News Image

 

What will you do when real tribulation comes? Lose faith, doubt, become greatly deceived, become part of the strong delusion?

Upon publishing the following article I read two others with the same content. Only in both of those articles and the word Shocking, or Shocker! appeared in the headline.

Shocked? Really? Why?

First, let’s get the most important matter 100% clarified —  Jesus, God Himself, incarnate, came to this corrupt, sinful, fallen earth about 2,000 years ago from heaven to become fully truly a man while also fully truly God. One of the Three distinct Individuals of the Holy Trinity that always has been and always will be. Without beginning or end. To die for our sin because He was the only acceptable SINLESS sacrifice.

That’s in the Bible in more than a few places. Why, O Christian, do you decide what to believe and what not to believe in God’s Word? It isn’t a restaurant menu to pick and chose what delights the palette and satiates. Where is wisdom, understanding, discernment, and belief in these times?

As part of this Holy Trinity comprising the One True God, there is no sin, no wickedness, no evil in Jesus and there never could be. If Jesus sinned? And was then no different than any other human being born? Our faith would be null and void and meaningless.

Also, no individual, no matter who, no matter where can profess to be a born anew, renewed of mind and spirit, transformed — “born again” Christian while thinking Jesus sinned, while denying that Jesus was and is spotless, blameless, the Sacrificial Lamb, SINLESS!

To call oneself a born again Christian while being deluded and deceived within the heart and mind that Jesus sinned, while much more severe with eternal consequences, it is likened to a 476 pound man that is 5′-8″ proclaiming to be thin. Likened to a blind person claiming to see clearly and have 20/20 vision.

It is incongruous, it is impossible for any individual to truly be a born anew Christian which dictates a changed heart, a changed mind, transformed from within to the truth and knowledge of God, of Christ, of the Holy Spirit — while also contending, stating, or believing that the Lord Jesus Christ was not blameless, spotless, SINLESS and that He sinned!

I have been scolded and lectured in the past and had folks contact me and inform me of how mean, unloving, and judgmental I am in some of what I write in questioning the true transformation and being a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ among many professing to be His disciples.

Yet those that profess to be Christians writing about the times today are checked to learn that over half of professed born-again Christians [an oxymoron and impossibility] believe that Jesus sinned [an oxymoron and impossibility] otherwise everything known, believed all these years since the Lord’s time on earth and His resurrection and ascension into heaven are all in vain. There is then no path to eternal life and the washing away of sin and forgiveness of our sin.

There needs to be a pure, spotless, [think Passover] Lamb, a sinless individual that lays down His life while taking our sin upon Him to set us free and provide eternal life through our faith and the free gift of grace.

By their fruit, they are known.

It isn’t what enters the mouth and goes into the stomach that defiles a person — it is the human heart, the human tongue, the inherently at enmity with God human mind, and what is then heard from the tongue that defiles.

I paraphrase what is in the Word of God.

What have you all been paying attention to and doing for the past 40 years, 30 years, 20 years, 10 years, and the past 5 years?

People get upset when I write just because a person wears a nice shiny cross around their neck, a piece of jewelry that is gross and strange since the cross represents the greatest shame — to be nailed to a tree to die. Perhaps more folks getting caught up on some historical fact could help.

And just wearing a cross and saying one is a Christian or a born-again Christian means nothing. Not really. Not in the times in which we live.

By our fruit, we are known.

And stop blaming EVERYTHING on the COVID pandemic already.

Stop being so deceived. So fearful. So self-centered. So adopting the words of the world and rejecting, disbelieving the words within the Word of God, O Christian!

If this is the result of this past pandemic? What of things when real Tribulation comes?

As the Word asks, will faith be found on earth when the Lord returns?

We’re dealing with eternity here, folks, time to get matters sorted and right. Time to come out of the darkness and attempt to serve two masters.

Time to abandon the strong delusion, the great deception and lies of the world and obeying the whispers and confusion of Satan within the heart and mind and begin submitting, hearing, knowing, understanding, and obeying the inerrant infallible living Word of God.

That begins by reading the Bible. Daily. Nightly. That begins by taking time to study the Word of God. To meditate — take time to think deeply about what is read. That begins with praying with the Bible, praying and asking the Holy Spirit to instruct you, guide you, and increase spiritual wisdom, discernment and understanding.

That begins with railing against the deception and lies of the world and fear and trusting, believing the Lord, and living accordingly.

By our fruit, we are known.

Read on…

Oh, and Jesus WAS and IS SINLESS. Spotless. Blameless. Without deceit or deception. Without lies.

Without sin.

Otherwise, you might as well sell that shiny precious metal cross you wear around your neck and forget about eternal life or the truth contained in the Word of God and continue to walk in the way of the world, muddled, deluded, and greatly deceived — under strong delusion.

For if Jesus was not, is not sinless all our faith is in vain. We’ve just been wasting our time and we’re all certifiably nuts!

Time to decide, Christian, time to REALLY decide, believe, and then live accordingly.

Ken Pullen, A CROOKED PATH, Saturday, May 20th, 2023

 

Less than half of born-again Christians believe Jesus lived a sinless life on Earth: study

Millions of Christians no longer attending church since the pandemic

 

By Leonardo Blair

Reprinted from The Christian Post

 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, fewer born-again Christians now say that Jesus lived a sinless life during his time on Earth, and church attendance has dropped by some 15 million people weekly, a new study from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University shows.

The findings came from The American Worldview Inventory 2023, an annual tracking study of the worldview of U.S. adults involving 2,000 people from across the country and conducted under the supervision of George Barna, director of research at the Cultural Research Center.

While born-again Christians make up about one-third of all U.S. adults and are considered “the backbone of local church activity because of their higher level of commitment to the Christian faith,” the study shows that between 2020 and 2023, the share of those who say they believe Jesus did not commit sins during his lifetime on Earth fell from 58% to 44%.

Jesus being sinless is central to the hope Christians have in Him as Savior explains the apologetics website Got Questions because, “If Jesus were not sinless, there would be no sacrifice for sin.”

“The apostle Peter stated it clearly: ‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.’ (1 Peter 2:22) Indeed, as Jesus Christ is God, He has no capacity to sin,” the Christian website explains.

This shift in belief among born-again Christians was among six that showed a significant decline in the past three years that Barna characterized as “indefensible.”

Fewer than half of born-again Christians also now believe they have a unique, God-given calling or purpose. The share of those who held that belief fell from 88% to a staggering 46% during the pandemic.

A downward trend was also observed among those who say the Bible is unambiguous in its teaching about abortion. That belief fell from 58% to 44%. Those who say human life is sacred fell from 60% to 48%, and the number of born-again Christians who say God is the basis of all truth fell from 69% to 63% over the period.

The share of born-again believers who say they are deeply committed to practicing their religious faith fell from 85% to 50%, while the share of those who say they read or study the Bible at least once a week fell from 60% to 55%.

When it comes to the general population of U.S. adults, Barna said the share of the population that claims to hold a biblical worldview fell from 6% to 4% in the last three years, while less than half now claim to be “deeply committed to practicing” their religious faith. That measure fell from 60% to 48%.

Barna also found that only 33% of adults now say they attend church service during a typical week which shows “a decline representing the loss of about 15 million churchgoing adults each week.”

The veteran researcher said the findings on the drastic shift in Christian belief over such a short period of time are “highly unusual” because “religious beliefs and behaviors have typically been a hallmark of consistency.”

“Most religious beliefs change over the course of generations, not a few years,” Barna said. “However, we know that major life crises have the capacity to introduce substantial change quickly in the foundations of people’s faith.”

And the impact of COVID-19 has been significant.

“The pandemic was certainly a life crisis for our nation, so even though this magnitude of spiritual shift was not expected, it is feasible given the physical and psychological effects of COVID along with the economic, relational, and lifestyle effects of the government’s drastic policies,” Barna explained.

As he warned in the 2022 Worldview Inventory, Barna noted that a significant driver behind the decline in Christians holding on to a biblical worldview is syncretism, an ideology described as “the worldview that merges otherwise incompatible philosophies of life into a made-to-order worldview that incorporates enough biblical elements to be minimally Christian in nature.”

“Although some of the belief and behavior shifts seem to conflict with each other, this is precisely what happens when the prevailing worldview of the nation is Syncretism,” Barna said.

“Syncretism does not rely upon logic or consistency. Over time, many people struggle with the conflicts inherent in their syncretistic belief system, and the strange jumble of behaviors that emerge from those beliefs,” he added. “But for the foreseeable future, it is likely most people will ignore their incompatible philosophies and make do the best they can. They are seeking comfort and security more than spiritual and intellectual consistency.”