Posted on 05/07/2005 8:05:03 AM PDT by churchillbuff
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 outnumbered 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."
Qout, that's really good!(Acts17:22-31).
If you are referring to the "Authorized Version" or the KJV, it underwent 17 different translations, or editions, and not all the KJV that we read from now are the same.
The KJV was worked over pretty well back in the day, and not all the work was agreed upon. In fact, the editors wrote an extensive "Notes to the Readers" that actually refutes many arguments of the KJV only crowd,especially about the word for word translation.
BOY ain't that the truth! And the "falling away" or "back sliding" rate is what? If THE LAW is used as a mirror for each member....how do things look? Which "doctines" have been put on a shelf and covered with dust while waving the flag of "life enhancement" to attact new members?
Here is what I also felt like while attending some "church" services(quote taken from http://www.crosstv.com/whatis.htm ):
People are tired of a mock, pseudo, superficial Christianity. They’re realizing that…despite all the hype and emotion UP FRONT…IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS, much of modern Christianity is nothing more than a “FORM of Godliness…WITHOUT THE POWER.” (2 Timothy 3:5)
Yet(…at the same time…) there is a new, God-sent THIRST and HUNGER amongst a relatively small (but RAPIDLY GROWING) remnant of people, to EXPERIENCE, KNOW, LOVE, OBEY,SUFFER FOR AND SERVE the ONE, TRUE, LIVING GOD with all their hearts, souls, minds and strength.
And those same people want a TRUE, STRAIGHT TALKING, PLAIN SPEAKING, “DON’T TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK I WANT TO HEAR, TELL ME WHAT I NEED TO HEAR,” biblically accurate interpretation and exposition of God’s Word. They want to know what God wants us to know, the WAY He wants us to know it.
And people have grown weary of being HIT UP for money, or given “FLUFF” in place of doctrine, or having their intelligence INSULTED or PLACATED in the name of Christianity. The result has been a genuine longing for the preaching and teaching that the Spurgeons and Wesleys and Edwards’ of yesteryear were renowned for.
If there are still questions, listen to Hell's Best Kept Secret and think about this....the results of "seeker friendly" methods:
http://www.livingwaters.com/listenwatch.shtml
"God does not mean for us to mindlessly serve a pastor who is doing wrong"
You are absolutely correct! The way to tell is this:
Is the Pastor submitted to GOD, (1) scripturally - does he teach from the Bible and can you read along with him; (2) morally - does he respect and treasure his wife - and treat her as his partner - not his slave; and spiritually - does he lead a scheduled prayer group. Another clue is "strife" between the Pastor and his wife. When that happends, the Bible tells us: "there is every evil work". And we should be very careful and pay close attention to what's going on.
Now .. as to the programs the Pastor presents to the church - that is his responsibility - and it may or may not be from GOD. The best way to determine if it's GOD is to pray. If it's GOD - you won't be able to stop it (even if you don't particularly think it's a great idea) .. if it's not GOD .. it will fall apart. We can save ourselves a lot of grief if we will just pray about things instead of getting so tightly wound in our flesh.
Every Pastor should have a Pastor who he is accountable to. Someone he can trust and someone who will guide him in the right direction. Also .. someone who will be tough.
You are correct .. we are not to be mindless servants. But we're not supposed to nitpick everything either, as though we are the only ones who know how to do things. Sometimes if we will just follow directions - we can learn a new method of doing something that we didn't know before.
If we're prayed up - and leaning on GOD and not our own understanding .. we can avoid a lot of pitfalls.
Blue, I just finished reading post #88, and I want to include Tommy Dale in this, too.
I have read both of Rick Warren's books, and I have read the criticisms of it, both here and on other threads, and in other material.
To refute all the critical comments would just take too long. Suffice it to say, while I'm sure these men are good Christian leaders and love the Lord as much as anyone, frankly, they do not make compelling arguments. Having said that, I am certainly not an apologist for Rick Warren, nor do I think his book can't stand a little criticism.
Gary Gilley makes a huge point of not knowing who the book is aimed at. What difference does it make? More people are being influenced by it than by any number of efforts to reach people. Will everybody turn their lives over to Christ? Probably not. But if just a few have their lives reached by the Love of Christ, and think about the Purpose of their life...how bad is that!!??
There are simply too many assumptions that Gilley makes about the book that are incorrect, including the assumption that the purpose of the book is to "feel good". Nonsense, the purpose of the book is for the reader to find God's Purpose for their life.
Gilley makes a big deal about the fact that Warren quotes the Bible out of context. Well, I wonder if he has ever read Oswald Chambers' "My Utmost for His Highest" which is posted daily on Free Republic. Since he is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute, I'm sure he has. If you want to talk about taking the Bible out of context, Chambers wrote the text book on it (Hoo boy, am I going to get creamed for this). In fact, "My Utmost for His Highest" could well be the theme of "The Purpose Driven Life".
Submitted with all due respect.
"You must think that there are times to leave a church behind."
Yes I do. But that is something that must be prayerfully considered. We can't be church hopping. We need to get planted where our spirit can take root. It's a key to our development as a Christian.
We probably will not like everything nor everyone. If you go into the church accepting that fact - it's much easier. Like I said before .. it's important to know GOD has called you to a specific church. We get into trouble when WE CHOOSE - instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to do the choosing.
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and
seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and
will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14
EXCELLENT!
AND SOOOOO TRUE.
THX.
You probably don't need anything more than Norton "anti-virus" - if you have an ISP that provides you with a firewall (which most of them do). If you aren't sure - call them and find out. I've heard the "works" has a problem with XP service pack 2 - so that may be part of your problem.
Also .. if you already have another version of Norton on your system - you should remove it before installing the 2005 version.
My best advice - DON'T INSTALL ANYTHING UNTIL YOU UNINSTALL NORTON AND RUN THE MAINT.
Let me know how it comes out next week.
"I will not take it from a pastor who tells sexual stories from the pulpit."
In that case .. I wouldn't either.
Are you saying you don't have XP ..??
If so .. then 2005 may not be compatible with whatever version of Windows you are using. Check the box - it should tell you.
You're very sweet, but I owe it all to GOD's grace and my Pastor's patience in teaching me for 3 years in our Bible school. He taught a wonderful class called, "Supernatural Relationships". If we just understood how GOD has prepared a church for us where all our talents can be developed - and we allow GOD to plant us there - we can do wonderful things to advance HIS kingdom.
But .. we can't do much if we are hopping all over the place and never establishing relationships. It's hard - and some people are just not mature enough.
Quix; Quot; Cyber; Jude24; Tommy Dale; and all the rest. I'm giving up this thread, but I expect, and hope, I'll see you on some future discussions.
Do you refer to a lack of bibles, or is it a literacy issue?
"One, holy, catholic and apostolic church" is in the Nicene Creed, which we recite in faith in my Protestant church.
I believe we are all bound as sisters and brothers, those who believe Christ saved us from sin and death by means of His crucifixion. I just wish we would treat each other with more kindness.
I also believe we are saved by the grace of God through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast...but that faith without works is dead.
And then there are some other things I believe that I found to my surprise this past Easter that not everyone does... I believe Christ rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven. And I believe in the communion of saints (us believers, on Earth and in Heaven) through the body and blood of Christ.
And I believe in the Triune God, as I have felt the persons of God separately, God our Heavenly Father who answers prayers and grants us forgiveness when we confess our sins, God our Lord and Savior, Yeshua (Jesus, Jesu) the Christ, and God the Holy Spirit, the Comforter and bearer of faith and inspiration.
Forgive me if my language is not perfect to express these things. But I felt I should give testimony to my faith.
You sound like you come from a different church culture than my upbringing. We were Baptised as children and we were taken to Sunday School and church services so that the beliefs of the church were instilled in our fiber. Then we studied the catechism about the doctrines of the church and were Confirmed.
We didn't have special calls to come to the altar to accept Christ as we had always had Him there in our lives and breath all along.
Yet, still God called me to Him, took my life and gave it back to me when I was eleven; and when I was much, much older He called me again to accept Christ in a new commitment.
So, I think your altar calls to accept Christ for the first time or anew are a special thing that maybe more churches should adopt.
If true, praise the Lord!!!
My point was: What good does it do to be "Seeker Friendly" if you don't invite people to accept Christ?
A wicked and perverse generation seeks a sign...
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