SCOTTSDALE, AZ – The United States of America was founded by Christians, and its principles of society and governance were based on a bedrock of Christian ideology.
The nation’s Constitution was written, then interpreted by the US Supreme Court for nearly 200 years, in a manner that upheld a perceived Christian belief system, while maintaining a broad enough construction to encompass the mandates and standards of other religions—so long as they were not at odds with the Christian sense of right and wrong.
In recent decades Christianity has suffered a profound setback, in this country and abroad, and fewer people in the US consider themselves Christian while fewer policies and laws are based on Christian principles. In fact, we see God booed at the convention of a major political party, and most of its leadership is made up of people who consider themselves to be agnostic.
In 1990, 86% of Americans identified themselves as Christian, whereas in 2012 the number was down to 73%. Even that number may be overly optimistic.
Abroad, Christianity is all but dying out, being forced into obscurity by the spread of socialism and Islam. For those who roll their eyes at this statement, former bastions of Christianity like Spain and France now have more mosques than Christian churches, and most of the non-Muslims identify themselves as agnostic. The most popular name for male infants in leading European countries is Mohammad.
Christianity vs. Secularism
Most American universities are staffed by people who consider religion the ‘opiate of the masses,’ as expressed by their spiritual father, Karl Marx. Indeed, most university professors are openly hostile to Christianity, and boisterously embrace every movement that chips away at a family oriented, morality based society. These educators openly penalize any students who do not fall into line with their anti-Christian edicts, and reward those who do, causing a chilling effect on open Christian expression.
Most of the media, headed by graduated students of the anti-Christian university system, is likewise hostile toward traditional family and Christian values, flooding the airwaves with anti-family, anti-male, anti-morality, anti-Christian propaganda.
We who are Christian have been slow to recognize some of the main obstacles to the current generation embracing Christianity. To the extent that we have supported socialist political candidates, albeit in the name of compassion and diversity, we have helped to empower the anti-Christian movement. To the extent that we have allowed US citizens to be divided by class and race by these same politicians, we have enabled them. To the extent that we have supported leftist institutions, universities and media outlets, we have embraced our own destruction.
Dogma is Partly to Blame
Ignorance has also condemned Christianity to decline. I’m referring to silly, outdated notions about science; for example, like those who insist that the earth was created in six actual 24-hour periods (‘days,’ before an earth day even existed), and it all happened 6,000 years ago. Without further information, the uninformed misinterpret ancient scripture.
Accepting this fact should not be impossible for modern Christians, whose scriptures merely state that God (Elohim) created (organized) the world in six creative periods, without mention of the length of these creative periods or the amount of passing time between those periods. Although most world religions believe that this creation took place in an instant, something from nothing (creatio ex nihilo), Biblical scholars are hard-pressed to find support for these notions in the original Hebrew text. The TRUTH is, that the earth was ‘developed’ through a ‘process’ that required a great deal of time–named six creative periods by God. Christians have many dogmas that are difficult if not impossible for educated people to swallow, e.g., transubstantiation, infallibility of leadership, proving faith, indulgences, covering up sin, the trinity, etc. They would be well advised to return to a God-revealed belief base.
Christians aren’t the only ones whose believes are mired in dogma. Scientists who first considered the Big Bang theory of creation were quite reluctant to accept it as a theory because of its close kinship to creatio ex nihilo. According to the standard Big Bang theory, our universe sprang into existence as a ‘singularity’ around 13.7 billion years ago. This implies that a nonexistent universe suddenly and without provocation sprang into existence, growing instantly from a point only a small fraction of the size of an atom to the entire universe filled with all of its mass and matter in mere seconds. Honestly, the faith required to accept such an unsubstantiated, inconceivable theory as a workable model for the creation of the universe is beyond acceptability. The theory continues to experience tweaking and retooling due to incongruity with ‘the math.’ It doesn’t work. To make the math begin to conform to the theory, scientists have constructed a model that requires 95% of the universe to consist of “dark matter” and “dark energy.” In other words, scientists now mock Christians for failure to believe in unseen worlds and forms of existence. Furthermore, any scientist who refuses to subscribe to this dogma is blacklisted, and not allowed to publish or teach.
No matter how dogmatic most of the parties are, Christians must rethink their attitudes toward science and one another if they are to survive in a world hostile toward them. Truth—no matter its source—must be the prize. I advise Christians and their leaders to revisit their prejudices, and to consider anew the original Hebrew scriptures to determine their divine message, and to eliminate many of the dogmas and traditions that are extra-Christian.
I further advise those ‘shepherds’ who are nothing more than hustlers to find new professions. You know who you are; molesters, thieves, indolent and impure in mind and deed. Get out, before God puts you out—forever.
As Christians, we must re-establish ourselves as the true shepherds over this people, and over this nation; not by constraint, but through dedicated service to all of God’s children under our influence and within the sound of our voice.
Let this edict be our standard: “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:13
James Thompson is a Christian writer, and holds a Juris Doctor degree. He is Editor-in-Chief of GhostWriter, a leading ghostwriting firm. Volume One of his new novel series “The Coming Flood” has just been released, titled Enoch in the City of Adam. Visit James Thompson on Facebook
Sally Via says
Science…is in it’s infancy. Two thousand years before the birth of Christ, the book of Isaiah in the bible said, “The Earth is round, and hangs upon nothing.” Scientists taught that the Earth was flat, and had an edge a person could fall off, as late as the 1400’s. Now science knows Earth is round. Science has proved the world was once covered in water, therefore, proving Noah’s flood. They have now found what they accept as truth, concerning the Big Bang, and also evolution. Our Creator did not leave us with a manual or directions on how to build a universe. For what reason would He? We still couldn’t create one. He did leave us with a brain that is curious, and these scientists use theirs for exploration and discoveries. That’s a great thing. Eventually, if the world lasts long enough, they will discover a Supreme Being. One that is dynamic energy with a brain that we cannot comprehend. This is a being that can point a finger and create a big bang, or say let there be light,and a Sun appears,One who probably or mostly took His time making everything, using the process of evolution. Who knows? Not the public, not scientists. Wait and listen.