A new report recently came out that shows the decline of Christianity in America is increasingly on the rise. Three in 10 people in the United States attend religious services on a regular basis, representing a decline compared to the past couple of decades, according to a report by Gallup. Gallup reported that 21% of Americans said they attend religious services on a weekly basis, while 9% said they attend religious services nearly every week. By contrast, 11% of respondents reported attending about once a month, 25% reported attending “seldom,” while 31% said they “never” go to religious services.

This represents a decline from one decade ago, when Gallup found that 38% of Americans attended weekly or almost weekly, and from two decades ago, when 42% of Americans reported attending weekly or almost weekly. For its research, Gallup drew from aggregated data from surveys conducted over the phone in 2021, 2022 and 2023, with previous samples being collected from surveys done in 2000-2003 and 2011-2013, respectively.

Gallup found that Mormons were the most likely to report going to their services regularly, with 67% saying they attended weekly or almost weekly. Protestants were the next highest at 44%, followed by Muslims (38%), Catholics (33%), Orthodox Christians (26%), Jews (22%), Buddhists (14%) and Hindus (13%). The report also found that Catholics experienced the sharpest drop in attendance compared to two decades ago, going from 45% regular attendance in 2000-2003 to 33% in 2021-2023.

Over the past several years, much has been made about the rise of the religiously unaffiliated population in the United States, also known as the “nones,” especially among younger generations. In January 2023, for example, the Survey on American Life, a project of the American Enterprise Institute, released a report which found that church attendance still hadn’t recovered from what it was before the COVID-19 lockdowns.

While the number of Americans who attended worship services had increased from 13% in the summer of 2020 to 27% by the spring of 2022, this was still below pre-pandemic levels. Furthermore, according to the SAL, 33% of Americans reported in 2022 that they never attend religious services, an increase from the 25% who said the same before the pandemic. The largest declines in attendance were seen among adults younger than 50, Hispanic Catholics, black Protestants, and white mainline Protestants.

Biblical Connection: Paul, writing in 1 Timothy 4:1-3, stated, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.”

Similarly, in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 he wrote, “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” While we do not know for certain this decline of Christianity is the type of falling away Paul wrote about, it certainly fits the type of pattern Paul described would happen prior to the Rapture of the church and the start of the Tribulation with the rise of the Antichrist.

PRAY: Pray this decline in church attendance in America will reverse and Americans will return to church once again.