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From the Los Angeles Times -

U.S. is still overwhelmingly Christian, study finds
Evangelicals make up the nation's single-largest tradition, followed by Catholics. The survey also notes many Americans have changed religious affiliations or dropped ties to a specific faith.

By K. Connie Kang
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-religion26feb26,0,4582086.story


February 26, 2008

America remains an overwhelmingly Christian country, but the nation's religious life also shows great fluidity, with many adults switching religious affiliations or abandoning ties to organized denominations altogether, according to a new survey released today.

The study also suggests that, in the near future, Protestants may no longer make up a majority of Americans.

Barely 51% of Americans are Protestants, and among people between the ages of 18 and 29, just 43% identify with this branch of Christianity, according to the study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

More than four in 10 adults, or 44%, have switched religious affiliations, moved from being unaffiliated with any faith tradition to affiliated, or abandoned any ties to a specific religion altogether, according to the study. But the study also found that Americans who identify themselves as Christians has remained constant -- nearly 8 in 10.

Today's 148-page study, made public at a teleconference from Washington, D.C., is the first report of the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, a project in the works for more than a year. The interviews were conducted from May 8 to Aug. 13 in 2007. The study was based on interviews in English and Spanish with a representative sample of more than 35,000 adults.

The study is available at www.pewforum.org.

"The presumption of a Protestant framework for understanding the American character is now a thing of the past," said Richard J. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena.

"We are an increasingly pluralistic society, and we Protestants now have to think much about how we can contribute to the common good as simply just one more voice in the American choir," he said in an e-mail.

But Jerry Campbell, president of the Claremont School of Theology, a United Methodist seminary in Claremont, questioned whether the United States ever was a Protestant nation.

"Early on, Europeans came to America at least in part so that they could enjoy religious freedom," he said in an e-mail. "Thus they adopted the principle of the separation of church and state. So, technically, one would not say that this was ever a Protestant nation, rather it was a nation made up primarily of individuals who professed to be Protestants."

According to the study, 78.4% of Americans are Christians, about 5% belong to other faith traditions and 16.1% are unaffiliated with any particular religion.

Secular unaffiliated Americans account for 6.3% of the population; religious unaffiliated, 5.8%; atheists, 1.4% and agnostics, 2.4%.

At 1.7% of the population, Jews make up the largest group of any other religion. Buddhists are 0.7% of the population; Muslims 0.6%; and Hindus and New Age followers, both 0.4%

The study categorized Protestants as members of mainline denominations, such as Methodist and Presbyterian, and Evangelical, which includes Southern Baptists, Pentecostals and historic black churches.

The study noted that Protestantism is characterized by significant internal diversity and fragmentation, encompassing hundreds of different denominations loosely grouped around three "fairly distinct" religious traditions -- evangelical Protestant churches (26.3%), mainline Protestants (18.1%) and historically black Protestant churches (6.9%).

Evangelicals make up the nation's single-largest religious tradition, followed by Catholics, who make up about a quarter of Americans.

But Catholics also lost more adherents than any other single religious group in the United States, with one in three adults who were raised as Catholics no longer in that church, the study said. Roughly 10% of Americans are former Catholics.

"These losses would have been even more pronounced were it not for the offsetting impact of immigration," the study said.

Immigrants to the United States are twice as likely as native-born Americans to identify with the Catholic church. One in three adult Catholics is Latino.

Researchers in the study found the fluidity of religious affiliation most striking.

"Americans are ready, willing and able to change their religious affiliation," said Gregory Smith, a research fellow who worked on the study. "That the United States is a dynamic marketplace when it comes to religion isn't that surprising. But to see the hard numbers, to see just how common an occurrence religious change was, was quite striking to me and to other researchers."

Protestants Verging on Becoming Minorities
By Kent Garber
Posted February 25, 2008

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/national/2008/02/25/protestants-verging-on-becoming-minorities_print.htm

The first American colonists were Protestant, and for roughly four centuries their descendents, along with successive waves of Protestant immigrants, have been the country's dominant religious group.

But now Protestants are on the verge of becoming a statistical minority in the U.S., according a study released today. Whereas nearly two thirds of Americans identified themselves as Protestant as recently as the 1980s, only 51 percent identify as Protestant today, the study found.

The sharp decline in Protestant identifiers was one of several novel and potentially politically volatile findings reported in the study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, which polled more than 35,000 Americans over the age 18.

One of the unifying themes of the study was its assessment that religious life in America remains remarkably fluid and dynamic, with an increasing trend toward diversity and specialization. Underlying the Protestant shift, for instance, is what appears to be an increasingly fragmented movement. Mainline Protestants, once the group's bedrock, now account for less than 20 percent of all Protestants. By contrast, evangelical Protestants now represent more than 50 percent of all Protestant adherents—and more than a quarter of the total population.

The findings, especially regarding evangelicals, hint at possible political consequences. As the 2008 presidential race has suggested, the religious right, which has typically enjoyed solid support from evangelicals, has lost its cohesion. Several factors likely explain this phenomenon, one of which is that as the evangelical movement has grown, it has also become more susceptible to multiple voices and more discordant opinions. "The homogeneity of evangelical politics has been overrated and overestimated for some time," said Randall Balmer, a professor of American religious studies at Barnard College. "You are now beginning to hear other evangelical voices besides James Dobson."

Among Catholics, the trend has been somewhat different, reflecting the heavy Catholic preference of foreign-born Americans. In recent decades nearly half of all U.S. immigrants have been Catholic, hailing predominantly from Latin America. As a result, the proportion of American residents identifying as Catholic has held steady, even as the number of native-born Catholics has dropped.

The study also found remarkable fluidity across different religions. Thirty percent of all Americans, it found, have switched their religion at some point in their lifetime, either to a different religion or to an "unaffiliated status." The "unaffiliated" category, in fact, nearly doubled in size from the 1990s to the most recent study, and most of the jump was attributable to Americans who described their religion as "nothing in particular," as opposed to self-described atheists or agnostics.

"American religion is likely to be even more diverse in the future than it is now," John Green, a senior fellow with the Pew Forum, told reporters. "One can make the case that Americans will be less Protestant and less Christian a century from now, but how much is hard to gauge."

Interesting article - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/us/25cnd-religion.html?hp

February 25, 2008
Americans Change Faiths at Rising Rate, Report Finds
By NEELA BANERJEE

WASHINGTON More than a quarter of adult Americans have left the faith of their childhood to join another religion or no religion, according to a new survey of religious affiliation by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

The report, titled U.S. Religious Landscape Survey,depicts a highly fluid and diverse national religious life. If shifts among Protestant denominations are included, then it appears that 44 percent of Americans have switched religious affiliations.

For at least a generation, scholars have noted that more Americans are moving among faiths, as denominational loyalty erodes. But the survey, based on interviews with more than 35,000 Americans, offers one of the clearest views yet of that trend, scholars said. The United States Census does not track religious affiliation.

The report shows, for example, that every religion is losing and gaining members, but that the Roman Catholic Church has experienced the greatest net losses as a result of affiliation changes. The survey also indicates that the group that had the greatest net gain was the unaffiliated. More than 16 percent of American adults say they are not part of any organized faith, which makes the unaffiliated the country's fourth largest religious group.

Detailing the nature of religious affiliation who has the numbers, the education, the money signals who could hold sway over the country's political and cultural life, said John Green, an author of the report who is a senior fellow on religion and American politics at Pew.

Michael Lindsay, assistant director of the Center on Race, Religion and Urban Life at Rice University, echoed that view. Religion is the single most important factor that drives American belief attitudes and behaviors, said Mr. Lindsay, who had read the Pew report. It is a powerful indicator of where America will end up on politics, culture, family life. If you want to understand America, you have to understand religion in America.

In the 1980s, the General Social Survey by the National Opinion Research Center indicated that from 5 percent to 8 percent of the population described itself as unaffiliated with a particular religion.

In the Pew survey 7.3 percent of the adult population said they were unaffiliated with a faith as children. That segment increases to 16.1 percent of the population in adulthood, the survey found. The unaffiliated are largely under 50 and male. Nearly one-in-five men say they have no formal religious affiliation, compared with roughly 13 percent of women, the survey said.

The rise of the unaffiliated does not mean that Americans are becoming less religious, however. Contrary to assumptions that most of the unaffiliated are atheists or agnostics, most described their religion as nothing in particular. Pew researchers said that later projects would delve more deeply into the beliefs and practices of the unaffiliated and would try to determine if they remain so as they age.

While the unaffiliated have been growing, Protestantism has been declining, the survey found. In the 1970s, Protestants accounted for about two-thirds of the population. The Pew survey found they now make up about 51 percent. Evangelical Christians account for a slim majority of Protestants, and those who leave one evangelical denomination usually move to another, rather than to mainline churches.

To Prof. Stephen Prothero, large numbers of Americans leaving organized religion and large numbers still embracing the fervor of evangelical Christianity point to the same desires.

The trend is toward more personal religion, and evangelicals offer that, said Mr. Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University, who explained that evangelical churches tailor many of their activities for youth. Those losing out are offering impersonal religion and those winning are offering a smaller scale: mega-churches succeed not because they are mega but because they have smaller ministries inside.

The percentage of Catholics in the American population has held steady for decades at about 25 percent. But that masks a precipitous decline in native-born Catholics. The proportion has been bolstered by the large influx of Catholic immigrants, mostly from Latin America, the survey found.

The Catholic Church has lost more adherents than any other group: about one-third of respondents raised Catholic said they no longer identified as such. Based on the data, the survey showed, this means that roughly 10 percent of all Americans are former Catholics.

Immigration continues to influence American religion greatly, the survey found. The majority of immigrants are Christian, and almost half are Catholic. Muslims rival Mormons for having the largest families. And Hindus are the best-educated and among the richest religious groups, the survey found.

I think politicians will be looking at this survey to see what groups they ought to target, Professor Prothero said. If the Hindu population is negligible, they won't have to worry about it. But if it is wealthy, then they may have to pay attention.

Experts said the wide-ranging variety of religious affiliation could set the stage for further conflicts over morality or politics, or new alliances on certain issues, as religious people have done on climate change or Jews and Hindus have done over relations between the United States, Israel and India.

It sets up the potential for big arguments, Mr. Green said, but also for the possibility of all sorts of creative synthesis. Diversity cuts both ways.

Commentaries on Jude 1:10 (from www.biblos.com)
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Geneva Study Bible
{8} But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.

(8) The conclusion: These men are doubly at fault, that is, both for their rash folly in condemning some, and for their impudent and shameless contempt of that knowledge, which when they had gotten, yet nonetheless they lived as brute beasts, serving their bellies.

People's New Testament

Jude 1:10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not. Of spiritual and unseen things.

What they know naturally. By the natural senses. In these things they corrupt themselves.

Wesley's Notes

1:10 But these - Without all shame. Rail at the things of God which they know not - Neither can know, having no spiritual senses. And the natural things, which they know - By their natural senses, they abuse into occasions of sin.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10. (2Pe 2:12.)

those things which-Greek, "all things whatsoever they understand not," namely, the things of the spiritual world.

but what . naturally-Connect thus, "Whatever (so the Greek) things naturally (by natural, blind instinct), as the unreasoning (so the Greek) animals, they know," &c. The Greek for the former "know" implies deeper knowledge; the latter "know," the mere perception of the "animal senses and faculties."

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

1:8-16 False teachers are dreamers; they greatly defile and grievously wound the soul. These teachers are of a disturbed mind and a seditious spirit; forgetting that the powers that be, are ordained of God, Ro 13:1. As to the contest about the body of Moses, it appears that Satan wished to make the place of his burial known to the Israelites, in order to tempt them to worship him, but he was prevented, and vented his rage in desperate blasphemy. This should remind all who dispute never to bring railing charges. Also learn hence, that we ought to defend those whom God owns. It is hard, if not impossible, to find any enemies to the Christian religion, who did not, and do not, live in open or secret contradiction to the principles of natural religion. Such are here compared to brute beasts, though they often boast of themselves as the wisest of mankind. They corrupt themselves in the things most open and plain. The fault lies, not in their understandings, but in their depraved wills, and their disordered appetites and affections. It is a great reproach, though unjust to religion, when those who profess it are opposed to it in heart and life. The Lord will remedy this in his time and way; not in men's blind way of plucking up the wheat with the tares. It is sad when men begin in the Spirit, and end in the flesh. Twice dead; they had been once dead in their natural, fallen state; but now they are dead again by the evident proofs of their hypocrisy. Dead trees, why cumber they the ground! Away with them to the fire. Raging waves are a terror to sailing passengers; but when they get into port, the noise and terror are ended. False teachers are to expect the worst punishments in this world and in that to come. They glare like meteors, or falling stars, and then sink into the blackness of darkness for ever. We have no mention of the prophecy of Enoch in any other part or place of Scripture; yet one plain text of Scripture, proves any point we are to believe. We find from this, that Christ's coming to judge was prophesied of, as early as the times before the flood. The Lord cometh: what a glorious time will that be! Notice how often the word ungodly is repeated. Many now do not at all refer to the terms godly, or ungodly, unless it be to mock at even the words; but it is not so in the language taught us by the Holy Ghost. Hard speeches of one another, especially if ill-grounded, will certainly come into account at the day of judgment. These evil men and seducers are angry at every thing that happens, and never pleased with their own state and condition. Their will and their fancy, are their only rule and law. Those who please their sinful appetites, are most prone to yield to ungovernable passions. The men of God, from the beginning of the world, have declared the doom denounced on them. Such let us avoid. We are to follow men only as they follow Christ.

Matthew Henry's Whole Bible Commentary

Verses 8-15

The apostle here exhibits a charge against deceivers who were now seducing the disciples of Christ from the profession and practice of his holy religion. He calls them filthy dreamers, forasmuch as delusion is a dream, and the beginning of, and inlet to, all manner of filthiness. Note, Sin is filthiness; it renders men odious and vile in the sight of the most holy God, and makes them (sooner or later, as penitent or as punished to extremity and without resource) vile in their own eyes, and in a while they become vile in the eyes of all about them. These filthy dreamers dream themselves into a fool's paradise on earth, and into a real hell at last: let their character, course, and end, be our seasonable and sufficient warning; like sins will produce like punishments and miseries. Here,

I. The character of these deceivers is described.

1. They defile the flesh. The flesh or body is the immediate seat, and often the irritating occasion, of many horrid pollutions; yet these, though done in and against the body, do greatly defile and grievously maim and wound the soul. Fleshly lusts do war against the soul, 1 Pt. 2:11. and in 2 Co. 7:1 we read of filthiness of flesh and spirit, each of which, though of different kinds, defiles the whole man.

2. They despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities, are of a disturbed mind and a seditious spirit, forgetting that the powers that be are ordained of God, Rom. 13:1. God requires us to speak evil of no man (Tit. 3:2.); but it is a great aggravation of the sin of evil-speaking when what we say is pointed at magistrates, men whom God has set in authority over us, by blaspheming or speaking evil of whom we blaspheme God himself. Or if we understand it, as some do, with respect to religion, which ought to have the dominion in this lower world, such evil-speakers despise the dominion of conscience, make a jest of it, and would banish it out of the world; and as for the word of God, the rule of conscience, they despise it. The revelations of the divine will go for little with them; they are a rule of faith and manners, but not till they have explained them, and imposed their sense of them upon all about them. Or, as others account for the sense of this passage, the people of God, truly and specially so, are the dignities here spoken of or referred to, according to that of the psalmist, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm, Ps. 105:15. They speak evil, etc. Religion and its serious professors have been always and every where evil spoken of. Though there is nothing in religion but what is very good, and deserves our highest regards, both as it is perfective of our natures and as it is subservient to our truest and highest interests; yet this sect, as its enemies are pleased to call it, is every where spoken against, Acts 28:22.

On this occasion the apostle brings in Michael the archangel, etc., v. 9. Interpreters are at a loss what is here meant by the body of Moses. Some think that the devil contended that Moses might have a public and honourable funeral, that the place where he was interred might be generally known, hoping thereby to draw the Jews, so naturally prone thereto, to a new and fresh instance of idolatry. Dr. Scott thinks that by the body of Moses we are to understand the Jewish church, whose destruction the devil strove and contended for, as the Christian church is called the body of Christ in the New-Testament style. Others bring other interpretations, which I will not here trouble the reader with. Though this contest was mightily eager and earnest, and Michael was victorious in the issue, yet he would not bring a railing accusation against the devil himself; he knew a good cause needed no such weapons to be employed in its defence. It is said, he durst not bring, etc. Why durst he not? Not that he was afraid of the devil, but he believed God would be offended if, in such a dispute, he went that way to work; he thought it below him to engage in a trial of skill with the great enemy of God and man which of them should out-scold or out-rail the other: a memorandum to all disputants, never to bring railing accusations into their disputes. Truth needs no supports from falsehood or scurrility. Some say, Michael would not bring a railing accusation against the devil as knowing beforehand that he would be too hard for him at that weapon. Some think the apostle refers here to the remarkable passage we have, Num. 20:7-14. Satan would have represented Moses under disadvantageous colours, which he, good man, had at that time, and upon that occasion, given but too much handle for. Now Michael, according to this account, stands up in defence of Moses, and, in the zeal of an upright and bold spirit, says to Satan, The Lord rebuke thee. He would not stand disputing with the devil, nor enter into a particular debate about the merits of that special cause. He knew Moses was his fellow-servant, a favourite of God, and he would not patiently suffer him to be insulted, no, not by the prince of devils; but in a just indignation cries out, The Lord rebuke thee: like that of our Lord himself (Mt. 4:10), Get thee hence, Satan. Moses was a dignity, a magistrate, one beloved and preferred by the great God; and the archangel thought it insufferable that such a one should be so treated by a vile apostate spirit, of how high an order soever. So the lesson hence is that we ought to stand up in defence of those whom God owns, how severe soever Satan and his instruments may be in their censures of them and their conduct. Those who censure (in particular) upright magistrates, upon every slip in their behaviour, may expect to hear, The Lord rebuke thee; and divine rebukes are harder to be borne than careless sinners now think for.

3. They speak evil of the things which they know not, etc., v. 10. Observe, Those who speak evil of religion and godliness speak evil of the things which they know not; for, if they had known them, they would have spoken well of them, for nothing but good and excellent can be truly said of religion, and it is sad that any thing different or opposite should ever be justly said of any of its professors. A religious life is the most safe, happy, comfortable, and honourable life that is. Observe, further, Men are most apt to speak evil of those persons and things that they know least of. How many had never suffered by slanderous tongues if they had been better known! On the other hand, retirement screens some even from just censure. But what they know naturally, etc. It is hard, if not impossible, to find any obstinate enemies to the Christian religion, who do not in their stated course live in open or secret contradiction to the very principles of natural religion: this many think hard and uncharitable; but I am afraid it will appear too true in the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. The apostle likens such to brute beasts, though they often think and boast themselves, if not as the wisest, yet at least as the wittiest part of mankind. In those things they corrupt themselves; that is, in the plainest and most natural and necessary things, things that lie most open and obvious to natural reason and conscience; even in those things they corrupt, debase, and defile themselves: the fault, whatever it is, lies not in their understanding or apprehensions, but in their depraved wills and disordered appetites and affections; they could and might have acted better, but then they must have offered violence to those vile affections which they obstinately chose rather to gratify than to mortify.

4. In v. 11 the apostle represents them as followers of Cain, and in v. 12, 13, as atheistical and profane people, who thought little, and perhaps believed not much, of God or a future world-as greedy and covetous, who, so they could but gain present worldly advantages, cared not what came next-rebels against God and man, who, like Core, ran into attempts in which they must assuredly perish, as he did. Of such the apostle further says, (1.) These are spots in your feasts of charity-the agapai or love-feasts, so much spoken of by the ancients. They happened, by whatever means or mischance, to be admitted among them, but were spots in them, defiled and defiling. Observe, It is a great reproach, though unjust and accidental, to religion, when those who profess it, and join in the most solemn institution of it, are in heart and life unsuitable and even contrary to it: These are spots. Yet how common in all Christian societies here on earth, the very best not excepted, are such blemishes! The more is the pity. The Lord remedy it in his due time and way, not in men's blind and rigorous way of plucking up the wheat with the tares. But in the heaven we are waiting, hoping, and preparing for, there is none of this mad work, there are none of these disorderly doings. (2.) When they feast with you, they feed themselves without fear. Arrant gluttons, no doubt, there were; such as minded only the gratifying of their appetites with the daintiness and abundance of their fare; they had no regard to Solomon's caution, Prov. 23:2. Note, In common eating and drinking a holy fear is necessary, much more in feasting, though we may sometimes be more easily and insensibly overcome at a common meal than at a feast; for, in the case supposed, we are less upon our guard, and sometimes, at least to some persons, the plenty of a feast is its own antidote, as to others it may prove a dangerous snare. (3.) Clouds they are without water, which promise rain in time of drought, but perform nothing of what they promise. Such is the case of formal professors, who at first setting out promise much, like early-blossoming trees in a forward spring, but in conclusion bring forth little or no fruit.-Carried about of winds, light and empty, easily driven about this way or that, as the wind happens to set; such are empty, ungrounded professors, and easy prey to every seducer. It is amazing to hear many talk so confidently of so many things of which they know little or nothing, and yet have not the wisdom and humility to discern and be sensible how little they know. How happy would our world be if men either knew more or practically knew how little they know. (4.) Trees whose fruit withereth, etc. Trees they are, for they are planted in the Lord's vineyard, yet fruitless ones. Observe, Those whose fruit withereth may be justly said to be without fruit. As good never a whit as never the better. It is a sad thing when men seem to begin in the Spirit and end in the flesh, which is almost as common a case as it is an awful one. The text speaks of such as were twice dead. One would think to be once dead were enough; we none of us, till grace renew us to a higher degree than ordinary, love to think of dying once, though this is appointed for us all. What then is the meaning of this being twice dead? They had been once dead in their natural, fallen, lapsed state; but they seemed to recover, and, as a man in a swoon, to be brought to life again, when they took upon them the profession of the Christian religion. But now they are dead again by the evident proofs they have given of their hypocrisy: whatever they seemed, they had nothing truly vital in them.-Plucked up by the roots, as we commonly serve dead trees, from which we expect no more fruit. They are dead, dead, dead; why cumber they the ground? Away with them to the fire. (5.) Raging waves of the sea, boisterous, noisy, and clamorous; full of talk and turbulency, but with little (if any) sense or meaning: Foaming out their own shame, creating much uneasiness to men of better sense and calmer tempers, which yet will in the end turn to their own greater shame and just reproach. The psalmist's prayer ought always to be that of every honest and good man, "Let integrity and uprightness preserve me (Ps. 25:21), and, if it will not, let me be unpreserved." If honesty signify little now, knavery will signify much less, and that in a very little while. Raging waves are a terror to sailing passengers; but, when they have got to port, the waves are forgotten as if no longer in being: their noise and terror are for ever ended. (6.) Wandering stars, planets that are erratic in their motions, keep not that steady regular course which the fixed ones do, but shift their stations, that one has sometimes much ado to know where to find them. This allusion carries in it a very lively emblem of false teachers, who are sometimes here and sometimes there, so that one knows not where nor how to fix them. In the main things, at least, one would think something should be fixed and steady; and this might be without infallibility, or any pretensions to it in us poor mortals. In religion and politics, the great subjects of present debate, surely there are certain stamina in which wise and good, honest and disinterested, men might agree, without throwing the populace into the utmost anguish and distress of mind, or blowing up their passions into rage and fury, without letting them know what they say or whereof they affirm.

II. The doom of this wicked people is declared: To whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. False teachers are to expect the worst of punishments in this and a future world: not every one who teaches by mistake any thing that is not exactly true (for who then, in any public assembly, durst open a Bible to teach others, unless he thought himself equal or superior to the angels of God in heaven?) but every one who prevaricates, dissembles, would lead others into by-paths and side-ways, that he may have opportunity to make a gain or prey of them, or (in the apostle's phrase) to make merchandize of them, 2 Pt. 2:3. But enough of this. As for the blackness of darkness for ever, I shall only say that this terrible expression, with all the horror it imports, belongs to false teachers, truly, not slanderously so called, who corrupt the word of God, and betray the souls of men. If this will not make both ministers and people cautious, I know not what will.

Of the prophecy of Enoch, (v. 14, 15) we have no mention made in any other part or place of scripture; yet now it is scripture that there was such prophecy. One plain text of scripture is proof enough of any one point that we are required to believe, especially when relating to a matter of fact; but in matters of faith, necessary saving faith, God has not seen fit (blessed be his holy name he has not) to try us so far. There is no fundamental article of the Christian religion, truly so called, which is not inculcated over and over in the New Testament, by which we may know on what the Holy Ghost does, and consequently on what we ought, to lay the greatest stress. Some say that this prophecy of Enoch was preserved by tradition in the Jewish church; others that the apostle Jude was immediately inspired with the notice of it: be this as it may, it is certain that there was such a prophecy of ancient date, of long standing, and universally received in the Old-Testament church; and it is a main point of our New-Testament creed. Observe, 1. Christ's coming to judgment was prophesied of as early as the middle of the patriarchal age, and was therefore even then a received and acknowledged truth.-The Lord cometh with his holy myriads, including both angels and the spirits of just men made perfect. What a glorious time will that be, when Christ shall come with ten thousand of these! And we are told for what great and awful ends and purposes he will come so accompanied and attended, namely, to execute judgment upon all. 2. It was spoken of then, so long ago, as a thing just at hand: "Behold, the Lord cometh; he is just a coming, he will be upon you before you are aware, and, unless you be very cautious and diligent, before you are provided to meet him comfortably." He cometh, (1.) To execute judgment upon the wicked. (2.) To convince them. Observe, Christ will condemn none without precedent, trial, and conviction, such conviction as shall at least silence themselves. They shall have no excuse or apology to make that they either can or dare then stand by. Then every mouth shall be stopped, the Judge and his sentence shall be (by all the impartial) approved and applauded, and even the guilty condemned criminals shall be speechless, though at present they want not bold and specious pleas, which they vent with all assurance and confidence; and yet it is certain that the mock-trials of prisoners in the jail among themselves and the real trial at the bar before the proper judge soon appear to be very different things.

I cannot pass v. 15 without taking notice how often, and how emphatically, the word ungodly is repeated in it, no fewer than four times: ungodly men, ungodly sinners, ungodly deeds, and, as to the manner, ungodly committed. Godly or ungodly signifies little with men now-a-days, unless it be to scoff at and deride even the very expressions; but it is not so in the language of the Holy Ghost. Note, Omissions, as well as commissions, must be accounted for in the day of judgment. Note, further, Hard speeches of one another, especially if ill-grounded, will most certainly come into account at the judgment of the great day. Let us all take care in time. "If thou," says one of our good old puritans, "smite (a miscalled heretic, or) a schismatic, and God find a real saint bleeding, look thou to it, how thou wilt answer it." It may be too late to say before the angel that it was an error, Eccl. 5:6. I only here allude to that expression of the divinely inspired writer.

January 31 is the 31st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 334 days remaining until the end of the year (335 in leap years).

-got to love wikipedia :)

Events:
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1504 - France cedes Naples to Aragon.
1606 - Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is executed for his plotting against Parliament and James I of England.
1747 - The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.
1814 - Gervasio Antonio de Posadas becomes Supreme Director of Argentina.
1846 - After the Milwaukee Bridge War, Juneautown and Kilbourntown unified as the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1849 - Corn Laws are abolished in the United Kingdom (following legislation in 1846).
1865 - American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief.
1867 - Maronite nationalist leader Youssef Karam leaves Lebanon on board of a French ship for Algeria
1876 - The United States orders all Native Americans to move into reservations.
1900 - Datu Muhammad Salleh is assassinated in Kampung Teboh, Tambuan, ending the Mat Salleh Rebellion
1910 - The Portuguese republican revolution broke out in the northern city of Porto.
1915 - World War I: Germany uses poison gas against Russia
1917 - World War I: Germany announces its U-boats will engage in unrestricted submarine warfare.
1918 - A series of accidental collisions on a misty Scottish night leads to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines with over a hundred lives, and damage to another five British warships.
1919 - The Battle of George Square takes place in Glasgow, Scotland.
1929 - The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky.
1930 - 3M begins marketing Scotch Tape.
1936 - The Green Hornet radio show debuts.
1941 - Layforce set sail.
1944 - World War II: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
1944 - World War II: During Anzio campaign 1st Ranger Battalion (Darby's Rangers) was destroyed behind enemy lines in a heavily outnumbered encounter at Battle of Cisterna, Italy.
1945 - US Army private Eddie Slovik is executed, the first American soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion.
1946 - Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling the Soviet Union, establishes six constituent republics (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).
1950 - President Harry S. Truman announces a program to develop the hydrogen bomb.
1953 - A North Sea flood causes over 1,800 deaths in the Netherlands.
1956 - Guy Mollet becomes Prime Minister of France.
1957 - Eight people on the ground in Pacoima, California are killed following the mid-air collision between a Douglas DC-7 airliner and a Northrop F-89 Scorpion fighter jet.
1958 - Explorer program: Explorer I - The first successful launch of an American satellite into orbit.
1958 - James Van Allen discovers the Van Allen radiation belt.
1961 - Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2 - Ham the Chimp travels into outer space.
1968 - Viet Cong attack the United States embassy in Saigon.
1968 - Nauru declares independence from Australia.
1970 - A Saskatchewan Court convicts 17-year-old hippie David Milgaard of murder; he is sentenced to life in prison. He spent 23 years in jail until April 14, 1992 when DNA evidence proves him innocent of all charges.
1971 - Apollo program: Apollo 14 Mission - Astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell, aboard a Saturn V, lift off for a mission to the Fra Mauro Highlands on the Moon.
1971 - The Winter Soldier Investigation, organized by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War to publicize war crimes and atrocities by Americans and allies in Vietnam, begin in Detroit, Michigan.
1980 - Thirty-nine people burn to death in the occupation of the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala.
1990 - The first McDonald's in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow, USSR.
1995 - President Bill Clinton authorizes a $20 billion loan to Mexico to stabilize its economy.
1996 - An explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in Colombo, Sri Lanka killing at least 86 and injuring 1,400.
2000 - Alaska Airlines flight 261 MD-83, experiencing horizontal stabilizer problems, crashes in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Point Mugu, California, killing all 88 persons aboard.
2001 - In the Netherlands a Scottish court convicts a Libyan and acquits another for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which crashed into Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.
2003 - The Waterfall train disaster occurs near Waterfall, New South Wales, Australia.
2006 - Samuel A. Alito Jr. assumes office as the 110th Supreme Court justice of the United States.
2007 - Suspects are arrested in Birmingham in the UK, accused of plotting the kidnap, holding and eventual beheading of a serving Muslim British soldier in Iraq.
2008 - Super Smash Bros Brawl, is realeased in Japan

Births:
--------------------------------------------------------
877 - Taejo of Goryeo, ruler of Korea (d. 943)
1512 - King Henry of Portugal (d. 1580)
1543 - Tokugawa Ieyasu, Shogun of Japan (d. 1616)
1550 - Henry I, Duke of Guise, French Catholic leader (d. 1588)
1597 - John Francis Regis, French saint (d. 1640)
1624 - Arnold Geulincx, Flemish philosopher (d. 1669)
1673 - Louis de Montfort, French catholic priest and saint (d. 1716)
1686 - Hans Egede, Norwegian Lutheran missionary (d. 1758)
1752 - Gouverneur Morris, American lawmaker and diplomat (d. 1816)
1759 - Fran�§ois Devienne, French composer (d. 1803)
1797 - Franz Schubert, Austrian composer (d. 1828)
1857 - George Jackson Churchward, GWR Chief mechanical engineer. (d. 1933)
1865 - Henri Desgrange, Founder of the Tour-de-France (d. 1940)
1865 - Shastriji Maharaj, Indian spiritual leader (d. 1951)
1866 - Lev Shestov, Russian philosopher (d. 1938)
1868 - Theodore William Richards, American chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1928)
1872 - Zane Grey, American Western writer (d. 1939)
1881 - Irving Langmuir, American chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1957)
1884 - Theodor Heuss, 1st President of Germany (Bundespr�¤sident) (d. 1963)
1889 - Frank Foster, English cricketer (d. 1958)
1892 - Eddie Cantor, American actor and singer (d. 1964)
1894 - Isham Jones, American musician (d. 1956)
1896 - Sofya Yanovskaya, Russian mathematician (d. 1966)
1902 - Tallulah Bankhead, American actress (d. 1968)
1902 - Alva Myrdal, Swedish politician, Nobel laureate (d. 1986)
1905 - John O'Hara, American writer (d. 1970)
1911 - Eddie Byrne, British actor (d. 1981)
1913 - Don Hutson, American football player (d. 1997)
1914 - Carey Loftin, American actor and stuntman (d. 1997)
1914 - Sri Daya Mata, Hindu religious figure
1914 - Jersey Joe Walcott, American boxer (d. 1994)
1915 - Alan Lomax, American musicologist (d. 2002)
1915 - Thomas Merton, American author and monk (d. 1968)
1915 - Garry Moore, American comedian (d. 1993)
1919 - Jackie Robinson, American baseball player, and the first black player in Major League Baseball (d. 1972)
1921 - John Agar, American actor (d. 2002)
1921 - Carol Channing, American actress and singer
1921 - E. Fay Jones, American architect (d. 2004)
1921 - Mario Lanza, American singer (d. 1959)
1922 - Joanne Dru, American actress (d. 1996)
1923 - Norman Mailer, American writer and journalist (d. 2007)
1925 - Benjamin Hooks, American civil rights leader
1926 - Tom Alston, American baseball player (d. 1993)
1928 - Chuck Willis, American singer and songwriter (d. 1958)
1929 - Rudolf M�¶ssbauer, German physicist, Nobel laureate
1929 - Jean Simmons, English actress
1930 - Lynn Carlin, American actress
1931 - Ernie Banks, American baseball player
1931 - Christopher Chataway, English athlete, newscaster and politician
1933 - Camille Henry, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1997)
1933 - Bernardo Provenzano , Mafia Boss
1934 - James Franciscus, American actor (d. 1991)
1934 - Bob Turner, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2005)
1935 - Kenzaburo Oe, Japanese writer, Nobel laureate
1937 - Regimantas Adomaitis, Lithuanian actor
1937 - Andr�©e Boucher, Canadian politician (d. 2007)
1937 - Philip Glass, American composer
1937 - Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (d. 2008)
1938 - Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
1938 - James G. Watt, American politician
1939 - Claude Gauthier, Canadian singer and songwriter
1940 - Kitch Christie, South African rugby union coach (d. 1998)
1941 - Richard A. Gephardt, American politician
1941 - Jessica Walter, American actress
1942 - Daniela Bianchi, Italian actress
1942 - Derek Jarman, British director and writer (d. 1994)
1944 - Charlie Musselwhite, American musician
1945 - Joseph Kosuth, American conceptual artist
1946 - Terry Kath, American musician (Chicago) (d. 1978)
1947 - Jonathan Banks, American actor
1947 - Nolan Ryan, American baseball player
1948 - Muneo Suzuki, Japanese politician
1949 - Johan Derksen, Dutch footballer and sports journalist
1949 - Ken Wilber, American philosopher
1950 - Alexander Korzhakov, Boris Yeltsin's bodyguard
1951 - Dave Benton, Aruban-born singer
1951 - Harry Wayne Casey, American singer and musician (KC and the Sunshine Band)
1951 - Phil Manzanera, English guitarist (Roxy Music, Quiet Sun, 801)
1952 - Nadya Rusheva, Russian painter (d. 1969)
1954 - Adrian Vandenberg, Dutch musician (Whitesnake)
1956 - John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten, English singer (Sex Pistols, Public Image Ltd.)
1959 - Anthony LaPaglia, Australian actor
1959 - Kelly Lynch, American actress
1959 - Kelly Moore, American stock car driver
1960 - Grant Morrison, British comic book author
1961 - Lloyd Cole, British singer
1964 - Sylvie Bernier, Quebec diver
1964 - Jeff Hanneman, American musician (Slayer)
1964 - Billey Shamrock, Swedish singer
1966 - Dr Umar Alisha, A Sufi Master was Born at Pithapuram.
1967 - Fat Mike, American musician
1967 - Irene Wan, Hong Kong actress
1967 - Joey Wong, Taiwanese actress
1970 - Minnie Driver, British actress
1971 - Lee Young Ae, South Korean actress
1971 - Patrick Kielty, Northern Irish comedian
1971 - Dimitris Markos, Greek footballer
1973 - Portia de Rossi, Australian actress
1974 - Wil Anderson, Australian comedian
1974 - Ariel Pestano, Cuban baseball player
1975 - Fred Coleman, former National Football League wide receiver
1975 - Jackie O, Australian radio host
1975 - Preity Zinta, Indian actress
1976 - Traianos Dellas, Greek footballer
1976 - Buddy Rice, American race car driver
1977 - Mark Dutiaume, National Hockey League player
1977 - Shingo Katori, Japanese actor and singer (SMAP)
1977 - Jim Kleinsasser, National Football League tight end
1977 - Kate Shindle, American actress
1977 - Kerry Washington, American actress
1978 - Ray Shah, Irish DJ, TV, radio presenter
1978 - Brad Rutter, Jeopardy! champion
1979 - Daniel Tammet, British autistic savant
1980 - Ryan Kienle, American musician
1980 - Tiffany Limos, American actress
1981 - Julio Arca, Argentinian soccer player
1981 - Justin Timberlake, American singer
1982 - Yuniesky Betancourt, Major League Baseball shortstop
1982 - Andreas G�¶rlitz, German soccer player
1982 - Bruno Nogueira, Portuguese actor, comedian and TV host
1982 - Elena Paparizou, Greek singer
1982 - J��nis Sprukts, National Hockey League player
1982 - Brad Thompson, Major League Baseball player
1983 - James Sutton, British television actor
1984 - Jeremy Wariner, American 400m runner

Deaths
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743 - Muhammad al-Baqir, Shia Imam (b. 676)
1398 - Emperor Suk�� (b. 1334)
1435 - Xuande, Emperor of China (b. 1398)
1561 - Bairam Khan, Great Mughal General, regent for Akbar
1561 - Menno Simons, Dutch Mennonite leader (b. 1496)
1580 - Henry of Portugal (b. 1512)
1606 - Gunpowder Plot conspirators: Guy Fawkes (b. 1570); Ambrose Rokewood (b. c. 1578); Thomas Wintour (b. 1571)
1615 - Claudio Aquaviva, Italian Jesuit (b. 1543)
1632 - Joost B�¼rgi, Swiss clockmaker and mathematician (b. 1552)
1665 - Johannes Clauberg, German theologian and philosopher (b. 1622)
1686 - Jean Mairet, French dramatist (b. 1604)
1720 - Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford, English privy councillor (c. 1654)
1729 - Jakob Roggeveen, Dutch explorer (b. 1659)
1736 - Filippo Juvara, Italian architect (b. 1678)
1788 - Charles Edward Stuart, pretender to the British throne (b. 1720)
1790 - Thomas Lewis, Irish-born Virginia settler (b. 1718)
1794 - Marriott Arbuthnot, British admiral (b. 1711)
1815 - Jos�© F�©lix Ribas, Venezuelan independentist leader (b. 1775)
1828 - Alexander Ypsilantis, Phanariot Greek military commander and national hero of the Greek War of Independence (b.1792
1844 - Henri Gratien, Comte Bertrand, French general (b. 1773)
1888 - John Bosco, Italian priest, youth worker, educator, founder of the Salesian Society (b. 1815)
1892 - Charles Spurgeon, English preacher and evangelist (b. 1834)
1907 - Timothy Eaton, Canadian department store founder (b. 1834)
1923 - Eligiusz Niewiadomski, assassin of Gabriel Narutowicz (b. 1869)
1933 - John Galsworthy, English writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1867)
1942 - Henry Larkin, Baseball player (b. 1860)
1944 - Jean Giraudoux, French writer (b. 1882)
1945 - Eddie Slovik, American soldier (b. 1920)
1954 - Edwin Howard Armstrong, American electrical engineer and inventor of the FM radio (b. 1890)
1955 - John Mott, American YMCA leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1865)
1956 - A. A. Milne, English author (b. 1882)
1966 - General Arthur Ernest Percival, British Army Officer (b. 1887)
1967 - Eddie Tolan, American athlete (b. 1908)
1969 - Meher Baba, Indian guru (b. 1894)
1970 - Slim Harpo, American singer (b. 1924)
1971 - Viktor Maksimovich Zhirmunsky, Russian literary historian, linguist (b. 1891)
1973 - Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch, Norwegian economist, Nobel laureate (b. 1895)
1974 - Samuel Goldwyn, Polish-born film studio executive (b. 1882)
1976 - Ernesto Miranda, American litigant (b. 1941)
1981 - Cozy Cole, American jazz drummer (b. 1909)
1987 - Yves All�©gret, French film director (b. 1907)
1990 - Rashad Khalifa, Egyptian-born imam (b. 1935)
1995 - George Abbott, American stage director and producer (b. 1887)
1997 - John Joseph Scanlan, Irish Catholic prelate (b. 1930)
1999 - Norm Zauchin, American baseball player (b. 1929)
2000 - Gil Kane, Latvian-born comic book writer (b. 1926)
2001 - Gordon R. Dickson, Canadian writer (b. 1923)
2002 - Francis Gabreski, American fighter pilot (b. 1919)
2004 - Eleanor Holm, American swimmer (b. 1913)
2006 - Moira Shearer, Scottish actress (The Red Shoes) and ballerina (b. 1926)
2007 - Kirka Babitzin, Finnish singer (b. 1950)
2007 - Molly Ivins, American political columnist and author (b. 1944)
2007 - Lee Bergere, American actor (b. 1924)
2007 - Adelaide Tambo, South African activist and wife of Oliver Tambo (b. 1929)

Holidays and observances
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Catholicism -

Feast day of St. John Bosco, patron saint of Christian apprentices, editors, and publishers
Saint Pedro Nolasco
Saint Marcella
Saint Geminianus
Blessed Ludovica
January 31 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

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