What's Behind the Decline of America's Major Churches?

The Sad Decline of America’s Traditional Denominations

My debate with a liberal professor at a “Christian” College: His Solution was no solution at all and would result in catastrophe.



A number of years ago I got into an online debate with a professor from a so-called Christian university back east. His thesis was simple. To stem the tide of young evangelical students leaving the church we have to tell them that the Bible has errors, then we can salvage their faith. His goal was to help kids stop trusting the Bible as “a sure anchor for their faith.” They needed to stop viewing the Bible as “a collection of go-to verses that tell them definitively and absolutely all they need to know.” He said that as they grow older our youth find that the traditional view of the Bible “is not adequate for providing a compelling explanation for the complex world around them….”

I commented online that his view was absolutely, tragically wrong, and that his counsel came from the evil one. After several exchanges he told me to stop commenting. Apparently he didn’t want his followers to hear my ideas. Here is a summary of my argument:

Adolescents struggle with faith. Some return to the faith, some change to another form of Christian faith, and some turn to the various secular religions. We grieve when they leave. 

But abandoning the traditional approach to the Bible is not going to help youth or anyone else. Because, you see, we have tried this before.

In the fall of 1965 I was a freshman at the University of Wyoming. I was invited to a reading group by students in a Baptist college fellowship. We read selections from the latest liberal theologians who were doing what the professor suggested: We were being honest about the challenges of modernity and willing to “acknowledge our experience of disconnection.” The readings were helping us to engage the “difficult theological challenges” brought on by modern thought, and we welcomed discussions of Bible doctrine “where the outcomes of those conversations are not predetermined.”

One of the trendy thinkers, Rudolf Bultmann, called for us to abandon belief in miracles and the resurrection since these concepts trouble contemporary men. I soon left the group realizing that in their attempt to update the Christian faith and make it relevant they had abandoned it.

I abandoned the group and the other young men abandoned the Christian faith. The very thing the professor wanted to prevent happened. That’s what will inevitably happen with his approach. In trying to save the faith of students he will kill their faith. Or water it down so much that it’s not worth having.

Since 1965 the denominations who most practice a softening on Christian doctrine have hemorrhaged the most members. I cite an article below that reviews the major numbers fifty years later.

In 1965 the mainline Christian Church(Disciples of Christ) had 1.92 million members. In 2012 it had 625,000 for a loss of 67%. But the picture is much bleaker than these numbers present. If the DOC had merely maintained its numbers relative to the growing U.S. population it would have about 3.2 million members. So it lost 80% of its membership relative to America’s population.

Or take the Episcopalians. In 1966 their membership stood at 3.6 million. By 2013 it was a little less that 1.9 million, a loss of nearly 50%. But relative to U.S. population the loss was close to 70%.

Or take one more, the mainline Presbyterians(PCUSA). In 1967 they were 3.3 million but by 2013 they were 1.86 million, a decline of more than 45%. Relative to U.S. population they were down by about two thirds.

Other denominations who watered down the demands of Scripture to accommodate to modern sensibilities had the same experience. I saw all this as a college freshman and in the past sixty years the catastrophe has accelerated.

So to professors at Christian colleges and all those who want to “save” the faith of young Christians by vitiating core Christian doctrines I have a prediction. You will fail and the damage you do will be incalculable. The decline of the mainline churches is perfectly clear. They have abandoned the truth of the Bible, they have denied the historic doctrines of Christianity, they have lost the power of the Holy Spirt, and they have become irrelevant. Their churches do not matter and are on their way to extinction. These days several of the mainline denominations are splitting over the issue of gay marriage. But that’s not the real issue. They are splitting over whether or not the Bible is the Word of God.

Yes, the intellectual community will always be critical of biblical Christianity. It was true in the day of the Apostle Paul, who said that he had become a fool for Christ’s sake. In 1 Cor. 1 Paul says that God did not call many intellectuals to the Christian faith but that God took the foolishness of Christian truth and turned into a colossus of power. The most powerful collection of ideas in the history of the human race.

More: One of the greatest books of all time, and the best book dealing with the attack on Christianity by liberal theology. You can download it for a dollar: https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Liberalism-J-Gresham-Machen-ebook/dp/B09TBJTHHS/ref=sr_1_1?crid=ZJVVFO4ZPDGP&keywords=machen+christianity+and+liberalism&qid=1677264039&sprefix=%2Caps%2C1939&sr=8-1

Another excellent book on this topic is by Thomas Reeves; The Empty Church: The Suicide of Liberal Christianity. https://www.amazon.com/Empty-Church-Suicide-Liberal-Christianity/dp/0684828111/ref=sr_1_1?crid=11FIS6JYIZYHK&keywords=thomas+reeves+the+empty&qid=1677265609&sprefix=thomas+reeves+the+empty%2Caps%2C1657&sr=8-1

The Wall Street Journal on the split in the Anglican church: https://www.wsj.com/articles/conservative-anglican-leaders-call-for-break-with-church-of-england-over-same-sex-blessings-7215b707

Statistics on mainline decline: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/factchecker-are-all-christian-denominations-in-decline/