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We in America have a limited perspective. We assume that because the U.S. has been becoming more secular for the last few generations, that the entire world is becoming more secular as well. But Christianity is growing in places like Africa and China. We in America think that people in other countries are not as knowledgeable and sophisticated as we Americans are (even though for years Americans have been scoring behind 20 or 30 other nations in academic test scores). Because we are all victims of educational malpractice, we do not understand how the earth is being filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Jay Wile writes (An Interesting Observation from China | Proslogion):
Recently, I read an article by Dr. Paul Copan entitled, “Jesus-Shaped Cultures.”1 In that article, he makes the case for how faithful Christians have transformed the societies they have served. For example, he discusses the Ethiopian famine that took place in 1984 and 1985. Brian Stewart, a CBC journalist, noted that it was Christians who were on the front lines of the famine, giving aid to the suffering. Their service was such a powerful witness to him that it started him on his journey to becoming a Christian himself.
While Copan’s article is interesting, it led me to a book that I thought was even more interesting. It is entitled Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is Transforming China And Changing the Global Balance of Power, and it is written by David Aikman, who served as a journalist for Time Magazine from 1971 to 1994. In his role as a Time correspondent, he visited China several times and even lived in China for two years as Time’s bureau chief. He returned to China in 2002 to gather the information he needed to complete his book.
He begins the book in a dramatic way. It is worth quoting at length:2
The eighteen American tourists visiting China weren’t expecting much from the evening’s lecture. They were already exhausted from a day of touring in Beijing. But what the speaker had to say astonished them.
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“One of the things we were asked to look into was what accounted for the success, in fact, the pre-eminence of the West all over the world,” he said. “We studied everything we could from the historical, political, economic, and cultural perspective. At first, we thought it was because you had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next, we focused on your economic system. But in the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity. That is why the West has been so powerful. The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics. We don’t have any doubt about this.”
This was not coming from some ultra-conservative think tank in Orange County, California or from Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. This was a scholar from China’s premier academic research institute, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing in 2002. (emphasis mine)
In his book, Aikman suggests that Christianity will transform China to the point where it won’t even be communist anymore. He suggests that in the next thirty years, nearly one-third of China could be Christian, making it one of the largest Christian nations in the world and a strong ally of the U.S.
2. David Aikman, Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is Transforming China And Changing the Global Balance of Power, pp. 5-6
See also: The Iona Institute | Christianity the reason for West's success, say the Chinese
In asking whether Habakkuk's prophecy has been or is being fulfilled, and whether the knowledge of God covers the earth as the waters cover the sea, don't ask those who should admit that they know the Lord; ask the Scriptures whether they ought to admit it. Sometimes they won't, but many times they will. Truth is truth, whether we admit it or not.
Today, the Chinese are "streaming" to Zion (Micah 4:1-2). So are people in Latin America, Africa, and even India, according to Philip Jenkins. Humanity has been flowing to Zion for 2,000 years, but the rate may be accelerating. This phenomenon is not yet on the radar of archists. It will dramatically increase when Christians become widely recognized as a Dispute Resolution Forum. It will exsanguinate the State by doing so.
If you don't believe that Jesus is the Christ, and if you don't believe that the knowledge of the Lord is covering the earth as the waters cover the sea, then let's assume that all of the sudden, Habakkuk's prophecy is fulfilled "outright." Do you believe that the atheistic mainstream secular media would report it? Of course they wouldn't. You have to go to alternative media to learn the truth about the reign of Jesus the Christ.
THOUSANDS of Muslims are turning away from their religion and embracing Christianity amid ongoing violence in the Middle East, it has been claimed. Churches across Europe and the Middle East have reported a rise in attendance, mostly coming from new Muslims moving into the area. They have already seen thousands of Muslims converts – and some are expecting to see millions turn to Christianity over the coming years. Voice Of the Martyrs Canada (VOMC) said that despite millions of people – mainly Muslims – fleeing the war-torn Middle East due to violence and persecution there are scores turning to Christianity.
In Iran Christian churches are attacked with impunity and shut down by the nation’s Islamic government, mission group Elam Ministries said. The mission group stated that the number of Christians in the country have been growing despite the problems back home. Matthias Linke, a priest from the Evangelical-Freikirchlichen Gemeinde, in Berlin, said: “A lot of them come to Germany and think, here I can choose my religion and I want to choose a religion of freedom. For many Iranians that I’ve baptized, Christianity is the religion of freedom.” Across Europe a similar situation is being reported by churches and ministers. Trinity church in the Berlin suburb of Steglitz, has seen the congregation explode from 150 to 700 thanks to Muslim converts. One Iranian convert, named only as Johannes, said: “I found that the history of Islam was completely different from what we were taught at school. Maybe, I thought, it was a religion that began with violence.” The 32-year-old added: “A religion that began with violence cannot lead people to freedom and love. Jesus Christ said ‘those who use the sword will die by the sword.’ This really changed my mind.”
The "heresy" of "anarcho-preterism" ensures two things: First, people like you will begin working to ensure that all messianic prophecies will be fulfilled. They will not wait around for a Second Coming of a messiah who will look like king Solomon on a throne in Jerusalem. Second, the fulfillment of these prophecies, and the extension of the reign of Jesus the Christ, does not depend on the sword. We should beat swords into plowshares.