Did you know that for the first time in decades less than 50 percent of the world's population calls itself religious? Church attendance has taken a huge hit since the year 2000. A big part of the situation is that the old members are simply dying off and the newer generation doesn't see religion as a desired aspect of life.
Being a church goer, and especially a Baptist church goer, is looked at as being on the right side of the political spectrum. Which to many is perceived as being prudish or out of touch with the mainstream. Being against: same-sex marriage, homosexuality and abortion, is not popular these days. How sad.
One specialist, who was raised in the Southern Baptist church, snickered as she corrected her interviewer saying, "I am not a Southern Baptist any more!" She was so quick to shed her spiritual roots. She, being the expert in religion that she is, said that pastors these days, are taking their congregations "nowhere". And thus no-one wants to be associated with religious gatherings or groups.
I seem to remember Jesus Christ once saying that the gates of hell would not be able to stand shut against the advance of his church. Do you remember his comment? Does church membership decline worry you? Or is it actually proof of one of Jesus' other dire comments about the way to heaven being, the narrow way that few people find?
Religious people have always been the cover-up of the truly saved people. God's elect are the few who have been mixed with, what one version calls the tares amongst the wheat. Those tares will grow to maturity and then be separated from the real deal wheat. That separation will come with the judgment of Jesus Christ. The tares, or goats as another passage calls them, will be cast into outer darkness. There, church attendance will be the last thing that they'll be worried about.
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