Posted on 03/10/2015 2:54:51 PM PDT by Jan_Sobieski
Christianity is a dying relic of an ancient past. The Internet is killing it. Science is killing it. Western sophistication is killing it. Right? [correct]
Wrong. [incorrect]
In many ways, Christianity is on the rise as never before—worldwide, and in America [disagree]. Here are the ways we can tell:
1. Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds worldwide.
The research shows Christian numbers rising, not falling worldwide. "Christianity should enjoy a worldwide boom in the coming decades, but the vast majority of believers will be neither white nor European, nor Euro-American," writes Philip Jenkins of Baylor University, author of "The Next Christendom."
In America, this will mean that as white descendants of Europeans fall off a demographic cliff, they will be replaced by the growing Southern Christian and Catholic populations.
2. Nominal Christianity is dead — and that’s a good thing.
Meanwhile, in America, research showing that Christian numbers are tanking is a little misleading. What it really shows is a fall in the number of people who call themselves Christians but have never darkened the door of a Church. We no longer feel we have to dishonestly mark the "Christian" box, and we now feel it's OK to be honest and mark the "atheist" box—but this shows health rather than weakness.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
“It also preaches that in hell, everyone is an evangelist, knowing that God was right all along.”
Hmm, consider the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man, though wanting Lazarus to go tell his brothers, still had bad soteriology. He thought a dramatic event would convince them and dismissed the Word’s role in salvation. The rich man rebuked Abraham for saying “they have Moses and the prophets...”
God wants people to know that they have engineered their own potential torment through how they have already invested their souls. I think a lot of the question that arises here is “what about people who don’t know.” And the scripture doesn’t talk about that directly, but there are hints that if anyone is willing, a missionary will be dispatched. Anyhow, people can choose their attitudes.
To die is to be divorced from the source of life. That does not mean to cease to be. Life isn’t a mere existence, in God’s book. It is participation all the qualities that flow from the Godhead. Without that, all there is left to be is a mean devil.
Good point...signs and wonders do not save.
You don’t know your Bible. The best descriptions of hell in the Bible (Rich man & Lazarus, Isaiah 14, Revelation 22, Ezekiel 32) show beings that are alive spiritually and sentient, regretting every day they rejected God’s love...
I have wondered why the rich man would care. By then he had descended to the depths of the most obvious meanness.
Maybe he foresaw the endless squabbles that would result if his brothers came, but a soul in hell is so inverted that this prospect might be viewed as some perverse pleasure. I think it would take a trip deep, deep into some satanic insanity to be able to even begin to understand what motivates the lost souls of hell. It is a misery, no doubt about it. What else it is, we may not even be able to relate to.
I think the “regretting” is something that we humans read into the story. It is hard to regret what one denies. It has become a pride contest between them and God, from their point of view. Love? What a bunch of horse hooey. (To them.)
You’ve missed an important concept. Compare spiritual with spiritual and carnal with carnal.
Example:
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life...
Since eternal life is a spiritual life in heaven, death would also be spiritual death (the second death).
Jeremy Moritz makes a lot of leaps in logic to prove his argument, and his case for annihilation reminds me of the Mormon’s burning in the bosom. They both depend on a rhetorical devise that asks us to “hold in mind” something they’ve already told us. If we had never heard of annihilation, we wouldn’t come away from anything other than eternal damnation in a lake of fire where people gnash on each other. Had we found that idea unbearable, which we should, and wished for something else, and were particularly creative, and lacked proper respect for the Word of God, we’d come up with something more suitable.
Extremely well said! Dr. Donald Barnhouse contended that unregenerate man would refuse Heaven and choose hell at the final judgement. They would not be able to stand the idea of being in God's presence for eternity.
I see that you and I agree on something...and you may continue to read down to the 11th verse. A deluding influence is going to be sent by God so that they believe a lie. Notice His control?
I chair the missions committee at my church and we have contact with people in the Church all around the world. The Church seems to be on a “moving” around the world in a westerly direction. It is currently dead in Europe and waning here, in the U.S. The center of Christianity is moving below the equator and west.
The Church in China has grown so much that it now rivals Communist Party membership. It’s size has alarmed the government and has led to increased controls and persecution.
Perhaps it will continue full circle through India and the Middle East before returning to the place from which it sprang before the coming of Christ? Only the Father knows how history will play out.
I know, but the American people like being fooled over and over again.
You missed on thing in your little diatribe. Man is already going to hell. God has offered to keep him from it. You’re marriage proposal was so far off it isn’t even to be considered credible. The man would have had nothing to do with her already going to a dungeon. He would have simply been offering to keep her from the future she was already destined for. As for your error of believing that hell is simply annihilation you need to read scripture again.
There are scriptures that indicate that the Lord will pour out his spirit on all men in the last days. However there are more that talk about a last days falling away (apostasy). In my travels and missionary outreaches I find that more and more churches are adopting the prosperity gospel, or social gospel, or emerging church gospel, but not the gospel of Jesus...;-(
Sooooo... you’re homeless?
No...central USA
Ok. Slightly less vague answer. (You know, democrats also refuse to answer questions directly. Just saying. ;-P)
Anyway - my point was - here in the Carolinas, I see an ascendent church. I also see people taking the approach of “love the sinner, hate the sin.” So, while people may not go all Westboro Baptist, they are definitely getting more in touch with their spiritual selves.
Heck, I took a slew of people to a Chris Tomlin concert and the place was packed. People were in full on worship mode. It felt great to be amongst so many unashamed and enthusiastic Christians.
Now, go to New England... it’s a whole different story...
Perhaps that is why God gave us scriptures that indicate both at the same time (a great falling away and a last days revival)? I hope so!
Jenkins is not talking about Christianity in Europe or North America, where it is eroding away into secularism and apostasy, but about Christianity in South America, Africa, and the Asian Rim, where it is burgeoning. His whole thesis is that the Center of Gravity of Christendom, demographically, historically, is moving South, South, South.
I hope FReepers will check this out. Jenkins doesn't claim to have a fortune-teller's view on the future, but the figures of huge Christian growth in South America and even China --- and, above all, Africa --- seem indisputable.
Everyone knows Islam is growing in Africa. Hardly anybody realizes that Christianity is growing faster.
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