Friends: Authority resides with Christ, not modern cultural fashion.  God bless!  Bob

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Spirituality Column #960

April 8, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Authority of the Age

By Bob Walters

”He was given authority … and his kingdom … will never be destroyed.” – Daniel 7:14

“[Jesus] taught as one who had authority.” – Matthew 7:29

“I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.” – Jesus, Matthew 28:18

Polling firm Pew Research for several years has tracked the rise of the “nones,” the growing American population segment which claims no particular religious affiliation.

After two decades of a steadily rising cohort of “nones” – 16 percent in 2007 rising to nearly 29 percent last year – Pew reports an apparent “leveling off” of that number, which includes those (approximately) who say they are atheist (5 percent), agnostic (6 percent), or “nothing in particular” (19 percent).

Latest Pew numbers state, authoritatively, that 62 percent of U.S. adults call themselves Christians, down from 78 percent claiming Christian identity in 2007.

There is no reason I can see to doubt the numbers.  In fact, maybe we should be glad the disparity and evident disinterest in Jesus aren’t more pronounced.  We have all been living in the same disparate, fractured American culture these past few decades.

Let me jump in here to assert, vehemently if I may, that I do not believe in any way, shape, or form that God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, and the true fellowship of true Christian believers is changed or impacted by numbers in a poll … in any age.

God’s truth does not change.  That is why it is not called, “God’s opinion.”

In last week’s Logos Sunday school, classmate and college math professor Tom Foltz made a great and graphic presentation of the Pew polling arithmetic.  There’s no disputing the numbers, which inspired some thinking about what’s behind the decline.

Like, God doesn’t change. Faith in Jesus is the unchanging way, truth, and life into the eternal kingdom. The Spirit abides in all truth, scripture is true and sure. And if the church is the visible Body of Christ, what does the Pew poll reveal?  It reveals … us.

Math and science, done honestly and well, reveal evidence, but often not the causality, prescriptive, and ethic of why? … what can be done? … and, what is right?

Here’s my best guess at “why” Christian influence is dwindling. It’s in our secular world’s flood of information and distractions fueled by modern technology and limitless alternate activities. Smart phones, computers, and the internet provide endless communication, good and bad. Culture no longer protects Sunday as a day for church.

Rampant secular humanism insists not only on the supremacy of man over God, but on the “see-it-to-believe it” tyranny of short-sighted, human “truth.” God’s authority is not merely devalued, it is ignored and derided. The first thing the first believers believed and proclaimed about Jesus was the nature of His Godly authority – He is the Son of God, with true authority over Creation, God’s laws, God’s love, and our salvation.

The early church didn’t survive and grow because it was forgiven; it survived and grew because the faithful loved each other, preached the Word, and helped everybody.

God will sort out right and wrong, righteously, because He can do no other.  Our culture claims an authority it does not possess, same as the Pharisees in Jesus’s day.

Today’s light-thinking progressive Christians regularly deconstruct God’s truth. “Woke” and wealthy foundations impose non-biblical cultural fashions on God’s people. But here is a lesson for the ages: man’s authority saves no one, regardless of any poll.

God’s ageless authority resides in love, truth, and glory … polling at 100 percent.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) shares this Feb 2025 PBS story about Pew’s poll. And … here’s a link to an old column about authority (#558, 7-25-17), Expert Opinion.