I kept the heading created by the Washington Examiner intact, although it is pathetically, grossly misleading. But then, why would any so-called journalist or media outlet bother to write or speak clearly, and accurately in these times? And I mean ANY so-called news outlet and the overwhelming majority of those reporting what is classified as news.

Religion isn’t in decline.

Religion is at an all-time high. Let’s know our definitions, meanings, history, and the times that we live in.

TRUE CHRISTIANITY is in decline in America. Not religion.

Paganism, witchcraft, every false faith that leads nowhere except to the Second Death, self-idolization, idolization of money, material things, children, work, politics, nationalism, the pursuit of pleasure, and every other religion to take an individual, thus a nation of people, further from the God of the Christian and Jewish Bible, from the whole truth of the Lord Jesus Christ who was fully truly a man, while also fully truly the living and eternal part of the Triune God, taking on flesh, without sin, living among us, being murdered for our sin, to conquer death and rise from the dead on the Third Day…

…all the aforementioned religions devoid of the One True God, devoid of Jesus Christ, devoid of the Holy Spirit, devoid of the Holy Bible — all those are on the rise in America.

THIS is the most followed and adhered to definition of religion in America today; a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance.

I am religious about where I keep my car fob, my glasses, the TV remote, and my prescriptions among other things. Yes, truly religious about those things as I ascribe a supreme importance to knowing where those things are when needed.

Earlier this year I was called out on the carpet, severely admonished by a young pastor and even younger elder, and told I was the problem because the definitions and meanings of words mattered so much to me. They told me it wasn’t the decline, deconstruction, and decay of language taking place, that it was merely the evolution of language and I believed as I did because I am so old. If I were younger then I would not have this malady, this ailment.

Do not be misled or deceived by the subtlety of language using sleight-of-words, slickness, cunning, a word used here, there, to continue the erosion and failure to communicate directly, pointedly, accurately, factually, faithfully, and truthfully.

The first and former definition of religion; the belief in and worship of a superhuman power or powers, especially a God — is no longer in use. The former definition mentioned above is the prevailing one presently, and to come.

Religion is thriving. Religion is at an all-time high in America.

It’s the true pursuit of the One True God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, through the Illumination of the Holy Spirit, found in the reading, belief, and meditation upon God’s inerrant Word that is in decline.

It is being a light unto the world, the salt of the earth, a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, a true child of God rather than a child of disobedience that is in decline. NOT religion.

Everything else, every other pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance is having a field day. A revival. It’s the best time in such a long time for paganism and self-worship, now rebranded as New Age dogmas and doctrines to be more palatable to folks and have them adopt, accept, and approve of such practices, words, and beliefs in daily life are at an all-time high in America, in the Western world.

Do you see, do you hear that?

The signs of the times?

When even those professing to be faithful Christians, conservatives, and reporters of facts cannot deal in the right words. Say the right things. Clearly, directly and resolutely.

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; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

2 Timothy 4:3-4

Romans 1

That time, those times, these Biblical times are here and now.

Not a culture or political war being waged and raging, no, dear ones, the primary, greatest, most important, and ongoing war taking place within and around every person in America, every person on earth is the spiritual war. It all begins there. Ends there. Is the root of everything else.

But who wants to speak that directly or clearly in these times when the people are so easily misled and consumed with everything other than what is factual, reality, and the truth?

I had a relative, also a longtime friend, tell me when I began this place; “If you would stop writing all that religious stuff you’d be a lot more popular.”

So, that’s what it’s all about here in this life? Being popular? Accepted? Not standing apart and standing outside the baying, bellowing mass?

No wonder I’m not popular, but then, I am assured in my spirit of being forgiven of my sin for my faith and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, and look to that time when I am fully within the eternity of heaven with my Lord and God and all the heavenly hosts.

And everything that was here is here, is yet to be here is forever, eternally forgotten. Even who and what was most popular once upon a time…eternally forgotten in the eternal living within heaven with the One True God.

Imagine that, if you can…heaven above us, hell below us, no religion other than the One True One to the Father…

And, yes, the decline of true Christianity, true faith in the One True God, in Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit, and in the inerrant infallible living Word of God is causing quite a few problems in America, in every Western nation…

…but religion? The overwhelming dominant definition being followed; pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance — leaving the One True God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the whole inerrant infallible Scriptures out…well…

It’s at its heyday, with even more to come. Making matters much worse. Unless true faithful Christian repentance and revival, beginning with individuals occurs.

Ken Pullen, A CROOKED PATH, Thursday, August 3rd, 2023

Religion is in retreat. Here’s why that’s a problem

August 02, 2023

By Jack Elbaum

Reprinted from The Washington Examiner

The secularization of America continues apace.

Earlier this week, Gallup released a poll showing that belief in God, along with four other “spiritual entities,” including angels and heaven, is at a record low. In 2001, 90% believed in God, and 83% believed in heaven. Today, the proportions are 74% and 67%, respectively, a drop of more than a dozen points each.

These findings are not necessarily surprising. After all, by almost every available metric, the public has been becoming less religious for decades at this point. Fewer people are attending religious services, fewer say religion is important to them, and, as we see here, fewer believe in God.

Some celebrate this. They look at religion as fundamentally superstitious and anachronistic. As such, a move away from religion supposedly represents both moral and intellectual advancement.

But there is reason to believe this interpretation is deeply mistaken. Research shows religion is associated with better physical and mental health, feelings of gratitude, involvement in civic society, general happiness, and charitable giving.

A Wall Street Journal essay from June outlined how significant the health benefit of religion is. The piece mentions a Mayo Clinic analysis that found higher death rates “among people who never attend religious services compared with those who attend several times a week is comparable to that associated with smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.” Another study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found “that those who attended religious services at least once a week had 33% lower mortality, from any cause, over a 16-year period.” Not to mention the finding that “attending services at least once a week or more cut the suicide rate by 80%, even when controlling for diagnoses of depression, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.”

On gratitude, a study published in the International Journal for the Psychology of Religion remarkably found that while “persistent financial difficulties fail to exert a statistically significant effect on depressive symptoms over time for older individuals who are especially grateful, … frequent church attendance and stronger God-mediated control beliefs are associated with positive changes in gratitude over time.” Many other studies support this finding. It makes sense intuitively. A Loyola Marymount philosophy professor writing in the Washington Post points out that religious believers have more to be grateful for because it means nothing, including our very existence, is the consequence of mere chance. Religion also intentionally cultivates gratitude as a virtue. The first thing Jews say every morning, for example, is a prayer translated as “I thank You, living and enduring King, for You have graciously returned my soul within me. Great is Your faithfulness.”

There is a similar story when it comes to involvement in civic society. A massive, multi-country study published in The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science finds “that both religious tradition and, more important, church attendance play an important role in fostering involvement in civil society.” Tim Carney, in his book Alienated America, reveals through deep on-the-ground reporting that secularization is one of the central causes of decaying civic and community life in America today, leading people to become increasingly isolated from their neighbors and feel alienated from the society around them.

It should be no surprise, then, that religion breeds charity and general happiness as well. It gives people a sense of place within this world, a sense of meaning and direction. Those who are irreligious are certainly not precluded from any of these important characteristics, but rather I just want to point out religion’s unique position relative to them.

This signals that there is something about religion that is equal parts essential yet also thoroughly intangible. It is not necessary to understand what precisely that something is. But it is certainly necessary to understand that it exists. The reason is simple: “When we lose religion, we lose something much deeper as well. We lose strong communities, social support, charity, and civic society involvement.” It matters because the health of society more broadly declines when we lose those things. And we’re all worse off for it.

We must realize that even though it seems there is no stopping the rising tide of secularism, it does not come without a cost.