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"For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty." (2nd Peter 1:16)

The fastest growing religious worldview of the 20th century has reversed course and begun to decline.

Atheism, (which the Supreme Court ruled was a 'religion' in its landmark 1961 case, ‘Torcaso V. Watkins') is suffering a loss in numbers as evidence pointing to the existence of God mounts.

That is not to say that the world's atheists are kneeling en masse before Christ seeking salvation, but many former atheists can't reconcile the evidence favoring a Creator with their central article of faith -- that man is the supreme being.

According to one analysis, the main culprit responsible for the decimation of the ranks of worldwide atheism is its former chief recruiting tool -- science.

Celebrated secular humanist Anthony Flew of Great Britain, for example, cannot reconcile DNA evidence with the lack of a Creator. Flew concluded that evolution cannot possibly account for the fact a single human cell can carry more data than all the volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Flew still refuses to accept the God of the Bible, but he has abandoned atheistic secular humanism in favor of the concept of 'intelligent design' -- a view totally incompatible with atheism.

For an atheist, the concept of intelligent design is an utter demolition of the fundamental doctrine of man's supremacy in the universe. There is no bridge that can span the gap between 'intelligent design' and the benchmark article of faith of atheism -- the theory of random chance.

As Munich theologian, Wolfhart Pannenberg told the UPI recently, Atheism as a theoretical position is in decline worldwide.

Writes Turkish philosopher Harun Yahya, "Atheism, which people have tried to explain for hundreds of years as 'the ways of reason and science,' is proving to be mere irrationality and ignorance."

The Rev. Paul M. Zulehner, dean of Vienna University's divinity school and one of the world's most distinguished sociologists of religion, told UPI Tuesday:

"True atheists in Europe have become an infinitesimally small group. There are not enough of them to be used for sociological research."

As noted, while the ranks of the atheists are in decline, there is no corresponding 'thud' of former atheists hitting their knees to embrace Christ and His offer of salvation. Notes Rev. Zulehner of European atheism; “What we are observing instead is a re-paganization."

And Rev. Gerald McDermott, an Episcopal priest and professor of religion and philosophy at Roanoke College in Salem, Va., said a similar phenomenon is taking place in the United States:

"The rise of all sorts of paganism is creating a false spirituality that proves to be a more dangerous rival to the Christian faith than atheism," he said.

What makes atheism so appealing to its followers is the concept that there is no God. If there is no God, there is no Satan, no heaven, no hell and, most importantly, no eternal accountability. When you die, you die, and it’s over. There is no reckoning.

It is the basic tenet of the hedonistic philosophy of the Epicureans, and the resurgence of Epicureanism during the European 'Age of Enlightenment' gave a platform to such proselytizers of atheism like Voltaire, Shelley and George Bernard Shaw.

It also means that anything you missed in this life, you missed. There are no moral considerations involved, apart from those observed by society at large.

Consequently, if society condones abortion, it is moral. If society embraces gay marriage, it is moral. If society permits the cloning of humans, as it does in Great Britain, then it is moral, as well.

Ethics evolve according to the situation at hand. What is, to the atheist, immoral, would be a society that did NOT.

As atheist evangelist George Eliot observed;

"The old religion says ‘Heaven help us!’ Our new one, from its very lack of faith in a heaven, will teach us all the more to help one another."

An ethical atheist would describe this philosophy as, "Do as you will, but do no harm." (That is, not coincidentally, also the basic ethic of Satanism)

Atheistic philosophy demands the acquisition of pleasure and the avoidance of pain, unbound by moral considerations outside those imposed by society.

"New thinkers" of the period included Charles Darwin, who set out to 'prove' an alternative explanation for the origins of man.

Darwin's "Origin of the Species" gave rise to the atheist religion of Darwinism that ultimately morphed from religion into scientific 'theory' into scientific 'fact' -- and is now rapidly falling into discredit, even as a 'theory'.

Atheism is in decline because scientific advancements continue to discredit the theory of evolution. Unlocking the human genome (DNA) has demolished any argument that favors 'random chance'.

Science has determined a single strand of DNA is a biological 'computer' so advanced it can store more information than the Library of Congress.

Arguing 'random chance' becomes the equivalent to arguing my computer could have just as easily evolved out of a collision between a truckload of TV sets and a truckload of Radio Shack parts, turned itself on, installed its own software, and then connected itself to the internet.

More than 1,200 studies at research centers around the world have proved a correlation between faith, prayer and recovery from illness.

"Psychologie Heute," a German journal, cited, for example, the marked improvement of multiple sclerosis patients in Germany's Ruhr District because of "spiritual resources."

Studies conducted in the United States by such bastions of New Thinking as Harvard and Yale have reached similar conclusions.

Bible prophecy presents a problem for secular humanism, as well. As technological advances and sociological studies pick away at the scientific underpinnings of secular humanism, prophecies thousands of years old are beginning to come to pass in a single generation.

Not broad, general and easily twisted prophecies like those attributed to Nostradamus, but breathtakingly precise prophecies like the restoration of Israel to the Land of Promise after millennia of dispersion, the rise of a European superstate, the development of a truly interdependent global economy, and the development of a global religion.

That global religion, according to the Apostle John, sounds just like what the doctor ordered for the growing legions of disaffected atheists and spiritualists seeking satisfactory explanations that don't involve heaven, hell or moral accountability before a Righteous Judge.

John said it would have 'two horns like a lamb', but that it would speak 'as a dragon'. (Revelation 13:11) and Paul described it as having a 'form of godliness, but denying the power thereof'. (2nd Timothy 3:5)

The Apostle Paul described the decline of secular humanist philosophy and its subsequent 're-paganization' this way, saying; "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools . . . And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind." (Romans 1:22, 28)

It is significant to note that the root cause of the decline in atheism is scientific discovery. Atheism cannot stand before the scientific evidence being uncovered almost daily that points to the existence of a Supreme Being.

But its adherents are not interested in embracing a religion of repentance and accountability, either.

It is also significant to note the timing of this sea change in spiritual thinking.

Epicurean philosophy was embraced through the ages because was based in the non-existence of a Deity, which could be convincingly argued using the limited scientific knowledge of the times.

But in THIS generation, for the first time in history, science can no longer deny the existence of Deity, but rather, is discovering a growing mountain of evidence that can be explained in no other way.

"But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the TIME OF THE END; many shall run to and fro, and KNOWLEDGE SHALL BE INCREASED." (Daniel 12:4)

"And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for THE WORDS ARE CLOSED UP AND SEALED TILL THE TIME OF THE END. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and NONE of the wicked SHALL UNDERSTAND; but the wise shall understand." (Daniel 12:9-10)

The Apostle Peter warned, "Knowing this first, that there shall come IN THE LAST DAYS, scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." (2nd Peter 3:4)

Finally, we have the Words of Jesus Christ to consider;

"And when these things BEGIN TO COME TO PASS, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." (Luke 21:28)

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