As in the Days of Noah, Many knowledgeable men explain away strange occurances in the earth.

CNN SAYS: 

Experts warn of superstorm era to come

By Tim Lister, CNN

October 31, 2012 -- Updated 1817 GMT (0217 HKT)

 Over three decades, about 1.3 million square miles of Arctic sea ice has disappeared, equivalent to 42% of the area of the lower 48 states.

Climate models previously projected that the Arctic might lose almost all of its summer ice cover by 2100, but some scientists said they believe the trend is accelerating and that it will be gone long before then.

"In addition to the extent of sea ice, what remains is thinner than it used to be," said Walter Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Here's how it works: Less sea ice means warmer water. Sea surface temperatures off the coast of the Northeast United States are now the highest ever recorded.

"It's like leaving the fridge door open," Meier said. The only way to restrain the process would be to moderate temperature increases, which in turn would depend on lowering carbon dioxide emissions.

Jennifer Francis at the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University has shown that a warmer Arctic tends to slow the jet stream, causing it to meander and in turn prolong weather patterns. It's called Arctic amplification, and it may be helping entrench drought in the northwest United States and lead to warmer summers in the Northern Hemisphere.

Related: Sandy provokes discussions on God, prayer and atheism

But there may be another effect.

"Larger swings in the jet stream allow frigid air from the Arctic to plunge farther south, as well as warm, moist tropical air to penetrate northward," Francis wrote in Yale University's Environment 360 blog. That's pretty much what happened this week, a spectacular collision of Arctic and tropical weather fronts.

A recent article in the journal Oceanography shed more light on the consequences of Arctic ice melt. Charles Greene at Cornell University and others wrote that fundamental changes in the behavior of the jet stream will "stack the deck in favor of severe winter weather outbreaks in the United States and Europe into the foreseeable future."

 {Ellen White says in RH, January 11,1887 par. 15}

  Already the restraining Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the earth. Hurricanes, storms, tempests, fire and flood, disasters by sea and land, follow each other in quick succession. Science seeks to explain all these. The signs thickening around us, telling of the near approach of the Son of God, are attributed to any other than the true cause. Men cannot discern the sentinel angels restraining the four winds that they may not blow until the servants of God are sealed; but when God shall bid his angels loose the winds, there will be such a scene of his avenging wrath as no pen can picture.  {RH, January 11, 1887 par. 14}
     We are standing on the threshold of great and solemn events. Prophecy is fast fulfilling. The Lord is at the door. There is soon to open before us a period of overwhelming interest to all living. The controversies of the past are to be revived. New controversies will arise. The scenes to be enacted in our world are not even dreamed of. Satan is at work through human agencies. Those who are making so great efforts to change the Constitution and secure a law enforcing the first day of the week little realize what will be the result. A crisis is just upon us.  {RH, January 11, 1887 par. 15} .

 {Prophet an Kings  page 278.1  By Ellen White}
The forbearance of God has been very great--so great that when we consider the continuous insult to His holy commandments, we marvel. The Omnipotent One has been exerting a restraining power over His own attributes. But He will certainly arise to punish the wicked, who so boldly defy the just claims of the Decalogue.  {PK 276.2} 
     God allows men a period of probation; but there is a point beyond which divine patience is exhausted, and the judgments of God are sure to follow. The Lord bears long with men, and with cities, mercifully giving warnings to save them from divine wrath; but a time will come when pleadings for mercy will no longer be heard, and the rebellious element that continues to reject the light of truth will be blotted out, in mercy to themselves and to those who would otherwise be influenced by their example.
     The time is at hand when there will be sorrow in the world that no human balm can heal. The Spirit of God is being withdrawn. Disasters by sea and by land follow one another in quick succession. How frequently we hear of earthquakes and tornadoes, of destruction by fire and flood, with great loss of life and property! Apparently these calamities are capricious outbreaks of disorganized, unregulated forces of nature, wholly beyond the control of man; but in them all, God's purpose may be read. They are among the agencies by which He seeks to arouse men and women to a sense of their danger.  {PK 277.1}
     God's messengers in the great cities are not to become discouraged over the wickedness, the injustice, the depravity, which they are called upon to face while endeavoring to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation. The Lord would cheer every such worker with the same message that He gave to the apostle Paul in wicked Corinth: "Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city." Acts 18:9, 10. Let those engaged in soul-saving ministry remember that while there are many who will not heed the counsel of God in His word, the whole world will not turn from light and truth, from the invitations of a patient, forbearing Saviour. In every city, filled though it may be with violence and crime, there are many who with proper teaching may learn to become followers of Jesus. Thousands may thus be reached with saving truth and be led to receive Christ as a personal Saviour.
 
     God's message for the inhabitants of earth today is, "Be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." Matthew 24:44. The conditions prevailing in society, and especially in the great cities of the nations, proclaim in thunder tones that the hour of God's judgment is come and that the end of all things earthly is at hand. We are standing on the threshold of the crisis of the ages. In quick succession the judgments of God will follow one another--fire, and flood, and earthquake, with war and bloodshed. We are not to be surprised at this time by events both great and decisive; for the angel of mercy cannot remain much longer to shelter the impenitent.  {Prophet an Kings  page 278.1  By Ellen White}  

Huricane Sandy is just the begining.It will get worse and frequent.

 

THEY WILL POINT TO CALAMITY ON LAND & SEA ..WRITTEN June 28, 1904
It is on the law of God that the last great struggle of the controversy between Christ and His angels and Satan and his angels will come, and it will be decisive for all the world. . . . Men in responsible positions will not only ignore and despise the Sabbath themselves, but from the sacred desk will urge upon the people the observance of the first day
of the week, pleading tradition and custom in behalf of this man-made institution. They will point to calamities on land and sea--to the storms of wind, the FLOODS, the earthquakes, the destruction by fire--as judgments indicating God's displeasure because Sunday is not sacredly observed. These calamities will increase more and more, one disaster will follow close upon the heels of another; and those who make void the law of God will point to the few who are keeping the Sabbath of the fourth commandment as the ones who are bringing wrath upon the world. This falsehood is Satan's device that he may ensnare the unwary.--Southern Watchman, June 28, 1904.  {ChS 155.2}



MENS HEART WILL FAIL THEM FOR FEAR OF WHAT IS COMING UPON THE EARTH AND SEEK TO INSTITUTE RELIGIOUS LAWS TO APPEASE WHAT THEY BELIEVE IS AN ANGRY GOD.

 Religious powers, allied to heaven by profession, and claiming to have the characteristics of a lamb, will show by their acts that they have the heart of a dragon, and that they are instigated and controlled by Satan. The time is coming when God's people will feel the hand of persecution because they keep holy the seventh day. . . . But God's people are to stand firm for Him. And the Lord will work in their behalf, showing plainly that He is the God of gods. --Testimonies, vol. 9, pp. 229, 230.  {ChS 156.2}

AS WICKEDNESS INCREASE ON THE EARTH THE THE PROTECTIVE HAND OF GOD IS SLOWLY BUT SURELY REMOVED.GIVING THEM OVER TO THE DESTRUCTIVE HAND OF SATAN SO THAT THEY SEE THE RESULT OF INIQUITY

80-100 homes destroyed by fire caused by Hurricane Sandy

   While appearing to the children of men as a

great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast. "The earth mourneth and fadeth away," "The haughty people . . . do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant." Isaiah 24:4, 5.  {CH 461.1}









RESULT OF UNHEEDED WARNINGS (the book Evangelism, p. 27. (1906)
Lev_20:13  If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

     I am bidden to declare the message that cities full of transgression, and sinful in the extreme, will be destroyed by earthquakes, by fire, by flood. All the world will be warned that there is a God who will display His authority as God. His unseen agencies will cause destruction, devastation, and death. All the accumulated riches will be as nothingness. . . .

     Calamities will come--calamities most awful, most unexpected; and these destructions will follow one after another. If there will be a heeding of the warnings that God has given, and if churches will repent, returning to their allegiance, then other cities may be spared for a time. But if men who have been deceived continue in the same way in which they have been walking, disregarding the law of God, and presenting falsehoods before the people, God allows them to suffer calamity, that their senses may be awakened.  
     The Lord will not suddenly cast off all transgressors, or destroy entire nations; but He will punish cities and places where men have given themselves up to the possession of Satanic agencies. Strictly will the cities of the nations be dealt with, and yet they will not be visited in the extreme of God's indignation, because some souls will yet break away from the delusions of the enemy, and will repent and be converted, while the mass will be treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath.--Evangelism, p. 27. (1906)  {CL 8.1}

DESTRUCTIVE JUDGMENTS ARE A  TIME FOR THOSE OUTSIDE OF CHRISTIANITY TO TURN TO GOD.THE MERCIFUL GOD GIVES OPPORTUNITY FOR REPENTANCE AND CHANGE OF HEART.

The time of God's destructive judgments is the time of mercy for those who have had no opportunity to learn what is truth. Tenderly will the Lord look upon them. His heart of mercy is touched; His hand is still stretched out to save, while the door is closed to those who would not enter.-- Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 97.   56.2} 
     Soon the battle will be waged fiercely between those who serve God and those who serve Him not. Soon everything that can be shaken will be shaken, that those things that cannot be shaken may remain.--Testimonies, vol. 9, pp. 15, 16.  
     In the time of distress and perplexity of nations there will be many who have not given themselves wholly to the corrupting influences of the world and the service of Satan, who will humble themselves before God, and turn to Him with their whole heart and find acceptance and pardon.-- Testimonies, vol. 1, p. 269.   56.4} 
     There are many who are reading the Scriptures who cannot understand their true import. All over the world men and women are looking wistfully to heaven. Prayers and tears and inquiries go up from souls longing for light, for grace, for the Holy Spirit. Many are on the verge of the kingdom, waiting only to be gathered in.--The Acts of the Apostles, p. 109.  {Christian Service 57.1}


PERFECT PEACE AND AT SUCH A TIME
Royalblood

The surety of the sunday Law.

Noah preached for 120 years then the end came.If the messengers of God take their eyes of God,If they do not behold nor discern the tokens of His coming they can get discouraged. More so ,If by chance Seventh Day Adventist reject the advancing light they are sure to be as the disciples on the day of the crucifixion.
The disciples went fishing, for them their hope was lost.They misunderstood the Saviours death,His mission and His message. This left them in a scattered state,spiritually and literally.

With the principles of life,spiritual things and the none changing nature of man and God all things being equal we can expect the same to happen to the spiritual Jews of this time (SDA) .If they disregard,or are indifferent to the truth for the hour, or eat and drink with the drunken and smite the messengers or are not moved by sure Word and the Holy Spirit,they are almost sure to repeat the same history. Another aspect to add to the equation is Lucifer, surely he will not stand idly by but will lead the professed people of God into strong delusion thinking that truth is error and error is truth (Isa 66:1-4, 2Thes 2:10-12). A confused Seventh Day Adventist will receive the mark of the Beast rather than the seal of God.  "For God is not the author of confusion" neither can those "who follow the Lamb" be deceived into doing nothing or fighting the message of the hour.

Ellen White Expressed the experience of the professed people of God beautifully : 

"While I was praying at the family altar, the Holy Ghost fell upon me, and I seemed to be rising higher and higher, far above the dark world. I turned to look for the Advent people in the world, but could not find them, when a voice said to me, "Look again, and look a little higher." At this I raised my eyes, and saw a straight and narrow path, cast up high above the world. On this path the Advent people were traveling to the city, which was at the farther end of the path. They had a bright light set up behind them at the beginning of the path, which an angel told me was the midnight cry. This light shone all along the path and gave light for their feet so that they might not stumble. If they kept their eyes fixed on Jesus, who was just before them, leading them to the city, they were safe. But soon some grew weary, and said the city was a great way off, and they expected to have entered it before. Then Jesus would hem by raising His glorious right arm, and from His arm came a light which waved over the Advent band, and they shouted, "Alleluia!" Others rashly denied the light behind them and said that it was not God that had led them out so far. The light behind them went out, leaving their feet in perfect darkness, and they stumbled and lost sight of the mark and of Jesus, and fell off the path down into the dark and wicked world below. Soon we   heard the voice of God like many waters, which gave us the day and hour of Jesus' coming. The living saints, 144,000 in number, knew and understood the voice, while the wicked thought it was thunder and an earthquake. When God spoke the time, He poured upon us the Holy Ghost, and our faces began to light up and shine with the glory of God, as Moses' did when he came down from Mount Sinai.  
     The 144,000 were all sealed and perfectly united. On their foreheads was written, God, New Jerusalem, and a glorious star containing Jesus' new name.{ Early Writing 15.1}.

           So what about the tokens of His coming for present day Seventh Day Adventist ?
God has always given his people light along the way from the fall of Eden to the slaying of Satan and the Sinful Light was ever present to the people of the earth,the witnessing angels and the inhabitants of the un-fallen worlds.  The testimony of Gods providence His long suffering His mercy and his saving grace are ever before the occupants of the universe.God will be proven true and loving while Lucifer will be proven a the father of lies even from the beginning.

Our tokens of light for this present time could be found in the present truth messages of the hour. She said Ellen white that is in the quotations above from her first vision from Early writings says God send the light in the time of waiting and waning and discouragement : " But soon some grew weary, and said the city was a great way off, and they expected to have entered it before. Then Jesus would hem by raising His glorious right arm, and from His arm came a light which waved over the Advent band, and they shouted, "Alleluia!" 
But not all accept the light. Light is symbolic of sensational truth, righteousness, understanding , increase of knowledge from God. 

• God provided this in the messages He gave to NOAH. Repent, the flood is coming
• God provided this light in the messages given to Moses. Prepare to leave Egypt.
• Elijah was sent with the light choose ye this day whom ye would serve on Mount Carmel.
• Nehemiah was given the message Go up and rebuild Jeruselem.
• Light came when John stood on the Jordan and said bring forth character shown in repentance.
• The Millerites brought the light that showed the beginning of the investigative Judgement.
• God raises up a people do diliver the light bringing to view the events connected with the closing of the investigative Judgement.
•  

What are these events ,what are these tokens of our coming king that was given to Seventh Day Adventism here at the end of the World. 

• Gods people turning away from truth in events that leads up to Ezekiel 8 that leads our people to the back facing the temple and face towards the Sun.
• Events involving the restraining of Islam as the Pioneers of Adventism understood it in the trumpets of Rev 8,9,11.
• Events involving the Wild man of Islam Gen 16:12 His hands being against every man's hand and the whole world against them. see it here
• Events marking the papacy overcoming the 3 obstacles Atheism (Communism) fulfilled 1989 fall of Comunism,The Glorious Land(USA) (in progress),then Egypt (the world) Soon to come via the Sunday laws. Daniel 11:40-42
• Events marking the Papacy controlling the finances of the world that will bring in the problem of buying and selling thus forcing many to take the Mark of the Beast Daniel 11:43.(Economic callaps to move to this new system is inevitable)
• All these above leads up to the Sunday Law. "By His hand " Legislation  see the line upon line studies here
• The plagues fall then.

Then Michael will stand up in Daniel 12:1. Probation close for all on the earth. 
The faithful, those who have little no trust in self.those who are not intoxicated about the self-exaltation,those who have received and survive the ridicule of the

1. Footmen(our people).
2. The horsemen (Apostate protestant).
3. Survive the swelling of the Jordan ( the Papal persecution and Dominion for a time).

These the faithful will survive the overmastering deception of the impersonation of Christ by Lucifer himself. 
While  "Those who have yielded step by step to worldly demands, and conformed to worldly customs, will then yield to the powers that be, rather than subject themselves to derision, insult, threatened imprisonment, and death. At that time the gold will be separated from the dross." . {Prophets and Kings, p. 188}

The light has been given, Tokens of our coming King have been clearly presented but multitudes live as though these things have never been reveal. Some are looking at Pastors to trickle the information down. They expect a Grand announcement to come from General Conference  saying its time to get ready.
Many rely on what others have preached rather than testing things for themselves.Not realising that when the shepherds are smitten the sheep will scatter. Many fail to realise they have to stand the test alone when all earthly support is cut off. And So there preparation is weak . They build on shifting sand instead of the Solid rock.. 
To deny Spirit of Prophecy,to deny the foundations of our faith, to be indifferent to counsel,to neglect the faith once delivered to the saints,to run to Egypt ( the Government) for assistance is to surely build your house on the sand.
When the Storm,tempest,winds and waves of the Sunday law,the persecution,the slaying of the commandment keeping people,the denial of sustenance for rejection of Papal creed,when church gatherings are no more, when Commities and board meetings and budgets cease ,When all these come upon us as an overwhelming surprise will you as an individual stand?
Will the surface reading themes of Sabbath school lessons suffice,will the mothers day and Christmas programs strengthen,will the retreats and fun days and fashion shows sustain, wil the dancing and swaying in the pews encourage ? 

But Will the understanding the times and judgements,understanding the mystery of iniquity (Self exaltation) Isa14, Romans 1:28-32 and experiencing the mystery of Godliness ( Col 1:25-27) the thirst for the Christlike nature before the Sunday Law be your experience. Would understanding the Sure word of Prophecy rather than the darkness and winds of doctrines keep you steady ?

What would be your experience ?
You think about it. its your life !
God has given ample time and ample preparation for those who seek a better place.
God has and is giving the light for this time.
How much longer will He Hold the Winds for His people?
Evidence suggest its not long again.

"We are on the very verge of the time of trouble, and perplexities that are scarcely dreamed of are before us. A power from beneath is leading men to war against Heaven. Human beings have confederated with satanic agencies to make void the law of God. The inhabitants of the world are fast becoming as the inhabitants of the world in Noah's day, who were swept away by the Flood, and as the inhabitants of Sodom, who were consumed by fire from heaven. The powers of Satan are at work to keep minds diverted from eternal realities. The enemy has arranged matters to suit his own purposes. Worldly business, sports, the fashions of the day --these things occupy the minds of men and women. Amusements and unprofitable reading spoil the judgement. In the broad road that leads to eternal ruin there walks a long procession. The world, filled with violence, reveling, and drunkenness, is converting the church. The law of God, the divine standard of righteousness, is declared to be of no effect."  { Testimonies Vol 9 page43.2} 

Perfect Peace and at Such a Time.
Events leading up to the Sunday Law clearly shown here

 

Look out for the new drive in Christendom..Praying together!

Ecumenism fulfilling its goal.That is all Road leads to Rome.The Anglicans take the Lead.

Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and the Archbishop of Canterbury (Photo: CNS)

Dr Rowan Williams has told Pope Benedict XVI and the Synod of Bishops that evangelisation is not a project, but the natural “overflow” of an experience of Christ and his Church that transforms lives, giving them meaning and joy.
The Archbishop of Canterbury said that “those who know little and care even less about the institutions and hierarchies of the Church these days” are nevertheless attracted and challenged by Christians whose lives show they have been transformed by their encounter with Christ.
The leader of the Anglican Communion had been invited by Pope Benedict to deliver a major address at the synod on the new evangelisation yesterday.
Dr Williams began his talk by remembering the Second Vatican Council, which, he said, was a sign that “the Church was strong enough to ask itself some demanding questions about whether its culture and structures were adequate to the task of sharing the Gospel with the complex, often rebellious, always restless mind of the modern world”.
In many ways, he said, the synod on the new evangelisation is a continuation of the work of Vatican II.
Presenting the Gospel means being confident that it has a distinctive, life-giving message, the archbishop said. Confidence in the message, and not in oneself, can be cultivated only through contemplation, he said.
“With our minds made still and ready to receive, with our self-generated fantasies about God and ourselves reduced to silence, we are at last at the point where we may begin to grow,” he said.
“The face we need to show to our world is the face of a humanity in endless growth toward love, a humanity so delighted and engaged by the glory of what we look toward that we are prepared to embark on a journey without end to find our way more deeply into it,” Archbishop Williams told the synod.
During an interview earlier in the day with the American Catholic News Service and Vatican Radio, the archbishop said: “If evangelisation is just rallying the troops or just trying to get people to sign up, something’s missing – what’s missing is the transformed humanity that the Gospel brings us.”
The archbishop urged the synod to support the Taizé ecumenical community and similar ecumenical efforts that help people learn prayer and contemplation. “The more we keep apart from each other as Christians of different confessions,” the less convincing we will be, he told synod members.
He also told the Pope and synod participants that nurturing a habit of contemplation “strips away an unthinking superiority toward other baptised believers and the assumption that I have nothing to learn from them”.
Dr Williams, who has announced he will retire at the end of December, also had a private meeting with Pope Benedict.
Earlier in the day, he told CNS and Vatican Radio that the Second Vatican Council was “enormously important” for other Christians as well as for Catholics.
“I was a teenager as the Council began, and a practising Anglican, and what had been a very self-contained, rather remote, exotic, fascinating, but strange body, suddenly opened up,” he said. Seeing what the Catholic Church did with the Council led other churches to re-think how they, too, were interacting with the wider world and with one another.
Preparing to retire, he said he obviously was disappointed that efforts to promote full, visible Christian unity had not progressed further, but no one could deny that Christians pray and work together today in a way that would have been unimaginable in the 1950s.
“Praying together isn’t just a casual thing, a marginal activity,” he said. When divided Christians “share the prayer of the Church”, even if they cannot share the fullness of that prayer in the Eucharist, they are placing themselves before God together and showing the world what it means to be Christian.
At the same time, he said, the Catholic Church and Anglican Communion both have changed over the past 50 years and “we don’t, when we change, always wait for one other”. The archbishop did not identify specific changes, but Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict have said the move in many Anglican churches to ordain women priests and bishops has become a new obstacle to full unity.

The Anglican discussions and debates took place and continue to take place very publicly. Asked if there was concern about finding a balance between letting people see the process of discernment and not scandalising people with the differences existing within a Christian community, he said, “the desire not to give scandal is doubtless very worthy in some ways, but it’s so often an excuse for denial [or] sweeping things under the carpet”.
At the same time, he said, “there is a real spiritual, and not just practical, question about a Church which gets so obsessed with its own internal church politics and conflicts – the drama, the clashes and controversy, what I call the soap opera of Church life – there’s something spiritually very damaging if we just sort of wallow in that. And thus, from time to time, pastors and teachers of the Church have to say, ‘Whoa, step back, just remind yourselves of what we’re here for’.”
Without contemplation, the richness of spirituality and the experience of faith in Jesus, he said, “it’s just a matter of winning arguments or winning battles, God help us”.
In his 10 years as head of the Church of England, he said, one of the most enjoyable and faith-confirming things he did was to visit schools and parishes, being with “people who are doing what matters”.
One of the “great illusions” bishops can fall prey to, he said, is thinking that what they do in the office is what really matters. Instead, he said, people who are questioning, people who are educating and offering guidance, people who are “developing in faithful discipleship” are doing the work of the Church.

Source:
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2012/10/11/dr-rowan-williams-joint-prayer-and-contemplation-are-key-to-evangelising-the-world/

United States does not have a Protestant majority anymore

 The percentage of Protestant adults in the U.S. has reached a low of 48 percent, the first time that Pew Forum on Religion & Public Lifehas reported with certainty that the number has fallen below 50 percent. The drop has long been anticipated and comes at a time when no Protestants are on the U.S. Supreme Court and the Republicans have their first presidential ticket with no Protestant nominees.

Among the reasons for the change a spike in the number of American adults who say they have no religion. The Pew study, released Tuesday, found that about 20 percent of Americans say they have no religious affiliation, an increase from 15 percent in the last five years.

Scholars have long debated whether people who say they no longer belong to a religious group should be considered secular. While the category as defined by Pew researchers includes atheists, it also encompasses majorities of people who say they believe in God, and a notable minority who pray daily or consider themselves "spiritual" but not "religious." Still, Pew found overall that most of the unaffiliated aren't actively seeking another religious home, indicating that their ties with organized religion are permanently broken.

Growth among those with no religion has been a major preoccupation of American faith leaders who worry that the United States, a highly religious country, would go the way of Western Europe, where church attendance has plummeted. Pope Benedict XVI has partly dedicated his pontificate to combating secularism in the West. This week in Rome, he is convening a three-week synod, or assembly, of bishops from around the world aimed at bringing back Roman Catholics who have left the church.

The trend also has political implications. American voters who describe themselves as having no religion vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. Pew found Americans with no religion support abortion rights and gay marriage at a much higher-rate than the U.S. public at large. These "nones" are an increasing segment of voters who are registered as Democrats or lean toward the party, growing from 17 percent to 24 percent over the last five years. The religiously unaffiliated are becoming as important a constituency to Democrats as evangelicals are to Republicans, Pew said.

The Pew analysis, conducted with PBS' "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly," is based on several surveys, including a poll of nearly 3,000 adults conducted June 28-July 9, 2012. The finding on the Protestant majority is based on responses from a larger group of more than 17,000 people and has a margin of error of plus or minus 0.9 percentage points, Pew researchers said.

Pew said it had also previously calculated a drop slightly below 50 percent among U.S. Protestants, but those findings had fallen within the margin of error; the General Social Survey, which is conducted by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center, reported for 2010 that the percentage of U.S. Protestants was around 46.7 percent. Analysts disagree on whether the increasing numbers of nondenominational Christians should be counted as Protestant. Pew researchers do include independent Christians in their Protestant figure.

Researchers have been struggling for decades to find a definitive reason for the steady rise in those with no religion.' The spread of secularism in Western Europe was often viewed as a byproduct of growing wealth in the region. Yet among industrialized nations, the United States stood out for its deep religiosity in the face of increasing wealth.

Now, religion scholars say the decreased religiosity in the United States could reflect a change in how Americans describe their religious lives. In 2007, 60 percent of people who said they seldom or never attend religious services still identified themselves as part of a particular religious tradition. In 2012, that statistic fell to 50 percent, according to the Pew report.

"Part of what's going on here is that the stigma associated with not being part of any religious community has declined," said John Green, a specialist in religion and politics at the University of Akron, who advised Pew on the survey. "In some parts of the country, there is still a stigma. But overall, it's not the way it used to be."

The Pew study has found the growth in unaffiliated Americans spans a broad range of groups: men and women, college graduates and those without a college degree, people earning less than $30,000 annually and those earning $75,000 or more. However, along ethnic lines, the largest jump in "nones" has been among whites. One-fifth of whites describe themselves as having no religion.

More growth in "nones" is expected. One-third of adults under age 30 have no religious affiliation, compared to 9 percent of people 65 and older. Pew researchers wrote that "young adults today are much more likely to be unaffiliated than previous generations were at a similar stage in their lives," and aren't expected to become more religiously active as they age.

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Online: http://www.pewforum.org/Unaffiliated/nones-on-the-rise.aspx

The Threefold Union of Religion And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Rev. 16:13, 14. By the decree enforcing the institution of the papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation [the United States] will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near. Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience. .. Papists, Protestants, and worldling will alike accept the form of godliness without the power, and they will see in this union a grand movement for the conversion of the world and the ushering in of the long-expected millennium. When our nation [the United States] shall so abjure the principles of its government as to enact a Sunday law, Protestantism will in this act join hands with popery; it will be nothing else than giving life to the tyranny which has long been eagerly watching its opportunity to spring again into active despotism. 


And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast. Rev. 13:4.

"He had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon." Though professing to be followers of the Lamb of God, men become imbued with the spirit of the dragon. They profess to be meek and humble but they speak and legislate with the spirit of Satan, showing by their actions that they are the opposite of what they profess to be. This lamb-like power unites with the dragon in making war upon those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. And Satan unites with Protestants and Papists, acting in consort with them as the god of this world, dictating to men as if they were the subjects of his kingdom, to be handled and governed and controlled as he pleases. If men will not agree to trample under foot the commandments of God, the spirit of the dragon is revealed. They are imprisoned, brought before councils, and fined. "He causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads." "He had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed." Thus Satan usurps the prerogatives of Jehovah. The man of sin sits in the seat of God, proclaiming himself to be God, and acting above God.
There is a marked contrast between those who bear the seal of God and those who worship the beast and his image. The Lord's faithful servants will receive the bitterest persecution from false teachers, who will not hear the word of God, and who prepare stumbling blocks to put in the way of those who would hear. But God's people are not to fear. Satan cannot go beyond his limit. The Lord will be the defense of His people. He regards the injury done to His servants for the truth's sake as done to Himself. When the last decision has been made, when all have taken sides, either for Christ and the commandments or for the great apostate, God will arise in His power, and the mouths of those who have blasphemed against Him will be forever stopped. Every opposing power will receive its punishment.

UN,Papal Rome & America shown as the Dragon Beast and False prophet here
Or see the study here