Posted on 05/04/2005 10:53:04 AM PDT by Quix
"CHRISTIANITY EXPLODING Worldwide"
"THIRD WORLD sending MISSIONARIES"
[from 'WorldNetDaily'- http://www.worldnetdaily.com ]
Christianity taking over planet?
New book makes case it's fastest growing faith on Earth.
[-April 28, 2005 © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com ]
What is the fastest-growing religion on Earth?
Most news reports suggest it is Islam.
But a new book makes a compelling case it is a new, or, perhaps, old form of biblically inspired evangelical Christianity that is sweeping through places like China, Africa, India and Southeast Asia.
In "Megashift," author Jim Rutz coins a new phrase to define this fast-growing segment of the population. He calls them "core apostolics" - or "the new saints who are at the heart of the mushrooming kingdom of God."
Rutz makes the point that Christianity is overlooked as the fastest-growing faith in the world because most surveys look at the traditional Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church while ignoring Christian believers who have no part of either.
He says there are 707 million "switched-on disciples" who fit into this new category and that this "church" is exploding in growth.
"The growing core of Christianity crosses theological lines and includes 707 million born-again people who are increasing by 8 percent a year," he says.
So fast is this group growing that, under current trends, according to Rutz, the entire world will be composed of such believers by the year 2032.
"There will be pockets of resistance and unforeseen breakthroughs," writes Rutz. "Still, at the rate we're growing now, to be comically precise, there would be more Christians than people by the autumn of 2032, about 8.2 billion."
According to the author, until 1960, Western evangelicals out-numbered non-Western evangelicals - mostly Latinos, blacks and Asians - by two to one. As of 2000, non-Western evangelicals outnumbered Westerners by four to one. He says by 2010, the ratio will be seven to one.
"There are now more missionaries sent from non-Western nations than Western nations," he writes.
This trend, says Rutz, has been missed by Westerners because the explosive growth is elsewhere.
Hundreds of millions of these Christians are simply not associated with the institutional churches at all. They meet in homes. They meet underground. They meet in caves. They meet, he says, in secret.
And what is driving this movement?
Miracles, he says.
"Megashift" attempts to document myriad healings and other powerful answers to the sincere prayers of this new category of believer, including, believe it or not, hundreds of dramatic cases of resurrections - not near-death experiences, but real resurrections of actual corpses.
"When I was a kid in Sunday school, I was really impressed that 3,000 people were saved on the Day of Pentecost," he writes. "I thought, 'Wow, that'll never happen again!"
But, Rutz says, it now happens around the globe every 25 minutes.
"By tomorrow, there will be 175,000 more Christians than there are today," he writes.
The essence of Rutz's book is about how Western Christians can tap into what he sees as a mighty work of God on Earth.
"Very few people realize the nature of life on Earth is going through a major change," he writes. "We are seeing a megashift in the basic direction of human history. Until our time, the ancient war between good and evil was hardly better than a stalemate. Now all has changed. The Creator whose epic story flows through the pages of Scripture has begun to dissolve the strongholds of evil. This new drama is being played out every hour around the globe, accompanied sometimes by mind-bending miracles."
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This trend, says Rutz, has been missed by Westerners because the explosive growth is elsewhere.
Hundreds of millions of these Christians are simply not associated with the institutional churches at all. They meet in homes. They meet underground. They meet in caves. They meet, he says, in secret.
"Megashift" attempts to document myriad healings and other powerful answers to the sincere prayers of this new category of believer, including, believe it or not,
Have expected and waited long for this news. I've known of some of the resurrections and glimers of this but hadn't realized it had reached this level of intensity and coverage, breadth, yet.
YEA GOD!
It's impossible to say.
Therefore, this guy's n umbers are highly suspect.
I want to be an optimist, but what credibility does this guy really have?
In the same sense that the original Church was not an institution but was a body of believers who met in homes, in small groups, in secret....
They read their Bibles or scraps of Bibles and
DO WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS.
--including assembling together in small groups to study, worship, pray, teach.
I'm shocked anyone would question that God would not honor His word with such earnest, often desperate folks taking God's Word at face value and applying it.
And, as the blind man said to the skeptics . . .
I don't know about all that--I just know that I was blind but now I see.
If God's Spirit is honoring these Christian Believer's walk WITH HIM with miracles--authentic Holy Spirit birthed miracles . . .
I wonder what God thinks of your throwing rocks at their Christianity.
Actually, that's not true. I don't wonder what God thinks about it.
Perhaps you would be wiser to check the book out before throwing rocks.
I realize it's not the custom around here to check facts first.
I hope you haven't fallen for the
misperception
that
CHURCHIANITY = CHRISTIANITY
or
that
RELIGION = SPIRITUALITY
or
that
RELIGION = RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
Mr. Rutz has a history of playing fast and loose with the facts.
In his book "Open Church" he claimed that historically the Christian celebration of the Eucharist was based on the feeding of the 5,000 and not on the Last Supper.
When someone is capable of telling whoppers like that, I become skeptical.
More precisely, it predates the New Testament.
Glad to read it.
Sorry I misperceived your post.
Glad you support their Christianity, if that understanding is correct.
Gnostics did not believe Christ came in the flesh etc.
No. I'm not into Bibliolatry.
The Living Word Christ Jesus is my focus.
I am enormously thankful for His written Word, however.
Would like to see his historical claims for that. Sounds far fetched to me.
You may know him better than I.
But I've seen enough overseas to believe the bulk of what he says. The Chinese church is very much as he describes it.
Including with the resurrections.
What passage are you referring to?
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