Angelina said:
2.6 Billion Expected to be Christian by 2020, says Study
Aimee Herd : Jul 22, 2013
A new study done by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon
Theological Seminary is projecting that by 2020, 2.6 billion people will be Christian, according to their research.
http://www.breakingchristiannews.com/articles/display_art.html?ID=12138
I feel a necessity to object to this 'study'. AndyBern began by raising an important question that needs to be seriously addressed.
How many will obtain the second birth rather than simply fill out membership cards?
The Bible says nothing about salvation being related to filling out membership cards, not in the New Testament anyway. That was the scheme in the OT(1), but after Christ offered the one perfect sacrifice upon the cross, the only requirement for salvation was a personal one - accept Christ into one's heart and life. The onus today is upon the individual to make peace with God.
Church membership does not save, neither is it an accurate reflection of the growth of the gospel. In the United States, for example, statistics are skewed so badly as to make the entire data collection process questionable. Growth in terms of actual spiritual conversion has been estimated to be as little as 1% per year, while membership figures have soared. What's going on?
In any medium or large city in America the refugee numbers are not counted. Refugees? Yup. There are a large number of Christians who are dissatisfied for one reason or another with their church and end up wandering from fellowship to fellowship. Length of stay in any particular church for members of the refugee community is two to four years. At the end of that period they move on, seeking a different style, preacher, or some intangible they cannot find. Each time they land somewhere they fill out a membership card. This little card is what muddies the statistical water.
Church membership grows in America by membership card, not spiritual conversion. In past times this may have been an accurate reflection of church growth or demise, but not today. Church records are most often kept by a third party(2). The third party organization provides address labels, those little boxes with tiny offering envelopes and financial records to church administration. The problem is that it is very difficult if not impossible for names and addresses and phone numbers to be deleted from these third party data bases. One pastor I talked to explained how difficult it is by saying they'd given up trying to remove members who had wandered elsewhere. As a result the numbers show huge church membership, while the parking lots on any given Sunday may have many good spaces open (under shady trees if you have them). Statistics are thus bent so badly as to be undependable.
Global estimates for the expansion or withering of the church are similar. Missionary groups, which are notorious in their demands to obtain money and resources, deliberately lie about their success. For example, it is often stated by such persons that the church in China is expanding rapidly. However, the church in China is and has been an underground group for decades (since the communists assumed power in 1946). How then can accurate statistics be gathered about the activities of a secret church? Nobody has answered that question satisfactorily because there isn't an answer. God knows. We don't.
I live near St. Petersburg, Florida a center for off season missionaries to base their financial activities. Most mission groups have a time period for their missionaries to spend 'in the field' and a period of time for domestic activity. It used to be 4 and 1. Four years abroad and one year in America. It has changed depending upon the group, but mostly the principle remains the same. The year at home in America is used for fund raising. I imagine the reader has been treated to a Sunday sermon by one of these itinerant missionaries from time to time. That's what they do. For the most part these people are dedicated Super Christians. The organizations they work for, however, are not.
I've personally visited Africa twice - both coasts. I am, therefore, aware that one of the problems that isn't documented in America is that about every eighteen months a plague of cholera sweeps certain areas of the continent. I've seen the dead - lying in public places with my own eyes. Medicine is available and most mission groups have stockpiles of it ready to go. One missionary in St. Petersburg confessed to me that when a plague visits Africa, his organization begins a fund raising campaign to buy medicine. That's good, right? Not really. You see the medicine is already available for distribution as soon as needed. The mission groups hold onto the medicine until they have money to replace it. Only then do they release the stock pile they had before the plague began. Meanwhile thousands of innocents die waiting for medicine that may not arrive in time to save them. In the end boys and girls its all about the money.
Most Christian organizations do not care about the soul of man. Neither do they accurately count the souls Christ has saved. They care only about selling their books, videos and about reminding us of our duty to pay the religious tax (tithing is not mentioned in the NT at all). The membership rolls are kept inaccurately and the data used to support a lie - that the church is growing. In fact, indications are that the church is shrinking dramatically, but that's a subject for another post.
and that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...
(1)
In the Old Testament, salvation depended upon being a member of the Hebrew people. God appointed a sacrificial procedure involving numerous animals at specific times of the year and for certain events (such as a new birth in the family). Guilt was removed and peace obtained from God through these sacrifices and within this membership. It was a temporary fix to the problem of sin and justification for forgiveness, but it was a covenant between God and humanity nonetheless. The new covenant, in the person of Jesus Christ and through his sacrifice for all upon the cross, made salvation to all a possibility regardless of nationality, language, or church membership. If anyone accepts Christ he or she becomes a member of the spiritual body of Christ - not subject to the rules of secular religious clubs.
(2)
Third party organizations are notorious for bleeding their data base records to those who pay large amounts of money for the priviledge. For example, during the reelection of George W. Bush, the Republican party tried to gain access to a number of these membership records for purposes of targeting election messages. Commercial banks, such as Bank of America, have often been victims (or so we are told) of identity theft of their depositor and creditor figures. If banks, which are far more secure, have problems how much more risky is it for charitable organizations? I NEVER fill out a membership card and NEVER officially join a church. I vote by wallet and express opinion to my pastor directly (instead of doing it all by proxy - elected elders who may never have direct contact with those who've elected them, they only 'administer' the real estate, not the body of Christ).
