The world is a dangerous place today, especially for those living in the United States.  This, the most Christian nation in the world (65% to 70.6% claim to be Christians, depending upon which poll you look at) is rapidly losing its grip on God.  In 1990, 85% of Americans claimed to be Christians. In the 1950s, the percentage was 90. Mothers murder their own babies through abortion, which a few years ago would have been considered barbaric.  Pseudo-science, pushed on us by the left, claims that there are multiple genders, that people “choose” what gender they wish to be, and that men can become women and women can become men, even lying in some magazines and claiming that transgender women can conceive and give birth.  And in the Biden* administration resides an Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services who encourages sex changes in little children, even though children are too young to consent to such a life change nor do we know what the necessary hormones might do to their developing bodies.  How long with God allow this Sodom and Gomorrah style life to continue?

And herein lies the danger for Americans.  Despite the fact that the majority of Americans still claim to be Christians (rather than Muslims, Wiccans, atheists), there are vast differences between denominations from the “high church” of Presbyterian and Episcopalians to the evangelical denominations such as the Baptists, Christian churches, the Assemblies of God and then to the “outliers,” the Mormons and the Jehovah’s witnesses.  And among their differences, in fact, even within their various congregations, wide discrepancies in doctrine and theological beliefs appear.

  • For example, 69% of church goers believe everyone will go to heaven. Yet, if they read the Bible they will find that the contrary is true. Jesus, the Son of God, gives this clear warning, “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which. leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:14)  And again in Matthew 7:21-22,“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your Name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’ 

The message here is clear.  Not only will everyone not go to Heaven, but even among those who attend church and profess to be Christians, many will be found unworthy!

  • 46% of Evangelicals believe that God accepts the worship of all religions.  But Jesus clearly states that this is not the case. Before his crucifixion, Jesus comforts his disciples in this interchange as recorded by John.

“’Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.’

 Thomas saith unto him, ‘Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?’

 Jesus saith unto him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me’” (John 14:1-6)

So only those who follow Jesus are acceptable to God, not Wiccans, not Buddhists, not Muslims, nor even Jews who have not yet accepted Jesus as the Messiah.

  • 77% of All Americans believe that personal salvation is a result of good works. Yet the Bible clearly says that salvation is not the result of good works. In Ephesians 2:8 – 10, we read, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”  

So it is not our good works which earn us salvation, but the grace (the unmerited favor or gift of God) which saves us through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.  And once we have been saved, the Holy Spirit within us urges us to do good works to bring glory to God and not to ourselves.

  • 30% of Americans believe after they die, God will give them a second chance. This wishful thinking is going to doom a lot of Americans to Hell.  In Hebrews 9:27 Paul writes, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:”

And what will happen in this judgment?  Will we be given a second chance?  The scripture I quoted earlier from Jesus’ words as recorded by Matthew tell us very plainly that no second chance is possible.  Instead, Jesus will utter the words, , ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’ 

Jesus later describes that judgement thusly, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.  All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left” (Matthew 29:31-33).

And what happens to the goats?  “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life”(Matthew 29:46).

The collapse of Christianity in America simply echoes what is happening elsewhere in the world. In Great Britain a little over 53% of the population claimed to be Christians in 2019 as opposed to say Buddhists, but as early as 2015, the latest figures I could find, only 4.7% of them regularly attended church. The number is no doubt lower today.  France, which has always been a heavily Catholic country, is only slightly better.  In 2017, only 5% of French Catholics attended church regularly, and France is listed among the top 5 most atheist countries in the world.

What do we need to do?  We must pray for a revival, in America and around the world.  We must read our Bibles to be sure that our doctrinal beliefs are accurate and will not end us up among the goats destined for hell.  We must be sure that our pastors are preaching God’s Word and not instead pontificating about diversity and accepting transgenderism, and if they aren’t preaching the truth, we must find a church that does.  We must ask God daily to guide us, our words, our steps, our deeds, so that we can help those who are searching find the answer to life in God.  

And we must look to our own salvation, following the example of Paul who said, “ But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:27).  There is no do over, no second chance.  Once we die, or once the end of the world comes with the return of Jesus, we have run out of time. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement.”  Don’t be disqualified for Heaven.