“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55: 6-7
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U.S. Church Membership is Declining Rapidly
See “U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time”:
Americans’ membership in houses of worship continued to decline last year, dropping below 50% for the first time in Gallup’s eight-decade trend. In 2020, 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, down from 50% in 2018 and 70% in 1999.
Americans are turning away from institutional religion. That’s what the Gallup chart below shows clearly:
“Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction….” (2 Thessalonians 2: 3)
Christian preachers all over America are telling their congregations that the rapid decline in church membership is a sign of the “falling way” of the church. The word “apostasy” means “falling away” or “abandoning the faith”. Preachers are suggesting that people are falling away from the faith. Some of them may be, and preachers are telling their congregations that the “falling away” is a sign that the Messiah’s return is near.
I believe we are in the end times. I also believe that the Messiah’s return is near. But I don’t think the rapid decline in church membership can be attributed to either of those things. Many people are waking up to the truth, and they are being led by Yahweh’s Spirit to come out of her (i.e., the church):
I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues.” (Revelation 18: 4)
Yahweh has had it with institutional religion. He is leading His people out of churches for their own good. For the most part, Yahweh’s people aren’t hearing Yahweh’s word in church anyway, and outpourings of Yahweh’s Spirit in most churches is frowned upon. Tithes paid to most churches aren’t supporting Yahweh’s agenda, so most churches are a waste time and money. For most churchgoers, going to church is just a weekly ritual. It has been passed down to them by their families, but that’s changing, too.
Preachers should know those things, but most of them don’t. They interpret rejection of institutional religion as a rejection of Yahweh. Where Yahweh’s faithful followers are concerned, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Having said that, I need to point out that many churchgoers aren’t really Yahweh’s people. They have taken advantage of this opportunity to stop pretending. From Yahweh’s perspective, that’s a good thing:
“He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” (Matthew 12: 30)
My Personal Experience: 2 Examples
Example 1
In 1985, I was a deacon at Crozet Baptist Church in Crozet, Virginia. Yahweh took me of that church, and He started teaching me Himself. My pastor probably thought that I had abandoned the faith. I didn’t. My faith in Yahweh started to grow by leaps and bounds. That’s when my attitude toward institutional religion started to change. Since then, I have become convinced that the institutional church has its own agenda, and it is not Yahweh’s agenda.
Example 2
During my first trip to Israel, the group I was with spent several days in Jordan. One day, we were in Aqaba. It was 5:00 a.m., and I was up reading the Bible and praying. When the Muslim call to prayer started ringing out from loudspeakers at every mosque in town, the woman who was our hostess got up and joined me in the living room. She said, “Neil, ‘the Lord’ is talking to me about you right now. He is telling me that you need to call your mother when you get back to the United States. She thinks you have abandoned the faith. You need to assure her that you haven’t.”
Then she said, “Do you have a brother?”
I told her that I did.
She said, “You need to call him and tell him the same thing.”
She was right. When I returned, I called my mother and my brother. Both of them confirmed that they feared I had abandoned the faith. I assured them that I had not and that my faith in Yahweh was growing. I just abandoned institutional religion.
And Here We Are
Yahweh started removing His people from the institutional church a long time ago, because it has gone its own way. Preachers and other religious leaders ignore simple things, fundamental truths, and they substitute traditions that Yahweh abhors. They justify what they have done by referring to their substitutes as “time-honored traditions”, but there is nothing honorable about rejecting Yahweh’s explicit commands and substituting manmade traditions in their place.
Preachers have a hard time changing their ways. Changing your ways means “repenting”.
The evidence is clear. The U.S. is experiencing a “falling away” from institutional religion. Some people care deeply about the truth. They have to get out, because they aren’t getting the truth in most churches. Others are “falling away” because they were just occupying space in the pews anyway. In both cases, the “falling away” is a good thing. From Yahweh’s perspective, it’s separating the wheat from the chaff.
But In Iran, for example, the church is growing rapidly. Christians in Iran don’t construct ornate buildings where they can gather to worship Yahweh. They meet in homes, and they are persecuted for simply professing their faith. Even so, they continue to grow rapidly.
See “Iran’s Christian Boom” and “Iran has world’s ‘fastest-growing church,’ despite no buildings – and it’s mostly led by women”.
Preachers in the U.S. need to take the blinders off their eyes and get onboard with Yahweh. What comes next for them is a lot worse than empty pews and declining bank balances.
By contrast, in Iran Christians don’t have “time-honored traditions” to rely on. They don’t have smoke machines and LED walls to entertain congregates, either. All they have is Yahweh and His word. That’s enough.
Changing Gears Slightly
I wonder what Yahweh told Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh. We don’t know much about what Jonah said, but whatever he said worked.
I’m sure Jonah told them more than “In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed.” What do churchgoers in America need to hear? I think it’s Yahweh’s word.
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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
John 10: 14-18
