Is Christianity still in decline?

From articles to posts of how our faith have been in decline and will continue so. Persecution,mockery,denial and anti-theism doesnt help at all with its decline at all. At best it improves it. If the church is going to die out in the future what importance holds Jesus promise that the church will be till the end of times?

Itā€™s His promise. It is irrelevant what things look like. Enter in at the narrow gate for many will try but only a few will make it. Hold out till the end and you will be saved. The rightious WILL enter into eternal life.

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All who keep calling on the Lord will be saved.

What does decline mean? Christianity is still making more converts than many other religions (more than Islam, last I heard). Two reasons itā€™s decreased in the West are because of a lower birth rate (the primary ways by which religions grow) and secularization, but itā€™s growing by leaps and bounds in Africa and the South.

We can discuss being a ā€œmile wide an an inch deep,ā€ which is what Jesus often warned againstā€“so thatā€™s important.

Good question! Thanks.

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Can you explain more Randy? Thanks for the answer

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Iā€™m sorry I used a figure of speech thatā€™s kind of obscure. It means that Christianity is widespread, but can be superficial. People (including me) can accept it as a badge of culture, but Christā€™s words donā€™t change them for the better or for a deeper intent of loving their neighbor. I have the same problem frequently. Thanks.

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Yeah i understand. A lot of Greeks have it here. Cultural Christianity i call ut and it somewhat annoys me,since they lose the main point of Christianity

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Hello Nick! Iā€™ll put in ā€œmy two centsā€ as we say in America ā€“

I donā€™t think Christianity ā€œis going to die out in the future.ā€ Jesus promised us the gates of Hell would not prevail against his church. In my opinion, however, the number of adherents will continue shrinking in America and Europe until the dominant culture views us, at best, as a strange cult living on outdated ideas. Some people will view our ideas on how to live a moral life as ā€œhatefulā€ and promoting ā€œbigotry.ā€ At worst, we will suffer outright persecution, some of which is going on right now.

In spite of that, we must continue to do what the Christ commanded us ā€“ love God, love our neighbors, help the poor and sick. Cody G says something similar to that. We must go on to the end and try to live up to St. Paulā€™s words, " I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

Still, I think Christians need to withdraw slightly from the culture and create networks of support among ourselves if we are going to be able to pass our faith down to our children. The secular world is so strong and is beginning to hate us so much. Major media is almost Satanic in its constant pressure to conform to the modern culture of radical individualism and pleasure, and our kids feel it all the time.

Have you read ā€œBenedict Optionā€ by Rod Dreher? It is about this subject. A lot of misleading reviews say the book suggests Christians withdraw entirely from the culture. The book says nothing like that. Given your question, I think the you will find the book useful and enlightening.

This does not necessarily speak to the global ā€˜popularityā€™ of Christianity, but certainly declines in some cultures are to be expected:

And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

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We already see it in the west. Even in Greece where it was a full traditionalist christian country now the number decreses by a lot

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That is a very qualified ā€œLikeā€. :woozy_face: But it is better for there to be true Christians, regardless of their numbers, rather than churches full of lukewarm, cultural ones.

Agree. But nonetheless the number is still going down. Which shows that christians are really a minority if we dotn count the lukewarm ones or those that are solely because of tradition

There is nothing to despair about, though, as long as we are our Fatherā€™s children and trusting him. And he is trustworthy.

I dont know. Beign afraid to tell someone youre a christian is really a thing for me that makes somewhat far to reach

There are times when you shouldnā€™t tell people you are a Christian, but there are definitely times when you should. I cannot prescribe for your situation, though, since it is far different from mine. Being old and having a lifetime (almost :grin:) of evidence of Godā€™s providential interventions, it is hard for me not to mention it, since it is one of my favorite things.

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For me I donā€™t worry about it going up or going down. Every year there are more peopleā€™s names wrote in the book of life and thatā€™s what matters. Besides the numbers are meaningless. Self reported Christianity is not going to be the same as who is actually a Christian. Whatever the reported number is, Iā€™m guessing itā€™s still significantly lower than that and always has been. All we have to do is concern ourselves with pursing God by pursuing his truth and righteousness to be s lamp in the dark and help those find the light that are missing it.

Wether you save one person or a hundred. You could save a hundred by leading them to Christ snd they each only lead one to God or you may end up leading one to God who even after their death continues to guide thousands to God through books and so on they wrote while alive. Long after even the youngest of us are gone there will be more just entering into salvation.

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Personally I donā€™t hope to see Christianity decline. But I do hope some day more atheists will realize that religion has been the keepers of something important for a long time. Until they figure out what that is, theyā€™d do better not to mess with what they donā€™t understand. We donā€™t agree on what that is but we do agree that the church has called many people to reflect on something beyond the narrowly personal.

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I pray this comes to pass

Being born in to a deprived, traditional culture is the best way to be maintained in a religion, which gives the illusion of purpose in deprivation. As peopleā€™s standard of living improves, generation on generation, its grip lightens, relative to how strong it was in the first place. Islam has a far stronger grip than Christianity as it perfectly requires nearly too much. Itā€™s all a by-product of evolution. Even if the Incarnation is true, it is pervaded, perfused, immersed with evolved human cognition, which is why the message of Jesus through Paul is so cluttered.

So you are christian because your genes said so? Pretty strawman if you ask me but ok