The State of Christianity 2013

Here are answers to six questions we're frequently asked:

(1) How do you view the state of Christianity in the world today?
Answer: Not good. True Christianity is all but dead in Western Europe. It's been virtually wiped out in the the Middle East, throughout much of Asia and Africa, and it's dying a slow death in North America. In Central and South America, much of what purports to be Christianity is Roman Catholicism which is a counterfeit. In Eastern Europe, Orthodox Christianity--which is a spin-off of Roman Catholicism--is making a comeback. If there's any good news, there's a growing underground church in Eastern Europe and Asia, and particularly in China. There are millions of people throughout Eastern Europe and in China that are hungry for the Gospel.

(2) Why is Christianity receding throughout so much of the world?
Answer: Because the church has failed to contend for the faith as the apostle Jude warned the early church to do 2,000 years ago. (Jude 1:3) Now, what does it mean to contend for the faith? It means that you continue to engage the world with the gospel message of Jesus Christ and keep it relevant to the world.

It means that you have to understand what the world believes in--such as evolution--and be prepared to respond with good intelligent answers that debunk Darwin's bogus theory. That's what the late Christian apologist Dave Hunt did. He was as good as anybody at contending for the faith. Conversely, when you fail to contend for the faith, you lose big time. And that explains why the church has lost so much ground in the world since the 19th century.

Contending for the faith also means that you have to possess a strong working knowledge of world religions and their belief systems. They have no truth. They contradict themselves. They're manmade and demonically empowered. For example, the Koran has two different accounts of Allah's creation of the physical universe. One claims that "God" (Allah) created the physical universe in six days, while the other claims he created it in eight days. That's huge. Those are just two examples of many discrepancies that exist in the Koran. But the church does a very poor job of pointing things like that out. Why? Because it doesn't want to offend anyone. Well, that's offensive to God. There are two billion Muslims in the world that need to hear the gospel and they aren't hearing it.

(3) What's the biggest problem with the church in North America?
Answer: It's become compromised with the world and contaminated by culture. You see this throughout many inner-city neighborhoods where churches have abandoned the biblical gospel for the powerless social gospel. These churches have replaced Jesus Christ with the government. In these churches, it's all about government programs and legislation--gun control, hate crimes laws, affirmative action, set asides, quotas etc. No one's responsible for their own behavior anymore. Everyone's a victim. Everyone has a grievance. And the government is looked upon as a messianic figure to solve all the problems and provide all the solutions.

In the suburbs, the church has become temporal and soft. In this venue, Christianity is all about bake sales, potlucks, Christmas celebrations, special events, entertainment, picnics and Easter egg hunts. And the typical suburban North American church is more about physical growth than spiritual growth. They're more interested in bringing in new members so they can reach into their pockets in order to pay their staff and maintain their programs. That's not good. You bring people into the church to save them and disciple them in Jesus Christ rather than to take their money. Certainly, a church needs money to operate. But the main focus of a church is to preach the gospel and expand the heavenly kingdom of Christ rather than to build an earthly kingdom based upon a secular, business model.

(4) What's more dangerous in the world today--Islam or Secular Humanism?
Answer: I would say secular humanism. Why? Because leftists--or humanists--don't believe in God. As such, they don't believe that they're held morally accountable for their actions. They don't believe in life after death and God's subsequent judgment that comes to all immediately after death. That explains why leftists are so mendacious and immoral. They will stop at absolutely nothing to get whatever they want. And if that means committing violence and murder--then they'll do those things. They really believe that the end justifies the means.

Some people continue to try to convince me that President Barack Obama is a Muslim who wants to remake the U.S. into an Islamic nation under Shariah law. That's baloney. Obama is a committed leftist and an atheist. His profession of Christianity is strictly for political purposes. He's not a Christian or a Muslim. I think his actions and his rhetoric accurately define who and what he really is.

And the spread of godless humanism throughout the west is the logical consequence of Christianity's failure to contend for the faith. If the church wants to retake the culture that it lost a long time ago, then it has to begin by making the faith relevant to the world once again. That won't be easy because leftists control the information industries--the media, education, Hollywood--that dispense their propaganda. But the church either has to start contending for the faith once again or it's all over. And it may already be too late.

(5) What's the gravest problem within Christianity today?
Answer: The lack of biblical wisdom. Too many Christians don't read the Bible anymore. They don't understand it. They don't know what it says. They treat the Bible as if it's an outdated relic. The Bible is the moral backbone and foundation of our faith. It's a living document. It contains God's commandments, moral laws, prophecy and the great history of the Jewish people, the nation of Israel, the early church and so much more.

There is no Christianity without the Bible. Too many Christians today are following a counterfeit form of Christianity based upon religious experiences. And that's extremely dangerous. Experiences are based upon the physical senses rather than upon the historical, ironclad truth of God's revealed word in scripture. Experience is the realm where Satan thrives.

People have become enthralled with the supernatural. But how can you determine whether something's from God if you don't have the ability to test it? And if you're biblically ignorant, you can't test it. You get drawn away into spiritual deception. And I know people like this. They're always reading books written by someone who claims to have received some new revelation from heaven or they're watching the latest hotshot TV preacher who claims to possess the ability to perform miracles. But these people almost never read the Bible. And when they try to, they can't understand it because they spend so little time studying and learning it.

(6) Are we living in prophetic times?
Answer: Indeed we are. We're seeing the complete breakdown of civility and morality in the western world. We're seeing the disintegration of the nuclear family. Divorce is skyrocketing; suicides are on the rise and sexual perversion is rampant. This is a fulfillment of the apostle Paul's prophecy he revealed 2,000 years ago. (2 Timothy 3:1-5) Many people no longer believe in absolute truth. They've become increasingly narcissistic, apathetic and nihilistic. They live in a state of permanent adolescence. They live for themselves and the moment. They live for pleasure, money, sex, food, entertainment and little else.

We're seeing a global shift in power from the west to the east. Russia, China and India are on the rise while the U.S. and much of western Europe are fading. This is a fulfillment of Daniel 11 that was recorded 2,600 years ago.

And we're moving steadily toward a global government along with a new global monetary system. When is this going to happen? We don't know, but it will probably happen within the next 50 years.