Pew Research recently released a study that showed that more than a quarter of the U.S. population don’t identify with any religion – the ‘nones’. That has grown from 17 percent a decade ago. This ‘rise of the nones’ has caused much heart burn among the commentators as they seek answers to the decline of faith.
Some blame it on the negative image of church-goers who are viewed as anti-homosexual, judgmental, old-fashioned, hypocritical, irrelevant and extreme (David Kinnamen and Gabe Lyons, UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity, cited by Richard Doster in the Fernandina Beach News-Leader, October 25, 2019). While there is no doubt that Christians, whether nominal church members or committed disciples, often fail in their lives to witness to the love of Christ in the Gospel, there are many devoted believers who pour out their lives for others. The criticism of negativity fails to acknowledge the reality of the moral commandments which Jesus said were to be fulfilled. The Bible chronicles the rebellion of humanity against God and his commandments and subsequent judgment. The most sublime life seen in Christ was not embraced by the educated elite of Jesus’ day but was instead persecuted and condemned to death. Those who complain about the restrictions of the moral and ethical commandments and rebel against conforming their lives to them harden their hearts against the will of God. Their arrogance and willfulness lead to worship of gods of self-indulgence. They find their meaning in life in fulfilling their egotistical desires. Maybe Christians are called to be prophets to their generation as in the Old Testament days. If so, they can be assured of the same kind of ridicule and dismissal as being “judgmental, old-fashioned, insensitive, irrelevant and extreme”.
The argument that if Christians were better witnesses to the love of God in their secular lives the gospel would be viewed as reasonable and desirable is also fallacious. Human reason is limited and corrupted. We think we know everything when we know next to nothing. Some of the most intelligent people are also the most deluded about their knowledge of humanity, relationships, love, God, the origins and the end of life, the nature of the spirit and eternity. Jesus told us that we had to be like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven. He said that we must be born again by the Spirit to enter heaven. He said that evil could only be defeated and destroyed by the power of the Cross. God has made foolish the wisdom of the world. It is through the mystery of the coming of Christ that true light shines.
There was no country with more intelligent leaders, a highly educated population and a history of dedicated Christians over the centuries than Germany in the 1930’s. Yet it descended into barbarity and a total disregard for God’s moral commandments. The Bible teaches that nations go through periods of belief and rebellion. The faithful remnant of God’s people are called to be prophetic witnesses to their neighbors despite criticism from the growing numbers of those who don’t identify with their belief in Christ as their Savior and Lord. Whether the number of nones rise or fall is irrelevant.
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