by Sam Rohrer

This article was originally published on the Christian Post website HERE.

Where are the fathers? A generation ago, the Supreme Court defied the God of heaven and declared legal the murder of our babies—and our fathers were silent. When the Ten Commandments were declared to be poison to our children’s minds—our pastors were silent. When the courts and culture continue to attack God’s model for family by redefining marriage and human sexuality, why is there such continuing silence?

At the American Pastors Network, we believe that God’s judgment on our nation is in part because fathers and pastors a generation ago refused to oppose evil and actively resist tyranny. The question is, what will our pastors and we as fathers do now? As Mordecai said to Esther of old, if we are silent now, evil will prevail, and freedom will be lost.

Father’s Day’s a good time to consider God’s expectation for fathers. As a father of six and grandfather to 14, I’ve thought much about my role and the fact that fathers create our children’s first image of God. Men, are we demonstrating that God is faithful, loving, patient and kind? Is our discipline consistent and just? Are our children learning God’s protection and provision of needs? Does our love for our wives model Christ’s love for the Church? Do we teach the fear of God in our home by living in the fear of God ourselves? Do we focus on character building in our children to live and think like Christ so His character and nature will be seen through them? Imagine the impact in our homes and our culture if we did.

Fathers hold the key to our families and nation. In Deuteronomy Chapter 6, God told fathers to teach our children five things.

1.     We must lead our children to faith in the LORD, because He is the only God.

2.     We must lead our children to a fervor for the Lord by loving Him with all their heart, soul and mind.

3.     We must lead our children to fear the LORD because that is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom.

4.     We must lead our children to a familiarity of the LORD by learning of Him daily and diligently.

5.     And, then when God blesses—as He will—we must lead our children not to forget the LORD and what He’s done.

If we as fathers would teach our children these things, our homes would be healed, families restored and the nation united. The more we men emulate God—the heavenly Father—the better the husband and father we’ll be. As our fatherhood model, God is the Wise Father. He’s the Great Counselor and Comforter—just, kind, merciful and patient. He’s the Instructor, Guide, Protector and Shield.  He firmly disciplines but does so in love. He loves so much, He gave His son—the perfect sacrifice—to save our souls. He’s the humble servant, yet the greatest leader.  He’s the model—in every way—of what an earthly father should be.

Photo by Sebastián León Prado on Unsplash

If it feels as though the Bible is being pushed out of the American culture, a new Barna study confirms it.

For its 2019 State of the Bible study, Barna discovered that about half of Americans aren’t engaged with the Bible at all.

In a country built on Judeo-Christian principles and God-given rights, says the American Pastors Network , this is a disturbing trend.

For the most recent survey, Barna and the American Bible Society asked American adults 14 questions about their interactions with and perspectives about the Bible, then defined five segments of Bible engagement measuring concepts such as frequency, centrality and impact.

Nearly half—48%—are classified as “Bible Disengaged,” meaning they interact with the Bible infrequently, if at all, and the Bible has minimal impact on their lives.

“As if this trend wasn’t already evident, this study backs up the fact that not only is the Bible and its universal wisdom being eroded from American families, American government and the American society as a whole, it is the trailing evidence of God being tossed aside in our culture,” said APN president and national host Sam Rohrer. “There was a time in our history when God and His Word—the Bible—was integral to every part of our civilization. We would hardly consider making a decision without it. It was referenced in the home. It was taught in our schools. It was incorporated into our laws and integrated into our courts of justice. It was quoted by politicians, judges, educators and even entertainers. It permeated the great literature of Western Civilization. But with the multitude of attacks on the integrity, inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible over the past century, respect for and interest in the Bible has waned. We no longer have time for the Word of God in our lives. What’s even more dangerous is that when we have no time for the Bible, it means we think we have no time nor need for God!

“What’s being overlooked, however, is the fact that the Bible is crucial to the survival of our nation,” Rohrer added. “Without it, we are lost, our nation declining, freedom fleeting, security gone and God’s blessing removed. As Deuteronomy 4:7-8 says, ‘For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?’ This means that the Bible is the most important book on the planet, in a class by itself, surpassing all others, because the Bible is the Word of God. And for those who choose to push it out of their lives, ruin awaits.”

For the Bible engagement study, Barna also shared these findings:

• The number of “Bible-centered” adults, the top tier in the survey for Bible engagement, has decreased from 9 percent to 5 percent in the past year.
• More than one-third of adults (35%) reports never using the Bible in 2019, a 10 percentage point increase since 2011.
• Roughly two in five U.S. adults (42%) say the Bible has not had such an impact in their lives, while six in 10 adults (59%) believe the Bible has transformed their lives.
• A separate study from LifeWay Research, as reported in The Christian Post, also found that more than half of Protestant churchgoers (55%) have not shared the Gospel in the past six months.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

NEWS RELEASE:

Over the weekend, Vice President Mike Pence told Liberty University graduates who were celebrating Commencement that they should prepare to be “shunned” for being a Christian, especially as it becomes “acceptable and even fashionable to ridicule and discriminate against people of faith” in the United States.

Americans seem to be on track with the vice president, says the American Pastors Network . According to a new Barna study, more agree that religious freedom is declining. Pastors, however, don’t seem to be as concerned.

“Just by reading the news and seeing case after case of bakers, florists and photographers head to court, Americans realize that our religious liberties are under attack,” said APN President and national radio and television host Sam Rohrer. “With fewer living by a Biblical worldview and fewer identifying as Christian, and with more calling themselves ‘nones’ and more of our politicians heading further left, how can this not be the case? Christians are—and should be—concerned that standing up for their beliefs will become increasingly more difficult. They will likely turn to their pastors and church leaders for guidance, but if ministers don’t see the risk of a loss of religious freedom, there will be a dangerous and demoralizing disconnect.”

Barna conducted the “Faith Leadership in a Divided Culture” study over four years and found that, in 2012, one-third of Americans (33%) said religious freedom was worse than the 10 years before. By 2015, that number had increased to 41% who stated religious liberty had declined, and in 2017, the number ticked up again, to 43%. In all, Barna says, “the general belief that religious freedom in the U.S. is on the decline increased by 10 percentage points over the course of five years.”

Perplexingly, though, Barna found that Protestant pastors’ concern about restrictions to religious freedom is actually decreasing, dropping from 55% in the 2014 survey of all Christian and non-Christian clergy who said they were “very concerned that religious freedom will become more restricted in the next five years.” This percentage fell to below half (49%) in the 2015-16 study and to one-third (34%) in 2017.

Rohrer said the fact that parishioner and pastor views don’t match on this issue is concerning.

“Among the most precious constitutional guarantees is the God-given right to freedom of religion, which is under attack in our nation as we speak and must be defended, lest we awake to the stark reality that while we slept, the enemy crept in unaware,” Rohrer added. “Like the proverbial frog in the water who refuses to jump out as the water temperature increases because the change happens gradually, so are freedoms lost in nations and are being lost in our nation right now. Across the broad spectrum of freedoms we’ve come to take for granted, there are increasing attacks. At first, they are only nibbles, the temperature only slightly increased. Then the nibbles become bites. The temperature goes up. At some point the water begins to boil and it’s too late to move. Then that fragile freedom is gone, never to return to that generation. History is replete with examples of such collapse, moving from freedom to bondage.”

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Half of Americans are church members, which may seem encouraging at the outset, but this figure is down from 70% in 1999.

What are the reasons, and will the trend continue, asks the American Pastors Network. 

The findings are the result of a new Gallup poll, which attributes the decline to an overall decrease in church attendance as well as an increase in the percentage of people who claim no religion at all, also known as “nones.”

“There was once a time when most families would hardly question being at their home church on Sunday mornings, Sunday evenings and Wednesday nights, too,” said APN President and national radio and television host Sam Rohrer. “But today, worship, Bible study and Christian community are being pushed out of our lives. In reality, it’s God Himself who has been replaced with ‘other gods and other worship,’ and the effects on the culture are evident! As secularism abounds, families are split and hurting, and individuals are confused, with even some pastors giving up and refusing to preach the whole counsel of God and the true Gospel at a time when truth is needed more than ever.”

The Gallup poll also found that since the turn of the century, the percentage of U.S. adults with no religious affiliation has more than doubled, from 8% to 19%.

“The decline in church membership mostly reflects the fact that fewer Americans than in the past now have any religious affiliation,” according to Gallup. “However, even those who do identify with a particular religion are less likely to belong to a church or other place of worship than in the past.

The Christian Post reported last month that the “nones” group is now as large as evangelicals in the U.S., with 23.1% of those surveyed identified as having “no religion,” while those who are evangelical, and of any race, represented about 22.8%. The data was gathered through the 2018 General Social Survey, a biennial project run by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago.

“What can be done about this devastating trend?” Rohrer asked. “And how much further will our culture fall without those who are grounded in their faith and who are engaged members of the local church? It’s not about church marketing, bigger buildings, louder music or attractive programs to entice people to choose church attendance or membership. It’s a heart matter and a matter of truth. Without debate, pastors and church leaders must lead the way in reaching out to their communities and strongly imploring that a life without Christ is no life at all, neither here on Earth nor for eternity.”

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