The Age of Christian Expansion

With so much news about trouble and persecution of Christians around the world, I found the following article very interesting. It gives a very different perspective of what is happening. Jesus Christ is truly building His church, and the numbers coming in are absolutely amazing. Thank you to Peter Leithart. (These are excerpts. To read the whole article, follow the link to http://news360.com/article/315479524)

Protestants look back longingly to the Reformation as one of the great periods of church history, and it was in many respects. In terms of the global reach of Christianity, though, the sixteenth century was a low point. Since its beginning, Christianity has rarely been confined to so contracted an area.

In the fourth century, Christianity encircled the Mediterranean. It was still strong in Palestine, in the Middle East, and further east. Jerusalem was a largely Christian city for many centuries. Christianity was dominant in North Africa, from Egypt to Carthage and beyond. It was taking hold in Northern Europe. Christian missionaries were being exported from Ireland, the out-back of Europe.

Islam pushed Christianity into Europe, and during the second half of the fifteenth [century], it “became increasingly a European religion. Islam had launched a jihad against Christianity several centuries earlier. By about 1450 [Constantinople fell - 1453], as a direct result of its military conquests, Islam was firmly established in t[h]e southwestern and southeastern parts of Europe. Although Christian communities continued to exist outside Europe (most notably in Egypt, Ethiopia, India, and Syria), Christianity was becoming geographically restricted” (Alister McGrath, Historical Theology, 214).

It is old news now, but it is news that we should be reminded of regularly: Over the last several centuries, the church has witnessed unprecedented growth and expansion. We are living in the greatest era of Christian expansion.

McGrath summarizes: “One of the most dramatic developments to take place during the last few centuries has been the recovery of Christianity from this crisis. By the twentieth century, Christianity was firmly established as the dominant religion in the Americas, Australasia, southern Africa, and throughout many of the island nations of the South Pacific.”

[In] Philip Jenkins’s . . . book, The Next Christendom. Jenkins observes, “Over the past five centuries or so, . . . Christianity has been . . . bound up with . . . Europe and European-derived civilizations . . ., above all in North America. . . .”
This is no longer the case, “. . . the center of gravity in the Christian world has shifted . . . to Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Already today, the largest Christian communities on the planet are to be found in Africa and Latin America. Kenyan scholar John Mbiti has observed, ‘the centers of the church’s universality [are] no longer in Geneva, Rome, Athens, Paris, London, New York, but Kinshasa, Buenos Aires, Addis Ababa, and Manila”.

Jenkins predicts that this trend will continue, . . .
The numbers are staggering: “According to the respected World Christian Encyclopedia, some 2 billion Christians are alive today, about one-third of the planetary total. The largest single bloc, some 560 million people, is still found in Europe. Latin America, though, is already close behind with 480 million, Africa has 360 million, and 313 million Asians profess Christianity. North America claims about 260 million believers. If we extrapolate these figures to the year 2025, and assume no great gains or losses through conversion, then there would be around 2.6 billion Christians, of whom 633 million would live in Africa, 640 million in Latin America, and 460 million in Asia. Europe, with 555 million, would have slipped to third place. . . by 2050, only about one-fifth of the world’s 3 billion Christians will be non-Hispanic Whites.”

(Think about that! In the next 10 years over half a billion more Christians! In the 25 years after that, another half a billion more Christians. The old saying may be playing out once again: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” Jesus said, “I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against you.”)