Posted on 08/29/2004 1:39:20 PM PDT by Quix
end-times_news@associate.com
"Jan Ross"
rross@columbus.rr.com
To: "News"
end-times_news@associate.com
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2004 14:46:05 -0400
A Tidal Wave of Christianity
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, th[is] 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. "Jessus 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.
Source: CBN URL:
http://www.cbn.com/CBNNews/News/030819a.asp
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Luke 21:28 "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."
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PRAISE GOD FOR THE MOVE OF HIS SPIRIT IN WILLING, NEEDY, EAGER, HUNGRY LANDS. May our land become so hungry for God!
"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."
Wow! Awesome, thanks.
Cool. They will want to evanglize us.Can you live with that?
The Chinese plan to send missionaries here. We could use it; when foreign church leaders come here with tales of miracles and great conversions, it reminds us of what we lack in our church. We understand giving and serving, but our faith is weak.
I believe that we have at least two major problems in the church in America: we are comfortable and undemanding of ourselves, and we have confused vigor in conservative politics for moral living... as if we're really fooling anyone. The world calls us hypocrites, and they are dead on. Why should gays listen to our moralizing about defending marriage? They know we divorce at the same rate as the general population. Hotel operators report that at pastors' conventions, subscriptions to the porn channels goes up.
We've lost much of our witness, and that's just a sad fact.
Praise the Lord for this! I know enough about Asian Christians (I grew up there) that I know there is no tolerance for the post-modern multi-culti nonsense, abortion, and liberal "Chriatians" and they are very, very morally upright (in fact it makes Jerry Falwell's sermons look lame - full of hell-fire-and-brimstone).
BUT having said this, let me also add that some of the most hardline anti-Americans among Asians in the East are also from the West - imagine a socially conservative social gospel activist who probably opposes everything under the sun Bush does except his gay "marriage" or abortion stands. (The Chinese-speaking brother in Christ next door could well be the biggest Kerry supporter you will ever meet, for instance) And let me say that the signs don't look too good for the Asian churches - it looks like we are soon entering a tidal wave of modernism/liberalism very soon (already Taiwan's Presbyterian church, Presbyterian Church of Taiwan (PCT) is deeply modernist and apostate). Bible studies are very often done inthoroughly, much of the church scene and Bible lessons resembles "New evangelicalism" in America, and political activism that resembles social gospel in the early 20th century West is exploding (Asian Christians generally become quite muddled when talking about social gospels). The external world for Asian Christians also become increasing hostile - gay rights lobby are following the footsteps of their counterparts of the West. Divorce, abortion - please note that the general society aren't that morally pure. And the most money-driven societies on earth are all based in East Asia.
Finally, if you can read Chinese, I recommend this Canada-based Chinese-speaking Christian media. It gives you an outline of the Christians in Asia:
http://www.truth-monthly.com
***A China that's Christianized would not be a threat to the United States***
Unless that United States becomes so anti-Christian that it is a threat to the Christian world.
Oops, typos. Here's the corrected one:
PRAISE GOD.
I consider this but a hint of what God has up HIS BIG SLEEVES this end times era.
I agree. It seems the more we move away from the true word, the more Africans, Asian Christians move closer to the word on issues such as Abortion, Homosexuality, etc.
Their dedication, example, fiery-furnace tested faith and love have been evangelizing me for decades.
There was a little book 30 years or longer ago:
THE JESUS FAMILY IN COMMUNIST CHINA.
In it was the story of a commune which had become essentially totally Christian. There was a Communist Party boss in the area that was very hostile to the Christian commune and harrassed them relentlessly.
One time, they were having a meeting. In the midst of their meeting, a chicken walked into the middle of the circle and laid an egg. The members of the Christian commune dutifully tied the price of the egg to the chicken's leg and released it to return to the Communist Party boss. The Party boss was so moved, he became a Christian.
There are impressive Christians there who are more wary of the pollutions of the West into their Christian culture than they are the persecutions of the Party Bosses in the government.
WELL PUT.
THX.
I wouldn't have a problem submitting as Holy Spirit led to anyone who Loved God wholly; their neighbor as self; did unto others as they would have the other do unto them in reversed contexts--and particularly anyone who was led intimately by Holy Spirit at that point and place in time--even a 4 year old child from--anywhere.
That's certainly an interesting thing I've occasionally contemplated.
Dimitri Duduman's visions of China invading and controlling the Western half of the USA in the not too distant future included seeing Chinese Christians in the Chinese army turning at some point and fighting with the Americans against the rest of the Chinese military on our soil. An interesting prospect, certainly.
That was after, BTW, the Chinese general in California ordered all Californian's killed--many buried alive in mass graves. He supposedly will be assassinated in San Francisco and that will evidently stop that hideous practice.
We shall see.
Good points.
Certainly the Presbyterian church you mention in Taiwan is as . . . . contaminated with social gospel stuff at the cost of authentic Chritianity as a lot of the similarly contaminated churches in the USA.
The dark is getting darker. The light will get lighter.
Yes. Those are important issues.
But I'm more impressed that they move closer to Loving as Jesus Loved/Loves.
AN ENCOURAGEMENT PING
LUB,
Amen brother! I think many Asian Christian must bear in mind that moral alerts shouldn't get them produce false legalist mindsets, with all the artificial rules of "do's and don't's". As Western churches have shown before, when you get to this stage, it is the start of slippery slope to eventual apostasy, liberalism, ecumenicalism in a generation.
Prayers are urgently needed for Asian bretherns to stand firm against Sananic attacks from this angle.
Well said.
Thankfully, the practical bent of the Chinese people may be of some slight help on this score.
Depending, they CAN tend to major on majors and minor on minors better than some Western groups I know.
On the other hand . . . there can be plenty of pettiness there, too.
We have a young pastor handling two Catholic churches. He has received help from Ghanna with a young priest who is loved by the parish. He kind of shakes up the people when he has some prayers in Latin.
The first thing he wanted to see when he got to the U S was K-Mart.
He will be here 3 years.
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