Projected Cumulative change in Christianity

[Jeffwhosoever]

One of the basic precepts of Postmillenialism is that the world will become more and more Christian, until it reaches some point where it is sufficiently dominant for the Lord to return. I did some background research to see if the global community was becoming more Christian, and I found this study that disputes that idea fully. What data do preterists have to support their view that Christianity is taking over?

Projected Cumulative Change Due to Religious Switching, 2010-2050

 

[Servant78]

Paul said there Will be falling away/apostate church before the man of sin is revealed.

There may be many churches but apostate churches before antichrist rule.

 

[Jeffwhosoever]

I also see a lot more wars and rumors of wars, but only in the last 100 years has man been capable of destroying the entire planet multiple times over with nuclear weapons. And if that wasn't enough, we now have bio-weapons such as China leaked out of their labs and still have chemical weapons like Assad used on his own people as recently as 5 years ago. Between WWI and WWII, there was sufferring and destruction on an unpredented scale that make the AD70 war seem mild compared to the torture of modern warfare, and that is without using any NBC weapons. We are even past that with high power microwave flying peoples brains and lasers and other more diabolical electromagnetic weapons. Einstein said he didn't know how WWIII would be fought, but he did know how WW4 would be fought. With sticks and stones. But we all know Einstein while a super-genius and I think ultimate a Deist, never came to believe in a personal savior. A lot of today's top scientists named artificial intelligence (think Terminator 3) to be the existential threat to humans, so the list of ways to kill people just keeps growing. It just seems that the data support a coming nightmare unlike anything the world has ever faced, and without the Lord's intervention, no life would remain.

 

[Jeffwhosoever]

Note this thread is a request for data to support an eschatological point of view. It is evidentiary and quantitative by nature. The simple question is what data supports the belief that the world is seeing a world that is increasingly Christian, is in a static state of no change, or does the data show a decline consistent with a Futurist point of view.

Please stick to the OP and present data that support your view of prophecy, either as Futurist, Preterist, Idealist, or Historicist, or as Premillennial, Postmillennial, or Amilllenial. This is an evidentiary data-centered thread, not a deep analysis or debate of Scripture, but answers the question, what data supports your view? All views are open here, not merely Futurists.

 

[chevyontheriver]

One of the basic precepts of Postmillenialism is that the world will become more and more Christian, until it reaches some point where it is sufficiently dominant for the Lord to return. I did some background research to see if the global community was becoming more Christian, and I found this study that disputes that idea fully. What data do preterists have to support their view that Christianity is taking over?

Projected Cumulative Change Due to Religious Switching, 2010-2050

I have a question about the data. For the purposes of this study, who is defined as a Christian and who is no? I’m not asking who you think qualifies as Christian but what this study defined as Christian.

 

[Maria Billingsley]

One of the basic precepts of Postmillenialism is that the world will become more and more Christian, until it reaches some point where it is sufficiently dominant for the Lord to return. I did some background research to see if the global community was becoming more Christian, and I found this study that disputes that idea fully. What data do preterists have to support their view that Christianity is taking over?

Projected Cumulative Change Due to Religious Switching, 2010-2050

I don't think this is a Preterist view. But if it is, I am curious where to find scriptural support for it as well.
Blessings

EDIT: On second thought, if you are asking the Preterist view on the spreading of the Gospel, the destruction of Jerusalem occurred 40 years after Christ. It would be supposed that was sufficient time for the Good News to take hold and it certainly did.

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

It just seems that the data support a coming nightmare unlike anything the world has ever faced, and without the Lord's intervention, no life would remain.

Exactly! For it is already written
Matt. 24: 21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

 

[Jeffwhosoever]

It sure seems that what we see now is a setup for a coming tribulation like the world has never seen. Russia is now shooting at Israeli aircraft. China is preparing to invade Taiwan, which will cause the US to enter the war, North Korea is threatening their region and even the US with a nuclear attack, Iran is 90% of the way to having nuclear bombs, and Russia is slaughtering mass civilians in Ukraine and committing atrocities just like Hitler did in WW2. Food costs are increasing rapidly and we may be on the verge of worldwide famine due to the war in Ukraine and other things man has done such as contributing to global warming and the creation of biological weapons causing pandemics. Watch this video and see that mankind is not growing more and more Christlike. If the Devil is allegedly bound, I'd sure hate to see him unbound. It just seems that the preponderance of data shows the world is darkening in preparation for the fulfillment of the prophecies of Revelation, the Olivet Discourse, Daniel, and basically the entire Bible. The data support a worsening world, not a world coming into the light of Christ. A growing number of people I've run into think we may already be in tribulation, but my study of Revelation suggests these are just "birth pains" because the events of Revelation are so horrible and destructive (100% of plants destroyed, 100% of sea life destroyed, 100 poundhail) that have not possibly ever occurred. And its not just Christians who believe the end is near. Muslims think that the number of major earthquakes per year has been increasing exponentially for nearly 1000 years and that is a sign the end is near.

But this is an open invitation for Postmillennialists and Amillennialists to present their data supporting their view of how humans are regarding Christlikeness consistent with their views.

 

[Jeffwhosoever]

I don't think this is a Preterist view. But if it is, I am curious where to find scriptural support for it as well.
Blessings

EDIT: On second thought, if you are asking the Preterist view on the spreading of the Gospel, the destruction of Jerusalem occurred 40 years after Christ. It would be supposed that was sufficient time for the Good News to take hold and it certainly did.

I'll cite one of the most famous Preterists, Dr. Kenneth Gentry in the book "Three Views on the Millenium and Beyond:

"Postmillennialism expects the proclaiming of the Spirit-Blessed gospel of Jesus Christ to win the vast majority of human beings to salvation in the present age. Increasing gospel success will gradually produce a time in history prior to Christ's return in which faith, righteousness, peace, and prosperity will prevail in the affairs of people and of nations. After an extensive ear of such conditions the Lord will return visibly, bodily, and in great glory, ending history with the general resurrection and great judgment of all humankind"

This isn't the rapid spread of Christianity that occurred around 100 AD to 400 AD, but the spread to all nations where the "vast majority" become Christian. I recall reading that during the attack on Jerusalem in AD 70, there were around 20,000 Christians in Jerusalem who escaped the destruction.

 

[Jeffwhosoever]

I have a question about the data. For the purposes of this study, who is defined as a Christian and who is no? I’m not asking who you think qualifies as Christian but what this study defined as Christian.

A lot of polls I have seen ask the question what is the majority faith of a nation, then they count an entire nation as either Muslim, Hindu, or Christian, which artificially inflates the number of Christias worldwide. But I'd expect this study was based on a survey poll that just asked people what faith they are. No doubt a lot of people who claim to be Christians aren't truly saved, so even survey polls overestimate the number of Christians (and Muslim and Hindus) because we know at least in the US and Europe that Secular Humanism has been growing and the growing trend is the "unaffiliated" with any faith. Also, when someone surveys the US, you have to also understand that Christianity would like members of the Mormon church and Jehovah Witnesses, and maybe even some portion of the Universal Unitarians.