The Australian Bureau of Statistics released the results of Australia’s five-year census on June 28. For the first time, the number of Australians who identify as “Christian” has dropped below 50 percent.

In 2011, 61 percent of Australians described themselves as Christian; by 2016, the number had fallen to 52 percent. In 2021, just under 44 percent called themselves Christian. That is the biggest one decade drop in religious identification in the history of the Australian census. Most of those who stopped describing themselves as Christian now identify as having no religion, with almost 40 percent identifying as such. This is quite a dramatic change from 100 years ago: In 1921, 97 percent of Australians described themselves as Christian. A mere 0.5 percent said they had “no religion.” Even up to the 1970s, 90 percent of the country still identified as Christian.

But today, the fastest-growing religions in Australia are Hinduism and Islam.

Australia is not the only country experiencing a decline in the popularity of Christianity. A 2021 poll conducted by Pew Research Center in the United States showed that 63 percent of Americans identified as Christian. This was a 12 percent drop from 75 percent in 2011. The number of Americans who don’t affiliate with any religion grew to 29 percent in 2021, an 11 percent increase.

This same trend can be seen in the United Kingdom. In 2011, 59 percent of people in England and Wales described themselves as Christian; 10 years earlier, that figure was 72 percent. It is likely that when the 2021 UK census data is released later this year, the figures will show a continuation of this downward trend.

A Pew survey found that one of the main reasons many people give for no longer wanting to be associated with Christianity is because they think religious people are “hypocritical or judgmental.” Their frustration with religion is understandable when you consider the number of supposedly religious people being convicted of crimes that they decried.

While much of what traditional Christian churches teach does not come from the Bible, there were some good principles in those traditional Christian values, such as selflessness and the sanctity of marriage. These values were often more preached than practiced; yet they still brought a certain amount of stability to families and the nation. The drift away from these traditional values has played a huge role in Australia’s decline.

United States President George Washington said in his farewell address, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” In his recently expanded book America Under Attack, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry explains why there has been such a steep decline in morals in the last few decades. Mr. Flurry writes how most of those professing to be Christian today are not fully practicing all that the Bible teaches. “The great majority of Christians are not true Christians. That is why Christianity today is so self-contradicting, divided and weak. It is not biblical Christianity at all!” Mr. Flurry writes.

Even in this world of religious confusion and hypocrisy, there are Christians who are not hypocritical. Mr. Flurry continues:

Jesus Christ personally raised up the one true Church of God and said it would remain through seven successive eras until His return (see Matthew 16:18 and Revelation 2-3). The true Church of God does, in fact, exist! In this end time, it was led by Herbert W. Armstrong. Under his leadership, God restored the true Christian doctrines to the Church. That Church did a powerful global work. It possessed and proclaimed the truths of the Bible on a weekly broadcast on more than 400 television stations, in a newsmagazine with over 8 million subscribers, at three colleges and through many more superb initiatives.”

As Christ Himself prophesied in Matthew 16:18, the true Church of God has continued to this day. Soon, true Christianity will fill the Earth (Isaiah 11:9; Habakkuk 2:14). To understand more about this true Church, please read The True History of God’s True Church, by Mr. Flurry. For more on the spiritual attack on traditional values, as well as the good news the Bible prophesies, please read America Under Attack.