Revelation 2:5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
Important Takeaways:
- Belief in Five Spiritual Entities Edges Down to New Lows
- The percentages of Americans who believe in each of five religious entities — God, angels, heaven, hell and the devil — have edged downward by three to five percentage points since 2016. Still, majorities believe in each, ranging from a high of 74% believing in God to lows of 59% for hell and 58% for the devil. About two-thirds each believe in angels (69%) and heaven (67%).
- Gallup has documented sharp declines in church attendance, confidence in organized religion and religious identification in recent years. Americans’ beliefs regarding God, angels, heaven, hell and the devil have also fallen by double digits since 2001. Still, U.S. adults’ belief in each entity remains at the majority level, and regular churchgoers, Protestants and Republicans, in particular, remain largely resolute in their beliefs.
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Genesis 9:12-13 “And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
Important Takeaways:
- ‘I’m Going to Take the Rainbow Back for the Glory of God’ — Messianic Rabbi Says It’s a Call for All of God’s People
- “First they were in the closet, then they demanded rights, then they took away our rights. And you know what? Now we’re in the closet.” Messianic Rabbi K.A. Schneider said Christians need to “come out of the closet” and speak up against the LGBT agenda’s use of the rainbow. Schneider is the host of the television program Discovering the Jewish Jesus. He also started a campaign called Taking the Rainbow Back.
- ‘It’s God’s Rainbow’
- Christians need to understand, “Satan wants to shut us up, he wants to shut you up. I would first of all say if [LGBT activists] can claim the rainbow, why can’t we claim the rainbow? I mean, it’s God’s rainbow. It was a covenant that God gave to His people, a covenant that was symbolized and still [is] with the rainbow. So why should we not use the rainbow? When God gave it first — and He gave it to his people — it’s a manifestation of His glory. So don’t shut up. That’s the thing. Don’t shut up. Speak out and stand up.”
- Taking the Rainbow Back
- One way people can make their voice heard is to participate in the Taking the Rainbow Back campaign. Visitors to the website can purchase t-shirts with the campaign name and rainbow. They’ll also have an opportunity to purchase tracts that share the biblical significance of the rainbow, as well as the Gospel message.
- Then, on Collective Action weekend, July 28 through July 30, all who wish to participate will wear their t-shirts and pass out tracts in a collective effort to take the rainbow back from LGBT groups. He explained:
- So on the weekend of July 28th through the 30th, what’s called Collective Action Weekend … we’re asking God’s people to go together in groups to public places, whether it’s your Bible study group, your fellowship group, just your friends, your youth group, your church group to get the shirts, get the tracts, go in public places just to make a statement to gather curiosity.
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Revelations 13:14 “…by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth…”
Important Takeaways:
- Is AI a Threat to Christianity?
- While most theologians aren’t paying it much attention, some technologists are convinced that artificial intelligence is on an inevitable path toward autonomy
- In fact, AI may be the greatest threat to Christian theology since Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.
- For decades, artificial intelligence has been advancing at breakneck speed. Today, computers can fly planes, interpret X-rays, and sift through forensic evidence; algorithms can paint masterpiece artworks and compose symphonies in the style of Bach. Google is developing “artificial moral reasoning” so that its driverless cars can make decisions about potential accidents.
- “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race,” Stephen Hawking told the BBC in 2014. “Once humans develop artificial intelligence, it would take off on its own, and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded.”
- While concerns mostly center on economics, government, and ethics, there’s also “a spiritual dimension to what we’re making,” Kelly argues. “If you create other things that think for themselves, a serious theological disruption will occur.”
- If Christians accept that all creation is intended to glorify God, how would AI do such a thing? Would AI attend church, sing hymns, care for the poor? Would it pray?
- Does God receive prayers from any intelligent being—or just human intelligence?
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Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Important Takeaways:
- Does God exist? Only half of Americans say a definite yes
- General Social Survey, stands out among several nuggets of new data about religion in America.
- Not quite 50 percent of Americans say they have no doubt about the existence of God, according to the 2022 survey, released Wednesday by NORC, the University of Chicago research organization. As recently as 2008, the share of sure-believers topped 60 percent.
- Thirty-four percent of Americans never go to church, NORC found, the highest figure recorded in five decades of surveys.
- Another new report, from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), said that 27 percent of Americans claimed no religion in 2022, up from 19 percent in 2012 and 16 percent in 2006.
- The General Social Survey found 29 percent of Americans claiming no religion in 2021, up from 23 percent in 2018 and 5 percent in 1972.
- Mainline Protestantism, the backbone of faith in many American communities, is “collapsing,” Burge wrote in a recent article on the decline of Baptists, Methodists and other denominations.
- Since the 1970s, the share of Americans who identify with Protestant denominations has declined from nearly 1 in 3 to around 1 in 10.
- To some extent, declining faith is a generational trend. The share of Americans who claim no religion rises with progressively younger age groups: 9 percent of the Silent Generation, 18 percent of baby boomers, 25 percent of Generation X, 29 percent of millennials and 34 percent of Generation Z, according to data from the Survey Center on American Life.
- But the rise in nonreligious Americans is too steep to be fully explained “in terms of generational replacement; that is, religious old people dying and secular young people taking their place,” said David Campbell, the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame.
- Changing societal norms may also explain why half of Americans can now say they aren’t sure there is a God.
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Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Important Takeaways:
- Biblical Foundations Rejected by Most Americans in New Poll – Money Has Now Replaced God
- A new poll from the Wall Street Journal and NORC finds only 39 percent of Americans say religious faith is a top priority. That’s down from 62 percent back in 1998.
- Only 31 percent of those under age 30 said religion is very important, compared to 55 percent of people 65 and over who feel that way.
- Belief in the value of patriotism, community, and having children are all down as well.
- The study did find one value that’s grown in importance over the last 25 years – the love of money. The percentage of Americans who now put their trust in money has risen from 31 percent to 43 percent.
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Romans 1:28 “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears
Important Takeaways:
- Gender-neutral God to be considered by Church of England
- [Calling for] reference to Our Father, to be scrapped in favor of either gender neutral or female alternatives.
- Claiming that “a theological misreading of God as exclusively male is a driver of much continuing discrimination and sexism against women”.
- The news comes amid tensions within the Church of England as the Synod prepares for a historic vote on blessings for same-sex couples later this week.
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Romans 1:28 “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.”
Important Takeaways:
- How the Democratic Party Divorced God and the America of 1776
- The Democrat Party’s divorce from God has become final. In 2019, the Democrat National Committee (DNC) unanimously passed a resolution affirming atheism and declaring that neither Christianity nor any religion is necessary for morality or patriotism. In other words, “We don’t need God!”
- The Democrat Party’s divorce of God should come as no surprise. At the 2012 Democrat National Convention, a majority of the delegates wanted to remove a reference to God from the party platform
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Romans 1:28 “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.”
Important Takeaways:
- ‘God’s Will Is No Concern of This Congress’: NY Dem Jerry Nadler Rejects God During Equality Act Debate
- Debating of the equality act Greg Steube (R-FL) tried to explain the real concerns over the bill
- Referencing Deuteronomy 22:5 “’A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this,” Steube said. “Now, this verse isn’t concerned about clothing styles but with people determining their own sexual identities.” … When men or women claim to be able to choose their own sexual identity, they are making a statement that God did not know what he was doing when he created them.”
- In response, Nadler stated, “Mr. Steube, what any religious tradition ascribes as God’s will is no concern of this Congress.”
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- Fewer in U.S. Now See Bible as Literal Word of God
- A record-low 20% of Americans now say the Bible is the literal word of God, down from 24% the last time the question was asked in 2017, and half of what it was at its high points in 1980 and 1984. Meanwhile, a new high of 29% say the Bible is a collection of “fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by man.” This marks the first time significantly more Americans have viewed the Bible as not divinely inspired than as the literal word of God. The largest percentage, 49%, choose the middle alternative, roughly in line with where it has been in previous years.
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- Belief in God in U.S. Dips to 81%, a New Low
- The vast majority of U.S. adults believe in God, but the 81% who do so is down six percentage points from 2017 and is the lowest in Gallup’s trend. Between 1944 and 2011, more than 90% of Americans believed in God.
- 17% of Americans saying they do not believe in God.
- The groups with the largest declines are also the groups that are currently least likely to believe in God, including liberals (62%), young adults (68%) and Democrats (72%). Belief in God is highest among political conservatives (94%) and Republicans (92%), reflecting that religiosity is a major determinant of political divisions in the U.S.
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