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What will American Christianity look like in 50 years? (Predictions for various denominations)
SILOUAN ^ | 12/21/2012 | Silouan Philip Thompson

Posted on 12/21/2012 3:31:33 PM PST by SeekAndFind

I was asked this in an online forum, and my answer got too long to manage. Here’s my infallible prediction. How did I do?

TL;DR: in 50 years you’ll see recognizable Orthodox, Catholics and Reformed… and a vast spectrum of Everybody Else, many of them changing in significant ways and seeing that as a virtue.



TOPICS: Catholic; Evangelical Christian; Mainline Protestant; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: christianity; denominations; predictions; trends
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To: mitch5501
>>It's sad that it will take such a monumental event for the church to finally "be of one mind" still,better then than never I suppose!<<

Actually I think the true “church” is of one mind pretty much now. There are obviously some left to join the fold or the Rapture would have happened already. They are scattered around the globe and are affiliated with different organizations but when it comes to the heart they are “of one mind”.

41 posted on 12/21/2012 7:53:48 PM PST by CynicalBear
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To: Fiji Hill
>>Well, so far, those preachers like Harold Camping who tell us that we’re in the last days have been wrong 100% of the time.<<

People like that are used by Satan. If they really understood prophecy they wouldn’t have led people astray like they did.

42 posted on 12/21/2012 7:55:39 PM PST by CynicalBear
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To: SeekAndFind
>>I still fail to see how that translates Biblically to Christ coming back on or before 2062.<<

Israel became a nation again in 1948. The generation that saw that happen “shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled”. You would first need to understand Gabriel’s seventy weeks prophecy to Daniel. The second coming of Christ to this earth is preceded by a “week” of seven years. The church will be removed from this earth just prior to that seven year period. I was born in 1948. According to scripture a generation is 70 years.

43 posted on 12/21/2012 8:13:58 PM PST by CynicalBear
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To: CynicalBear
"Actually I think the true “church” is of one mind pretty much now."

You're right of course and right now they are readying their minds for action and leaning fully on the grace that is to be revealed at His coming! (1 Peter 1:13)

44 posted on 12/21/2012 8:36:16 PM PST by mitch5501 ("make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things ye shall never fall")
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To: Shadow44
Does it matter when? It could be tomorrow, or 3000 years from now.

It could happen next week--or on October 13, AD 999,999,999, or in between, or later.

45 posted on 12/21/2012 8:43:29 PM PST by Fiji Hill (i)
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To: Nowhere Man

On the show “Laugh-In”, they made the correct prediction that the Iron Curtain would collapse in 1991. I’m, still, amazed that they made the correct call.


46 posted on 12/21/2012 9:05:14 PM PST by johnthebaptistmoore (The world continues to be stuck in a "all leftist, all of the time" funk. BUNK THE FUNK!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Like it was under Nero and Caligula.


47 posted on 12/21/2012 9:54:35 PM PST by Tolkien (Grace is the Essence of the Gospel; Gratitude is the Essence of Ethics.)
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To: Citizen Tom Paine

I hope you’re right.


48 posted on 12/21/2012 9:57:43 PM PST by ReformationFan
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To: Shadow44; Fiji Hill; CynicalBear
"Does it matter when? It could be tomorrow, or 3000 years from now"

"Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing" (Mat 24:44-46) Obviously the season Jesus is talking about is the one when He will appear.He says the servant giving spiritual food in due season will be blessed.Therefore He is telling us that that when He comes,blessed is that servant telling believers "He's coming".So yes it obviously matters a great deal.The fact that around a third of the Bible has to do with the prophetic should tell us that loud and clear.

2 Tim 1:7,8) For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord...for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.(Rev 19:10)

Mark 13:37 And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch

49 posted on 12/21/2012 10:04:10 PM PST by mitch5501 ("make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things ye shall never fall")
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To: johnthebaptistmoore
On the show “Laugh-In”, they made the correct prediction that the Iron Curtain would collapse in 1991. I’m, still, amazed that they made the correct call.

"Laugh-In" also predicted that Ronald Reagan would be President in 1988.
50 posted on 12/21/2012 10:16:02 PM PST by Nowhere Man (I miss you Whitey! (4-15-2001 - 10-12-2012). Take care, pretty girl!)
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To: steve86; Colofornian; Elsie; svcw; Zakeet; Tennessee Nana; aMorePerfectUnion; Godzilla; ...
What about Mormons?

Mormons, because of their anti-Christian polytheistic doctrine that "man may become god" will continue to baptize by proxy every dead soul and claim that the baptism can be either accepted or rejected in the afterlife. That means they count this as a "win".

They will continue to proclaim to be the "only true and living church on the face of the earth" Link while claiming to be "Christians" and that the only way to salvation is through arcane rituals in their temples, telling these lies via missionaries, TV, the internet and radio.

They will be as they are now, a polytheistic miniscule percentage of religionists, thus the postmortem baptisms.

51 posted on 12/22/2012 6:36:57 AM PST by greyfoxx39 (Romney's gift to the country....Boehner bowing to Obama while kicking the Tea Party.)
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To: CynicalBear

Yep. I believe it will be long before 50 years.


52 posted on 12/22/2012 7:48:10 AM PST by crosshairs (It's all about good vs evil. In the end, evil is destroyed.)
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To: Fiji Hill
Well, so far, those preachers like Harold Camping who tell us that we’re in the last days have been wrong 100% of the time.

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
2 Peter 3:3 (KJV)

How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
Jude 1:18 (KJV)
53 posted on 12/22/2012 7:57:05 AM PST by crosshairs (It's all about good vs evil. In the end, evil is destroyed.)
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To: greyfoxx39

yep


54 posted on 12/22/2012 8:16:19 AM PST by svcw (Why is one cell on another planet considered life, and in the womb it is not.)
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To: Fiji Hill; knarf
[Knarf:] Well .. is HE coming again or ISN'T HE ? and if so ... when? What are the signs of His return?

YES, He is.

[Fiji Hill:] "For you know quite well that the day of the Lord's return will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night."--1 Thessalonians 5:2

Why is it that everyone delivers that verse out of context?

1Th 5:1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
1Th 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
1Th 5:3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
1Th 5:4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
1Th 5:5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
1Th 5:6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

(e-Sword:KJV)

55 posted on 12/22/2012 8:34:53 AM PST by roamer_1 (Globalism is just socialism in a business suit.)
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To: CynicalBear; SeekAndFind
I do believe the rapture will happen prior to that. After that there will be no “denominations”.

So do I, and with very good reason.

56 posted on 12/22/2012 8:40:17 AM PST by roamer_1 (Globalism is just socialism in a business suit.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I see ‘mainline’ protestantism surviving only as local, self-selected, alternate communities in an increasingly fractured community. Their theology will be Christian by tradition and spirit, but they will dispense with the Paulian telling of it, for more of an east-west blended packaging of ‘spiritualism’.

This will primarily be in blue states, whereas red states will stick to a more literal traditionalism.


57 posted on 12/22/2012 8:45:43 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: Fiji Hill; CynicalBear
Well, so far, those preachers like Harold Camping who tell us that we’re in the last days have been wrong 100% of the time.

If one is looking to Harold Camping and his like, one is looking in the wrong places.

58 posted on 12/22/2012 8:48:47 AM PST by roamer_1 (Globalism is just socialism in a business suit.)
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I see a ‘black swan’


59 posted on 12/22/2012 8:56:31 AM PST by RBStealth
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To: SeekAndFind

60 posted on 12/22/2012 8:57:05 AM PST by US_MilitaryRules (Unnngh! To many PDS people!)
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