Christian Decline

The census from the year 2021 continues to be analysed. This very week, the results of the question about religious affiliation were revealed. Continuing the trends identified in previous surveys, the census has revealed that less than half of the British population claims to be Christian. There is also a significant rise among the number of people claiming to have no religion whatsoever, while so-called minority religions, such as Islam, continue to grow apace. Of course, headline figures in complex surveys ought to be taken with a pinch of salt, but these numbers certainly seem to demonstrate that secularisation grows and that the Christian population is in decline.

I suspect that the numbers of genuinely born again, repentant sinners in receipt of God's saving grace may not be much less than they were several generations back. Nominal Christianity, though still a surprisingly large force, is slowly dying off. I dare say that many of its adherents enter and depart from care and nursing homes each year. Theirs was the generation for which Sunday School was compulsory, the 10 Commandments were memorised and respected while the Bible revered, if not actually read. Yet nominal Christianity is more often than not a hindrance to evangelism. Although it does provide people with a foundation upon which to build, and theoretically dissolves hostility to hearing the gospel, it may also deaden the spirit against understanding the real thing. Much as I lament Britain’s being engulfed by hollow materialism, I look forward to the anticipated demise of lifeless religion which, like first-century apostates, had