“I’ve yet to see any dispensationalist explain the fact that there were only 12 Christians a mere 100 generations ago and now there are over two billion Christians.
Is that not progress? Isn’t that a positive vector?”
You forgot to add the evidence for the statement,”a mere 100 generations ago and now there are over two billion Christians” or the description of the sects constituting the researcher’s class, “Christians”?
But as an aside, you really don’t want to argue this way since during the time of the growth of Christianity and beginning app. 600 years later another “religion” was growing faster and today is the fastest growing “religion” while Christianity is seemingly losing ground and influence in all cultural spheres.
2 Cor. 4:16-18, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
God knows those that are His and they are always a remnant (the “many - few” principle).
>> or the description of the sects constituting the researcher’s class, “Christians<<
I think Revelation tells us that even those who call themselves Christian are in jeopardy. The “spew you out” phrase should give many pause. That alone should tell us that all who call themselves Christian are not viewed in a good light by God Himself. Bragging about “the number of Christians” is rather weak imho.
They're as "Christian" as God has made them as of today. Tomorrow, God willing, we'll all be more "Christian" than we are today.
One third of the entire planet declares Christ as their God and Savior.
Two thousand years ago, only a handful of men held that belief.
How anyone does not see that as progress amazes me.
while Christianity is seemingly losing ground and influence in all cultural spheres.
Life ebbs and flows. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Christianity hasn't lost ground in my family, nor in lots of other families.
And that's where change begins. In the family.
See, from my perspective, what I see dispensationalists doing is denying that the grace given to them is exactly the same grace that can and is being given to others. As your family and my family grow in faith by the will and purpose of God, so, too, will other families grow in the knowledge of Christ risen. And so on and so on...
And that progress cannot help but have a positive effect on the society in which it occurs.
What I dislike most about dispensationalism is that its adherents almost sound like they WANT their dire predictions to come true. If the world is not devolving, dispensationalists will be mighty disappointed.
Yet how in the world can the Gospel succeed if it's not preached in full confidence that it will prosper in all who hear it?
Is that the grinding of your teeth I hear, or are you just finishing dinner? 8~)