By Editor Bob Terry
For American Christians it is hard to believe that China may soon become the largest Christian nation in the world. That role belongs to the United States or has for most of the past century. But while American Christians have thought of themselves as the 600-pound gorilla at the heart of the Christian world, the center of the Christian world has shifted inexorably southward to Africa, Asia and Latin America.
In 2010 estimates varied widely about the number of Christians in China. The Chinese government lowballed the number saying about 23 million of its more than 1 billion people were Christians. Some missions agencies active in the country placed the number between 100 and 123 million.
Pew Research Center landed about in the middle reporting 58 million Protestant Christians and another 9 million Catholic believers for a total of 67 million Christians using a broad definition.
That number in itself is astounding. When missionaries were forced out of China in 1949 the number of Christians stood at less than 1 million. Communist leaders outlawed all religions expecting that over time religious faith would cease to exist. Instead in 2010 there were more Protestant Christians in China than in Brazil (40 million) or South Africa (36 million), Pew found.
Growing number of Christians
By the end of China’s notorious Cultural Revolution, marked by the death of Mao Ze Dong in 1976, Christians numbered more than 3 million by most estimates even though religious faith was illegal and the government actively sought to destroy its every trace. In a 30-year period, the number of Christians had tripled despite being cut off from the rest of the Christian world.
Three years later Christian churches began reopening — first in Shanghai and slowly across the country. Institutions of other religious groups such as Buddhist, Daoist and Islam also reopened.
If Pew’s estimates of Christians in the official and unofficial Christian churches of China are correct (67 million), the growth rate of Christians has been about 10 percent per year since the churches were allowed to reopen in 1979. If one figures the growth rate since 1949, Christians in China have grown at a rate of 7 percent annually. That is significant growth despite periodic persecution from the government.
Fenggang Yang, director of the Center of Religion and Chinese Society at Purdue University in West LaFayette, Indiana, pointed out that if the 7 percent rate continues, then China will have about 160 million Protestant Christians by 2025. That is about the same number of Protestant Christians reported in the United States in 2010 (159 million). But the number of U.S. Protestants is declining, according to all reports, while China’s Protestant Christians continue to grow.
Yang points out that when Protestant and Catholics are combined China will have more than 247 million Christians by 2030, placing it ahead of Mexico, Brazil and the United States as the largest Christian nation in the world.
Projecting the 7 percent growth rate of Christians going forward, Christians could make up 16.1 percent of China’s population by 2030, 32.5 percent by 2040 and 66.7 percent by 2050. That would be a miracle of biblical proportions.
But projections are just that — projections. What really happens could be far different. China’s government is once again escalating persecution of Christians in some quarters. All that is certain is that God continues to do a marvelous work in China.
What is happening in China is just one of the movements that is changing the face of modern-day Christianity. The rapid growth of Christianity in Africa and Latin America is another. Scholars look to what is sometimes called the “Global South” and find what some term the “majority culture.”
This majority culture is void of European or American characteristics. It is a culture of color, a culture of poverty, a culture of persecution. In an article titled “Christianity in Global Context: Trends and Statistics,” by Todd M. Johnson, it was pointed out that by 2050 African, Asian and Latin American Christians will make up 71 percent of the Christian world.
Going in opposite directions
Both Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America rival Europe for the largest number of Christians on their respective continents. According to Pew, Europe still leads with 553 million Christians or 74.5 percent of the population. Sub-Saharan Africa reports 517 million Christians and Latin America reports 531 million.
But the growth of the Christian faith is going in opposite directions in these places. Christianity in Europe is expected to decline by almost 18 percent over the next 35 years — down to 454 million by 2050. Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to double the number of Christians in that time to 1.1 billion believers. If that happens, then Africa will have more Christians than any other continent.
Latin American Christianity is anticipated to grow by 134 million people — according to current trends — giving it 665 million Christians. That would give Latin America the second largest concentration of Christians.
North America will trail the pack if present trends continue. The total number of Christians in North America was set at 266.6 million in 2010. By 2050 that number is expected to be 286.7 million. That is a growth rate of 0.2 percent. Christians may still be the largest religious group on the continent but the number of unaffiliated will have almost doubled.
Interest in spirituality
Pew also noticed a new phenomenon in American religion. Pew found a growing interest in spirituality among church members as well as among those labeled “unaffiliated” — atheists, agnostics and those with no particular interest in organized religion.
Among religiously affiliated people, interest in spirituality jumped 7 percent between 2007 and 2014. Among unaffiliated, concern about spirituality jumped 5 percent. Non-Christian religions did not report a similar increase in spirituality.
Some wonder if the “religiosity” of organized religion has turned people off from participation in church but a growing desire for God is being expressed at the same time.
The most difficult places for the Christian faith are likely to remain the Middle East — North Africa and Asia Pacific. In the Middle East and North Africa, Christians make up less than 4 percent of the population. Muslims account for more than 93 percent of the population.
In Asia Pacific, the dominant religions are Hindu, Islam and Buddhism. Christians are often the target of persecution.
Yet there is no predicting what God will do. Perhaps the Good News of Jesus Christ will again be freely proclaimed in the Middle East and North Africa as it was prior to the Muslim conquests of the sixth century and beyond. Perhaps the inhabitants of Asia Pacific will turn to God as revealed in Jesus as unexpectedly as those living in Communist China have done.
One thing is sure — God desires that all people everywhere have the opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel. Through His Holy Spirit, God makes that happen in the most unexpected ways.
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