We all no doubt have heard about the trends in American society away from religion. Polls have noted that in 1972 the number of Americans who said they adhered to no particular religion was 5%. A recent poll says that number has increased to 25%. Some of these people would say they believe in God even though they identify with no particular religion. Studies have been done of the “Nones” (people who say they have no religion affiliation). One study says that of those adults who were raised religious, sixty percent say they simply don’t believe what their religion taught them.

Sadly enough, many professing Christian churches and groups have so compromised their beliefs and have adapted to the anti-God, anti-Bible trends of the culture around them, that there is not much difference between them and those who are not “religious” at all.

One study of these trends reported in The Washington Post investigated the way people have been raised in recent years and whether or not they stuck with the religion they had been taught. What changes in society have been parallel to the drop in religious faith? The study especially focused on the subject of divorce. Divorce rates reached high levels in the 1980s with around half of marriages ending in divorce. The rates peaked in the year 2000 and have been dropping slightly since. However, the divorce rates do not take into account those who simply live together and separate or the rates of separation.

The study noted that children of divorced couples are less religious than people raised in homes where the parents stayed together. The study said that when the divorce rates climbed many pastors and churches stopped speaking out against divorce so as not to alienate people. They basically went silent on the issue and left people and their children without answers and often without help. They offered little comfort and help to the children caught in the middle of divorce.

Now that these children have become adults, they do not feel that the church will help them in other areas of their lives. The conclusion of the study of divorce and religion is that “divorce has eroded religion.”

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While all of this is true, it is also true that the compromise in churches in the last century has led to many problems in our society including the retreat of belief and trust in God and His Son Jesus Christ. Rather than teaching, promoting, and living what the Bible teaches about divorce and other trends in society, churches have followed the trends away from God, sometimes only a step behind the “world” and now it seems almost in tandem with the corruption of society. In the 1900s churches and church groups gave in to the divorce trend in spite of what the Bible says. They tried to stand against other trends such as abortion and same sex relationships, but now many are caving in on those issues as well. On the road to apostasy and spiritual downfall, there is no convenient stopping place.

People forget or ignore the words of Jesus on divorce. “Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery” (Luke 16:18). Paul then reconfirmed them in 1 Corinthians 7:10, 11: “Unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.”

Further, many churches fail to teach their people Bible principles on husband and wife relationships and how they need to relate to one another and be loyal to each other. “Let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband” (Ephesians 5:33).

We need to get back to the Bible and its sure foundation or we and our children will become not only irreligious but even agnostic and eventually atheistic. This leads to God’s judgment now and eternally. We need to identify with and become part of a church that take a firm stand on the Bible that can give us and our families a stable foundation in dangerous times.

From: Reaching Out

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