GNITN
#1,140
Growth Without Scripture Won’t Survive What’s Coming
It’s Still Early
We’re not even a week into 2026 and already we’ve seen a major shakeup in Venezuela with the prospects of other countries getting a visit from the US. But those of us who are Christians we know that the challenges to the Church are more than physical but spiritual in nature. One article lists what things the Body of Christ will face for this new year and I think it’s a good one as we read from Prophecy News Watch:
In many churches, 2025 looked like a year of cautious optimism. Attendance rose in pockets. Bible sales climbed. Scripture engagement surged online, especially among the young. To some, it felt like the Church was finally turning a corner after years of decline and disruption. But beneath the surface, something else was happening.
However, 2025 saw challenges of doctrine and beliefs many didn’t see coming:
The same year that hunger for God quietly returned, pressure against biblical faith intensified. Technology advanced faster than discernment. Governments watched more closely. Doctrine softened. Persecution raged abroad while the West largely looked away. What appeared to be recovery was, in many ways, preparation for testing. The Church does not enter 2026 in neutral territory. It enters carrying unresolved tensions that will no longer remain theoretical.
The authors then listed the 10 things they see as what the Church will face in 2026 starting with the Bible itself being challenged by those on the inside:
One of the most troubling developments of 2025 was not open hostility to Scripture, but its quiet reclassification. The Bible was increasingly treated as inspirational rather than authoritative--valuable for encouragement, but negotiable when it conflicted with cultural norms. Sermons avoided entire categories of teaching: judgment, sexual ethics, repentance, exclusivity of Christ. Scripture was quoted selectively, often framed with disclaimers or apologies. In some seminaries and denominations, biblical authority was openly redefined as "community-informed interpretation."
This isn’t new all by itself, but it’s more the avenues such challenges are presented endlessly on social media that make the difference. The prince of the power of the air seems to have his messengers all over the Internet. The article then makes a bold assertion about all of this:
In 2026, this trend will intensify. Churches will be pressured to explain why they still believe certain passages apply at all. Once Scripture must defend itself before culture, it no longer governs belief--it merely participates in discussion. A church that loses confidence in Scripture will not be silenced by force. It will silence itself.
Big Brothers Indeed
Then there are the challenges of leaders across the world increasingly taking away freedom of religion altogether:
In 2025, Western governments increasingly expanded digital monitoring under the banners of safety, misinformation control, and extremism prevention. Financial transactions, online speech, and organizational activity became easier to track, analyze, and flag. While churches were rarely targeted directly, the framework was built. Beliefs on marriage, gender, and life were increasingly categorized as "potentially harmful," placing biblical conviction closer to regulatory concern. Surveillance does not begin with punishment--it begins with observation.
The crime now is not actually in actions but in mere beliefs that don’t align with culture:
In 2026, churches may face scrutiny not for criminal behavior, but for ideological alignment. Banking access, nonprofit status, platform visibility, and even insurance coverage could become contingent on compliance. The greatest danger is not persecution--it is preemptive obedience born of fear. When the state begins to define which beliefs are acceptable, faith becomes conditional.
And we need to recall how the Church at large acquiesced to the culture. In 2026 we will see even more pulpits and congregations calling evil good as they preach doctrinal compromise disguised as love and progress:
2025 offered no shortage of examples of doctrinal compromise framed as compassion. Churches hosted drag-themed Christmas celebrations. Others removed references to sin or repentance from liturgy entirely. Some openly rejected biblical teaching on sexuality, hell, or salvation while still calling themselves Christian. These changes were not presented as rebellion, but as moral growth. Dissent was labeled harm. Faithfulness was reframed as exclusion. Over time, doctrine was not debated--it was replaced. In 2026, this trend will sharpen. Churches that hold historic Christian teaching will increasingly be portrayed as unsafe spaces. Pastors will be pressured to affirm what Scripture forbids, or risk public backlash and institutional consequences. Love without truth does not liberate. It disorients.
The Church Will Go Silent
It’s not what is preached but what isn’t preached that is the issue now. By simply deciding to avoid the hot topics of the day the Church is preaching on them as being less than what they are. If sexual immorality isn’t mentioned as sin, many will just think it isn’t an important issue. And in 2026 it may be because many preachers have gotten exhausted in the fight:
By late 2025, many churches were simply tired. Years of cultural conflict, political volatility, and social upheaval left leaders weary. Silence began to feel like wisdom. But silence is not neutral. It shapes disciples just as surely as teaching does. In 2026, exhaustion will tempt churches to avoid difficult topics altogether. Yet congregations formed without clarity will be unprepared for pressure. Retreat does not preserve unity--it postpones reckoning. A Church that refuses to speak eventually forgets how.
A Divided Church
I’m certainly not against having open discussions over doctrine as long as that is what happens. But with social media being what it is, the ability to tear apart each other with little to no consequences looms large:
2025 exposed deep fractures within the Church. Social media rewarded outrage over restraint. Leaders attacked one another publicly. Disagreements escalated into accusations of heresy, betrayal, or cowardice. The result was not clarity, but cynicism. In 2026, continued fragmentation will weaken the Church's public witness. A divided body struggles to speak with moral authority. Unity does not require uniformity--but public hostility corrodes trust and confuses truth. A church that consumes itself leaves little light for the world.
Again, having open dialogues is good and even helpful. However, the infighting has gone public now and to the outside world they hardly see we are Christian by our love. We can agree to disagree over prophecy and things like free will or predestination but doing it by accusing those who disagree with you as being unsaved or demonically inspired is totally wrong. The challenge this year is such disagreements will only get bigger.
Revival And Technology
In previous years we’ve seen young people being touched and changed on college campuses all around the US and overseas. So many new converts were added to the Kingdom of God and the prospects of these spiritual outpourings are not showing signs of stopping so we need to take the next steps. Youth awakenings need discipleship:
One of the most hopeful signs of 2025 was the surge in young people engaging Scripture. Bible apps climbed. Churches reported first-time visitors seeking meaning amid cultural instability. But curiosity is not formation. In 2026, without intentional discipleship, this hunger may drift into shallow spirituality, political faith, or emotional burnout. Young believers drawn by crisis must be rooted in theology, Scripture, and discipline--or the moment will fade. Awakening without grounding creates volatility, not revival.
To be fair, Holy Spirit will help provide help, but He uses people to do that, too. Pray the Body of Christ will lead the way in helping these young converts into disciples. And then there’s the challenge of technology:
Technology can be dangerous substitute--or a powerful servant. Technology accelerated dramatically in 2025. AI-generated sermons, automated discipleship tools, livestream-only churches, and visually driven worship experiences became commonplace.
However, all of this goes against gathering together in person as Hebrews 10:25 tells us to do:
Let us not neglect our church meetings, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near. (TLB)
The article rightly sounds the alarm on what can happen and what has happened:
The danger is substitution. When efficiency replaces formation, depth erodes. When algorithms shape theology, the Gospel becomes content rather than truth. Technology can flatten faith into performance and consumption.
Yet, technology is only a tool:
Yet technology is not the enemy. In 2025, digital tools also spread Scripture globally, amplified underground churches, connected persecuted believers, and drew seekers who would never step into a sanctuary. In 2026, the question will not be whether churches use technology--but whether technology serves theology or replaces it. Tools can extend the Gospel. They must never redefine it.
Increasing Christian Persecution
If the events in Nigeria and the Sudan are any examples, being a Christian is a danger all by itself around the world:
Escalating Christian persecution abroad is on the rise. Nigeria remained one of the deadliest places in the world to be a Christian in 2025. Churches were attacked, pastors kidnapped, villages destroyed, and believers murdered with little international attention. This was not sporadic violence--it was sustained persecution.
The response from the Church is problematic:
What was most alarming was the global silence. At the same time, antisemitism surged worldwide--on campuses, in protests, and across digital spaces. Jewish communities faced threats, vandalism, and intimidation. The connection is clear: hostility toward biblical faith is no longer hidden. In 2026, the Church must recognize that persecution abroad is not distant--it is instructive. Violence begins where belief is dehumanized. Legal pressure often follows where violence is tolerated elsewhere. Ignoring persecution dulls discernment.
Leadership Burnout And The Quiet Collapse Of Shepherds
It makes sense that with all the pressures of preaching the Bible without compromise amidst a culture that will make them pay that pastors will just leave the ministry with no new replacements on the horizon for the same reasons:
Behind outward growth in 2025 was a hidden crisis: exhausted pastors carrying impossible expectations with little support. Cultural hostility, legal uncertainty, and constant scrutiny drained resilience. Many simply endured.
This year we need to support our pastors vigorously in the face of the battering they are taking by simply preaching the Bible:
In 2026, endurance without restoration may give way to collapse--moral failure, emotional breakdown, or abandonment of ministry altogether. A Church that celebrates growth while neglecting its leaders will eventually lose both. Healthy churches protect their shepherds.
While we may not always agree with them, we need to support them as we work out those disagreements. Afterall, they are taking all the arrows for us so we should be there for them as it happens.
The Heart Of The Matters
The article ends with the very challenge in all them and it is the fear of man replacing fear of God:
This is the thread running through every challenge. In 2025, many churches knew what Scripture taught but chose silence to avoid backlash. What began as caution hardened into habit. Over time, obedience was postponed for safety. In 2026, the cost of faithfulness will rise. The Church will face moments where obedience carries consequences. Fear of man produces retreat and compromise. Fear of God produces courage and clarity. Only one sustains the Church.
The church in the digital age can’t hide. In a world with access to so much information and with the ability to document what is preached it is this access that is the breeding ground for the challenges:
The challenges facing the Church in 2026 are not signs of collapse. They are signs of exposure.
Comfort is ending. Neutral ground is shrinking. The Church will not be judged by its intentions, but by its convictions under pressure. The future will belong not to the loudest churches--but to the clearest ones. Not the safest--but the faithful. And the time to prepare for what lies ahead this year is now.
I totally agree. And I believe the church will rise to occasion, at least the true one will.