For the first time in history, those who said they were “Christian” in the most recent census of the United Kingdom and Wales has dropped to 46.2% of the population. It means that some 6.2 million people have walked away from Christianity in the past decade, down from 59.3% in the previous census. Hindus increased by 636,000; Sikhs increased by 101,000; Islam increased by 1.2 million; and Judaism increased by 6,000. Christianity was the only religion that decreased, nosediving by the millions. The 6.2 million that left Christianity didn’t necessarily choose another religion. The gains in other religions combined only totaled 1.943 million. The fastest growing religion in the UK and Wales is “no religion.”
Those who said they were “no religion” grew by 8.1 million to 37.2% of the UK and Wales population. In other words, Christianity not only lost 6.2 million people in the last decade, but nearly an additional two million have decided they are “no religion.” While Christianity is still the majority religion in the UK and Wales, it is losing ground at an alarming rate. These are not just statistics, they are souls. Once a nation that sought to evangelize the world and the religious leaders were so powerful that they essentially ran the government, now are in rapid decline. Nearly 40% of the population is choosing no religion at all, signaling a great failure of the “church.”
What we see in Europe also is happening in America as large numbers of youth and others are leaving the “church.” A February 2018 Barna Research study indicated that 61% of Christian teens say “I find God elsewhere and 64% of non-Christian teens say “church is not relevant to me personally.” Many Christian commentators conclude that churches are distorting the teachings of the Bible, have over-philosophized scripture, and teach an extra-biblical, emotional and self-indulgent version of the gospel—enough so that they have lost an estimated 60% of millennials who were raised in the church. This apathy about church carries over to political and societal beliefs that are fomenting a decline in society, as exit polls indicate youth ages 18-29 are the only age group in which a strong majority support candidates with anti-biblical views.
People are rejecting the most precious gift ever bestowed on mankind—the gift of salvation. In John 3:19, Christ says, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” Rejecting the light of Christ is the gravest of condemnation that mankind can bring upon itself. But what we are experiencing before us is prophetic. 2 Thessalonians 2:3 says, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come (the return of Christ), except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” There is a great falling away in progress. The “church” shoulders a lot of the blame, but those who knowingly reject the gift of salvation are responsible for their own fate. They are the growing apostasy, and that is, say it with me…Stupidocrisy.
