On Monday, our AmCon guest-speaker Amy Fryholm began her discussion about Protestantism in America with a graph of church attendance from the year 1790 to today. Her graph indicated that the attendance steadily rose from 1790-1965, where it was at its peak, and since has slightly declined to where it is today. She spoke of both the idea of "Pre-Millennialism" and "Post-Millennialism" and the decline of church attendance since 1965. The social change that is demonstrated through Post-Millennialism may have led people to believe that they do not "need" the church.
I think the most fascinating aspect about Pre and Post Millennialism is that the formation of Protestantism in America is really fairly young and new. The fact that it took nearly 200 years until the church had a significant decline is amazing, and although America has seen a decline within the past 50 years, there very much still remains a future for the church. The question is, will Protestantism continue to decline or rise back to the top? Will Post-Millennialism become more or less prevalent according to that change? Only time will tell...
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