It is the height of irony: Revival is now taking place all over the United States at a time when Christianity is reportedly on the decline.
Revival has become so widespread that even mainstream media has begun acknowledging the phenomenon, according to Charisma News. To be clear about this, mainstream media, or MSM, is regarded as the form of mass media that influences a large number of people, reflecting and shaping prevailing currents of thought.
In a recently published article, The Atlantic says among Americans who have rekindled their relationship with church, "more than half of people said they go more often than they used to—in other words, about a quarter of Americans have gotten more active in their religious communities in recent years, not less."
"All of this is a way of saying that, comparatively speaking, there's more activity happening on the devout side of the spectrum than the drop-out side; this study suggests that even in a time of religion's public decline, some people are experiencing religious revival," the article reads.
"The experience of those who are losing their religion shouldn't obscure the experience of those who are finding it," The Atlantic points out.
The Atlantic article points out that the U.S. "is still overwhelmingly religious, despite years of predictions about religion's demise."
Even people who don't identify with any particular faith group still say they believe in God, with roughly 40 percent of them praying daily or weekly, according to The Atlantic.
The revival phenomenon is further supported by a recent Pew Research study, which noted an increasing number of people feeling a need to have God in their lives. These people seek God by attending local churches.
This is one of the key findings from the fourth in a series of reports based on Pew Research Center's U.S. Religious Landscape Study.
The Pew survey shows that half of American adults (51 percent) say they attend religious services regularly – at least once or twice a month.
Within this group, more than half (27 percent of all U.S. adults) say they now attend religious services more often than they did at some other time in their adult lives. Nearly half (23 percent of all U.S. adults) say they have always attended religious services at least as regularly as they do now.
Many of those whose religious attendance has improved cite a change in their beliefs as the main reason, saying their increased attendance reflects the fact that they have become more religious or felt a need for God or religion in their lives.
Charisma News says this development appears to herald 2 Chronicles 7:14 in the Old Testament, where God states, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
