Is The World Getting Worse?

“Islam used to represent, as you previously mentioned, Africa’s main religion and there were 30 African languages that used to be written in Arabic script.The number of Muslims in Africa has diminished to 316 million, half of whom are Arabs in North Africa. So in the section of Africa that we are talking about, the non Arab section, the number of Muslims does not exceed 150 million people. When we realize that the entire population of Africa is one billion people, we see that the number of Muslims has diminished greatly from what it was in the beginning of the last century. On the other hand, the number of Catholics [He means Christians in general] has increased from one million in 1902 to 329 million 882 thousand (329,882,000). Let us round off that number to 330 million in the year 2000. As to how that happened, well, there are now 1.5 million churches whose congregations account for 46 million people. In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity. Everyday, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Ever year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity. These numbers are very large indeed.”^[24] 

Stunned, the interviewer interrupted the cleric. “Hold on! Let me clarify. Do we have six million converting from Islam to Christianity?” Al Qataani repeated his assertion. “Every year,” the cleric confirmed, adding, “a tragedy has happened.”^[25] 

While the expansion of Christianity in Islamic countries is modest compared to its growth in other regions, the Church is still making significant headway in a realm of deep opposition. Even the “10-40 window” is encountering the light of the gospel in an unparalleled manner.

There is little doubt that the Church is rapidly advancing around the globe. With the unfortunate exceptions of the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, and a few other isolated places, Christianity is actually outpacing population growth everywhere. Consider the following chart that was created from the data that has been compiled by “Operation World:”

There’s a tendency among American Christians to gravitate toward the “bad news,” but that typical outlook is grossly ill-informed. God is actually up to something incredible in our time. We might even catch a glimpse of it – if we took the time to look.

Conclusion

I’m aware that many don’t believe it, but unbiased analysis and a multitude of relevant statistics confirm that the world is actually getting better. There is greater prosperity, peace, and health than ever before in recorded history. The Kingdom of God is boldly advancing and it’s transforming everything in its wake.

I wish that many of many of my fellow Christians would gain a better grasp of what is going on in the nations. We need to let go of our pessimistic, “doom and gloom” worldviews and truly embrace the good news of the gospel. Jesus is on the move and He is bringing His blessing and life to a world that has been ravaged by darkness.

What is now transpiring in the nations really shouldn’t surprise any Bible-believing Christian. It’s something that the Prophet Isaiah told us centuries ago:

“The government will be upon his shoulder, and his name is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the growth of his government and peace there will be no end. He will rule over his kingdom, sitting on the throne of David, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time onward and forevermore” (Isaiah 9:6b-7a).