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(Have our beliefs, as biblical as they are, or the manner we live out our beliefs, actually turned away our kids? Sober reflection needed) RJG

Christian parents' 'scrambled philosophy of life' turns children away from Christianity: Barna

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter

Many self-identified Christian parents hold views that contradict the teachings of their faith, raising concerns about their ability to provide their children with an upbringing grounded in authentic biblical teachings, according to a new survey.

The Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University released the third installment of its American Worldview Inventory on Tuesday, which provides “a detailed look at how the worldview of parents of preteens misses the mark.” The survey is based on responses from a sample of 600 parents of children younger than 13 conducted in January and a subsequent survey of 1,000 parents of preteen children conducted in February.

The survey broke respondents down into two categories: all parents of preteens and self-identified Christian parents of preteens. The results of the survey reveal that in most cases, the views and beliefs of self-identified Christian parents of preteens do not differ dramatically from the views and beliefs of parents of preteens as a whole.

While 24% of parents of preteens view the Bible as their “primary source of moral guidance,” 33% of self-identified Christian parents said the same. Twenty-six percent of parents with children younger than 13 reject “the belief that moral absolutes do not exist” and believe that “individuals determine truth for themselves,” along with 24% of self-identified Christian parents.

Just 29% of parents with preteen children think that “the basis of truth is God, revealed through the Bible,” along with 38% of self-identified Christian parents. The share of all parents of preteens and specifically Christian parents of preteens who “reject the claim that there is no objective moral Truth” and believe that it “is always personal and subjective” was measured at 35% and 38%, respectively.

While a majority of self-identified Christian parents (55%) view the Bible as “the accurate words of God,” just 42% of parents overall possess the same belief about the Bible. When asked about lifestyle choices, just 10% of parents of preteens believe that “accumulated wealth is entrusted to us by God to manage for His purposes.”

Only a slightly higher number of self-identified Christians (14%) abide by that view of money. Fifteen percent of preteen parents overall think that “success is constant obedience to God,” along with 21% of self-identified Christian parents.

Additionally, 27% of parents of preteens and 23% of self-identified Christian parents “do not accept the notion that having faith matters more than which faith.” When asked whether they believed that the “purpose of life is to know, love, [and] serve God with all your heart, mind, strength, and soul,” 28% of the full sample of preteen parents answered in the affirmative, as did 37% of the subsample of Christian preteen parents.

Roughly half of parents of preteens (49%) and a slim majority of Christian parents of preteens (52%) agree that “intentionally declaring tax deductions you know you are ineligible for is morally unacceptable.”

In a statement, George Barna, the director of Research at the Cultural Research Center, warned of the impact that parents’ embrace of a “scrambled philosophy of life” that does not reflect authentic, biblical Christianity has on their children: “When children are exposed to teaching — through words or actions, whether formal or informal — that are contradictory, they naturally conclude that the Christian faith is inherently contradictory and therefore may not be what they are seeking as a life philosophy.”

“Parents, to whom the Bible assigns the primary responsibility for shaping the worldview of their children, are called to equip youngsters to grow up in relationship and with service to God. That requires the intentional and consistent development of a biblical worldview in the minds and hearts of children, since every person’s worldview begins developing before their second birthday,” he added.

Barna lamented that “parents are not devoted to biblical worldview development in their children partly because they do not possess a biblical worldview to pass on to their progeny.”

In a previous report, Barna laid out the beliefs associated with a biblical worldview, including “believing that absolute moral truth exists; the Bible is totally accurate in all 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.”

Additional beliefs associated with a biblical worldview include the ideas that “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.” Tuesday’s report demonstrates that a large number of self-identified Christian parents hold views that contradict the biblical worldview.

He share of preteen parents as a whole and Christian parents who believe that “When you die you will go to Heaven but only because you have confessed your sins and have accepted Jesus Christ as your savior” was measured at 24% and 33%, respectively. A narrow majority (51%) of Christian parents believe that “God is the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect, and just creator of the universe who rules that universe today.” That belief was shared by 40% of all parents of preteens.

At the same time, 27% of all preteen parents disagreed “that the Holy Spirit is not a living entity but is just a symbol of God’s power, presence or purity,” and 35% disagreed “that when He lived on earth, Jesus Christ was fully divine and also fully human, and therefore, committed sins, like other people.” Self-identified Christians were less likely to disagree with the aforementioned statements that contradict Christian teaching, with 24% seeing the Holy Spirit as merely a symbol and 33% thinking that Jesus committed sins.

Small majorities of self-identified Christian parents believe that the “universe and everything in it was designed, created, and sustained by God” (57%) and “do not believe the universe came into existence without any type of divine assistance” (53%). Forty-four percent of the entire sample of parents think that God created everything in the universe and 45% reject the idea that the creation of the universe is simply a physical phenomenon.

The survey also asked parents for their beliefs about marriage and sexuality. While a majority of Christian parents with children younger than 13 (51%) agreed that “having an abortion to avoid the personal hardships of raising the child is morally unacceptable,” the share of parents who subscribed to other declarations asserting traditional Christian teachings was much lower.

Much smaller proportions of Christian parents believed that an “unmarried couple having sexual relations with each other because they love each other and expect to get married is morally unacceptable” (29%), “marriage of one man to one woman is God’s plan for humanity, across all cultures” (42%)” and “disagree that the Bible is ambiguous about abortion” (35%).

Less than one-third of preteen parents (26%) as well as Christian preteen parents (31%) think that “human life is sacred.” Similarly, just 20% of preteen parents and 28% of Christian parents with young children “people are born into sin and can only be saved from its consequences by Jesus Christ.”

Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/barna-christian-parents-scrambled-worldview-harms-kids-faith.htmluid=*%7CUNIQID%7C*&utm_source=The+Christian+Post+List&utm_campaign=CP-Newsletter&utm_medium=email

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David Rhee March/April 2021
Opinion: A Christian minister worries out loud.

We live in dangerous times. It is especially dangerous if you happen to be a statue. That is because statues all over America are being torn down. In early 2020 the city of Columbus, Ohio, removed a statue of Christopher Columbus that was located in front of City Hall. This statue was installed in 1955 as a celebration of Columbus’ voyages to the Americas. However, some people no longer see Columbus as a hero. Instead, they view him only as an imperialist whose exploration and discovery of North America led to genocide. This revisionist portrayal of Columbus as a villain seems to have found favor among those in charge of the city of Columbus. That is the only explanation for why they would remove a statue of the man for whom their city was named.

That wasn’t the first or only statue to be torn down that year. Earlier in the summer, protesters in Portland, Oregon, tore down a statue of George Washington. This happened around the same time that the statues of Jefferson Davis, John C. Calhoun, and Stonewall Jackson were removed from cities across the South. Statue removal became a very popular activity in 2020, and it even happened right here in my hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada. Back in June the University of Nevada at Las Vegas took down the statue of their mascot, Hey Reb. They took down his statue because some people claimed that he was a Confederate soldier. So in that regard, Hey Reb’s removal is consistent with the fact that most of the statues that have been torn down are images of men who were either slave owners or supporters of the Confederacy. Their statues are swiftly being removed all across America. Soon there will not be any statues of slave owners or Confederate soldiers standing anywhere in America. But even after that happens, the anti-statue movement, which is fueled by the flames of political correctness, will not be finished. No, they will simply find a new target. And their new target might well be religious icons. The anti-statue movement, which is trying to force political correctness down our throats, will perhaps end up tearing down statues of Jesus Christ. They might even go so far as to demand that churches remove any images of Jesus Christ. After all, iconoclastics did so in the not-so-distant past!

Why might self-appointed arbitrators of political correctness embark on a mission to remove Jesus and His image from our society and culture? Well, it is because, just as in the early days of Christianity, many find Jesus Christ to be offensive. Jesus Christ does not fit the narrative that is being pawned off by the purveyors of political correctness. You see, Jesus said He is the only path to God, and in today’s environment, it is not politically correct to say something like that. It is not politically correct to say that Jesus is that only path to God. Nowadays, if you do not want to offend anyone, then the safe thing to say is that all religions offer an equal path to God. That certainly does sound nice. And it does sound very inclusive. But it is NOT what Jesus said. Jesus said there is only one path to God, and that is through Him. That is what Jesus was talking about when He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6, NRSV).*

If you want to enter the kingdom of God, then you need to go through Jesus Christ. There are many people who are offended by that idea. This itself is nothing new. People have long been offended and uncomfortable with Jesus and His message. That is the reason Jesus was crucified in the first place. The religious leaders of Israel were offended by the fact that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. Jesus said He was the Son of God and the only way to God, and the religious leaders of Israel said that was blasphemy. That is why they arrested Jesus and turned Him over to the Romans. Then years later Christians living in the Roman Empire were persecuted by the Roman government. The Romans persecuted Christians because they believed that there was only one true God, and the only way to God was through Jesus. You see, in the Roman world, most people were pagans who believed in the existence of many different gods. The Romans even paid homage to all these different gods. But Christians believed that all those other gods were fake. Christians believed that all those other gods were just human-made idols. Christians believed there was only one true God, and that is the Lord God Himself. Moreover, Christians also believed that the only way to God is through His Son, Jesus Christ. Romans found that to be offensive. They were offended by the idea that Jesus is the only way to God, and that is why they persecuted the Christians.

So our society isn’t the first place where people are offended by the idea that Jesus is the only way to God. No, this stuff has been going on for a very long time. Today we have a lot of different religions to choose from, and the truth is that other religions do indeed offer some benefits, but those benefits extend only to life in this world. You see, other religions can show you how to find inner peace in this world. Other religions can help you to find happiness in this world. Other religions can teach you how to be a better person in this world. But none of those other religions can assure you of eternal life. That is because no matter how good a person you are, and no matter how many good things you do, you will never be good enough to enter the eternal kingdom of God on your own. That is because the kingdom of God is a holy place that is completely devoid of sin. As long as you have even just one unforgiven sin, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. The only way you can enter God’s eternal kingdom is by being fully cleansed of all your sins. That is exactly what Jesus did; Jesus cleansed you of your sins. That is also the reason Jesus came into this world. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into this world, and died on a cross, so He could offer Himself as the sacrifice for our sins. So if you accept Jesus’ sacrifice, then you will be cleansed of your sins. You will be forgiven of all your sins. You will then be worthy of entering God’s eternal kingdom after you leave this world.

Christians do indeed hold that Jesus Christ is the only way to God. That is the truth for us. And sometimes the truth bothers others when they hear it. There will always be some people who find the truth to be uncomfortable. There will always be some people who are offended by the truth. But the truth needs to be heard. And it is up to Christ’s followers to spread the truth about Jesus to the rest of the world. Remember, before Jesus ascended back to heaven, He left His followers with just one command, and that was to share His message with the rest of the world. Therefore, those of us who profess to be followers of Christ must never be afraid to proclaim that Jesus Christ is the only pathway to God, no matter how unpopular that message may appear to be.

Our society is filled with individuals and organizations that harbor a disdain for Jesus Christ. They will use any opportunity or excuse to censor Jesus’ message, and in today’s racially charged climate, they are now playing the race card against Jesus Christ. It is true that some people in the past did try to use Jesus to justify White European supremacy. However, Jesus was not a White European. Jesus was a descendant of Abraham, who came from a tribe of people living in what is now present-day Iraq.

What is happening here is that some anti-Christian radicals are now using race as an excuse to remove Jesus from our culture. We must not support the removal of ANY Jesus statues. It doesn’t matter if the statue depicts Jesus as being White, Brown, or some other color. The truth is that Jesus’ skin tone is not important, and we must not allow anyone to try and use Jesus’ skin color as an excuse to remove Him, or His image, from anywhere in our society.

*Bible texts credited to NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission.

This magazine does uphold Jesus as the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of the Creator–God. Actually, because of that, we are motivated to proclaim to all men and women that the Creator God in His kindness toward us has given us the ability to choose and, usually, the desire to worship. In forcefully defending religious liberty for all, no matter what viewpoint others may settle on, we are honoring God. And we must insist that civil powers and secular thinking have no rights to take away the God-given: as Jefferson recognized in the Declaration of Independence. A cruel misrepresentation of Jesus was on display during the January 6 riot in the nation’s capital. Christian symbols were seen alongside a variety of hateful images; and prayers were offered by these self-styled revolutionaries in the legislative chamber itself. They could not have understood Jesus’ words “My kingdom is not of this world.”

—L. Steed, Editor.

Article Author:

David Rhee David Rhee is an adjunct professor of theology and Bible studies at Horizon University, Los Angeles, California.

https://www.libertymagazine.org/article/the-next-target

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By 4/13/2022 STEPHEN STRANG

Chuck Pierce, who has a strong track record in prophetic ministry, predicted years ago that China would become a world menace. Pierce now has very disturbing news about the future of the United States as we know it.

Pierce has written several books on prophecy, including The Passover Prophecies (Charisma House 2020), Releasing the Prophetic Destiny of a Nation (Charisma House, 2005) and his newest coming out in August titled, Perspective: How to See the Future God Has for You.

But it's his prophetic word that God imparted to him 14 years ago that has a lot of people in the kingdom buzzing. In a recent videocast with Cindy Jacobs and Mike Jacobs of Generals International, Pierce prophesied that the United States will soon undergo a major split, with less than less than half of the 50 states coming together under one flag.

"For the U.S., I only see a maximum of 23 states aligning," Pierce says. "God showed it to me in 2008. I do not see what we call the United States ending up looking like [50 states]."

In a startling revelation, Pierce says believes Washington D.C. was never meant to be the center of this nation, and that a new nation's capital will emerge.

"God showed me a capital arising out of San Antonio," Pierce says. "There are other places [where] we will see new alignments occurring."

When asked whether all of America will turn back to God or not, Pierce said, "No. All of America I don't think will turn. God didn't show me [that]. He showed me 23 [states], which is less than 50% of it turning."

Pierce predicted that states who align with God will also align with God's people.

"The states in covenant with the Lord are those states that have an understanding of the God of Israel," he says. "We have the certificates of states that have aligned with Israel, and it's about 20 plus right now. And that's going to be our telling point in days ahead."

Pierce reiterates often that he's not a "doom and gloom prophet."

"I do think revival's coming," Pierce says. "I think there's going to be an incredible move of Holy Ghost in America. There will be miracles and signs and wonders, but I also know that in the midst of any move, there's a great threshing that goes on. And I see America being threshed ..."

The videocast also included MorningStar Ministries CEO Chris Reed, who, similar to Pierce, revealed an astonishing prophetic dream God had recently given to him about America's future. 
https://www.charismanews.com/culture/88895-chuck-pierce-prophesies-the-end-of-america-as-we-know-it-is-near

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John Stonestreet, Timothy D Padgett | BreakPoint, BreakPoint | Wednesday, April 6, 2022

At the end of March, the Associates for Biblical Research published a curse. While that may seem a strange thing to do, it wasn’t their curse. The curse was written in Hebrew, inscribed on a small leaden amulet (or tablet). It was found in 2019 among materials previously excavated on Israel’s Mt. Ebal. It’s a short curse, just 40 letters in Hebrew and only 23 words when translated to English: “Cursed, cursed, cursed—cursed by the God YHW. You will die cursed. Cursed you will surely die. Cursed by YHW—cursed, cursed, cursed.”

As recorded near the end of Deuteronomy, God called the newly freed Israelites to assemble on Mt. Ebal and to declare there, to God and to one another, the promises of obedience and disobedience. Put another way, they were to announce the blessings and curses that came with their role as God’s people.

So, what we have in the discovery of this amulet is either a remarkable coincidence—a written curse left at the very location the Bible associates with curses—or yet another confirmation of something the Bible says happened. Even better, either of these options is the least important aspect of what makes this discovery interesting. The more important aspect is potentially earth-shattering for biblical studies.

According to a professor at the University of Haifa, this discovery is “the earliest Hebrew inscription found so far.” Scholars investigating the find place the date of the inscription to around 3,200 years ago. That puts it, biblically speaking, in the time of the Judges.

The common perception among biblical scholars, however, has been that the bulk of the Bible wasn’t written when it says it was. It’s long been assumed that the early, and supposedly primitive, Israelites simply lacked the skill to come up with the written grandeur of books like Genesis and Deuteronomy. This tiny curse reveals that the right people at the right time in the right place were writing about God just as the Bible describes. Despite the confidence of the scholarly consensus, this provides proof of the Israelites’ literary ability, hundreds of years before skeptics thought it possible.

And this kind of thing keeps happening. Four years ago, a then-recent discovery of an exploding meteor wiping out a series of cities at the south end of the Dead Sea corresponded to about the time the Bible says that Sodom and Gomorrah met their fiery fate. Three years ago, an unearthed signet-seal affirmed the identity of someone mentioned in the biblical text. Two years ago, new DNA studies confirmed aspects of the biblical description of the Philistines’ origin. How many times will the Bible have to be proved right before we accept it as true?

There’s a scene in the 1990 Shakespeare spoof Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead where Gary Oldman’s character starts flipping a coin. Again and again and again, it comes up heads, over 70 times in a row! At first, he finds it strange, even amusing. As heads keep coming up, his partner in crime, played by Tim Roth, starts contriving explanations as to why the laws of probability have been suspended. They must, he concludes, be encountering a moment where the ordinary rules just don’t apply. The repeated pattern of extraordinary events meant that something special was going on.

This is what the Bible claims for itself. The Bible doesn’t claim to be true in some watered-down “spiritual” sense. It claims to be the true record of God’s intervention into human affairs. It does not describe a faraway fairy world built on wishes and dreams, but this world, the real one. It is here that Lazarus and Jesus were truly dead but raised to life again. It is in this world that actual Israelites escaped from actual slavery in Egypt. If what Scripture claims to have happened didn’t, then we may as well “eat and drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” Its reality confirms its truth.

As the Apostle Peter claimed, Christianity is not rooted in “cleverly devised myths,” but in the real account of actions in the real world. Bits of lead and clay in the dirt will never ultimately prove the Bible’s claims to the satisfaction of all skeptics, but day after day, more evidence emerges that its claims should be taken seriously by not only archeologists and historians, but all of us. In Holy Scripture, something special is indeed going on.

Publication date: April 6, 2022
https://www.christianheadlines.com/columnists/breakpoint/another-discovery-affirms-the-historicity-of-the-bible.html

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(“If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, Then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, in which you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?) Jer.12:5 NKJV

If American's Can't Handle the Stress Now, What Will Happen When Everything Starts to Collapse?

Have you noticed that people are having emotional meltdowns all over the place these days? As a nation, we have become extremely high-strung and are so easily offended.

For many of us, even the slightest thing can trigger an emotional frenzy that can last for days or even weeks. Obviously, the overall mental health of our nation is not in a good place right now. People are stressed out about inflation, people are stressed out about the widespread shortages that we have been witnessing, people are stressed out about the war in Ukraine, people are stressed out about politics, and people are stressed out about the COVID pandemic that seems as though it will never end.

In fact, one recent survey discovered that stress levels are at an all-time high for 63 percent of Americans, and the pandemic is being blamed for that.

I feel so sorry for those who have worn masks and been scared to go outside for the past two years.

Humans were created to be social creatures, and so isolation can very easily lead to depression.

The same survey that I referenced above also found that stress is having a very real negative impact on many Americans in a variety of ways:
"With all of this in mind, 55 percent of respondents agree they're more burned out now than before the pandemic started. Two out of three of those experiencing burnout say they're so stressed and burned out that they struggle to focus. In fact, 64 percent feel like nothing can really help them reduce their stress and 58 percent think the healthy coping mechanisms they've picked up take too much time out of their day."

All of this stress has created an environment in which people will literally break down over the smallest things.

Many of us have become very fragile emotionally, and this appears to be especially true for a lot of our young people.

Let me give you an example. A video of a young woman frantically crying because of a cricket infestation in her home has now been viewed more than 5 million times on TikTok.

A lot of people find that video to be extremely humorous, but I find it to be incredibly sad.

If we are going to suffer dramatic emotional meltdowns over such small things, what are we going to do when a global war causes a full-blown societal collapse?

Many Americans don't realize that the U.S. is already deeply involved in World War III. So far we have sent more than 2 billion dollars' worth of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine, and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin just told the U.S. Senate that our military is constantly feeding the Ukrainians information about the location and behavior of Russian forces.

"Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said publicly for the first time Thursday that the US is providing intelligence to Ukrainian forces to conduct operations in the Donbas region.

"Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Austin was asked whether the US was providing intelligence to help Ukraine carry out attacks against Russian forces in the separatist-controlled Donbas region or Crimea.

"'We are providing them intelligence to conduct operations in the Donbas, that's correct,' Austin said in response to the question from Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas."

And as I discussed yesterday, Austin has also admitted that Ukrainian troops are being brought to the United States to be trained to fight the Russians. He stated, "This morning, I had the pleasure of speaking with Ukrainian troops training in the U.S. who are returning home to Ukraine today. Their bravery and skill are amazing. I made clear the U.S. will continue to provide them with the assistance they need."

In addition, a French reporter who just returned from Ukraine is alleging that "Americans are directly in charge of the war on the ground."

I hope that what he is reporting is not true, because it would be evidence that our leaders have completely gone off the deep end.

If we are directly involved in the war in Ukraine, that could easily lead to nuclear conflict between the United States and Russia.

And a nuclear conflict between the United States and Russia would mean the end of civilization as we know it today.

Meanwhile, tensions between North Korea and South Korea continue to rise. In fact, North Korea just blew up a golf resort that had originally been intended as a "symbol of peace" with South Korea. According to a Daily Mail article, "Satellite photographs have shown that the floating Haegumgang Hotel, part of the $75 million (£57.5 million) tourist resort in the mountains of Mount Kumgang, was partially demolished over the weekend."

I am entirely convinced that a conflict between North Korea and South Korea is coming, but I also believe that China will almost certainly invade Taiwan before that happens.

And I think that we will probably see a major war erupt in the Middle East before China invades Taiwan.

We definitely live during a time of "wars and rumors of wars," and what we are witnessing in Ukraine right now is just the tip of the iceberg.

Of course the war in Ukraine is already causing a great deal of global instability, and it has made our emerging worldwide food crisis a whole lot worse.

But for now, life in America is still somewhat normal.

If people can't handle life as it is right now, what will they do when everything starts hitting the fan all at once?

Unfortunately, the truth is that our society is not emotionally equipped to handle what is ahead of us, and that reality should chill all of us to the core.

Michael Snyder's book titled 7 Year Apocalypse is now available on Amazon.com. are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.

For the original article, visit endoftheamericandream.com
https://www.charismanews.com/us/88885-if-american-s-can-t-handle-the-stress-now-what-will-happen-when-everything-starts-to-collapse

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(The goals of the Papacy from its inception have not changed. And one of her fundamentally effective weapons in achieving global authority is education, for which she is renown through the work of the Jesuit and Benedictine Orders. The School Choice movement, as harmless and noble as it sounds, actually plays well into their plans. Clever manipulation of every system of governance in every age has equipped the Papacy to adjust her strategies to suit by using whatever tools are available. They are also adept at creating, promoting and magnifying artificial issues that mask their intentions. When Christianity is defined as essentially Catholicism, then supporting Christian education, financially or otherwise, means supporting Catholicism. Professor Swomley is on point) RJG

The Modus Operandi for Trying to Impose Papal Authority

The Vatican wants to extend its authority over civil law, not only in countries with Catholic majorities but in others with religiously diverse populations. The Catholic bishops have decided to try to impose papal authority in the United States through the abortion issue. Their Committee for Pro-Life Activities is the best-funded of the bishops’ thirteen secretariats and committees, with a budget of$1.8 million in 1993. It is more than three times the next largest budget, that of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Affairs, and four times the budget of the Secretariats for Laity, Women, Family, and Youth, according to the latest published information by Catholics for a Free Choice.

Catholic Lay Elites Pressed into Political Service for the Vatican’s Agenda

The Time articles also revealed that the Vatican works in various countries through lay people who function politically without apparent connection to the Vatican. The major study of the Vatican’s use of Catholic laity throughout Europe was made by Catholic Professor Jean-Guy Vaillancourt of the University of Montreal in his book, Papal Power: A Study of Vatican Control Over Law Catholic Elites. Vaillancourt in his concluding summary said in part, “The Catholic lay militant has been pressed into service as an.. . intermediary between the Papacy and the modern state.” In Europe, it is Catholic Action and the Christian Democratic Party which assume “direct political responsibilities” that the Hierarchy must shun. In the United States, it is the Catholic Campaign for America, which was organized in 1991. Its “ecclesiastical adviser” is the ubiquitous Cardinal O’Connor, but the laity on the CCA board and national committee function without publicizing their role in the organization.

The overall mission of the Catholic Campaign for America is “to activate Catholic citizens, increase the Catholic electorate’s influence in formulating public policy, and focus the public’s attention on the richness and beauty of Catholic teaching.” A 1992 newsletter of the Catholic Campaign declared that “separation of church and state is a false premise that must finally be cast aside.”

The Second Vatican Council’s decree on Christian education states:

“Parents, who have a primary and inalienable duty and right in regard to the education of their children, should enjoy the fullest liberty in their choice of school. The public authority, therefore, whose duty is to protect and defend the liberty of the citizen, is bound, according to the principles of distributive justice, to ensure that public subsidies to schools are so allocated that the parents are truly free to select schools for their children in accordance with their conscience.”

The phrase “distributive justice” is an Aristotelian idea that superior status or contribution to society entitled one to greater benefits from that society. It was an aristocratic principle that denied the benefits of Greek citizenship to slaves. The medieval world in which Roman Catholic structure, theology and social principles were largely formed was not opposed to this idea of distribution in proportion to status.

What this means in America is taking money from the public school system and giving it to the largest private-school system - Catholic schools - using parents as conduits. A comparatively smaller group of other religious schools would also benefit, as would private schools in the South and North to which whites have fled integrated public schools.

Distributive justice is based upon the assumption that certain parents as taxpayers are being denied justice if they do not get what they pay in taxes so they can choose private schools. However, the public schools exist to serve the entire community by lifting the level of literacy, education, and ability of citizens to participate in a democracy. Older citizens and those without children do not expect to have their taxes returned.

Another motivation for school choice is the desire to enroll minority students of other religions. Jesuit priest Thomas J. Reese notes:

“Catholic schools are the most successful evangelizing tool available to the church in the black community...Most schools teach the Catholic faith to both Catholic and non-Catholic students.”

One illustration of this is Chicago’s Holy Angels School, which President Reagan visited to propose tuition financial aid for parents to send their children to nonpublic schools. Reagan called it “the nation’s largest black Catholic school.” The Washington Post reported that in order to attend that school both the children and their parents had to be instructed in Catholicism, which resulted in about 80 to 150 Catholic converts a year.

Moreover, the American Catholic bishops will continue to use parochial schools as instruments of political retaliation or benefit, as evident in the Archdiocese of St. Louis forbidding parochial school students to hear President Clinton speak in suburban St. Louis on May 17,1996 because of the President’s stand on abortion.

Dr. John M. Swomley is Emeritus Professor of Social ethics at St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri. An ordained Methodist minister and a veteran activist he continues to speak, write, and work incessantly on behalf of a broad spectrum of Christian social concerns.
http://www.population-security.org/swom-97-04.htm

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By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter

Thursday, April.7th, 2022

There has been an “unprecedented drop” in the number of Bible users in the United States since last year, according to a report released by the American Bible Society.

The 2022 State of the Bible report, released Wednesday, based its findings on responses collected from a survey of 2,598 U.S. adults conducted in January. The 12th annual report asked Americans a variety of questions about their Bible use and their thoughts on its role in society.

A preface to the report also highlights changes in the percentage of Bible users in the U.S. over time. The American Bible Society defines Bible users as “those who use the Bible at least 3-4 times each year on their own, outside of a church setting.”

After reaching a high of 53% in 2014, the share of Bible users among the U.S. adult population consistently remained between 48% and 51%. Just last year, 50% of Americans were Bible users. However, in 2022, Bible users in the U.S. accounted for just 39% of the adult population, the lowest in more than a decade.

The State of the Bible report described the 11% decrease as an “unprecedented drop in the percentage of Bible users in the United States.” When applied to the U.S. population as a whole, the figure suggests that the number of Bible users in the U.S. dropped from 128 million in 2021 to 103 million in 2022.

The group labeled Bible users consisted of Americans who read the Bible outside of church as infrequently as three to four times a year to those who use the Bible daily. Ten percent of U.S. adults use the Bible daily, while 4% use it four to six times a week, 7% consult it two to three times a week, 5% read the Bible once a week, and 7% read it once a month.

More than half (60%) of Americans use the Bible less than three to four times a year. A plurality (40%) of those surveyed never read the Bible on their own, while 12% read it less than once a year and 8% look at it once or twice a year.

The State of the Bible report also demonstrates what the American Bible Society describes as a “major decrease in Scripture Engagement,” which is defined as “consistent interaction with the Bible that shapes people’s choices and transforms their relationships with God, self, and others.” The estimated number of Scripture-engaged Americans dropped from 64 million in 2021 to 49 million in 2022. At the same time, the estimated number of Bible disengaged Americans rose from 100 million last year to 145 million this year.

The survey also inquired about respondents’ Bible reading habits. The overwhelming majority (78%) of those surveyed indicated that their Bible reading “stayed the same” over the past year, as 13% reported an increase in Bible reading and the remaining 10% saw a decrease in their Bible reading.

When asked “how do you think our country would be without the Bible,” specifically referring to a hypothetical scenario where “nobody read the Bible at all,” a plurality of respondents (45%) indicated that they thought the U.S. would be “worse off” without the Bible. This is a noticeable decrease from last year, when 54% of those surveyed believed that the U.S. would be “worse off” without the Bible.

Forty-one percent of respondents contended that the country would be “about the same” without the Bible, an increase from the 33% who said so in 2021. The share of Americans who think the U.S. would be “better off” without the Bible remained flat at 14% in both 2021 and 2022.

In 2022, the elderly were the group most likely to believe that the U.S. would be “worse off” without the Bible, with 64% of the oldest Americans agreeing with that statement. A majority of baby boomers (57%) and a plurality of those in generation X (46%) also predicted that the U.S. would be “worse off” without the Bible.

Millennials were the least likely group to see an absence of the Bible as making the U.S. “worse off.” Thirty-one percent of millennials subscribed to that belief. A slightly higher share of Generation Z (39%), the youngest group of American adults, told pollsters that an absence of the Bible would make the U.S. “worse off.”

Overall, nearly half of respondents (49%) agreed either “strongly” or “somewhat” that “Bible reading is an important component of a child’s character development,” while an additional 27% disagreed either “strongly” or “somewhat” with that analysis. At 47%, the oldest respondents constituted the largest share of respondents who “strongly agreed” that Bible reading played an important role in a child’s character development.

Thirty-three percent of baby boomers “strongly agreed” that Bible reading was important to a child’s character development, along with 28% of those in Generation X, 19% of millennials and 20% of those in Generation Z.

Forty-nine percent of adults also agreed with the statement proclaiming that “the Bible contains everything a person needs to know to live a meaningful life.” Once again, elders were far more likely than their younger counterparts to “strongly agree” with that statement. The share of elders who “strongly agreed” with that statement was measured at 44%, followed by 34% of baby boomers, 31% of Gen Xers, 22% of Gen Zers and 19% of millennials.

Additional chapters of this year’s State of the Bible report are expected to be released throughout the year.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post.
https://www.christianpost.com/us/american-bible-society-finds-unprecedented-drop-in-bible-users-report.html

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(Note: Despite the references to the “rapture” and tribulation,” and perhaps some other theological missteps this article should challenge us to pay close attention to the prophetic gift entrusted to us as a movement, and not neglect to study “the things which must shortly come to pass…for the time is at hand.” Rev. 1:1,3) RJG

7 Dangers Of Neglecting Biblical Prophecy In The Church

BY JONATHAN BRENTNER/JONATHANBRENTNER.COM APRIL 14, 2022

Pastor Tom Hughes of the 412 Church in San Jacinto, California, wrote an article titled, "Five Reasons Pastors Don't Teach Bible Prophecy." Below are the five reasons from his article.

They don't understand prophecy. They fear offending members of the church. They sense it will scare people. They fear people will stop giving. They fear looking like fringe groups who take things to an extreme.

Even though written several years ago, the list remains relevant today. Fear stands out as the key motive behind the silence. Pastors
also say they do not understand prophecy, but do they take the time to learn or turn to those who do understand it?

Someone might ask: "Why does that matter? Does it really make a difference if preachers keep quiet on future things as long as they proclaim the Gospel with biblical clarity?"

It not only matters a great deal, but it's risky to ignore a topic that the Bible emphasizes over and over again. The neglect of biblical prophecy in the pulpit results in:

1. BELIEVERS RELYING UPON SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE INTERNET FOR END TIMES THEOLOGY

When pastors remain silent on biblical prophecy, believers look for information on biblical prophecy on social media and the Internet. There they find a wide array of teachings and opinions, some biblical, but most are false and misleading.

Some believers possess the needed scriptural discernment to sort through the mess of various teachings. But as the lack of biblical knowledge reaches epidemic proportions among those claiming to be Christians, most churchgoers lack the necessary discernment and fall prey to the misinformation available at their fingertips.

A couple questions for preachers: Do you really desire for social media and the Internet to be the primary source of information regarding prophecy for those in your church? Would it not be better for you to provide the sound biblical guidance regarding our hope that they so desperately need during these perilous times?

2. THE FLOURISHING OF FALSE TEACHING

Many pastors fear causing division in their congregation and thus remain silent on matters related to the Rapture. However, they fail to realize that it's their refusal to preach on what the Bible says on this matter that has led to the very diversity of opinions in their churches. The potential for disunity is there even if they remain quiet.

Last year, I met with a pastor who said that if he preached what I believe, half of his congregation would walk out the door. It occurred to me later that if he taught what he really believes, the other half would quickly depart. We started attending his church after seeing that it's statement of faith said it was premillennial. The pastor, however, was most definitely not premillennial!!

Pastors who ignore biblical prophecy allow false teachings to flourish or as in the case of the one I just mentioned, the church remains in the dark about what he really believes.

3. BELIEVERS LOOKING TO THIS LIFE FOR THEIR IMMEDIATE HOPE

Another consequence of silence in the pulpits regarding future things is that believers look for hope in things other than Jesus' imminent appearing.

A popular theology today, often referred to as "dominion theology," teaches that the church will prevail against the evils of this word and usher in a millennial reign of its own before Jesus returns to the earth. Many Christians falsely believe the church itself is their hope for the future.

Additionally, even pastors who do not adhere to "dominion theology" also make the church the object of hope for those that hear them preach.
Those who allegorize the book of Revelation often, in my experience, change its message to exalt the church rather than Jesus.

Still others give the impression that things will return to normal. "The world has seen difficult times at other times in history," they say, "and the current crises are no different."

All these things point believers to this life as their hope rather than Jesus' appearing.

4. REDUCED MOTIVATION FOR GODLY LIVING

The Lord intended our hope in the Rapture to be a motivation for godly living. John wrote these words in 1 John 3:2-3:

Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Our hope in Jesus' imminent return has a purifying impact on our lives. Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, said the following in a recent interview"

"I don't know why more people don't want to talk about eschatology or end-times events because Bible prophecy is not given to scare us but to prepare us," he said. "And not only that, but I think it motivates us."

Laurie continued, "Talking about these things can be very motivating for Christians to keep us on our toes spiritually.

"Knowing Jesus could come back at any moment," he said, can "be a motivator to live a godly life."

Silence in the pulpits regarding our "blessed hope" leaves those in the seats assuming they have their whole lives ahead of them although Scripture tells us this may not be the case. For many, this negates the urgency to walk closely with the Lord.

5. BELIEVERS THAT ARE UNPREPARED FOR THE DANGERS THAT LIE AHEAD FOR THIS WORLD

The scarcity of preaching on biblical prophecy leaves believers unprepared and unaware of the dark and threatening storm clouds gathering on our horizon.

The Bible promises that Jesus may come at any time, but we may experience tough times before that happens.

The war in Ukraine has led to a humanitarian crisis not seen since WWII and will very likely lead to critical food shortages throughout the world by the end of 2022. We live in perilous times, and they are about to get much worse.

The current silence in the pulpits not only shifts the hope of the saints to this life, but leaves them ill-prepared to deal with ever-present threats of nuclear war and famine. If their focus is solely on their future in this life, these things will cause anxiety.

Today more than ever before, believers need the assurances of Scripture regarding their joyful and glorious future. Pastors who refuse to teach about Jesus' imminent appearing from the pulpit deny their people critically needed assurance as the threats of war and famine increase with each passing day.

6. BELIEVERS NOT WATCHING FOR THE LORD'S APPEARING AS JESUS INSTRUCTED US TO DO

Referring to His return, Jesus said this in Matthew 24:44, "Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." In the same discourse, He later said, "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour" (25:13).

Jesus' instruction led to a church that eagerly anticipated His return. In Philippians 3:20-21 Paul wrote this:

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself.

The Greek word for "await" in verse 20 denotes to an "intense anticipation" or an "excited expectation" of a future event.[iii] In this text, Paul portrays believers as eagerly longing Jesus' appearing with great anticipation; they expected it to happen at any moment.

When we watch for Jesus' appearing, we copy the eager expectancy of the early church to meet Jesus in the air.

7. BELIEVERS NOT RECOGNIZING THE CONVERGENCE OF PROPHETIC SIGNS

My head is spinning from all that's happening in our world from a prophecy perspective. A few years ago, I believed that many signs of the approaching Tribulation were converging as never before, but today this reality has grown beyond what I could have imagined back then.

As the shadow of the approaching Tribulation grows darker by the day, those aware of this convergence of prophetic signs recognize that Jesus' appearing to take us home must be ever so close.

I never thought I would hear a president of the United States talk openly about the need for the New World Order, which during the Tribulation will morph into the kingdom of the antichrist. But yesterday, it happened as President Biden started talking about his commitment to it! I have long assumed this, but it's another matter to hear him talk about it as something that is going to happen.

The Rapture may happen soon, and I pray that it does. But if not, we will see our world rapidly deteriorate as critical food shortages develop and as the coming New World Order continues to suppress the rights of people throughout the world.

Pastors, why not start preaching about biblical prophecy now rather than wait until people in your church demand that you teach on this
subject, or the threatening conditions around you leave you with no choice but to talk about the details of our joyous and imminent hope?

In Tom Hughes' article titled, "Five Reasons Pastors Don't Teach Bible Prophecy," he said this, "Let Jesus also be the example in what we teach and preach. He taught a great deal about His Second Coming and the signs surrounding it. We should, too."

A realistic look at our world is indeed scary and grows more ominous with each passing day, but as we view current events through the lens of Scripture and what it promises us about our future, the Lord gives us strength and peace to face the joyous future that lies ahead for us.

Originally published at Jonathan Brentner

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5312

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We are living in the aftermath of one of the most dramatic demographic shifts in American history.

April 13, 2022 By Ryan Burge

(RNS) — Possibly the most oft-repeated statistic in American religion is the rise of the religiously unaffiliated from just 5% of the population in the early 1970s to about 30% of adults in 2022. In a field where shifts typically move at a glacial pace, that demographic factoid may represent the most abrupt and most consequential shift in American society in the postwar period.

But there is a more recent such phase shift, when American religion changed incredibly quickly, in whose aftermath we feel even today. Using data from the General Social Survey, which has been fielded consistently from 1972 through 2021, and restricting the sample to adults between the ages of 18 and 35, a single decade comes into sharp focus: the 1990s. It’s a moment when young Americans seemed to lose religion virtually overnight.

In 1991, 87% of young adults indicated that their faith was Christian, primarily Catholic and Protestant. Just 8% of this age group said that they had no religious affiliation.

In 1998, only seven years later, the share of 18- to 35-year-olds who said they were Christians dropped a full 14 percentage points to 73%, while the percentage who answered “none” jumped to 20%, an increase of 12 percentage points. A ratio that hadn’t changed at all between 1972 and 1991 had moved by double digit percentages in seven years.

What caused this change to occur at this specific point in American history? It’s hard to pinpoint just one thing, but there are possible culprits.

The end of the Soviet Union: On Christmas Day 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union and Boris Yeltsin took power over Russia.

Described by historian Kevin Kruse and others as a conflict between the virtuous Christian capitalists of the United States and the godless communists of the Soviet Union, the Cold War was a time when “In God We Trust” first appeared on American currency and “Under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance. By the mid-1990s, being nonreligious no longer meant being un-American, giving permission for a lot of closet nones to begin expressing their true feelings on surveys.

Backlash against the religious right: As I describe in my book “The Nones,” evangelical Christians made up about 17% of the U.S. population in 1972; in 1993, that had rised to 30%. As Ruth Braunstein argued in The Guardian earlier this year, “backlash against a radical form of religious expression leads people to distance themselves from all religion, including more moderate religious groups that are viewed as guilty by association with radicals.”

When faced with the strident rhetoric of the Revs. Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and the rest of the religious right leaders, many moderates headed for the church exits and never came back. Political polarization: In his excellent 2018 book, “The Red and the Blue: The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism,” Steve Kornacki makes the point that in 1994 Newt Gingrich led a Republican takeover of the House by refusing to compromise with those on the other side of the aisle. Gingrich’s bomb-throwing approach appealed to conservative Christians by painting Democrats as morally inferior and godless. Many young Americans chose godlessness.

The internet: Demographers ignore the impact of the World Wide Web at their peril. It would make sense that as young people were exposed to other faiths on the new technology — and saw the faults in their own — some would leave faith behind altogether. But the data doesn’t entirely support it. According to the Census Bureau, just 20% of American households had internet access in 1997. While many young Americans had access to the web in school before they had a home connection, the effect was likely only to accelerate the trends cited above.

The echo of this falloff is what we are living with today. Many of those who fled from religion in large numbers during this period also chose to raise their children without religion. Today nearly half of those children — millennials and Gen Zers — say that they have no religious affiliation.

(Ryan Burge is an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, a pastor in the American Baptist Church https://religionnews.com/2022/04/13/how-americas-youth-lost-its-religion-in-1990s