to what we’re making,” Kelly argues. “If you create other things that think for themselves, a serious theological disruption will occur.”
  • If Christians accept that all creation is intended to glorify God, how would AI do such a thing? Would AI attend church, sing hymns, care for the poor? Would it pray?
  • Does God receive prayers from any intelligent being—or just human intelligence?

Read the original article by clicking here.

Younger generation turning from traditional religion as Christianity declines in the UK

Global Order of Satanism

Romans 1:28 “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.”  2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

Important Takeaways:

  • Young sacrifice belief in God on altar of Satanism
  • Chaplain Leopold, a 32-year-old London-based undertaker, co-runs the Global Order of Satan UK which he said has seen a 200 per cent increase in membership over the last five years.
  • “I’d love to be able to claim that we could pat ourselves on the back and say, yes, we’ve done our infernal work here, and we’re successfully declining the number of Christians, but I think it’s a far more complex issue than that,” he said.
  • He said two factors were responsible: the decreasing popularity of “traditional dogmatic religions,” and “a movement towards self-identification and self-realization.”
  • At the same time, the number of Christians dropped so low that they now account for less than half of England and Wales’ population for the first time in census history.
  • The figures revealed that 46.2 per cent of the population (27.5 million people) described themselves as “Christian” in 2021, marking a 13.1 percentage point decrease from 59.3 per cent (33.3 million people) in 2011.
  • However, the census also revealed an uptick in other less traditional religions, with the number of Pagans up from 56,620 to 73,733 – as well as a rise in the number of Animists – who believe that all natural things have a soul. They increased from 541 in 2011 to 802 in 2021.

Read the original article by clicking here.

Former Chaplain to Queen Elizabeth warns End of British Monarchy if Christian faith is not defended

1 Peter 4:12-14 “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

Important Takeaways:

  • Queen Elizabeth’s Former Chaplain Sounds the Alarm on King Charles: ‘Christianity Is Under Assault’
  • “What we have been seeing is a very slow gradual shift from being a Christian monarchy to a multi-faith one,” the former chaplain said.
  • “The problem is that you’re either defender of the faith or you’re not,” he noted, referencing the oath each British monarch must publicly give, promising to maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion.
  • Among the questions the king will be asked by the archbishop of the Church of England while giving the oath at his coronation in May:
    • “Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel? Will you to the utmost of your power maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law? Will you maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England, and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government thereof, as by law established in England? And will you preserve unto the Bishops and Clergy of England, and to the Churches there committed to their charge, all such rights, and privileges, as by law do or shall appertain to them or any of them?”
  • “Christianity has very distinctive and very opposite beliefs to many other world views, particularly on sexuality and the value of the individual,” he told GB News.
  • “So, the problem that we’re having at the moment is that Christianity is under assault,” Ashenden said. “Now the question is, what does a Christian king do about that? Does a Christian king save Christianity? Does he become defender of the faith, which is what his title really is? Or, as Charles has done with a sleight-of-hand, say, ‘No, I’m … defender of all faiths, which means I don’t have to defend Christianity.'”
  • “If you don’t defend Christianity today, we’ll lose it from this country,” Ashenden added.

Read the original article by clicking here.

Ditching Christianity for a safe space of ideas. America’s youth search for something different

2 Timothy 3:6,7 “They are the kind who worm their way into households and captivate vulnerable women who are weighed down with sins and led astray by various passions, 7who are always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Important Takeaways:

  • A mass exodus from Christianity is underway in America. Here’s why.
  • …a shocking rise in the number of people ditching Christianity — what sociologists call “nonverts.”
  • Pew Research Center estimates that Christians will be a minority of Americans by 2070 if current trends continue.
  • And it likely will, with the largest percentage of those losing their religion being young adults … around 30 and under.
  • While the trend toward atheism and agnosticism in Europe has been a slow but steady decline, Bullivant said, the increase in Christians dropping the faith didn’t really take off in the U.S. until the early 2000s, and the decline since then has been steep and quick
  • The generation born after the height of the Cold War — in the early to mid ’80s — didn’t grow up with propaganda and blacklist fears, said Bullivant, so there is a safe space for the idea of a nonreligious life to open up.
  • prominent people coming out and publicly questioning faith in a higher being — such as Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins — and it becomes OK to reevaluate what you believe… “They opened up a nonreligious space.”
  • “If you’re raised in small-town Texas or Idaho and everyone you know is some kind of Christian, you’re in a kind of bubble. And then with the internet, you start getting support groups online with thousands of members and that helps erode those bubbles,” he said.

Read the original article by clicking here.

William Barr: The threat is not religious people setting up theocracy in the US, it’s militant secularists establishing an Atheocracy

2 Timothy 3:12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted

Important Takeaways:

  • Barr: Public Schools Are Now So Hostile To Christians, They’re Unconstitutional
  • Former Attorney General Bill Barr says Christianity is under attack in U.S. public schools, calling it a “crisis” situation in western culture.
  • “We are going through a fateful crisis in western civilization, Barr said at a Christianity conference this past weekend in Chicago. “This is the deepest crisis we’ve faced in my mind since Christ. That’s because our whole civilization is based on the Judeo-Christian tradition, and that tradition is under sustained attack by increasingly militant secular forces.”
  • Barr also said, according to a report in the Federalist that “the threat today is not that religious people are about to establish a theocracy in the United States, it is that militant secularists are trying to establish an atheocracy,”
  • He argued that U.S. public schools have become so hostile toward the Judeo-Christian tradition that they effectively wrestle parents for control over their children’s upbringing.

Read the original article by clicking here.

Secularizing shift is not slowing down

Rev 2:4-5 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Important Takeaways:

  • About Three-in-Ten U.S. Adults Are Now Religiously Unaffiliated
  • The secularizing shifts evident in American society so far in the 21st century show no signs of slowing.
  • United States finds the religiously unaffiliated share of the public is 6 percentage points higher than it was five years ago and 10 points higher than a decade ago.
  • Currently, about three-in-ten U.S. adults (29%) are religious “nones” – people who describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular” when asked about their religious identity.
  • Recent declines within Christianity are concentrated among Protestants. Now at 40%
  • Catholics now 21%

Read the original article by clicking here.

Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity ordered closed over coronavirus fears

By Mussa Qawasma

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) – The Church of the Nativity was ordered closed on Thursday and foreign tourists were banned from West Bank hotels after four suspected coronavirus cases were found in the Palestinian town of Bethlehem.

The measures announced by the Palestinian Authority’s tourism ministry came as a particular blow to the Biblical town, whose businesses are largely dependent on Christian visitors to the church, built on the traditional site of Jesus’s birth.

Just three months ago Bethlehem was hailing its best Christmas for two decades, the mayor and hoteliers said, even better than the 1.5 million visitors it received in 2018.

The Latin Patriarchate of the Holy Land said the Church of the Nativity, which was first founded in 339 and rebuilt and extended over the centuries, would be closed for two weeks, along with other churches and mosques in the Bethlehem area.

The ban on foreign guests at West Bank hotels will also last two weeks, the tourism ministry said.

“This affects us dramatically,” said Joey Canavati, manager of the 58-room Alexander Hotel in Bethlehem. “Our workers are essentially laid off for the next 14 days. We will be closed down completely. It destroyed our business from every perspective.”

Canavati said groups of tourists from the United States, Poland and Cameroon had already canceled their bookings.

Palestinian health officials said they were examining whether four workers at another hotel in Bethlehem had contracted coronavirus from tourists who had stayed there recently.

Police surrounded the hotel, as authorities awaited the results of laboratory tests. There have been no confirmed cases of the disease in the West Bank. Fifteen people have been diagnosed with the virus in neighboring Israel.

The Palestinian governor of the West Bank town of Nablus on Thursday ordered its Muslim and Christian holy sites shut as a public health precaution.

The Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank under interim peace accords.

On Wednesday, Israel ordered travelers arriving from Germany, France, Spain, Austria and Switzerland to go into home quarantine over coronavirus concerns and canceled a military exercise with troops from the U.S. European Command.

The measure effectively cut off foreign tourism from those countries, whose citizens, the Health Ministry said, would not be allowed into Israel unless they could show they had made quarantine arrangements ahead of time.

Israel has already imposed the edict with regard to flights from Italy, China and Singapore.

(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta, Stephen Farrell and Rami Ayyub; Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Alex Richardson)