Christians today are being persecuted from many fronts: the movie industry, educational institutions, social institutions, federal and local governments, etc. Is this deserved persecution? Is the Church being blessed today?
Some statistics show that 80% of Americans claim to be Christians. What is a Christian? Is it one who claims to be or one who actually follows Christ? It is one who believes in the Christian worldview? The Barna Groups defines a Christian worldview this way:Many professing Christians today are addicted with pornography; couples live together without benefit of being married; gay Christians cohabit; cheat on their income taxes; divorce and remarry at the same rate as non-Christians; commit adultery; and commit other common offences, ie, sins, as their non-Christian neighbors today.
For the purposes of the survey, 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.
However, current research shows that only 9% of all American adults have a biblical worldview. “Born again Christians,” the study discovered that they were twice as likely as the average adult to possess a biblical worldview. However, that meant that even among born again Christians, less than one out of every five (19%) had such an outlook on life.
The same questions were asked of respondents in national surveys by Barna in 1995, 2000 and 2005. The results indicate that the percentage of adults with a biblical worldview, as defined above, has remained unchanged for more than a decade. The numbers show that 7% had such a worldview in 1995, compared to 10% in 2000, 11% in 2005, and 9% now. Even among born again adults, the statistics have remained flat: 18% in 1995, 22% in 2000, 21% in 2005, and 19% today. Barna Group.
Can it be these are reasons the Church in general is not being blessed today? Has the New Testament Church failed to set the standards of righteous living as the Old Testament Church in the Wilderness, Israel, failed?
Scripture tells us in response to King Solomon’s prayer of dedication to the temple, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” [2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV].
Our land is sick and needs to be healed. Our political, social, financial, and spiritual lives need to be healed. The remedy is total repentance:
“If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land” [Leviticus 26:40-42].
“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.” [1 Peter 4:17-19 KJV].
Now we know what we have to do. We must pray daily for the Church to repent if we want our land to heal.
