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When you have 3,000 different flavors of Kool Aid, somebody is sure to take a sip. It still doesn't change the fact that fruit juice is a healthier drink.
the numbers in the OP are driven by birth rates. latin america has had much higher population growth in the last 60 years than europe has had.
We will likely see the same thing with islam - today we think of islam as mideastern and south/southeast asian. at the rate things are going, Islam will be mostly a sub saharan african religion in not too long.
Absolutely not. You can already see it starting to fail now.
Look at the educated, liberal democracies of the west. With the notable exclusion of the United States, Christianity is a shadow of its former self. The vast majority of people are simply cultural christians, with little or no belief in the religion.
Church attendance is plummeting. Political decisions are being made that make it obvious that people do not take Christianity seriously anymore. Spain has legalized gay marriage, and Ireland had closed its embassy to the Vatican.
As Africa and South America become more prosperous and educated, religious devotion will decline there as well.
"13Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
15Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
21Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
24Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
28And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:
29For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes."
Matthew 24:45-51
45Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Not all that call themselves "Christians" are Christians in God's eyes. In the end, truth is absolute.
All that reject God's free gift of justification by grace through faith will face God's eternal justice judged through Christ.
John 3
16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
The Messiah Jesus is the Light (John 1). If we have rejected it, we have rejected God's provision to pay for our sin.
Romans 6:23
For the wagesofsin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
All that have rejected God's provision for their sin in Messiah Jesus who was the creator (John 1; Colosians 1:14-17) born into his creation, will be resurrected to face the Great White Throne judgement.
Revelation 20
11And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
12And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
13And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
14And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Is their no place for you? Think about it. It is a free gift for the asking. Repent via your heart to God accepting Jesus Christ as your personal savior and get saved from eternal damnation.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
The LORD of Hosts YHWH God delights in mercy wanting to send no one to eternal damnation in Gehenna. A Just Creator must Judge his creation Righteously though. The only acceptable reconciliation is through God reconciliating it back to himself through his Son the Messiah.
He's given us the choice to love him by accepting his provision for our sin. The greatest tragedy we can make in this existence is rejecting his love. He says he is constantly calling out in the spirit through the conscience. Respond to this correction.
He created you! What is your eternal destiny? You'll never look back. Open up your heart.
It is rather ironic that Christianity is on the decline in developed countries while increasing in those that are less developed. Perhaps it speaks more about psychological evolution than anything else. I might add considering the aggressive nature of Christian mass marketing in the under developed world this shouldn't come as a great surprise.
As pointed out in Matthew 7, the way to life is narrow and few find it.
The scriptures consistently talk about a remnant being saved. Are you part of the remnant?
A lot has been done in the name of Christianity that is falsely called so. Read the scriptures and see for yourself.
This message from the creator spoken through the prophets is what is going to be used to judge us - not the preacher behind the pulpit.
There are many so-called Christian preachers that are not preaching the gospel of truth. They are the false prophets and yes the motivation is greed as the scriptures even declare. This includes many of your mega churches. Benny Hinn, Osteen, etc are false teachers.
The scriptures say they've gone the "way of Balaam" - selling out their soul for their 15 minutes so called of fame in danger of waking up to a nightmare of sentence to perdition on Judgment day.
The scriptures ultimately are about how to make dead men live not make bad men good. It all points to the Messiah as the savior of the human race. If the pulpit is not preaching the gospel (the death, burial, and resurrection) of Christ and the life in the blood of the sinless lamb sacrifice preaching sanctification/righteous living, they are not doing what we have been commanded to do.
Lord Jesus calls those that say one thing and do another hypocrites. There will be judgement of all - even Christians. We all will be judged. The hypocrites will receive just award for their deeds. Only the ones saved by the blood of Messiah will be saved from perdition.
Our good works can not pay our way.
Isaiah 64:6
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Only the Messiah can pay for our transgressions through his shed blood and our accepting what he's done believing the gospels.
While it is true that "Christianity" - in all it's myriad forms, denominations and sects - make up the largest religious group with 2.2 billion adherents, it is instructive to note that of the world's 7 billion people, Christian make up only about 30%. That means 70% of the world is not Christian.
(CNN) - Christians are by far the largest religious group on the planet, and the religion has gone truly global over the past century, according to a new report out Monday, which finds some of the world's biggest Christian communities in surprising places.
Europe was the clear center of world Christianity one hundred years ago, but today the Americas are home to more than a third of all Christians. In fact, the United States has the world's largest Christian population, of more than 247 million, followed by Brazil and Mexico.
China also appears on the list of top 10 largest Christian populations - with an estimated 67 million Christians, it has more followers of the faith than any western European country.
There are nearly 2.2 billion Christians around the world, making up about one-third of the world's population - the same percentage as a century ago, according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Islam is the world's second largest religion, with about 1.6 billion followers worldwide, the Washington-based organization calculates. That's just under one-quarter of the estimated 2010 world population of 6.9 billion.
Sub-Saharan Africa has seen the biggest explosion in its Christian population in the past century, going from about 9 million Christians in 1910 to about 516 million today - nearly a quarter of all the world's Christians. Three of the world's ten largest Christian populations are in Africa: Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.
The report calculates that half the world's Christians are Catholic, 37% are Protestants, and 12% are Orthodox. The remaining 1 percent belong to other traditions such as Mormonism.
What do you think about this? Discuss!
Yet in the U.S. it's said Sunday is the most segregated day of the week.. Christians can't even worship the same God together.
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