Where are the Christians?

Richard Hollerman

Most of us wonder about those who profess to be Christians—but we have serious concerns about whether or not they have been truly saved. This is one reason why I use the term, “professing Christians,” so often. We know that not everyone who claims to be a Christian is a true Christian. I recall that one family wrote and castigated me for using such a term and thought that I should only use Christian. But hopefully you can see the reasoning.

But isn’t it true? Isn’t it true that not everyone who professes to be a follower of Christ really is one? Thus, we believe that most persons who say they are Christians are really not Christians. Yes, they may have gone through a so-called “Sinner’s Prayer.” (See our article on this subject on this website) Yes, they may use the term “Christian” to identify themselves. But their lives really don’t show that they truly know and follow the Lord Jesus. Even Barna, in his well-known polls, claims that only 10 percent of professing Christians are truly Christians. They may use the right terms but they actually don’t believe what is necessary to be saved.  If he (as an Evangelical) can believe and say this, surely the number of truly saved persons is much lower.

Let’s change course now and directly ask about how people identify themselves. We know that if such a subject where presented to people 70 or 80 years ago, many or actually most of them would claim to be Christians. This would be true even though they may have not even truly been saved. But the general idea would be that if one were a good, religious person, he or she would be able to claim salvation.

Today is far different! We’ve recently read an article in the January-February 2020 issue of “Answers” magazine. The article was entitled, “Christianity’s Decline Continues?” This was written by Avery Foley. Let’s examine a few of his findings (which reflect Pew Research Center’s findings).

Avery claims that some 17 percent of Americans presently claim to believe “nothing in particular.” It is the group that is often referred to as “nones”—a very large group in the United States. Only a decade ago the number was 12 percent. Now the number is about one in five of the population!

This author (Avery) says that the self-identified “Christians” continues to decrease. A decade ago, some 77 percent of people in America claimed to be Christians. The number is now 65 percent! In only ten years, 12 percent of people ceased to believe (or died). This may seem inconsequential to you, but this is a large number!

When it comes to younger people, only 49 percent (slightly less than half) of Millennials “claim Christianity as their religion.” When it comes to the “Silent Generation” (born between 1925 and 1945), some 84 percent claim Christianity. The Baby Boomers (1946 to 1964), some 76 percent profess Christianity. And 67 percent of Gen Xers (born 1965 to 1980) claim Christianity as their religion. But let’s remember that only 49 percent of younger people assert that they are “Christians”!

As secularism continues to march forward, we see a lower number of people believing in Christianity. As Avery states: “As cultural Christianity declines, fewer people have a shared knowledge of God as Creator, his Word as truth, and Jesus as Savior. Instead, their religious foundation is ‘nothing in particular’—which is just a self-pleasing assortment of beliefs from various world religions, including secularism and humanism, which are both based on evolutionary philosophy.”

This finding shows that the world around us is making inroads into the beliefs of people in general (we are referring to America in particular). Whether people are being influenced by Islam, by Eastern Religions, by atheism, or by other forms of belief or disbelief, we can see these influences. No longer is the conservative “Christian” merely dealing with the cults, Roman Catholicism, the Orthodox, or other religions. Now they are being influenced by a wide variety of non-Christian groups and philosophies.

As we read these statistics, you may become depressed (as I was). But we should remember a few points that this information brings to us. First, many other countries of the world have far, far worst figures than this. Think of the preponderance of either atheists or Russian Orthodox in Russia. Think of the number of atheists and Buddhists in China. Think of the Hindus and Muslims in India. And also the Muslims in North Africa and the Middle East. Professing “Christians” are far fewer than the ones we have noticed for America.

Second, let’s remember that most of the 65 percent of self-identified “Christians” in America are not truly saved. They may claim the “religion” of “Christianity” but they may know very little about the ways of Christ. Their lives may be the same as their neighbors even though they say that they “believe” in Jesus. We need to begin to develop a more realistic and accurate way of looking at people and groups of people.

Third, it is comforting to realize that even though the way of Christ exploded in the first century world (cf. Acts 2:47; 5:14; 11:21), still the number of Christians was about one million in the Roman empire—out of a total of about 181 million people by the year AD 100. (http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=320929). Thus, even though this number is large we must remember that Christianity was still a minority view. Thus, even though it may be so today, it is something that we should expect.

As we evaluate all of this, we must soberly realize that the number of professing Christians is slowly (or quickly) decreasing. Thus we must realize that God knew all about this. He knew that America was originally a place where the majority for several centuries professed some sort of Christianity, most were not actually saved. Most were not children of God, even though they would consider themselves part of Christianity.

We should also remember that millions of people in Sub-Sahara Africa and Asia profess Christianity. The numbers are growing. Again, it is true that most of these people are not truly saved, yet they do profess to believe in Christ and claim to follow His ways. This is surely better than those who outright reject Christ and His will—and are militant in their opposition.

Let us press on with the monumental task before us. Let us do what we can with what we have. Let us believe in Jesus the Lord and the Son of God regardless of who doesn’t believe. Let’s believe in the blessed words of our Lord: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lies and believe in Me will never die” (John 11:25-26a). Do we believe this?