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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?
- Orthodoxy: Little visible change, zero substantive change. Increasing numbers and cultural impact. Progress toward a single American Archdiocese, but still not there yet.
- Catholicism: Neither women priests nor married priests will happen. Increasing disaffection among liberal American Catholics leading to a significant decrease in attendance. Identification as Catholic will be increasingly cultural rather than creedal. This trend, combined with decreasing numbers of men seeking the priesthood, will force additional parish churches to close. This will be slightly offset by conversions from Protestantism, resulting in American Catholic liturgy and pastoral care becoming effectively more traditional. In northern Europe, Catholicism may fade into a cultural memory, but in North America, a leaner, more boldly traditional Catholicism will recover its equilibrium and continue to be a voice of conscience and stability.
- Reformed Christians: Continuing personality issues, but overall the hardcore Reformed will still look and act a lot like they do today, because (almost uniquely among Protestants) Reformed folks know and value their tradition. The edgy/emergey segment will contribute a few cultural differences.
- Lutherans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, UCC: Increasing convergence so that they resemble each other almost interchangeably, while de-emphasizing troublesome doctrinal issues until their emphasis on social issues rather than personal salvation turns them into Christian-branded social service agencies. In each movement the conservative outliers will continue to peel off in schisms embodying a previous generation’s norm. Many of these etremely conservative daughter groups will identify strongly with the little-o orthodox “Great Tradition” (cf. Tom Oden)
- Anglicanism outside the US and UK: Few significant or visible changes, except increasing numbers, especially in Africa and Latin America, where Anglicanism is conservative in liturgy and ethos.
- Conservative Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists in North America: I foresee growth and prosperity for individual parishes and dioceses, but overall a continuing fragmentation. Fifty years ago, these groups were culturally relevant and could provide nostalgia for returning Christians; now, in increasingly-unchurched America, they’re culturally unfamiliar but not yet old enough to make a virtue of ancient weirdness the way Eastern Orthodox do.
- Non-charismatic nondenominations will find their kids growing up effectively charismatic nondenoms, with more affinity for styles of contemporary music than for their parents’ doctrinal self-definition. The trend of people choosing congregations based on music and childcare will continue to grow. In-depth teaching of historical doctrine will continue to be a novelty.
- Baptist will continue to be a useless word for describing a set of beliefs or practices, as practically every form of Christian belief and worship can be found among self-described Baptists.
- Charismatic nondenominations: Same story. In the absence of doctrinal accountability, these will continue to generate new approaches and practices every decade or two.
- Old-school Pentecostals (e.g. Foursquare, Assemblies of God, Church of God in Christ, Church of God of Prophecy) in suburbs and wealthy areas will continue to develop in unpredictable ways, ensuring that every generation is nostalgic for a lost experience and baffled by what their churches have become. In the 90s and 00s, the Toronto Blessing, Brownsville Revival, Kansas City Prophets, and new prosperity teachings revisited mid-20th-century phenomena such as the Latter Rain, Manifest Sons of God, and the earlier health-and-prosperity movement springing from EW Kenyon. But the more recent iteration was characterized by a new cultural ignorance of Christian belief or history, which freed it to become crazier, faster. By contrast, change in urban, inner-city contexts and in rural areas will be minimal: Urban churches will continue to be matriarchal and rural churches patriarchal.
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.
To: Fiji Hill
>>Well, so far, those preachers like Harold Camping who tell us that were in the last days have been wrong 100% of the time.<<
People like that are used by Satan. If they really understood prophecy they wouldnt have led people astray like they did.
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 Gabriels 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.
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")
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)
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!)
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.)
To: Citizen Tom Paine
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")
To: johnthebaptistmoore
On the show Laugh-In, they made the correct prediction that the Iron Curtain would collapse in 1991. Im, 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!)
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.)
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.)
To: Fiji Hill
Well, so far, those preachers like Harold Camping who tell us that were 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.)
To: greyfoxx39
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.)
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.)
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.)
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.
To: Fiji Hill; CynicalBear
Well, so far, those preachers like Harold Camping who tell us that were 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.)
To: SeekAndFind
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