| Topic: |
Religions > Bible |
| User: |
"martus" |
| Date: |
06 Mar 2004 09:25:37 AM |
| Object: |
The European Beast |
The Rebirth of Christianity: Besieged in the West, the Gospel Makes
Amazing Progress Elsewhere
Feature by Ed Vitagliano
March 5, 2004
(AgapePress) - It was a strange headline that appeared two years ago
in The London Times: "Christianity Almost Beaten in Britain, says
Cardinal."
The stunning statement was made by the Archbishop of Westminster,
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, when he addressed a gathering of
Roman Catholic clergy in England in 2001.
And who could blame him for his pessimism? Christianity in the West
appears to be in the process of retreating everywhere under the
advancing assault of secularism and New Age spirituality.
What should encourage believers everywhere, however, is a phenomenon
that is developing, for the most part, outside the notice of much of
the Western press. In what is called the "Global South" -- Africa,
Latin America and Asia -- Christianity is growing in staggering
fashion, promising in the next 50 years or so to eclipse the West as
the spiritual home of the faith.
Relocation and Rebirth
This is not what Western elites in the media or on college and
university campuses thought was happening. "For over a century, the
coming decline or disappearance of religion has been a commonplace
assumption of Western thought, and church leaders have sometimes
shared this pessimistic view," says Philip Jenkins, distinguished
professor of history and religious studies at Pennsylvania State
University, in his book, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global
Christianity.
That secularists expected the demise of Christianity is not hard to
understand. After all, they viewed that faith as a Western religion,
and Jenkins admits that "[u]ntil recently, the overwhelming majority
of Christians have lived in White nations ...."
If Christianity were mainly a religion of the peoples of Europe and
North America, as secularists have always thought, then Jenkins says
it made sense that "the growing secularization of the West [could]
only mean that Christianity is in its dying days."
However, a strange thing has been happening: rather than dying,
Christianity has spread in unexpected ways. Mark Hutchinson, chairman
of the church history department at Southern Cross College in
Australia, says that "what many pundits thought was the death of the
church in the 1960s through secularization was really its relocation
and rebirth into the rest of the world."
Jenkins says, "We are currently living through one of the transforming
moments in the history of religion worldwide .... The era of Western
Christianity has passed within our lifetimes, and the day of Southern
Christianity is dawning."
The numbers boggle the mind. In Africa in the year 1900, for example,
there were approximately 10 million Christians on the continent. By
2000, the number had grown to 360 million.
The Anglican Communion is a perfect example of this worldwide trend.
Whereas in its U.S. branch -- the Episcopal Church -- membership has
declined over the last 40 years to 2.3 million, in Uganda alone there
are more than 8 million Anglicans.
Worldwide, evangelical Christians are a thriving part of the Christian
community. Yet, 70% of evangelicals live outside the West.
'God Goes Where He's Wanted'
What has been driving this trend? "As I travel," says author and
journalist Philip Yancey, "I have observed a pattern, a strange
historical phenomenon of God 'moving' geographically from the Middle
East, to Europe to North America to the developing world. My theory is
this: God goes where He's wanted."
If Yancey's supposition is correct, it would explain a lot, because
Christianity does seem to be waning in the West -- especially in
Europe. In an article for The New York Times, writer Frank Bruni says
that "Europe already seems more and more like a series of tourist-trod
monuments to Christianity's past. Hardly a month goes by when [Pope
John Paul II] does not publicly bemoan that fact, beseeching Europeans
to rediscover their faith."
Rev. David Cornick, the general secretary of the United Reformed
Church in Britain, says, "In Western Europe, we are hanging on by our
fingernails. The fact is that Europe is no longer Christian."
Secularism deserves much of the blame, say some Christian leaders,
including the pope, who has complained that the proposed constitution
for the European Union completely omits any reference to God or the
continent's Christian past.
One sign of the weakness of Christianity in Europe is church
attendance. According to a major survey in the 1990s, the percentage
of people attending church on an average Sunday in some European
countries is a mere fraction of the total population: England (27%),
West Germany (14%), Denmark (5%), Norway (5%), Sweden, (4%) and
Finland (4%).
More than even secularism, however, Gene Edward Veith, culture critic
for World magazine, says the problem is found in many of the churches
themselves: "This decline is directly attributable to the theological
liberalism of the once-powerful state churches."
Veith says that, where the more conservative Catholic Church holds
sway, church attendance is far higher: Ireland (84%), Poland (55%),
Portugal (47%), and Italy (45%).
"These are Catholic countries where the church has remained
conservative," Veith says. "Catholic churches that have gone liberal
-- in the United States, France, the Netherlands -- have the same low
attendance rates as liberal Protestants."
In the Global South, however, Christianity is finding converts by the
millions. According to researcher David Barrett, author of the
well-respected World Christian Encyclopedia, Africa is gaining 8.4
million new Christians a year, and that number is a net total -- that
is, new converts minus those who leave the faith.
South Korea is another example of a nation in which the growth of
Christianity has been stunning. In 1920, Jenkins says, there were only
about 300,000 believers in all of Korea. But today, in South Korea
alone, there are 10 to 12 million Christians -- about 25% of the
population.
"And it is not modernist, liberal Christianity that is sweeping
through the Southern Hemisphere," says Veith, "but a Christianity in
which the gospel is proclaimed, that believes God's Word, that refuses
to conform to the world."
Christianity and Islam
While all this should be encouraging news for believers in the U.S.,
numerous difficulties will confront Christians in the Global South
over the next half century.
One of the most obvious challenges will be the sheer enormity of the
unfinished task of fulfilling the Great Commission. "The growth of
Christianity in the last two decades has been nothing short of
miraculous," says Elisabeth Farrell, co-author of China: The Hidden
Miracle. "Yet a whopping two-thirds of the world's population -- 3
billion people -- remains unreached."
As many missionary-minded believers know, a staggering 95% of these
unreached people live in an area called "the 10/40 Window," which
Farrell describes as "an imaginary rectangle between the 10th and 40th
parallels north, stretching from Africa to Japan."
Part of the problem, Farrell suggests, is that 95% of missions'
budgets apportion resources for areas outside the 10/40 Window. That
represents a potentially disastrous -- or, at the very least,
shortsighted -- misallocation of finances.
However, part of the reason for this lack of emphasis on the 10/40
Window is that there is, quite simply, tremendous resistance to the
gospel there. Jenkins says that "the historically Muslim lands into
which Christian missions have never penetrated ... remain impervious."
From a spiritual standpoint, one can see why the resistance is so
strong in these nations: Farrell says "[a]ll the world's major
non-Christian religions were founded there: Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism,
Sikhism, Shintoism and Taoism."
Islam, however, will be Christianity's major religious competitor for
the foreseeable future. By 2020, Jenkins says "Christianity will still
have a massive lead [over Islam in terms of adherents], and will
maintain its position into the foreseeable future. By 2050, there
should still be about three Christians for every two Muslims
worldwide. Some 34% of the world's people will then be Christian ...."
Nevertheless, Christianity and Islam will both prove themselves to be
vigorous religions. "Muslim and Christian nations will expand adjacent
to each other," says Jenkins, "and often, Muslim and Christian
communities will both grow within the same country .... [W]e face the
likelihood that population growth will be accompanied by intensified
rivalry, by struggles for converts, by competing attempts to enforce
moral codes by means of secular law. Whether Muslim or Christian,
religious zeal can easily turn into fanaticism. Such struggles might
well provoke civil wars, which could in turn become international
conflicts."
The threat to humanity posed by potential religious wars between the
two faiths could be, he added, horrifying, producing "a new age of
Christian crusades and Muslim jihads. Imagine the world of the
thirteenth century armed with nuclear warheads and anthrax."
The danger of persecution is no less acute. Jenkins says, "Even if the
dominant religion is generally tolerant, it only takes an outbreak of
fanaticism every half-century or so to devastate or uproot a minority,
and that has been the fate of religious minorities across the Middle
East in recent years. Although Christian communities survive across
the region, their numbers are a pathetic shadow of what they were even
in 1850, and whole peoples have been obliterated since that time."
Within the 10/40 Window, such troubles will probably continue for
decades to come, perhaps squashing attempts to gain a solid Christian
foothold in Muslim countries. In Pakistan, for example, a 1986 law
subjects a citizen to the death penalty or life imprisonment if he
"directly or indirectly by word, gesture, innuendo, or otherwise
defiles the name of the holy prophet Muhammad."
"These laws," Jenkins says, "offer a potential death sentence for
anyone evangelizing Muslims, or even considering conversion, and
several Christians have been condemned to death for related offenses."
In nations like Pakistan, it is not uncommon for periodic outbreaks of
riots and violence to occur against the minority Christian populace.
Here, murder and rape are dangers that believers live with daily.
In Sudan, the Muslim government's attempt to subjugate Christians has
led to almost indescribable persecution. According to the U.S. State
Department Annual Report on Religious Freedom 2000, Muslim persecution
has included "indiscriminate bombings, the burning and looting of
villages, and the killings, abductions, rapes, and arbitrary arrests
and detentions of civilians."
Nevertheless, for the Great Commission to be fulfilled, the 10/40
Window is where the Gospel will have to go. Can the churches of the
West produce the necessary missionaries to accomplish this task? After
all, Christians in Europe, North America and Oceania already have
their hands full with spiritual problems at home: they are stinging
from cultural setbacks over the last 50 years on issues ranging from
abortion to homosexuality, and fighting to keep secularism from
capturing even larger swaths of the populace.
It might be an odd concept, but missionaries to the 10/40 Window may
very well come -- in fact, may have to come -- from the Global South.
Such nonwhite missionaries may even show up on our shores. As Veith
muses, "What we need now are missionaries from Africa to convert the
heathen in Europe and America."
Stranger things have happened.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For the AntiChrist beast to emerge from Europe then the light of God
has to put out by the saturation of filth onto its people.
This right to filth peoples minds and souls has destroyed so many
European's faith that the results speak for themselves.
End times:
http://www.geocities.com/mart1963/
.
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| User: "Wendell Martin" |
|
| Title: Re: The European Beast |
06 Mar 2004 12:33:45 PM |
|
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"martus" <marttila69@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:511a49a.0403060725.4d53b49e@posting.google.com...
The whole post was a very good post but I'm only going to leave what I want
to add to
More than even secularism, however, Gene Edward Veith, culture critic
for World magazine, says the problem is found in many of the churches
themselves: "This decline is directly attributable to the theological
liberalism of the once-powerful state churches."
Veith says that, where the more conservative Catholic Church holds
sway, church attendance is far higher: Ireland (84%), Poland (55%),
Portugal (47%), and Italy (45%).
"These are Catholic countries where the church has remained
conservative," Veith says. "Catholic churches that have gone liberal
-- in the United States, France, the Netherlands -- have the same low
attendance rates as liberal Protestants."
In the Global South, however, Christianity is finding converts by the
millions. According to researcher David Barrett, author of the
well-respected World Christian Encyclopedia, Africa is gaining 8.4
million new Christians a year, and that number is a net total -- that
is, new converts minus those who leave the faith.
South Korea is another example of a nation in which the growth of
Christianity has been stunning. In 1920, Jenkins says, there were only
about 300,000 believers in all of Korea. But today, in South Korea
alone, there are 10 to 12 million Christians -- about 25% of the
population.
"And it is not modernist, liberal Christianity that is sweeping
through the Southern Hemisphere," says Veith, "but a Christianity in
which the gospel is proclaimed, that believes God's Word, that refuses
to conform to the world."
This goes to show that we do not need to change Christianity to fit in with
the rest of the world. All that is needed to make Christianity spread is to
give out the true Word of God and let him do the work in peoples hearts.
When we water down the faith to make Christianity acceptable to others we
also get rid of the life changing part of our faith and lose out on true
converts. Remember the Laodicean church in Revelation for that is the
condition of much of the Christian world in America.
God Bless and thanks for your post
Wendell
A faith not worth examining is a faith not worth keeping.
<snipped>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------
For the AntiChrist beast to emerge from Europe then the light of God
has to put out by the saturation of filth onto its people.
This right to filth peoples minds and souls has destroyed so many
European's faith that the results speak for themselves.
End times:
http://www.geocities.com/mart1963/
.
|
|
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| User: "Tonyc" |
|
| Title: Re: The European Beast |
06 Mar 2004 08:21:50 PM |
|
|
thank you for the posting its well put you see change for
the sake of change is not a good thing and many churches have doen just that
and its a
shambles>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
"Wendell Martin" <wkmartin@ev1.net> wrote in message
news:104k6aejm2roj3a@corp.supernews.com...
"martus" <marttila69@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:511a49a.0403060725.4d53b49e@posting.google.com...
The whole post was a very good post but I'm only going to leave what I
want
to add to
More than even secularism, however, Gene Edward Veith, culture critic
for World magazine, says the problem is found in many of the churches
themselves: "This decline is directly attributable to the theological
liberalism of the once-powerful state churches."
Veith says that, where the more conservative Catholic Church holds
sway, church attendance is far higher: Ireland (84%), Poland (55%),
Portugal (47%), and Italy (45%).
"These are Catholic countries where the church has remained
conservative," Veith says. "Catholic churches that have gone liberal
-- in the United States, France, the Netherlands -- have the same low
attendance rates as liberal Protestants."
In the Global South, however, Christianity is finding converts by the
millions. According to researcher David Barrett, author of the
well-respected World Christian Encyclopedia, Africa is gaining 8.4
million new Christians a year, and that number is a net total -- that
is, new converts minus those who leave the faith.
South Korea is another example of a nation in which the growth of
Christianity has been stunning. In 1920, Jenkins says, there were only
about 300,000 believers in all of Korea. But today, in South Korea
alone, there are 10 to 12 million Christians -- about 25% of the
population.
"And it is not modernist, liberal Christianity that is sweeping
through the Southern Hemisphere," says Veith, "but a Christianity in
which the gospel is proclaimed, that believes God's Word, that refuses
to conform to the world."
This goes to show that we do not need to change Christianity to fit in
with
the rest of the world. All that is needed to make Christianity spread is
to
give out the true Word of God and let him do the work in peoples hearts.
When we water down the faith to make Christianity acceptable to others we
also get rid of the life changing part of our faith and lose out on true
converts. Remember the Laodicean church in Revelation for that is the
condition of much of the Christian world in America.
God Bless and thanks for your post
Wendell
A faith not worth examining is a faith not worth keeping.
<snipped>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------
For the AntiChrist beast to emerge from Europe then the light of God
has to put out by the saturation of filth onto its people.
This right to filth peoples minds and souls has destroyed so many
European's faith that the results speak for themselves.
End times:
http://www.geocities.com/mart1963/
.
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