The people of the United States are losing faith in the Bible. A new report released by Pew Research and the General Social Survey on September 17 found that young Christians are leaving the faith by the millions. Over the past 75 years, the share of adults who identify as Christian has fallen from above 90 percent to 64 percent. If current trends continue, Pew Research estimates that Christians will become a minority in America by 2045.

About half of those who have given up on Christianity say a lack of belief led them to abandon religion. The rest cite other reasons, including, “I see organized religious groups as more divisive than uniting,” “I don’t have a particular religion because I am open-minded,” and “I don’t have the time to go to church.” Regardless of the reason people are abandoning God and the Bible, the effects of this shift have been catastrophic.

During his famous Farewell Address in 1796, President George Washington warned future generations, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” He said this because when people have no faith in God and the Bible, they trust instead in other ideologies, in material things or in the politicians who promise them material things. So it is probably no coincidence that consumer debt levels started rising about the time belief in God started to wane in America.

In 1946, household debt stood at 15 percent of gross domestic product; today, it stands at 80 percent. The average household is now more than $36,000 in debt (not counting mortgages). That is 14 times more than the typical household carried 75 years ago (even after adjusting for inflation). Yet many Americans continue to cope with rising prices using credit cards rather than reducing their standard of living.

Forty-two years ago, the late theologian Herbert W. Armstrong wrote an article titled “Prepare to Greatly Reduce Your Standard of Living,” warning that God was about to take away America’s blessings because of its rebellion against Him. Now we see this punishment coming to pass as debt levels, prices and interest rates go higher.

Declining church attendance and rising debt have done nothing to strengthen families. Divorce rates among millennials are at record lows only because marriage rates among millennials are at record lows. Meanwhile, divorce rates among baby boomers have more than doubled since 1990. Research conducted by Dr. Brad Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project, finds that people who strive to keep God at the center of their family stay married at far higher rates. Yet such people represent a dwindling share of America.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services finds, “Fatherless children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse,” so it should be little surprise that there were 107,622 drug overdose deaths last year. Yet rather than educate people about biblical family virtues or combat drug trafficking across America’s wide-open southern border, the radical Obama-Biden regime is passing out free syringes.

A National Institutes of Health grant allots $3.6 million for vending machines filled with “injection equipment, naloxone, fentanyl test strips, hygiene kits, condoms and other supplies.” These machines will be set up in an effort to provide addicts with clean syringes when they inject themselves with narcotics. Supplying such paraphernalia has been found to reduce overdose deaths but sidesteps the bigger issue of ending drug usage. Widespread acceptance of drug use is a sign of a terminal spiritual sickness the Bible calls pharmakeia, a “work of the flesh” listed in Galatians 5:19-20 often rendered “witchcraft” but more accurately rendered “drug use.”

Millions use marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and other drugs for the same reasons millions run up massive debts or leave their spouse of 20-plus years. They are searching for moments of temporary euphoria in a futile attempt to fill a spiritual void that can only be filled by the God of the Bible. But such futile attempts will only exacerbate the nation’s problems and weaken it to the point where it is overthrown.

In Leviticus 26:15-21, God warned His people that “if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments” then “I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.”

Late educator Herbert W. Armstrong explained this passage in his most popular book, The United States and Britain in Prophecy, saying, “What people do not seem to realize is that sin does bring upon the sinner the consequences of sin—the plagues of suffering. The Bible defines sin as the transgression of God’s law (1 John 3:4), and the law of God is a spiritual law (Romans 7:14). Let’s understand this! … The sinner is really plagued with these evils he brings on himself. Now study again that 21st verse of Leviticus 26. Punishment is correction. To teach us the lesson we have failed to learn by experience, God is going to plague our peoples sevenfold more than our sins already have plagued us—sevenfold more punishment than we have brought on ourselves!”

In other words, the problems America is currently suffering are the natural consequences of broken spiritual laws. Yet if America does not turn back to God, the day is coming when God will punish it with supernatural curses that are sevenfold more intense than the natural curses America has brought on itself. So now is the time for every American to ask what we might be doing to have brought such chastisement upon ourselves.

The destruction about to sweep through America will be allowed for a purpose. It will be precisely measured by God to bring humanity to a point where they will finally be willing to listen to Him and to submit to a way of life that eliminates senseless killings, organized crime, ineffective government, crushing poverty, unjust laws and escapist addiction. It’s the one way of life that eliminates the root cause of our suffering: sin.

To learn more about how America has strayed from the sincere religion and high morals that are the true secret to national success, please request a free copy of our booklet Character in Crisis, by Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry.