24/08/2024
From my most recent book. I take three of the most well-known authors on the changing world order. Dalio, Huntington and Dugin -- bring their data up to date -- and analyze and critique each view from a biblical perspective. This is from Huntington's section on "The Revenge of God."
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The Clash of Civilizations does in fact deal a lot with Christianity along with other world religions. Huntington indeed recognizes significant differences between Muslim sects. He sees Islam as a growing mainstream religion, with only a small percentage gravitating toward radical jihadism. Huntington writes of the fact that there is an “unsecularization of the world,” which has been going on since the mid-20th century and has been increasing with vengeance “from Albania to Vietnam” (96).
Huntington begins this section by quoting one visitor to Russia in 1993.
"The sound of church bells once again fills the air. Newly gilded cupolas gleam in the sun. Churches only recently in ruins reverberate again with magnificent song. Churches are the busiest place in town."
Huntington mentions that the number of churches in the Moscow area grew from 50 in 1988 to 250 in 1993. By 2024, there were more than 900 churches and more than 40 Christian denominations in Moscow. The Russian Orthodox Church now has 320 parishes. The number of evangelicals Christians in the world was growing dramatically in 1996, but have only continued to explode into a World Awakening in the 21st century. I have updated a few of Huntington’s statistics because they are dwarfed by what is happening today.
* South Korea, a traditionally Buddhist country prior to 1950, had a Christian population numbering no more than three percent. By 2024, South Korea had a 31 percent Christian population.
* Christianity has grown faster in China than anywhere else in the world. Daryl Ireland, a Boston University School of Theology research assistant professor of missions, estimates that the Christian community has grown from about 1 million to 100 million since the 1980s.
* The number of evangelical Protestants in Catholic Latin America increased from roughly seven million in 1960 to about 50 million in the 1990s at the time of Huntington’s research. By 2024, about 19 percent of Latin Americans identify as evangelical – or 126 million – which is much larger than the evangelical population of traditionally Protestant United States and Canada.
* According to a study, which was conducted by CID Gallup – a Costa Rican-based institute with branches all over Central America – the proportion of evangelicals is now larger in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador than the share of Catholics (with 44, 43, and 40 percent evangelicals respectively, against 36, 41, and 38 percent Catholics). In Nicaragua, the proportion of evangelicals (38 percent) and Catholics (41 percent) is almost the same. In Panama and Costa Rica, the difference between Catholics and evangelicals is still larger than 20 points, but there is an equal trend of Catholic decline and evangelical growth.
* South American countries with a large number of evangelicals include Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia.
* In Brazil, experts have predicted that evangelicals will outnumber Catholics by 2032. The revival of Christianity has had a dramatic impact on the culture and politics of the country. For example, Jair Bolsonaro, a Christian with ties to both Pentecostals and conservative Catholics, was able to oust a long entrenched and corrupt socialist government by building a political coalition between the two groups. Although Bolsonaro lost the next election amid claims of voter fraud, and was effectively barred by the socialists from running again, the coalition he built changed the national government and promises to be influential for years to come in Brazil.
* Formerly atheistic Russia has the largest number of evangelicals in Europe. Ukraine has the largest number of evangelicals per capita. Between 1991 and 2008, the share of Russian adults identifying as Orthodox Christian rose from 31 percent to 72 percent. Ukraine’s population has 81.9 percent who identify as Christian, most belonging to a branch of the Orthodox Church.
* Africa is home to over 685 million Christians. Africans exult in the fact that although the awakening of Christianity is not a “white man’s religion.” but has its roots in ancient African culture. A strong base for Christianity was established in Alexandria, Egypt, in the first century. Eusebius even wrote that the Gospel writer, Mark, came to Alexandria as early as AD 43. In 330, King Ezana of Ethiopia declared Christianity its national religion. Ethiopia is one of the world’s oldest continuous Christian civilizations.
Christianity is the most widely practiced religion in the world – one-third of the global population. In 2023, it was reported: “There will be over 2.6 billion Christians worldwide by the middle of 2023 and around 3.3 billion by 2050, according to a report published in early January by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary.”
Although Christianity declined in Western Europe during the past century, 61 of the world’s 195 countries have large and growing Christian populations of over 80 percent – most of these are in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the South Pacific Islands. The United States has the largest Christian population in the world, but not the highest percentage of Christians per capita. In fact, the U.S. is about 71 percent Christian according to the US State Department ranks in 85th place worldwide.
There will be over 2.6 billion Christians worldwide by the middle of 2023 and around 3.3 billion by 2050, according to a report published in early January by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary.