MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

1 Timothy 4:1, “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons …”

By Damian Thompson, The Telegraph – “Poor Rowan Williams: wrong to the end. Christianity is not ‘fading away’ in Britain, he says. Yes it is, as the census figures clearly illustrate.

Since the last census in 2001, the number of Britons identifying themselves, however loosely, as Christians is down 13 percentage points to 59 per cent.

The number of respondents who say they have no religious faith is up 10 points to 25 per cent. Meanwhile, staggeringly, the Muslim population has grown from 1.55 million to 2.7 million, an increase of 1.15 million from 2001 to 2011.

The surge in Islamic belief is entirely a consequence of immigration. The spread of agnosticism and atheism is (though I haven’t yet seen the breakdown by age) largely generational.

It cannot be said too often: the default position of people born since 1980 is agnosticism or atheism. Meanwhile, as a commenter points out below, net migration from the UK consists largely of people who would probably have ticked the Christian or C of E box. That hadn’t occurred to me, but it’s an important factor.

A quick thought: these figures confirm that, saddled with shrinking congregations and (so far) dreadful leadership from Archbishops Williams and Nichols, the Churches haven’t a hope in hell of stopping gay marriage.” Source – The Telegraph.

Flashback: ‘De-Christianization’: European Muslims Turn Churches Into Mosques, ‘We’re Here To Stay … Convert To Islam, And You Will Find Peace’ – “Bouchra Ismaili, a Rotterdam city councilman: ‘Listen up, crazy freaks, we’re here to stay. You’re the foreigners here, with Allah on my side I’m not afraid of anything. Take my advice: convert to Islam, and you will find peace’. The Middle East is full of churches turned into Islamic sites, like the Umayyad in Damascus, the Ibn Tulun in Cairo and the cathedral of St. Sophia in Instanbul… This is now a reality. But unlike the Middle East, where non-Muslim sites were razed or violently converted to Islam, in Europe this process is voluntary.” Read more.

Flashback: Muslims Seeking to Occupy Europe’s ‘Empty’ Churches to Pray Their Friday Prayers – “A Muslim group has asked to use the empty churches in France for Muslims to pray in, solving (at the expense of Christians) the traffic problems caused by Muslims who pray in the streets… for several years now, every Friday, alongside dozens of mosques in France, Muslims have blocked the surrounding streets for an hour or two, spreading mats on the roads to pray. In many cases, local authorities close their eyes to this offense, and in some cases the police are there to ensure the safety of those who block the streets. This situation is on the rise in France (for example, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier. Montreuil, Nice, Paris, Puteaux, Strasbourg, Torcy …).” Read more.