ON CHRISTIANITY

DEAR REV. GRAHAM: I read about an opinion poll the other day that seems to indicate more and more people are drifting away from religion and no longer have any faith in God. Why do you think this is happening? — J.W.

DEAR J.W.: The poll you mention may well be correct; similar surveys seem to point in the same direction. We are living in an increasingly secular and nonreligious society, and many people today never think about God or make Him a part of their lives.

Why is this? One reason is because we have failed to pass on our faith in Christ to the next generation. Furthermore, not only have we failed to explain the Gospel to them and urge them to commit their lives to Christ, but we have not demonstrated Christ’s love by the way we live. We have forgotten Jesus’ words: “You are the light of the world. … Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14, 16).

There are, of course, other reasons why our world seems to be less and less religious. Growing materialism, a preoccupation with pleasure, pressures from social media, the lessening of family ties, growing immorality — the list is almost endless. I often think of the Bible’s picture of the last days: “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful … lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:2,4).

At the same time, God is still at work today — and in many parts of the world people are coming to Christ in unprecedented numbers. Only Christ can satisfy the deepest longings of the human heart, and only He can change our lives and give us hope for the future. Is this happening to you?