American flags wave proudly over churches across the nation. Many public ceremonies still conclude with “God Bless America.” Survey after survey confirms that the vast majority of Americans believe in Godāa staggering 81% according to recent Gallup polling. Yet church pews sit empty. Biblical literacy plummets. Moral standards erode at accelerating rates.
This presents a puzzling contradiction: If so many Americans believe in God, why are they increasingly disconnected from religious practice and biblical values? Why do they profess faith in a divine being while living as if He doesn’t exist?
The answer lies not in whether Americans believe in God, but in whether they believe God speaks to them.
King David noted this distinction thousands of years ago when he wrote:
Notice his accusation isn’t that nations deny Godāit’s that they forget Him. They acknowledge a creator but treat Him as distant, silent, and irrelevant to daily life.
When God revealed Himself at Mount Sinai and thundered, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:2), He wasn’t merely asserting His existence. He was declaring His voice. The fundamental message was: “I created the world, and I have something to say to you.”
The real question of faith isn’t whether God exists, but whether He speaks. Does it actually matter if there’s a God who remains silent? What transforms belief from an intellectual exercise into a life-changing force is the conviction that God communicates His will to humanity.
Passive belief in God that doesn’t lead to actionāto responding to God’s callāis functionally indistinguishable from atheism. It creates the same moral vacuum, the same existential emptiness, the same rudderless society.
The true dividing line in America isn’t between theists and atheists. It’s between those who believe the Bible is the word of God and those who don’t. Torah min Hashamayimāthe doctrine that Scripture comes from heavenāis the most critical belief of all.
The modern falling away from God began in the 19th century when academics and religious reformers started questioning the divine origins of the Bible. This biblical criticism represented the most devastating attack on faith in human history. These scholars often maintained belief in God while arguing that the Bible was merely a human creationābrilliant, perhaps, but not divine.
This explains America’s religious paradox. It doesn’t matter that 81% of Americans believe in God. What matters is how many believe the Bible is God’s actual word. And that number has collapsed.
A recent Gallup poll revealed that a record-low 20% of Americans now say the Bible is the literal word of God, down from 24% in 2017 and half of what it was in the early 1980s. More troubling still, 29% now consider the Bible merely “fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by man.” For the first time in American history, significantly more citizens view the Bible as a human invention than as divine revelation.
The consequences are evident everywhere. Without a divine standard, morality becomes subjective. Without divine accountability, self-restraint erodes. Without divine purpose, existential despair spreads. Without divine communion, loneliness intensifies. A nation that believes in God but not in His word will inevitably drift toward practical atheism.
This isn’t cause for despair but clarity. We must recognize that superficial belief in a creator isn’t enough. The challenge facing American Christianity and Judaism isn’t convincing people God existsāit’s convincing them He speaks.
What makes this moment especially tragic is that Americans are rejecting the Bible’s divine origin precisely when its prophecies are being fulfilled before our eyes. The rebirth of Israel as a nation in a single day (Isaiah 66:8). The ingathering of Jewish exiles from across the globe (Ezekiel 36:24). The revival of Hebrewāa once-dead language (Zephaniah 3:9). The transformation of barren wasteland into fertile ground (Isaiah 27:6). Jerusalem becoming the epicenter of global controversy (Zechariah 12:3).
These aren’t vague predictions manipulated to fit current events. They’re precise forecasts made thousands of years ago, unfolding exactly as written in modern Israel. The very existence of Israel today stands as living proof of biblical authority. Every blooming desert farm, every new immigrant stepping off a plane, every skyscraper in Tel Aviv testifies to the Bible’s divine origin. What greater evidence could there be that the Bible isn’t mere human wisdom but God’s revelation?
The solution to America’s spiritual crisis isn’t more generic God-talk but renewed commitment to Scripture as God’s authoritative voice. When we recover the conviction that the Bible isn’t just a good book but God’s bookānot just containing truth but being truthāthen belief in God regains its transformative power.
A God who doesn’t speak isn’t worth believing in. A God who speaks but isn’t heard accomplishes nothing. It’s only when we believe in a God who speaks and then listen to what He says that faith becomes the foundation of both personal transformation and national renewal.
America doesn’t need more people who believe in God. America needs people who believe that God is speaking to us. Israel365ās mission is to fight this falling away from the Bible by opening people’s eyes to the miracles unfolding in Israel today. When Christians and Jews witness prophecy becoming reality in the Holy Land, faith in Scripture’s divine origin is rekindled. Please support our annual campaign and help us bring the Israel Bible to the next generation. Together, we can restore belief not just in God’s existence, but in His living word.
