Posted on 08/02/2004 6:36:06 AM PDT by missyme
September 11th focused a lot of attention on the growth of Islam. What most pundits and scholars have missed is the incredible growth of Christianity, and where it's growing.
Today more Presbyterians worship in the African nation of Ghana than in Scotland. And more Anglicans worship in Nigeria than in Britain. We like to think of ourselves as the Christian West.
But there is growing evidence that the center of Christendom has moved.
Africans are running to accept Jesus Christ. It is a scene playing out all across the developing world. It may sound like an exaggeration, but it's not: Christianity is sweeping across the southern hemisphere and Asia like a tidal wave.
"The scale of Christian growth is almost unimaginable," said Dr. Philip Jenkins, distinguished professor of History and Religious Studies at Penn State University.
Jenkins shocked and probably panicked some of America's political and media elite with his acclaimed book, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity. Jenkins argues the greatest movement of the past century was not communism or capitalism. Do the math and the winner is spirit-filled Christianity, or what he terms in his study as "Pentecostalism."
"The modern Pentecostal movement begins at the start of the 20th century," Jenkins said. "So say this begins with a few hundred, a few thousand people… today you're dealing with several hundred million people, and the best projections are by 2040’s or 2050’s, you could be dealing with a billion Pentecostals worldwide.
By that stage there will be more Pentecostals than Hindus. There are already more Pentecostals than Buddhists."
Jenkins says in just 20 years, two-thirds of all Christians will live in Africa, Latin America or Asia.
"Back in 1900, there were about 10 million Christians in Africa, representing about 10 percent of the population. Today there are 360 million, representing just under half the population. That is one of the most important changes in religious history, and I think most of us didn't notice it," he said.
A lot of people still haven't noticed it. When scandal or controversy hits an American church, the U.S. news media tends to treat it like a worldwide crisis for that denomination. But it is not a crisis for those churches in the developing world. Most of them are not gripped by debates over homosexuality or abortion — that is a problem for European and American liberals — they believe the Bible.
"The Bible is alive in Africa and Asia and Latin America," Jenkins said. "Overwhelmingly, the kind of Christianity is one which is very Bible-centered, which takes the Bible very seriously, takes authority very seriously, both the Old and the New Testament, in a way which I don't think western Christianity has done probably since the Enlightenment."
But the growth of Christianity threatens Islam, and Christians are being slaughtered in places like Nigeria and Indonesia. Jenkins thinks the conflict will intensify in nations where the two faiths compete. And he debunks the notion that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. Christianity is growing faster.
"If you look at the 25 most populous countries in the world in the mid-21st century, 20 of those are going to be divided to a greater or lesser extent between Christianity and Islam," Jenkins said.
Then there is China. There are about 80 million Christians in China, according to former Time Magazine Correspondent David Aikman, who predicts China will be a Christianized nation in 20 to 30 years. He does not predict a Christian majority, but a China that is 25 to 30 percent Christian. Enough, he says, to change society and government.
"If you have a Christianized China, the leadership of China would reflect a Christian worldview to some degree," Aikman said. "A China that's Christianized would not be a threat to the United States."
And Aikman says the Chinese church leaders have a burden to take the gospel the rest of the way across the globe, to the Muslims.
"It's part of a sense that they call ‘back to Jerusalem,’" Aikman said. "They believe that just as the gospel originally came out of Jerusalem and went to the West and to North America and Europe and came to China, now the Chinese need to bring it back to Jerusalem, not in the sense of evangelizing the Jewish, but in the sense of completing the circle so that the gospel message is available to everybody in the world."
Imagine Chinese reaching the Muslims, Koreans evangelizing Indians, Africans taking the gospel back to a largely godless Europe.
African Matthew Ashimolowo is the pastor of the fastest growing church in England. "God is sending people who used to receive missionaries to now be missionaries around the world," Ashimolowo said.
Kenyan Bishop Gilbert Dya has one of the largest churches in London. "I am in this country, believing that God sent me here in Great Britain to make a voice on His behalf to let them know that they need to repent and come back to God," he said.
The developing world is not only a growing base for world missions, Jenkins says it is becoming the center of Christendom…again.
"Jesus said His church would last until the end of time. He never used the word, ‘Europe.’ Christianity is returning, I think, to its roots. It is a religion that originated in the Middle East and in Africa. Perhaps it went away for a while, but now it's back," Jenkins said.
Thanks for the info. I hope they'll be successful.
Thanks for the info. I hope they'll be successful.
Missions to Europe are going on, but most folks don't hear about them. My Presbyterian (PCA) church supports missionaries in France and Siberia. The latter is a local guy from my hometown. He moved his young family there to spread the Good News (can you imagine?). He tells stories about shamins and witchcraft in Siberia which make your hair stand on end. And.... he's having a positive effect!
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Probably because, as this article indicates, much of it is being done by those from the former colonies, the Third Worlders living in Europe. Many came for economic advantages, set up churches to minister to their own former countrymen, and discovered that they were ministering to the local Europeans as well. Then they discovered how apostate (Christian theological term for those who have fallen away from the Faith) that Europe has become.
There are more Black Pentecostals attending Church in Britain than white Britains attending.
I noticed this phenomena of African missionaries to Europe 20 years ago when some Zimbabwean friends of mine went to Europe as missionaries.
I think that the North American Christians have invested themselves heavily in the Third World, and in Eastern Europe when it was under communism (much work was done surreptiously such as Bible smuggling).
The most famous of the Bible Smugglers, a Dutchman named Brother Andrew, turned his attention to the Muslim world after the fall of Communism. Mission work since then has heavily focused on that area known as the "10-40 Window" an area defined as 10 degrees latitude north/south by 40 degrees longitude east/west as that is the area seemingly intransient to the Gospel.
It is only recently that Europe has gotten the attention of North American Christians as a mission field. Many of the most thriving Churches in Europe are either local Pentecostals, Third World Pentecostals, or American English speaking congregations who minister to expatriate Americans. The exception is the Catholic Church in Poland.
I hope this provides some insight into what is for you, a foreign world.
BTW, Pentecostals are those Christians who believe that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit which were delivered to the Church after Jesus ascended into heaven, are still available today.
The early Christians (all Jews at that time) were celebrating the Jewish Pentecost, the Gift of the Law given to Moses after 40 days at Mount Sinai. So it is the day that memorializes both the Gift of the Law, and for Christians, the Gift of the Holy Spirit active on the Earth.
I used to be one of those, now I am a panmillennialist, it will all pan out the way that the sovereign Lord has determined it.
With regard to what pretends at Christianity, we would label them to be false or pseudo-adherents - much like the Jonestown group from which we get the modern phrase "don't drink the koolaid".
Denominations vary from the harmless to the wildly absurd. The thing that differentiates them largely is what they follow, obviously. When they diverge from Scripture and become doctrinally in contention with scripture, especially on core issues, the status of cult is pretty much a gimme. There is one prominant religion in the world today that should be classified as a cult but no one dares because of it's size and because of "political correctness". I can't give you an exhaustive list of all that are cults. We'd be here for a bit. Martin was pretty thorough and noted the same. Many can be classified in similar categories by errors they share.
Some don't even know the language from which scripture comes. Martin complained for years about the Jehovah's witnesses who claimed all sort of things about the original Greek texts; but, of 5 people he was finally able to pin down as part of their translation team after 15-20 years of trying to get their names - 2 of them could not read Hebrew or Greek. If your translators can't even read the language they presume to translate, it doesn't bode well for their product. LOL
Most cults deny that Jesus was God incarnate. But this is not a global truism. Mormonism's big giveaway is that it's polytheistic. But it says that God is a man and that men can become "Gods" themselves. It doesn't deny that Christ was God, persay, they just pervert it in such a way as to make Christ just another god among many. It's a pretty big error that is not reconcilable with Christianity. But other groups Claim Christ to be God incarnate and then pervert everything he said such that the surface appearance looks right; but, everything they say after that is befouled.
As to what makes Pentacostalism "not" a cult is pretty plain. Pentacostalism largely believes the entire New testament is relevant - where many other groups say that certain things were only for first century, etc.. There are groups that claim to be pentacostal that do really whacked out things like dancing with snakes. This would fall under the category of "tempting God" at the very least and no real pentacostal would claim them as part of their group without calling them errant. You don't tempt God. Jesus said as much; but, evidently some claiming to be his followers don't get that or never bothered reading that part of scripture.
There are a good many things in scripture which Christians understand to be true. By and large your cult groups will say they actually mean something quite different and want to argue that things can be taken multiple ways (with the underlying implication that theirs is just as right as the next person's idea). There are not multiple correct ways to take things. There are multiple ways and one correct way. This, indeed, is why Christ spoke to everyone but the Apostles in Parables. Only the Apostles were allowed to understand what Christ was saying until Christ completed his mission here. He told the apostles that it was given for them to know, but not for the masses - not yet.
Is there some reason you ask my opinion?
No problem! God bless you!
I'm a pro-millenialist. I'm all for it! :o)
Most Western Europeans who have an interest in religion are returning to their indigenous religions more than anything.Celtic,Saxon and Norse 'festivals' have a much larger turnout than anything else.
As for the dwindling popularity of Christianity......Christian 'charity' is increasingly being seen as the reason for mass immigration to Western Europe(and the colonies).A number of Christian churches in my own country are currently being 'blamed' for lobbying the government to accept 10,000 refugees to get permanent residency.That being said,numbers attending church here have actually increased over the past 5 years(possibly due to large numbers of non-anglo immigrants,which kinda fits in with this news item).
A strange phenomenon is that in America Christianity is associated with the political-right but everywhere else it is seen as firmly to the left,'one-worldy',pro-immigration and anti-nationalistic.
Bump for later "pessimistic" reply (I'm on lunch break).
Amen Brother,
....and let him who hears say "Come!"
(Revelation22:17)
Western Europe is a good question. I am not called to missionary work so I can't really explain why they are being overlooked. My guess is that socialism is a big part. Seems that other than their growing muslim populations most of Western Europe is without religion. That will be their demise.
All Jews and Christians need to all pray and work toward a world that does not allow hate as a reason for genocide. It is a big job but together we can do it.
I did not just fall off the banana boat and know it is a stretch but that will not stop me from praying that we all wake up.
Well you emphasized the word 'false' but that can't be a good definition of a cult. Every religion thinks every other religion is false. If that were the basis of the definition then Buddhism would be a cult to Christians and vice versa. The rest of the definition is more workable. "Living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian charismatic leader".
Under this definition Hare Krishnas and Branch Dividians would certainly be a cult.
Mormons, at least the ones I've known don't live in an unconventional manner. And while Joseph Smith may have been a authoritarian the current head of the Mormons is not. (Can anyone even name him. I sure can't). I don't know much about the Witnesses. Do they live strangely? Do they have a charismatic leader?
happygrl, very eloquently stated. I guess I am a Baptecostal. My mom is Baptist and my father is Assembly of God. I grew up in both and need to someday find a church that has the right mix. For now I bounce around and study more alone ofr in small private groups. My fondness of beer makes me a misfit in either.
TopQuark, I knew someone here would know a much better answer than me.
In 1900 there were lots of Christians in Latin America. This fellow doesn't see Roman Catholics as Christians. I bet he classes Mormons as a cult too. The cross of Christ will sweep the world. Liberalism attempted to water down the church till it was a shadow of itself--but the message of Christ is alive and well. Satan tried to slay him once--it didn't work.
Though this article doesn't mention it directly, Catholicism is also growing by leaps and bounds in Africa, India, and China.
I find this a little hard to believe. Having an interest in your cultural heritage is not the same as a religion. I'm not sure you can "return" to a dead religion. There is no continuity between the actual people who practiced these religions 1000 years ago and the modern people. As most religions both the rituals and the meanings are somewhat secret and passed down verbally (in antiquity) I don't see how you could really revive them. As an example: Civil War reenactors are not fighting the civil war. Norse Religionists are more reenactors in my opinion. Do they REALLY pray to Thor with the belief and sincerity that Vikings did in 500 A.D. I am extremely sceptical.
It does speak to some sort of spiritual hunger.
Catholics and Mormons were excluded?
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