At least, in Europe.
It’s a sad state of affairs.
For two millennia, Christianity thrived in Europe. The Apostle Paul and others ventured there to preach the Gospel, and from there, our faith influenced and shaped the region for two thousand years.
That is, until the modern era…
In Europe, Christianity has since faded away, like the setting sun. This has been a gradual decline, but it’s reached a tipping point, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to bring people back to God.
As more people leave the faith, more churches sit vacant and empty.
These marvelous structures have since been transformed into all sorts of venues, from breweries, nightclubs, hotels, cultural centers, shops, rock climbing, and libraries.
Churches to breweries and nightclubs, it’s sad to even fathom the thought, but this is our new reality.
A 2018 study from the PEW research group showed, in Belgium, that of the 83% that say they were raised Christian, only 55% still consider themselves so. Only 10% of Belgians still attended church regularly.
ABC
Unfortunately, a cultural shift has been made.
With fewer Christian voices, and more secular ones, it makes it that much more difficult to bring people to Jesus. People are swayed by public opinion, people are swayed by higher education which commonly teaches, evolution as fact, which it is not.
The decline in our faith isn’t just concentrated in Europe, but even here at home in the states. It’s estimated that “thousands of U.S. churches are closing each year.”
Just look at the decline in church membership here at home.
In 2020, 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, down from 50% in 2018 and 70% in 1999.
Gallup
Notice, this does not account for just Christians, but people of all “faiths.” In just 21 years, faith dropped 23% in our nation.
Looking back to Europe, most people do not think you need God to have a moral compass.
It gets even worse, look at this map of nations and their response when they’re asked about the importance of religion in general.
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As you can see, the nations we once considered “Christian nations” are anything but. Instead, we find the poor nations of the world are those who are more inclined to believe in God. Unfortunately, our level of wealth has always determined how faithful we are.
Just look of this map of the southern United States, what’s called the Bible Belt.
Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana are the most Christian of all states in the Union…
Yet, they’re also the poorest.
This shows us, wealth is an indicator of faith. The more wealth one has, the less likely they are to believe in God. The same goes for education levels, the higher the education, the less likely one is to believe in God.
This is most likely another reason for the lack of faith in Europe, as it, along with other former “Christian nations” became economic hubs for the world.
As I thought about these things, I decided to read some of the comments from the same article on Yahoo. Here are some of the comments I found interesting and the reactions to them.
As we can see, there’s a complete lack of faith by people in general, and a loss of faith in others considering what was being taught in church. This is why I’ve always felt the teachings of a young earth, everyone is related to Adam and Eve, and a global flood was detrimental to our faith.
It would seem, the chickens are finally coming home to roost…
As a firm and devout believer in Jesus Christ, these trends and statistics are highly disturbing. It either means, our faith will vanish with time, not to be seen for a thousand years, or the end of all things is closer than we assume.
One verse always sticks out to me considering the Last Days…
“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”
Matthew 24:14
At this point, the Gospel has been preached in all the world, and by 2033, the Bible will be available in every language on earth. 2033 is a long way off from now, how many more will fall away from our faith by then?
It seems we’ve arrived at a crossroads of Biblical proportions, which way are we headed?