Let’s start with a look at the State of the Church. A survey taken in 2020 revealed the following.
“30% of Evangelicals agree that Jesus was a great teacher, but he wasn’t God! [Pray tell, why then are they ‘Evangelicals?’….Colossians 2:9-10 reads: “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.” (ESV)]
- 28% of Evangelical church attenders are not born again!
- Only half of America’s pastors (51%) have a biblical worldview…..[Updated results further down.]
- In Harvard University’s 2019 freshman class, 39% of students identified as atheists and agnostics, more than the number of Catholics and Protestants (34%) added together.
- For the first time ever, less than half of Americans (47%) say they belong to a local church.
- Only 12% of young people ages 18-24 identify as evangelical Christians.
- Less than 10% of sermons preached in Evangelical churches even mentioned Hell, Sin, Salvation, or Heaven.
- Americans trust in faith leaders and pastors fell to a record low of 37%, ranking below multiple medical professions, teachers, and police and just above journalists
- 24 of 25 Millennials don’t have a Biblical worldview.
- Nearly half of young Evangelicals (ages 18-29) favor same-sex marriage. [God’s standard does NOT change.]
- 70% of all young people who grow up in church leave the church by their 20’s.
- More than 50% of all Evangelicals believe there is more than one way to Heaven.”[i] [ii] [“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” (John 14:6)]
A study conducted by Arizona Christian University in 2022, looked into the beliefs of pastors. The American Worldview Inventory 2022 found:
- Only 37% of Pastors had a biblical worldview.
- A whopping 62% had a “hybrid worldview known as Syncretism.”
- Britannica defines religious syncretism as “the fusion of diverse religious beliefs and practices.” An example would be Gnosticism which fused elements of the Eastern Mystery Religions with elements of Judaism and Christianity and even Greek paganism.[iii]
- Only 12% of Children & Youth Pastors held to a biblical worldview, with Teaching Pastors at 13%.
- According to George Barna, “A person’s worldview primarily develops before the age of 13, then goes through a period of refinement during their teens and twenties.”[iv]
ON THE ONE HAND: THE BAD NEWS – We are watching the Church fall away from its’ former beliefs. It has been a steady decline. 1Timothy 4:1-3 talks of a Great & Gradual Apostasy that will afflict the Church. “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, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.” This passage describes the gradual falling away that has afflicted the Church almost from the beginning.
ON THE OTHER HAND: THE GOOD NEWS – According to many first-hand reports, there is a decided stirring going on in the land, primarily – though not exclusively among young people. Revivals are breaking out on various campuses. One evangelist who works primarily with young athletes is reporting great interest and commitment from the groups he works with. In one presentation in just the last week or so, over 90 student athletes made a commitment to follow Jesus Christ. And the church that I attend and some others in my area are experiencing massive growth. These are NOT stand-alone stories. There is confirming data.
A 2023 Barna survey found that, “Overall, two-thirds of teens (65%) and nearly half of young adults (48%) in the U.S. identify as Christian.” Barna found that in the US, 32% should be considered “Committed Christians.” But when you look at “older Gen Z in the US – adults ages 18-22….52% do not identify as Christian or don’t know of Jesus.”[v]
WHAT FUELS THIS ‘GREAT & GRADUAL APOSTASY? – Ever since the founding of the Church, Satan has been marshalling his forces to undermine it. The Body of Christ has been engaged in a constant battle for Truth from the beginning. Then about the middle of the 18th century, the pace of this falling away began to quicken with the onset in European circles of something called ‘Higher Criticism.’ As this methodology of Bible interpretation gained steam, it called into question the long accepted and historically sound, foundational doctrines of Christianity. This is especially prevalent among ministers of some of the mainline Protestant denominations. Surveys have shown that a minority of Christian ministers in these bodies believes in the very foundational truths of Christianity as presented by the Scriptures. Segments of the Church are ignoring and sidestepping clear Biblical teaching on the divinity of Jesus, the virgin birth, the reality of the Resurrection, the existence of a hell, and the nature of sin. The Catholic Church has imposed its own man generated doctrines on its adherents, – even where they clearly contradict the dictates of Scripture. So, doctrinal integrity has been at issue from the beginning.
While we are witnessing a quickening of this phenomena – it is also preparing the way for the coming of a Great & Sudden Apostasy. While the Church has been slip-sliding away from the truth of the Gospel, 2 Thessalonians 2 suggests something else altogether: An event-generated, sudden rebellion or apostasy by those who had previously held to at least nominal Christianity. Here’s the passage. “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed.” (2Thess 2:3)
Hal Lindsey, – the prophecy scholar that really began to popularize the study of End Times events with his book and movie, The Late Great Planet Earth, – addressed this passage in his 1983 book, The Rapture. Scripture does teach that there will indeed be a progressive apostasy in the last days, yet the language of these verses demands a “climactic event when the professing church will completely revolt”. Chuck Missler chimes in pointing out that the Greek suggests a “sudden forsaking” of Biblical Truth. What could possibly cause this?
Let’s look at the context. The passage above tells us that the Day of the Lord can’t come until (1) This great and sudden falling away comes, & (2) The Antichrist is revealed. Some light is shed on this just a little farther down in the chapter. “He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed.” (2Thessalonians 2:7-8) To many Bible scholars, the “He who now restrains,” is the Holy Spirit as expressed in the Church. All believers have, by definition, The Holy Spirit living inside them. So, taking Him “out of the way” would seem to be referring to the rapture of the believing Church. It is then that the “lawless one” will be able to assume power. But how does he come to power? Verses 9&10 give the answer. “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”
What we’re watching then is the playing out of the process. Which brings me to a memory of watching a Ray Comfort video a few years back. Ray was interviewing people, near a campus perhaps – and a good number of them claimed to be Christian. And in the course of questioning, they freely – and unrepentantly and unashamedly – admitted to a list of behaviors that the Bible labels as sin. It was like there was no understanding of what it means to be a follower of Christ. They confessed to blasphemy, stealing, lying, watching R-rated movies, having sex outside of marriage, stealing….and on and on. And they did so without a hint of remorse or godly sorrow. It served as a sobering reminder of the depth to which our social fabric has fallen. It was a picture of the fallenness of the Church, the failure to pass on even the very basics of the faith. We can confirm that in the numbers of the surveys listed above. The interviews presented a snapshot of failure. In the first chapter of Isaiah, the prophet communicates God’s indictment of the nation of Israel, a people once-dedicated to the purposes of God. As you read these words, apply them to our own country, to America. We too were once dedicated to God in our founding; at Jamestown and Plymouth and in New York at Washington’s first inauguration.
America has fallen far from that high-standard. Even large portions of the Church have cast off biblical values and embraced legalized abortion and the LGBTQ agenda. Many Mainline Protestant denominations have approved same-sex marriage and clergy and are putting pressure on pastors to toe the line.
This was God’s message to Isreal, when that nation turned away from Him. “Listen, O heavens! Pay attention, earth! This is what the Lord says: ‘The children I raised and cared for have rebelled against me. Even an ox knows its owner, and a donkey recognizes its master’s care—but Israel doesn’t know its master. My people don’t recognize my care for them.’ Oh, what a sinful nation they are—loaded down with a burden of guilt. They are evil people, corrupt children who have rejected the Lord.” (Isaiah 1:2-4) (NLT) That is quite the rebuke from the God of the Universe.
Does this apply to the United States? Though not in the same sense as Israel, we too were once God’s own. We were a land built upon a Judeo-Christian foundation. God blessed us with abundance and peace. But we’ve wandered far from those founding principles. We’ve forgotten the God of our youth. Some of our leaders have taken pride in the over 60 million legal abortions since Roe-v-Wade. Now we’ve set aside God’s law for marriage between a man and a woman. We flaunt his statutes and then stupidly wonder at the chaos that follow. Setting aside His laws we have become like those the Apostle Paul wrote about in Romans 1:22. “Professing to be wise, they became fools.” So, as a culture we’ve denied God’s existence – or declared Him irrelevant. And when “they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind.” (Romans 1:28) We’ve become like Russia during the years of the Soviet Union. When asked how that nation had come to that sorry state under Communist control, the great author Alexander Solzhenitsyn answered with the words he had heard as a child. “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.”[vi] America was once there….but now we “have turned away backward.” America, has forgotten God…..
But NOT All. We talked about it above. There is a spirit stirring in the Land. There is a call – and some are responding. While some fall away, others are drawn by the Light that is Christ and the TRUTH found in Him alone. As Jonathan Cahn styles it – a paraphrase – The gray is disappearing. So, apostasy continues. But so does God’s harvest. “Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!” (Matthew 4:35) “Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’” (Matt 9:37-38)
[i] OUTSIDE THE WALLS, https://www.rotw.com/, Viewed October 25, 2021
[ii] Survey: Three in 10 Self-Described Evangelicals Don’t Believe Jesus is God, Decision Magazine, September 18, 2020
[iii] Religious Syncretism, Britannica, viewed February 26, 2025
[iv] New Study Shows Shocking Lack of Biblical Worldview Among American Pastors, Arizona Christian University, May 12, 2022
[v] Over Half of Gen Z Teens Feel Motivated to Learn More About Jesus, Barna, February 1, 2023
[vi] Alexander Solzhenitsyn, remarks made at the Templeton Address, London, England, 1983. Mollie Panter-Downes, Solzhenitsyn,
The New Yorker Magazine, May 30, 1983
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