FAKE CHRISTIANITY
By Rhoda Collins
A recent study states that “more teens today are becoming “fake” Christians and the church leadership and parents are to blame!
Kenda Dean, a minister and professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and the author of “Almost Christian,” argues that “many parents and pastors are unsuspectingly passing on this self-serving strain of Christianity. This “imposter” faith is one of the reasons teenagers abandon churches.”
“What are the “Christians” today in the western culture but a “mutant” form of Christianity? More teenagers are embracing what is called “moralistic therapeutic deism.” Translation: It’s a watered-down faith that portrays God as a “divine therapist” whose chief goal is to boost people’s self-esteem.”
“If this is the God they’re seeing in church, they are right to leave us in the dust,” Dean says. “Churches don’t give them enough to be passionate about.”
Dean conducted an in-depth survey of at least 3,300 American teenagers between 13 and 17 about their faith, and found that most American teens who called themselves Christian were indifferent and inarticulate about their faith.
The study included Christians of all stripes — from Catholics to Protestants of both conservative and liberal denominations. Though three out of four American teenagers claim to be Christian, fewer than half practice their faith, only half deem it important, and most can’t talk comprehensibly about their beliefs!
Dean said, “Some adults don’t expect much from youth pastors. They simply want them to keep their children off drugs and away from premarital sex.”
“Others practice a “gospel of niceness,” where faith is simply doing good and not ruffling feathers. Pastors often preach a safe message that can bring in the largest number of congregants. The result: more people and yawning in the pews. Most pastors are interested in how many members they have recorded and how much money they can collect. I am not saying that is wrong to see how many people come to church but if this is their focus it is not fulfilling what God appointed them to do.”
Rhoda commenting now… this minister presents a dire warning to us of the dreadful state of the church, its leaders, its attendees and their blasé faith and dead doctrines! Unbelievably after such a study, she offers absolutely no spiritual solutions to turn or stop this decay of Christianity!
This minister, professor and author, with her worldly fix-it plan, is just as much a part of the problem as are the spiritually dead people she writes about.
This needs spiritual warfare by Eagle Christians to release the captives. This needs parents and leaders to get back to real Biblical, spiritual Christianity.
This needs for every person to stop attending spiritually dead churches!
This needs submission to God, not man!
This needs demonstrations of God’s power to move from fake Christianity and from blasphemy!
“I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 2: 3-5
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Naomi Hanna2 November 2016
Wow Sister Rhoda, this article is so true! Jesus warns us to not be like the church in Revelation that has “a name that you are living, but are dead.” We Christians who have been born-again and blood washed, need to wake up, Repent and get serious with God…time is running out! Thanks much, God bless!!!