Collapse of Protestantism in the USA

[Dominus Fidelis]

"We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0310/p09s01-coop.html

Which reminds me of another article I saw yesterday about Texas becoming more Catholic as "American Christianity" is shrinking down in general.

http://religionblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/03/texas-is-getting-more-catholic.html

It makes me wonder about the religious landscape of the world in the next 100 years. Its seems like it will be nothing but Muslims and Catholics (with a small amount of Eastern Orthodox), which makes me wonder about other things, like end-times, final battle of Revelation, etc. But I'm on a tangent now... Nevermind.

 

[Dominus Fidelis]

Oops, I just saw another thread about this...but mine has another article too, so read mine instead! Ha!

A house divided will fall, I guess.

 

[SecretOfFatima]

Did you hear about a recent protestant research carried out?

U.S. Protestants more loyal to toothpaste brand than church

 

[Dominus Fidelis]

The 16th century "reformers" must be proud. How many souls will be lose when its all said and done?

 

[MoNiCa4316]

hmmm..interesting.. where I am, evangelical Protestantism seems to be growing and growing! but maybe that's just among college students LOL. (also I don't live in the US).

THis seems very accurate:

Expect evangelicalism to look more like the pragmatic, therapeutic, church-growth oriented megachurches that have defined success. Emphasis will shift from doctrine to relevance, motivation, and personal success – resulting in churches further compromised and weakened in their ability to pass on the faith.

 

[MoNiCa4316]

The 16th century "reformers" must be proud. How many souls will be lose when its all said and done?

yea Protestantism is indeed a house divided..

 

[Mikeb85]

It makes me wonder about the religious landscape of the world in the next 100 years. Its seems like it will be nothing but Muslims and Catholics (with a small amount of Eastern Orthodox), which makes me wonder about other things, like end-times, final battle of Revelation, etc. But I'm on a tangent now... Nevermind.

Eh... There's 300 million Orthodox (450 million including the OO) in the world. Hardly a 'small' amount. Unless by 'world' you're referring to the US...

 

[Mikeb85]

hmmm..interesting.. where I am, evangelical Protestantism seems to be growing and growing! but maybe that's just among college students LOL. (also I don't live in the US).

Evangelical churches seem to have large growth rates for a few years, then when that 'feeling' of growth wears down, they decline again. The Baptist church my parents used to go to was at one time massive, growing incredibly quick, and nowadays is almost completely empty...

 

[Dominus Fidelis]

Eh... There's 300 million Orthodox (450 million including the OO) in the world. Hardly a 'small' amount. Unless by 'world' you're referring to the US...

Really, I didnt know there were that many. Cool.

But compared to over a billion, its relative.

 

[Dominus Fidelis]

http://www.adherents.com/adh_branches.html#Christianity

Catholic 1,050,000,000
Orthodox/Eastern Christian 240,000,000

That's still a lot more than I realized.

 

[MoNiCa4316]

Evangelical churches seem to have large growth rates for a few years, then when that 'feeling' of growth wears down, they decline again. The Baptist church my parents used to go to was at one time massive, growing incredibly quick, and nowadays is almost completely empty...

I see what you mean...

 

[Basil the Great]

I did read recently that even the Southern Baptists are beginning to have problems gaining members.

 

[Dominus Fidelis]

I do fear for this country.

Betweem Obaminations stem cell order, the shutting down of Catholic hopsitals over abortion mandates, the rampant inappropriate contentography addictions, secularization, loss of Protestant Christians to agnosticism, or whatever they end up being...its sad.

 

[HisKid1973]

In our area it's the bible/evangelical churches that are flourishing..It's the mainline churches that are loosing growth...We go to a small BIC church and we,ve gone from 50/60 to 250-300...Newcomers are like 2/3 from mainline Prot/Catholic churches and 1/3 unsaved/ unchurched...We opened a daycare and been have people come who have their children there...

I have seen a shift where people either are commited to Christ or just walking away from christianity...You can see that a major crisis shaking people up to find faith in Christ..Personally, I feel we are in the end times and it wouldn't take much to have christians and other dissidents rounded up...Then you will see who trusts Christ and who will deny him....I just saw a well know preacher sense something drastic in the near future...I have been fellowshipping with brethen at Catholic Awsners who started a thread talking about this...I thought it was pretty cool to have those following the signs of the times like fundies do...We talked about the chance of an anti pope leading a chunk of the flock away...May the Lord draw use closer and give us ears to hear..grace and peace to you..K

 

[ReformedChapin]

I can see by many of the posts here many of you don't understand trust historic protestantism. First of all the vast majority of evangelicalism has long moved away from historic protestant theology. Most of protestantism right now is dispensational in their theology with arminian tendencies. The reformers would be rolling in their graves.

However the reformers saw this as important and they knew it was going to happen. It is important to have religious freedom and have people believe what they want to believe. True Christians (God's elect) will always be guarded by him no matter how nutty the culture goes.

 

[Dominus Fidelis]

I can see by many of the posts here many of you don't understand trust historic protestantism. First of all the vast majority of evangelicalism has long moved away from historic protestant theology. Most of protestantism right now is dispensational in their theology with arminian tendencies. The reformers would be rolling in their graves.

However the reformers saw this as important and they knew it was going to happen. It is important to have religious freedom and have people believe what they want to believe. True Christians (God's elect) will always be guarded by him no matter how nutty the culture goes.

I beg to differ friend. Luther didn't know what he was doing. He actually commented that he had tried to get rid of one Pope and created many more, because everyone could be there own Pope. He regretted it. I've read other Reformers expressing similiar ideas.

The point is that the fracturing of the Protestant ideology has gotten so bad that its getting smaller and smaller pieces until those pieces fall away.

 

[ReformedChapin]

I beg to differ friend. Luther didn't know what he was doing. He actually commented that he had tried to get rid of one Pope and created many more, because everyone could be there own Pope. He regretted it. I've read other Reformers expressing similiar ideas.

The point is that the fracturing of the Protestant ideology has gotten so bad that its getting smaller and smaller pieces until those pieces fall away.

Source?

You are right about one point. Luther didn't intend to start the reformation God did that for him. However being stuck there he knew that God would protect his children.

 

[MoNiCa4316]

God did not start the Reformation. He would never lead His children away from the Sacraments and create disunity among Christians. Disunity is from the devil, always. And God doesn't lead people to come up with new doctrines that Christians have never believed, and He wouldn't lead someone to change the Bible and take out books, and put in the word "alone" for "faith alone" - when it wasn't there before..

I know that modern Protestantism is different from what the Reformers had in mind. But it did start with them. If it wasn't for them, it wouldn't exist at all.

I've read quotes by Martin Luther where he said that he regreted the reformation and that it got rid of one "demon" (which wasn't a demon at all) but brought in many more. And he said that ppl were much worse than they were under the Papacy. Sorry I don't know where to find these quotes now, but they were around the forums.. I'm sure someone has them..

 

[ReformedChapin]

God did not start the Reformation. He would never lead His children away from the Sacraments and create disunity among Christians. Disunity is from the devil, always. And God doesn't lead people to come up with new doctrines that Christians have never believed, and He wouldn't lead someone to change the Bible and take out books, and put in the word "alone" for "faith alone" - when it wasn't there before..

I know that modern Protestantism is different from what the Reformers had in mind. But it did start with them. If it wasn't for them, it wouldn't exist at all.

I've read quotes by Martin Luther where he said that he regreted the reformation and that it got rid of one "demon" (which wasn't a demon at all) but brought in many more. And he said that ppl were much worse than they were under the Papacy. Sorry I don't know where to find these quotes now, but they were around the forums.. I'm sure someone has them..

I would really be interested to see these quotes. These quotes sure do sound out of context to me considering all the works of Martin Luther I have read.

 

[Dominus Fidelis]

God started the Reformation in direct violation of His Word to not take part in schisms?

Which God is that?