{"id":90529,"date":"2025-01-16T09:38:13","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T15:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/?p=90529"},"modified":"2025-01-16T09:38:37","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T15:38:37","slug":"christianity-challenge-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/christianity-challenge-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"The Biggest Challenge for Christianity in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It breaks my heart to see discouraging religious trends in the church of America. <\/span>Church attendance is at an all-time low<\/span><\/a>, and most of us have witnessed friends and others give up on their faith at an alarming rate.<\/span><\/p>

Yet I\u2019m convinced God isn\u2019t finished with America, and I believe there are solutions for the church. 1 Chronicles 12:32 speaks of men from the tribe of Issachar who \u201cunderstood the signs of the times and knew the best course for Israel to take\u201d (NLT). Likewise, if we understand what\u2019s going on in Christian churches, we will have a better understanding of how we can help. Let\u2019s take a look at one of the biggest challenges Christians face in 2025 and what we can do about it.<\/span><\/p>

The State of Theology<\/span><\/h1>

One very significant challenge with the evangelical church is that we have started losing our theological literacy. In other words, many self-proclaimed evangelicals don\u2019t know how to answer basic theological questions. According to the <\/span>2022 <\/span>State of Theology<\/span><\/i> survey by Ligonier Ministries<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>56% of U.S. Evangelicals agree that \u201cGod accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.\u201d<\/b> 43% of evangelicals agree that Jesus was <\/b>not <\/i><\/b>God, and 38% agree that religious belief is a matter of personal opinion rather than objective truth.<\/b><\/p>

No doubt, many of my readers will look at these numbers and not understand the problem, for they are a part of these numbers. But for those who have studied the Bible and church history, these numbers will probably startle you. It seems there is a large disconnect between what evangelical leaders think the average Christian believes and what they actually believe. Leaders may even see these numbers and think, \u201cNot my church.\u201d But here\u2019s what we miss: <\/span>since many people think it\u2019s perfectly normal to cherry-pick their own theological beliefs that they like from the Bible, they won\u2019t complain when they disagree about something they are taught<\/span><\/i>. They\u2019ll just ignore it. So we aren\u2019t going to see the theological confusion very easily unless we ask people forthright, as the survey from Ligonier did.<\/span><\/p>

Where Do We Go From Here?<\/span><\/h1>

Is low theological literacy a reason for church decline in America? I\u2019m certain it\u2019s a very significant reason. <\/span>Faulty theology can not hold us against the challenges of life and the pressures of this anti-Christian world. How could it? As God cried out in Hosea 4:6, \u201cMy people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.\u201d<\/b><\/p>

This diagnosis isn\u2019t everything, but it\u2019s deeply significant and thoroughly biblical. The first temptation in the Garden of Eden was an attack on the theology of God\u2019s character and the theological purpose of humanity (Gen 3:4\u20135). Since then, God\u2019s people have frequently gone astray, and the response from God\u2019s prophets has always included the same key feature: To re-instill sound theology. We see this approach with Moses (Num. 16:5), Isaiah (28:29), Jeremiah (23:23\u201340), Ezekiel (18:25\u201329), Amos (3:3\u20138; 4:6\u201313; 5:8\u20139), Zechariah (9:14\u201317), Malachi (1:10\u201314; 2:13\u201315), and others.<\/span><\/p>

Theological literacy was <\/span>especially <\/span><\/i>important for Paul. He opened his letter to the wayward Colossians with a beautiful theology of Christ (1:15\u201320). He rebuked the Galatians with a robust theology of Law and Grace (3:10\u201329). He addressed Corinthian conflict by expounding on the nature of God\u2019s Spirit (1 Cor. 1:18\u20132:16). It\u2019s clear that theology is deeply important for healthy churches. As Jesus said to the unbelieving Sadducees regarding the resurrection, \u201cYou are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God\u201d (Mt. 22:29).<\/span><\/p>

How Can We Reverse This Religious Trend?<\/span><\/h1>

There are many ways to help bring theology back to Christian believers. Churches can play short, pithy videos explaining theological truths before the sermons, or they could order the worship set around a particular doctrine each week.<\/span>\u00a0Parents can equip themselves with resources<\/span><\/a> to keep theology an important part of their conversation at home. Find teaching moments to ask our kids, \u201cWhat do we learn about God here?\u201d These are just a few ideas of many. We have a lot of freedom to be creative in how we teach theology to those we care for.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

For many years, Christians taught theology through so-called <\/span>catechisms<\/span><\/i>. A catechism is a summary or manual of Christian doctrine, usually written out in a question-and-answer format. The teacher would ask the question, and the student would recite the answer by memory. For example, the teacher could open the <\/span>Westminister Shorter Catechism<\/span><\/a> and ask, \u201cWhat is the chief end of man?\u201d to which the student replies, \u201cMan\u2019s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.\u201d Although catechisms are still around today, they have fallen into disuse for many Christian traditions. Perhaps it\u2019s time we bring them back.<\/span><\/p>

Is there Hope for the Church?<\/span><\/h1>

As we have seen, the evangelical church is struggling with sound theology, which has led to severe challenges in our health. Churches are declining, but if we understand the times, we can fight to reverse the discouraging religious trend of theological illiteracy.<\/span><\/p>

Can we really reverse the trend? Can we save America and bring revival? No. That\u2019s God\u2019s prerogative, and only He can cause growth. But we can still till the soil and plant good seeds. We can be faithful to the calling as ministers for the Gospel in a time like this. And we can remember the many times in church history when God brought revival to those hungry for the truth. So go back to the valley of Ezekiel and ask yourself, <\/span>can these dead bones live?<\/span><\/i><\/p>

\u201c\u2026And I answered, \u2018O Lord GOD, you know.\u2019 Then he said to me, \u2018Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.\u2019\u201d <\/span><\/i>(Eze. 37:3\u20134).<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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It breaks my heart to see discouraging religious trends in the church of America. Church attendance is at an all-time low, and most of us have witnessed friends and others give up on their faith at an alarming rate. Yet I\u2019m convinced God isn\u2019t finished with America, and I believe there are solutions for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50255,"featured_media":90539,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"When it comes to religion, there are as many challenges as there are topics to discuss. However, one challenge rises above them all. Read what you need to know about it here.","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[320,854,1244],"translator":[],"blog-author":[77],"class_list":["post-90529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apologetics","tag-culture","tag-religions","tag-religious-trends","blog-author-matthew-tingblad"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/607\/2025\/01\/Blog-ChristianityChallenges2025-climbing-up-steep-mountain.jpg","meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50255"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90529"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90541,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90529\/revisions\/90541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90529"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/translator?post=90529"},{"taxonomy":"blog-author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog-author?post=90529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}