2010 In Review

Documentation for every aspect of this report may be found on the corresponding topic pages in Prophecy Central and Apologetics Central.

Scripture quotations are from the New International Version. Hypertext links to Scriptures are to the King James Version in the Blue Letter Bible.

APOSTASY AND REVIVAL

8 - Alarming Developments

Corruption of Christianity
Apostasy, or “falling away” of Christians from truth and godliness, is a serious and growing problem.

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. – 1 Timothy 4:1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. - 2 Timothy 3:1-5

In this section we will show how these Scriptures describe the decline of faith in America (as we follow the lead of Europe), but we will see that there is hope for an End-Times revival. Furthermore, Christianity is vigorous and growing in many parts of the globe. George Barna and his organization have identified six major trends in the Church in America, and they are mostly negative. Here are their major findings:

1. The Christian Church is becoming less theologically literate.

2. Christians are becoming more ingrown and less outreach-oriented.

3. Growing numbers of people are less interested in spiritual principles and more desirous of learning pragmatic solutions for life.

4. Among Christians, interest in participating in community action is escalating.

5. The postmodern insistence on tolerance is winning over the Christian Church.

6. The influence of Christianity on culture and individual lives is largely invisible.

Total attendance in churches in America has declined, but megachurches are generally growing at the expense of smaller churches. People with a consumer mentality are attracted to the churches they think can offer bigger and better programs for their benefit instead of being willing to stay and make their own churches more effective.

Many pastors, in an effort to be please people, ignore the pressing moral issues of the day and fail to teach the Scriptural truth about the consequences of sin. They avoid anything that is controversial. They need to remember what Paul told Timothy:

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. -2 Timothy 4:2-4

Abortion
The killing of millions of babies in their mothers’ wombs continues to violate the Scripture’s teaching about the sanctity of life. Visit our Abortion section for helpful news stories and statistics like this one: “It would have taken about 342 Hiroshima type nuclear attacks to kill as many people as abortion has killed since Roe vs. Wade.”

Homosexuality
Old mainline denominations continue to drift away from clear biblical teaching against homosexuality (Genesis 19:1-26; Leviticus 18:22; Romans 1:24-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9- 11; 1 Timothy 1:10). The Episcopal Church has gone so far as to ordain a lesbian assistant bishop, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which lifted its ban on noncelibate gay clergy a year ago, is experiencing massive defections. Many other denominations are either silent or conciliatory on the issue, following the culture shift instead of leading people to the truth.

A new federal hate-crimes law specifically allows ministers to be critical of homosexuality from the pulpit, but many pastors use this law as an excuse for not teaching what the Bible has to say about the problem.

Organized Atheism
The American Atheists group spent $20,000 for a billboard in New York that says, "You KNOW it's a Myth. This Season, Celebrate REASON!"

Negative impressions about Christianity
A proposal to build an Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero has caused national outrage. The debate resulted in some harsh rhetoric and actions from Christian leaders. One response brought negative attention to the church when a Gainesville, Florida, pastor threatened to burn copies of the Qur’an in protest.

Pope Benedict XVI was accused of delaying church action against pedophile priests in Ireland, Germany, the United States and other countries when he led the Vatican office in charge of discipline from 1981 to 2005.

The world was startled to hear about the bankruptcy of the Crystal Cathedral during the year. Poor offerings have affected most churches, and many are actually facing foreclosures.

Blending of Religions
A G8 World Religions Summit was held in Winnipeg, Manitoba from June 21-23. The multi-faith event included Hindu swamis in flowing orange attire, members of the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs dressed in desert garb, Jewish yamakas, cross pendants and clerical collars, Shinto robes, and Orthodox priests in black. There were even some Protestants, including Evangelicals, at the summit.

9 - Encouraging Signs
Is the apostasy so great that there is no hope of revival? Actually, there is reason to believe that there will be a great revival in the End Times. One way of expressing this is the saying, “As the darkness gets deeper, the light shines brighter.” From this year’s news we glean two encouraging signs.

1-There is hope for revival in America.

2- Christianity is growing very rapidly in parts of the globe where the Gospel is least known.

Revival in America But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. – 2 Peter 3:8-9

In the same passage (2 Peter 3:11-12) Peter wrote that we can speed the Lord’s return. This must mean that by winning other people to Christ we shorten the wait for His return.

There is a connection between the Great Apostasy and an End-Times revival. Looking back through the Bible, we se that The Lord warned people and gave them a chance to repent before his judgment. Difficult times often bring people to their senses about spiritual things. There are several judgments recorded in the Bible where The Lord gave opportunity for people to repent before the catastrophe occurred. The Flood of Noah’s time, Sodom and Gomorrah, and especially the story of Jonah and Nineveh are all examples of this truth. Sometimes they repented, and sometimes they did not.

The Midterm Elections in the US were a repudiation far-left ideology, wasteful spending and socialistic tendencies in the nation. Some of the most prominent newer politicians are strong believers in Jesus Christ and are not ashamed to declare their beliefs.

There are some powerful prayer movements, such as the International House Of Prayer that could blossom into a much-needed revival in our country.

Growth of Christianity Worldwide
Whether or not America will be revived, great things are already happening in many parts of the globe. Contrary to popular opinion, it can be shown that evangelical Christianity is the fastest growing religion in the world.

According to the book "Megashift," by Jim Rutz, Christianity is overlooked as the fastest-growing faith in the world because most surveys only look at the traditional Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church, while ignoring Christian believers who have no part of either.

Rutz claims there are 707 million "switched-on disciples" in this exploding "church," and that if present trends continue, the entire world would be composed of such believers by the year 2032.

Western Christianity is no longer the primary source of missionary activity. Non- Western evangelicals now outnumber Westerners by seven to one! They are nearly invisible to Western observers because they are not associated with the institutional churches at all. In fact, for the most part, they meet in secret, and their evangelism is often validated by miracles.

It is difficult to confirm many of the claims of this book and the movement it describes, and it could lead to the unbiblical conclusion that these new evangelicals will usher in the Millennial Kingdom without the well-known prophecies of the End Times being fulfilled first. We should watch this trend prayerfully and evaluate it biblically.

Final harvest during the Tribulation Period
The Bible says that during the Tribulation there will be a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb (Revelation 7:9-10).

Jesus taught that Gospel would finally be preached to the whole world.

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. - Matthew 24:9-14

When you study this passage in its context, you find that the setting is the first half of the Tribulation, just before the defilement of the Temple and the institution of the Mark of the Beast. During the Tribulation it is likely that all true Christians will be “witnesses” for Christ and many will be “martyrs” (same Greek word, martureo).

The two prophets and 144,000 witnesses will be protected by God’s power so that they can effectively preach the Gospel during the Tribulation (Revelation 11; Revelation 7; Revelation 14).

The “Mark of the Beast” (Revelation 13) will force people to finally make up their mind, resulting in many brave conversions in spite of the consequences.

Finally the lord will use angels flying in the heavens to finish evangelizing the people during the tribulation (Revelation 14). They will proclaim the eternal gospel to all people and warn them of judgment.

MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES

10 – 2012
Declining Concern about 2012 In recent years there has been growing interest in the fact that the Mayan calendars end at 2012, and the assumption that this would mean that the Earth would be destroyed at that time. In 2010 there seemed to be a decline in attention to this matter.

According to Mayan historians, the year 2012 would not be the end of the world, but just the end of their long cycle of time based on their study of the stars. The Egyptians had similar beliefs about this cycle. Both cultures were aware of the fact that the position of the constellations changes very slowly over time, due to the tilt of the Earth’s axis. The time it would take for the Constellations to make a complete cycle would be nearly 26,000 years. At the end of that cycle the Earth and Solar System would supposedly be aligned with the galactic plane of the Milky Way.

The 2009 movie “2012” was the ultimate action film. The special effects were numerous and amazing throughout the show. The plot revolved around the idea that huge explosions on the surface of the Sun, known as Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) will increase, causing overheating of the Earth’s core and result in worldwide disaster. NASA, the preeminent authority on space science, says that there is no scientific reason for these dreaded events to take place. They have posted a special website to answer questions about the movie’s claims.

Solar Eruptions
NASA and other authorities do say that the normal 11-year cycle of solar activity will reach its peak in 2010, and that it seems more intense than ever this time around. In August they observed an unusually significant event. They say that explosion affected an entire hemisphere of the Sun all at once, sending billion-ton clouds of hot gas into space.

"The August 1st event really opened our eyes," says Karel Schrijver of Lockheed Martin's Solar and Astrophysics Lab in Palo Alto, CA. "We see that solar storms can be global events, playing out on scales we scarcely imagined before.”

We will continue to monitor these CMEs this year. It should be obvious that if the Tribulation Period were to begin in the near future that these disturbances could account for some of the predicted plagues of that time.