By Uri Brito
It appears that God always delights in bringing good news to his children. In whatever season, in whatever phase of human history, God is always actively changing, transforming, re-creating the world by His word. And good news is here. Since the Ascension of our blessed Lord God has taken the few and the humble and transformed them into a multitude. This is the trajectory of the kingdom.
C.Peter Wagner reports that the five gospel hot spots in the world are China, India, Indonesia, Brazil and Nigeria. “Starting with China,” observes Wagner, the largest nation in the world reports “the greatest national harvest of souls ever recorded in history, beginning in 1976. Although figures differ, I personally am comfortable agreeing with those who claim that 10 percent of the population is Christian, which would mean that there are around 140 million Christians in that country.” The numbers are staggering. The fields are being harvested.
KC contributor, Thomas Kidd, pointed me to a Christianity Today article detailing how despite persecution, the Iranian church marches on. Claiming 0.5% of Christians, the church has not given in to the political dark forces. Melissa Stefan observes:
Yet, there are two bright lights for Christians in the otherwise-dark Iranian context: Elam Ministries reported in its Summer 2013 magazine that 246 Iranian Christians were baptized on April 17—”probably the largest baptism service on record in the Iranian church since the fourth century.” In addition, Iran’s underground house churches—where freedom to attend Persian-language worship services is more likely to be found—do appear to be growing.
The Gospel presses on. After darkness, light.
Uri Brito is the Senior Pastor of Providence Church in Pensacola, Fl.<>
C. Peter Wagner is really, um, “out there” in a lot of respects. His moment emphasizes the importance of modern-day apostles and prophets in “these last days”, and argues that churches that don’t have them (such as Catholic, Orthodox, and traditional Protestant churches) are “spiritually dead” or false. He also holds to a “great apostasy”/restorationist view of church history.
This is the same sort of mindset that permeated the American frontier in the 19th century and that gave rise to Mormonism. It does seem as if the hyper-charismatic revivalist movement led by folks such as Wagner has at least the potential to produce more Joseph Smiths if people aren’t careful.
Yes, that is one very pessimistic reading. Or, we could say, that God uses the imperfections (theological ones) to start something that He himself through more faithful pastors will continue. This was Lesslie Newbigin’s view as he entered India.
BTW, is this Adam?