{"id":581,"date":"2011-01-05T12:29:44","date_gmt":"2011-01-05T12:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/prayerplainandsimple\/2011\/01\/is-christianity-taking-over-the-world.html"},"modified":"2011-01-05T12:29:44","modified_gmt":"2011-01-05T12:29:44","slug":"is-christianity-taking-over-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2011\/01\/is-christianity-taking-over-the-world.html","title":{"rendered":"Is Christianity Taking Over the World?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christianity is now the fastest-growing religion on Earth. Many reports suggest that Islam has seen the greatest growth but recent evidence suggests a new – actually an original<\/i><\/b> form of biblically inspired evangelical Christianity is sweeping the world. China, Africa, India and Southeast Asia are now so markedly Christian that it is by far, the fastest growing faith on the planet. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

In his book, <\/span>“Megashift,”<\/span><\/font><\/a> Jim Rutz says “The growing core of Christianity crosses theological lines and includes 707 million born-again people who are increasing by 8 percent a year,” he says. This group is growing so fast that, under current trends, according to Rutz, the entire world will be composed of such believers by the year 2032. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

“There will be pockets of resistance and unforeseen breakthroughs,” writes Rutz. “Still, at the rate we’re growing now, to be comically precise, there would be more Christians than people by the autumn of 2032, about 8.2 billion.” <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

These new sold-out disciples are often overlooked by analysts because most surveys look only at traditional Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church, which are statistically stagnant. Now hundreds of millions of Christians are simply not associated with the institutional churches at all. They meet in homes and are knit in informal networks. They often meet secretly, much as the first church in the first century gathered… and grew explosively. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

And what is driving this movement? Miracles, says Rutz. He and other researches have documented clear cases of dramatic healings – blind eyes, deaf ears and paralyzed legs restored, amputated limbs regrown, even hundreds of cases of resurrections – not near-death experiences, but resurrections of actual corpses. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

The Biblical book of Acts relays that 3,000 people became Christ-followers on the Day of Pentecost. Now that happens around the globe every 25 minutes. “By tomorrow,” writes Rutz, “there will be 175,000 more Christians than there are today.”  <\/span><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

“Very few people realize the nature of life on Earth is going through a major change,” he writes. “We are seeing a megashift in the basic direction of human history. Until our time, the ancient war between good and evil was hardly better than a stalemate. Now all has changed. The Creator whose epic story flows through the pages of Scripture has begun to dissolve the strongholds of evil. This new drama is being played out every hour around the globe, accompanied sometimes by mind-bending miracles.” <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

“God, we pray for the dramatic growth of Christianity around the world. Protect these believers in dangerous places. Bring them solid and wise leaders. May the message of your hope continue to expand! In Jesus!” <\/strong><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christianity is now the fastest-growing religion on Earth. Many reports suggest that Islam has seen the greatest growth but recent evidence suggests a new – actually an original form of biblically inspired evangelical Christianity is sweeping the world. China, Africa, India and Southeast Asia are now so markedly Christian that it is by far, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity"],"yoast_head":"\nIs Christianity Taking Over the World?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2011\/01\/is-christianity-taking-over-the-world.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Christianity Taking Over the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Christianity is now the fastest-growing religion on Earth. Many reports suggest that Islam has seen the greatest growth but recent evidence suggests a new – actually an original form of biblically inspired evangelical Christianity is sweeping the world. China, Africa, India and Southeast Asia are now so markedly Christian that it is by far, the…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2011\/01\/is-christianity-taking-over-the-world.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prayer, Plain and Simple\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-01-05T12:29:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Herringshaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is Christianity Taking Over the World?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2011\/01\/is-christianity-taking-over-the-world.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is Christianity Taking Over the World?","og_description":"Christianity is now the fastest-growing religion on Earth. Many reports suggest that Islam has seen the greatest growth but recent evidence suggests a new – actually an original form of biblically inspired evangelical Christianity is sweeping the world. China, Africa, India and Southeast Asia are now so markedly Christian that it is by far, the…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2011\/01\/is-christianity-taking-over-the-world.html","og_site_name":"Prayer, Plain and Simple","article_published_time":"2011-01-05T12:29:44+00:00","author":"Mark Herringshaw","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2011\/01\/is-christianity-taking-over-the-world.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2011\/01\/is-christianity-taking-over-the-world.html","name":"Is Christianity Taking Over the World?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-01-05T12:29:44+00:00","dateModified":"2011-01-05T12:29:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/e51fa8f80737818cd4c3350772b30948"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2011\/01\/is-christianity-taking-over-the-world.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2011\/01\/is-christianity-taking-over-the-world.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2011\/01\/is-christianity-taking-over-the-world.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is Christianity Taking Over the World?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/","name":"Prayer, Plain and Simple","description":"Prayer, Daily Prayer, Simple Prayers, Quick Prayers, Prayer Requests","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/e51fa8f80737818cd4c3350772b30948","name":"Mark Herringshaw","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b8e\/b8e027f03bf8fd532b692d0c68d2744ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b8e\/b8e027f03bf8fd532b692d0c68d2744ex96.jpg","caption":"Mark Herringshaw"},"description":"Mark Herringshaw is writer, speaker, spiritual life coach and pastor at North Heights Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the author of \"Six Prayers God Always Answers: Results May Vary,\" and \"Nine Ways God Always Speaks: Only Available in Certain States,\" both co-written with Jennifer Schuchmann. His third book is \"The Karma of Jesus.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mark is a native of Santa Cruz, California. He has studied at Azusa Pacific University, The Academy of Performing Arts, Cambridge, Ontario, and Luther Seminary. He holds a Ph.D. from Regent University. Mark and his wife Jill have four children. His true passion is walking with people in the exciting adventure of communicating with God.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/author\/mherringshaw"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}