Craig Dyer, the training director of Christianity Explored, a course designed to look at the gospels with non-Christians to discover the truth about Jesus for themselves, told Premier's News Hour: "I'm not surprised as I look at Britain and as I read my Bible.
"I think the way we need to understand this today is to see, first of all, there is no panic in heaven about the findings of this report on British Social Attitudes in 2019 and nor is there any panic on earth for any follower of the Lord Jesus who knows what he said on the subject."
Slightly over one-third (38%) of the 3,879 people polled for the British Social Attitudes report described themselves as Christian, down from one-half (50%) in 2008, and nearly two-thirds (66%) in 1983.
Mr Dyer spoke about when Jesus was asked about the end of the age in Matthew 24:9 and explained: "It's quite a fascinating answer he gives...he warns 'you're going to be hated by all nations for my name's sake', there's going to be betrayal, there are going to be false prophets who are going to lead many astray and then - very striking in terms of this reported decline - The Lord Jesus said because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold but the one who endures to the end will be saved and this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed to the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."
"The Lord Jesus has prepared us exactly to expect this kind of trend.
"We kind of need a pan-historic perspective and we don't really humanly have that. It's very, very hard for us to see the absolute reality the Lord sees from glory, but he knows those who are his and at any point in history you're always going to have those who would identify themselves as being Christian but again, as for example the parable of the soils warned us - as soon as it gets difficult, they're going to go missing as soon as it becomes costly."
He advised how Christians should respond: "First of all, we have to pray - we're told that because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold...I find myself wanting to pray 'Lord, don't let that happen to me, don't let my love grow cold', because of the culture becoming much more venomous towards the Lord Jesus and His people. So, don't let me sell out on you because I no longer have the approval of the culture.
"The second thing I want to do is to persevere, 'he who endures to the end will be saved'. As believers in the UK, we have to persevere, first of all with a love for the Lord and then a love for the lost.
"With this ardent secularist agenda some of these guys are going to do us some harm, it's going to be sore, but our responsibility to love them, love the Lord and persevere in loving those who may do some significant harm...we pray, we persevere and we proclaim."
Click here to listen to Craig Dyer's response to the numbers of Christians today:
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