World Christianity

When one hears of a Third World country, I think most of us know what is meant: namely, a poorer country in Asia, Africa or Latin America. Usually not "rich" and not in North America or Europe or Russia.

But did you know where the term originated? I didn't. Apparently, it was coined in the 1950s when there was the direct opposition of the "Capitalist West" (America and Western Europe) and the "Communist East" (Soviet Union and eastern Europe). These were ostensibly the "First World" and "Second World" countries, so when one spoke of the other, poorer countries in the world, the term "Third World" was used.

Fascinating. However, even more fascinating is the rapidly changing landscape of our world. It goes without saying that these old distinctions are quickly fading, not only economically, but also when it comes to Christianity.

I just started my fourth class in my Master's degree work this week. The class is World Christianity. I think it's going to be an eye-opening experience for me. I hold no illusions about who I am and what my Christian experience is . . . I am most definitely an American Christian with little to no knowledge of Christianity around the world. I believe this class will seek to change this.

Here are just a few quick stats I learned today that are already challenging my views of Christianity. In 2005, there were 2.1 billion Christians in the world (with a world population of almost 6.5 billion). So about one-third of the world's population is Christian. Here was the regional breakdown in 2005:

# of Christians Region

531 million Europe

511 million Latin America
389 million Africa
344 million Asia
226 million North America

And these numbers are drastically changing. If we track ahead to 2025, here are the estimated numbers:

# of Christians Region
634 million Latin America
627 million Africa
537 million Europe
475 million Asia
246 million North America

In 2025, over half of the Christians in the world will live in Latin America and Africa. Check out this website for more stats. And consider Christianity from a worldwide perspective.

http://www.gcts.edu/lifelong_learners/globalchristianity

Implications of “Our Perfect World”

In my previous blog entry, I offered a possible scenario to explain why we live in the world we do.  God’s desire to share in a love relationship with His creatures necessitates that those creatures have the free will to choose to love Him.  Therefore, our world is one where evil and hate is just as possible as goodness and love.  But what does this mean for our every day lives?  Here is one example:

A few weeks ago, a Christian woman wrote to me concerning her husband’s salvation—as of yet, he has not accepted Jesus as his Savior and Lord.  She had read a few passages of Scripture about how God answers prayer and she wondered why God had not answered her nearly 30-year prayer for her husband’s salvation.  Specifically, the passages she mentioned were Matthew 21:22 which says, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer,” and John 15:7, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.”  These are both promises of Jesus—could it be that Jesus is refusing to answer her prayer?  Or could it be that there is something else intervening—something, as strange as it sounds, of greater importance than answering her prayer?

Whenever we pray concerning someone else's behavior and/or salvation, we must always keep in mind that that person has their own free will, just like we do.  When God created mankind "in His image," He gave us all the power to make our own choices.  God wants us to truly love Him—but in order for that to be possible—in order for us to truly have a choice to love Him—there must be the real choice to reject Him.  And unfortunately, this is exactly what some people choose to do.

What this means is that, while our prayers are important and powerful, God will not "override" another person’s free will in order to save him or her.  That's just not the way God works.  And when we think about it, it makes sense—if God "made" people love Him and choose Him, that's not truly a real choice, is it?  So our prayers are important, but if they seem to be going unanswered, it's not God's "fault."  He's not "not answering" our prayers.

In fact, understand that God wants our loved ones to come to salvation probably even more than we do!  2 Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."  Again in 1 Timothy 2:3-4 the Bible says, "This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth."

You see, God is working right along side of us do all He can to invite our loved ones into a saving knowledge of His Son, Jesus Christ.  But God is not going to "force" anyone into it—they will each have to come to that decision themselves.  That way, it'll be their free choice to love God and accept the Lordship of Jesus over their life.

How does this idea fit with the two promises of Jesus mentioned above?  On the surface, not very easily!   But actually, if we think about it, we can see how the free will choice that all people have "trumps" what Jesus is saying in these statements.  It's as if Jesus is saying to us, "If you believe in the things I believe in, if you desire the things I desire, if you understand things the way I understand them—then your prayers will mirror my [Jesus'] heart."  When we understand things more fully, our prayers will more closely match the heart of God.

Am I saying that we shouldn't pray for the salvation of our loved ones?  Of course not.  But I am encouraging us not to get disappointed in God when those prayers remain, at the present time, unanswered.  We must believe with all our heart that God desires all people to be saved and is doing all He can (short of brute force) to bring about their salvation.

So if our prayers for salvation are contingent upon other’s free will, then how should we pray?  Of course we should continue to pray directly for their salvation (see Romans 10:1).  However, I would encourage everyone to consider “expanding” their prayers to include the following:

1) Pray for opportunities to share your faith in Jesus with your loved ones in ways that won't turn them off.

2) Pray that God would raise up other Christians in their lives to serve as a proper example of a Christian lifestyle.

3) Pray that God would bring about circumstances in the life of your loved ones that would challenge them to look outside of themselves for strength, courage, and answers.  (Be prepared for this one!)

4) Pray that God's Holy Spirit would work upon your loved ones’ hearts to soften them toward simply coming to church.  Here again, God won't "force" them to come, but I don't believe the Holy Spirit is beyond some "firm nudging."

There are probably many other creative ways to pray for the salvation of others that are more than a simple, "God, please save him" or “God, please save her.”  Unfortunately, that particular prayer is one that God cannot directly answer.  Why?  Because it requires more than just God's will, it requires our loved one’s will as well.  So we should think of ways to pray that only require God's will—like the things mentioned above.  That way, we’ll know that God is answering our prayers because He's working just as hard as we are to encourage our loved ones toward salvation.  And maybe we’ll start really seeing some answers—like a new co-worker who is a good Christian friend; or maybe an “out-of-nowhere” conversation about God you never thought you'd have.  Those types of prayers being answered will be encouraging.

For all of you continuing in prayer for your lost loved ones, I join you in your prayers and I sincerely hope that they will one day surrender their lives to Jesus.  Until that day comes, I hope and pray that you will never give up on them, or on God.  But if, God forbid, that day never comes, I also hope and pray that you can rest at peace in the knowledge that you did and said and prayed everything you could do and say and pray.  I hope that you can understand that, ultimately, the choice was up to your loved one—not a God who simply did not want to answer your prayers.

Our Perfect World

We live in a perfect world. You heard me right, a perfect world. One definition of perfect is “having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics.” If that is a definition of perfect, then it can be said that we live in a perfect world.

Simply stated, our world is the perfect world for achieving its desired result: what we call "heaven."  What do I mean? As foreign as it might be, try to think about God’s position before the creation of our world. He was in perfect fellowship with Himself—“God is love” (1 John 4:16) is a reflection of the Trinity. Love requires more than one person—God as three Persons of one essence, while beyond our ability to fully understand, helps us to understand a little how God can exist for eternity as love.

God in His wisdom decided He wanted to share in this love relationship with other creatures. As He thought about this, He knew that the best possible world was what we call heaven—that is, a place where He would live in perfect communion with creatures who truly love Him. But this presented a quandary—to simply create such a place filled with loving creatures could not genuinely fulfill His plan. Creatures created to “love” with no real choice to do otherwise can not be said to actually “love.” True, authentic love requires a real choice to not love—it requires the choice to reject.

Enter our present world. God created our world as the best possible way to get to the best possible of worlds—heaven. The world in which we live was created to give free-will creatures a place to make and live out our choices—including the primary choice to love God and accept Jesus or to reject God and reject Jesus. This purpose is the principal reason our world exists. Our world gives people an arena to work out salvation—a place to “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15).

So in this sense, our world is a perfect world. Our world has all the qualities necessary to achieve its desired result. Once this world comes to an end, God will have achieved His ultimate goal, heaven—or more accurately, a "new heaven and a new earth."  Heaven—a world where all the creatures living there truly and authentically love Him. A world where free-will and choice have resulted in the perfect relationship between the Creator and His creation. A new heaven and a new earth—a place where the eternal love shared by the Trinity is expanded to include all those who have chosen to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  A world that satisfies the ultimate desire of God.