HUMANISTS and secularists are heartened by what they see as a fact: that we are in a post-Christian era and that the Christian Church is in its death throes. The Church is well and truly on its way to extinction and utter oblivion, they tell us.
It is true that various denominations which were once more or less orthodox are experiencing a drastic drop in the numbers attending church. It is so in our national Churches in the United Kingdom, and in other old denominations such as the Baptists and Methodists. Every week, hundreds of people terminate their connection with the Church.
It was recently reported on Church Net UK that in the Methodist Church for example, the current rate of decline “is 26 members a day. More than 50,000 members have been lost, out of 1.2 million.” The Daily Telegraph reports that “the Church said that if the trend continues it could only survive financially for two or three more years.”
The last Scottish Church Census shows that only 14 per cent of adults attend church. In the Church of Scotland itself, the membership declined last year by 17,018 to a low of 701,914.
The situation is worse in England where only 10 per cent attend church. In the Church of England, according to its new report ‘Youth a Part’, since 1987 there has been a fall of 35 per cent in the numbers of 14 to 17-year-olds attending church services.
It must be said that much of this decline in attendance and church commitment is due to a decline in the national Churches themselves in the matter of giving Scripture teaching to the people. If professed ministers of the gospel call into question the doctrines of Scripture, or even deny them, need they wonder that the people will treat the Christian faith as an irrelevancy?
But even in Churches which on the whole are yet adhering to the Reformed Faith, there is a steady decrease in numbers. In our own Church, when we make comparisons between our strength now and that of two or three decades ago, we see that there has been a slow diminishing, (apart from that caused by the schism of 1989).
The enemies of godliness are heartened, as we said, by the decline in the Christian Church. But, on the other hand, the godly in their concern for the Church, have great reason to be heartened. Christ’s promise still stands: “Upon this rock I will build my church.” The day is coming when there will be a large and speedy extending of His Church.
This seems hard to believe when we see the steady growth of false religions. Also, the ungodly are apparently having it all their own way, and in numerous instances they spew out their blasphemies against Heaven and heap scorn on the enfeebled Church. In doing Satan’s work they echo the words of God’s enemies of the past, “With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?” But they shall not prevail. “Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” – this is the pledge of the Head of the Church.
Not only will Satan and his numerous and powerful agents fail to demolish the true Church – they will not prevail also in the sense of resisting the Church when it marches forth under the banner of the great King against her enemies. It is He who shall prevail, both by successfully resisting His enemies and also by overcoming them. Therefore, the Church shall be more than conquerors through Him. What a heartening prospect!
The building up of His Church will never occur until He Himself will work by sending forth His Spirit. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.” Then there will be a great upbuilding. “I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it.” Here is a promise which is as applicable to the true Church today as it was to the Old Testament Church.
But we are to note that if ever there was a day when it was necessary to cry to God to come down to build His Church, it is our day. His building His Sion in this world will be in answer to the prayers of His people. “He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.” Then they, and multitudes with them, will behold His glorious majesty.
“When Sion by the mighty Lord
built up again shall be,
In glory then and majesty
to men appear shall he.” (Metrical Ps. 102:16).