Posted on 01/03/2006 9:30:55 AM PST by SirLinksalot
Top 10 overlooked stories of 2005
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© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
If you're tired of hearing the rehashes of Katrina, Iraq, terrorism, et al., this will give you a little breather.
1. World evangelization.
The Earth is becoming Christian at a very fast clip. My best estimate is that there are 64 million more Christians now than a year ago. That breaks down to 175,000 a day (births plus conversions minus deaths). The numbers are debatable, of course, but I've consulted with several of the best religion statisticians on the planet, and my stats are defensible, being partly based on denominational surveys costing $1.1 billion. History has never seen such a rapid and vast shift in loyalty and identity.
2. War.
Combat deaths have hit their lowest point since World War II, dropping perhaps below 20,000. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has announced that the world's ongoing wars now number only 18, compared to 33 in 1990. That's dramatic. And, none of these wars are between nations! They're all civil conflicts. Also, our much-ballyhooed daily body count in Iraq is less than 1 percent of what it was during all the years of World War II.
3. U.S. debt.
I'm afraid this is one of my two bad-news items. With a $333 billion expected deficit for this fiscal year, I can no longer envision how we're going to get out of this mess – and believe me, I have a vivid imagination. With the Republicans' abdication of financial responsibility, I suspect it's all over. We've painted ourselves into a corner – or we're backing over a cliff, choose your metaphor.
The average college grad this year staggered out of the ivied halls with a $28,953 debt load. Bernanke will not be able to tighten our way out of this as Volcker did – there's simply too much private debt overhang. And looming above all else is an unfathomable, tangled mass of interlocked derivative deals, totaling in excess of $499 trillion, last I checked. I've not been able to find anyone on Wall Street who has any inkling of what it would take to tripwire this time bomb, much less what would happen if it went off.
4. The church.
It has taken us almost 2,000 years to get a clue, but we're finally starting to do some key things right in structure and outreach. For instance, India probably saw only a few hundred new churches planted in 1995. Then we adopted the house-church model, where even the dalits ("untouchables") can go out and plant expanding networks of lay-led, home-based congregations. With no financial need for buildings or pastors (and no sermons!), growth exploded to 20,000 new house churches in 2002. In 2005, that grew to 50,000 new house churches. The same story has been repeated in China, where total Christians are nearing 120 million. Ditto for dozens of countries. So do the math.
5. Islam.
Muslim authorities have admitted they are rapidly losing Africa. Indonesia, Earth's largest Muslim nation, is now 30 percent Christian. In Bangladesh, a stunning 522,000 Muslims have turned to Isa (Jesus) since 1997. I could go on. Islam is doomed – and along with it, militant Islamism.
6. Eco-miracles.
As part of the huge wave of miracles sweeping the globe, rapid ecological transformations are occurring in dozens of countries: droughts ending, crops exploding, endangered wildlife returning, destroyed forests bouncing back, dead zones in oceans coming alive with fish not seen before – even the discovery of diamonds in one newly Christian area!
7. Social transformations.
In answer to simple, sustained prayer, we now often see bars and crack houses shutting down, poverty fading, heathen temples being shuttered for lack of interest, government corruption being exposed and stopped, anti-Christian hostility waning, crime rates plunging, etc.
8. U.S. health.
Our life expectancy has hit 77.6 years (or more if you wear a dress). Our major killers (heart disease, stroke, cancer) are down 3 to 5 percent. Alternative health methods are starting to get respect, and this will eventually transform "old age" into a vibrant, active time of life extending to 100-110 years because chronic degenerative diseases are being cured.
9. World health and progress.
Evangelical lodestar Philip Yancey has demolished whole sets of gloomy statistics. In recent years, he says: Illiteracy has plunged from 53 percent to 20 percent ... malnutrition has dropped from 50 percent to 20 percent ... infant mortality (first-year) has gone from 1 in 8 births to 1 in 16 ... per capita income is up 60 percent, extreme poverty down almost by half ... substandard housing is down from 80 percent to 25 percent ... 75 percent now have clean water, up from 25 percent ... leprosy is way down, polio is almost gone, and smallpox has vanished.
10. Iran.
You haven't heard the whole story yet, but Iran is going to get better ... and worse. Stay tuned in 2006.
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James Rutz is chairman of Megashift Ministries and founder-chairman of Open Church Ministries. His recent book, "MEGASHIFT: Igniting Spiritual Power," announces major upgrades in human life and a coming transformation of society.
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Does that mean Christianity didn't really exist until Martin Luther?
I dont get you dude.
Ease up on the coffee maybe???
Whether you believe it or not, Christianity taken in its whole is a good thing, so what's your beef? At least Christians don't force conversion by threat of death of anything else.
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Does that mean Christianity didn't really exist until Martin Luther?
>>>.
True and False Christians have always existed since the time of Jesus Christ. For every Peter, there also exist Judas.
As Jesus said : "“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. " ( Matthew 7:21 )
"By their fruits Ye shall know them" (Matthew 7:16)
There always was a separation between the wheat and the chafe even as they stay together. Jesus Himself said so.
Check the voting records. The states with the highest percentages of Catholics are liberal states.
Or way shorter if you're a guy who regularly wears a dress!
This sounds like an atheist. A real Christian would never say “blasphemous religions.” We believe in peace and live and let live. Muslims might say this, but Christians never.
Mostly from the influx of illegal immigrants.
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Every Spanish voter is a Roman Catholic?
>>>>
Close to 95% of Spanish Voter are BAPTIZED CATHOLIC.
I doubt that you can escape the great number of CINO's who vote in defiance of the Vatican by even raising this question.
<<<< France is now a dhinni state of Islam. >>>
Muslims are still less than 10% of the 60 million French. That still leaves close to 50 million CINO's in that country.
<<<<,
I asked you for documentation, you provided generalizations about European countries everyone knows is in a state of decay due to socialism.
>>>>
And I would add, ABANDONMENT OF THEIR ROMAN CATHOLIC FAITH (which most were baptized in ).
BTW, the same problem will also exist in Protestant churches as well. Being raised in a Bible believing family does not guarantee that you grow up a believer.
That is why I said what I said --- being baptized as an infant is NO GUARANTEE OF PERSONAL FAITH when you grow up.
Hence, when you do statistics counting the number of Christians, it is tricky business. The adult "abandonment of faith" factor has to be taken into account ( unless of course, you are simply counting those who are "culturally" brought up Christian ).
<<<<<
Regarding abortion and gay marriage, I think the current Catholic Pope, Papa Ratzi, has been quite vocal in opposition to them, wouldn't you agree?
>>>>>
I know Pope Benedict is vocal in opposing them and I whole heartedly support him. Unfortunately, too many baptized Catholics ignore him and his predecessor ( shaking my head in sorrow ).
Romanists make up a PLURALITY of the electorate in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and a MAJORITY in Rhode Island. Only a few of those states are "large" yet all are dominated by Catholics who vote Democratic.
"With no financial need for buildings or pastors (and no sermons!), growth exploded to 20,000 new house churches in 2002."
No pastors or sermons? That doesn't sound like a Christian model to me.
To me it sounded like you were discounting these Christians as not gathering together in some worthy manor.
Certainly now that you share that extra info from your last post, it makes sense as to your point.
I dont take back my comment though that maybe youre slightly a bit sensitive today.
It wasnt my point to give you the needle with my initial comment.
As I said, I was just trying to help.
You must be used to dealing with a much more antagonistic Freeper population.
Since I reject totally and completely your self-appointed status as surrogate pope, or worse, those words are meaningless to me.
As are the words of any other delusional jerk who feels authorized to define my religious status for me.
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As are the words of any other delusional jerk who feels authorized to define my religious status for me.
>>>.
Would that include God Himself ?
I roll my eyes in your general direction.
Whatever for? Dr._Joseph_Warren neatly skewed the author's infantile implication that God gave people diamonds as a reward for converting to Christianity.
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