Is Christianity losing
out in the World Today or may be not?
This is a serious question. Till the mid 19th
century, Christianity was ruling high as the only faith in the West. But by the
end of 18th century this scenario had changed. Many people in the West
lost faith in Christianity, the church and even the Bible. This could have
happened because of rationalism, fostered by the writings of people like
Carlyle, Voltaire, etc. It could be because of science triumphing over
religion, starting with the Theory of Natural Selection or Darwinism. Biblical
criticism contributed to people losing faith in miracles and the supernatural
and led to liberalism and modernist theology. Or it could be the false
religious lives that Christians lived, and the obvious hypocrisy of it all as
we saw in the story narrated in the previous blog, based on the book by Samuel
Butler. The conduct of nefarious bishops and pastors, the co-called God’s
servants made many to be skeptical of the truths preached by them and the
Bible. More importantly the religious wars after the Reformation and the spirit
of tolerance that followed it, among the various sects or divisions of
Christianity, contributed to this loss of faith in Christianity in the West.
The trend was towards secularism and liberal Christianity. The knowledge of the
existence of various other religions in the world by the 20th
century and the desire to be at peace with them respecting their religious
sentiments also contributed to these trends.
Does all this mean that Christianity has lost its flavor and
is dying out in the world today? On the contrary, there are signs that
Christianity is thriving and growing in the world, albeit slowly. It is not
dying but is shifting from the North to the South of the world! According to
the “Report of Status of Global Christianity, 2022,” it is seen that
Christianity is growing at 1.17% in the world. Some of the other religions that
are growing faster are Islam (1.95%), Sikhism (1.66%) and Hinduism (1.30), but
Christianity is still doing quite well, thank you! Among Christians, the
Pentecostals or Charismatic are growing at the rate of 1.88% and evangelicals
at 1.8%.
In a population of 7.7 billion in the world today, 2.56
billion are Christians. It might be declining in the Western countries, but it
is growing faster in the southern countries. The centre of Christianity has
moved from the global North to the global South. It is growing at a rate of
1.18% in Latin America, 2.77% in Africa and 1.5% in Asia. South is bearing the
full weight of Christianity!
Surprisingly atheism is losing flavor and less number of
people today call themselves atheists. Moreover lot more non-Christians have
the opportunity of hearing about Christ today than ever from someone whom they
know. The population of people who have not heard about Jesus Christ or the
un-evangelized people form only 28.4% of the world’s population. This year it
is expected that 93 million copies of Bible are getting printed and distributed
in the world. Six billion copies of the Bible have been sold up until now! Daniel
had said in his prophecy, “Many shall be running back and forth, and knowledge
will increase.”[1]
Yes, the world has become small, a global village and knowledge has spread,
along with the good news of the gospel has also spread.
So who says Christianity is dying? Not at all! It has just
shifted from the North to the South.
It doesn’t mean that we can relax and let things be as they
are. Every Christian has a duty and a service to render by spreading the good
news of Jesus Christ to all we know. When many disciples stopped following
Jesus and went back because his teachings were difficult, Jesus asked his
twelve disciples, “Do you also wish to go away?” Then Simon Peter answered,
“Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to
believe that you are the Holy One of God,” (Christ or the Son of the living God
in some ancient authorities).[2]
Christ is the Son of God and he has the authority to forgive our sins because
of his sacrificial death on the cross and those who believe in him will inherit
eternal life. This is the sum and substance of the gospel, the good news and it
is our duty to give this message of life to people with whom we interact, both family
and friends, secular and religious.
My God bless the readers of this blog and enable us to live up
to the expectation of Christ, the Savior of humanity, sent by God to the world
to save the world.
