As 2017 approaches its end, and as the summer holidays wind down and make way for another Christmas season of faith and family traditions and commerce, also reaching its end is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s inimitable contribution to the perpetually evolving Christian religion. Since the day he affixed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany, Christianity began an era of unprecedented change that continues to this day and as the anniversary of the Reformation concludes with the arrival of the New Year the faith is confronted by a multitude of challenges within the organized arms of the various denominations and from the world and humanity itself. Humans, God, and all creatures face global issues never dreamed of and the reality of potential destruction to our faith, to humankind, to the earth, is quite real, quite quite possible, quite probable. We approach a world with climate change, the rise of Islam, artificial intelligence, robotics, medical breakthroughs extending the human lifespan, rapidly advancing technology, exponential growth of the human population, and great extinctions of animals and plants. These will all contribute to monumental shifts in our societies and cultures. How will humans and our constantly expanding intelligence grapple with deepening skepticism about God and religion and continue to adapt to approaching challenges and simultaneously maintain a solid foundation of faith? How will the church evolve over the next 500 years? Will there be a Christian church by 2517? What’s next? Beginning in January, 2018, the culture of the Christian God faces many ongoing and new global challenges. Among those mentioned, the rise of women in the church as priests and ministers and their desire for positions of leadership and power are here to stay. It is safe to assume that in the coming years the face of the church’s hierarchy will be both masculine and feminine. Women are on the rise in every sector of life; the church is not immune to their demands for equality. The Roman Catholic church, for women the untouchable wing of God, is also not immune to the advancement of women and though Catholics say never when it comes to female priests or bishops or cardinals, heaven forbid a woman pope, we can all attest to the iron perseverance and ability to accomplish the inconceivable by women with a goal for all things equal. Saying never in this case is sort of like saying a man would never land on the moon. The concept of married male priests is also on the table and in the near future, as more and more priests are captured in compromising sexual situations, the call for the removal of celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church will make increasing sense. Even Pope Francis does not rule out the possibility and claims, instead, the idea requires more “study.” Which is just another way of saying, "Not on my watch," but over the next 500 years there will be plenty of, "watches." How will the implementation of a policy to allow priests to marry, perhaps have families, impact the growth of the Catholic Church? Will such a new direction impeded the stability of other denominations? Declining church attendance, falling numbers in active, registered members of all denominations and the empty seats in schools of divinity is a serious wave of concern for a religion boasting to be the largest and most influential faith organization on the planet. If predictions of Muslim population growth are accurate, for the first time in its history, Christianity faces the possibility of forfeiting its claim as the world’s greatest, most populated religion. By the year 2060 it is expected that Islam will have replaced Christianity as the dominant global faith and that would present a vast array of contentious issues for society to resolve: the adoption of Sharia Law is just one of them. Don’t even mention the threats to equal rights gains by women in the west. What would happen if the position of supremacy enjoyed by Christianity for over two thousand years were to change? More importantly, what would happen to humanity if that position of influence and leadership were to be reduced or replaced? The world is in the early stages of what could be, perhaps, an apocalyptic clash of civilizations as the so called radical world of Islam continues its reign of terror and its determination to eradicate or reduce the influence of Christians on earth. At the very least, earth faces many more decades of senseless terrorism and violence and war. Add to this thought the acquisition of nuclear weapons by the state of Iran and other rogue neighboring states, Christian holy lands would exist under constant threat of destruction; the state of Israel most definitely would be attacked, perhaps annihilated; an unprecedented expansion of Middle Eastern chaos and anarchy would consume the world’s attention and resources in an already very dangerous place for Christians to live or to visit. That brings us to the horrendous reality of global Christian persecution, the largest sector of persecuted individuals on earth. In effect for many years now, reaching back into the middle of the last century, the extirpation of the Christian faith is of paramount importance to the future of the religion. Oppression, murder, beatings, rape, torture and imprisonment, destruction of Christian symbols, icons and churches - all of these things are committed on a daily basis by over 60 nations around the world, over 80% of which happen to be Muslim states. Surprisingly, little is ever mentioned about Christian persecution in the mainstream media. Soon, however, this 800 pound gorilla in the room will triple its weight and demand global attention and force mitigating actions by world powers. The potential consequences of clashing with so many nations guilty of persecution are frightening. Will society react and help save oppressed Christians worldwide? What action is required - war? How would this impact global peace? Resolved or not, what effect would either end result have on the short and long term future of Christianity and humanity in general? Moving On to 2517 In January 2018, after five hundred years post reformation and many, many systemic alterations to the organization of the religion from the parishioners in the pews to the Pope in the Vatican, the Christian faith stands before challenges that pale, by comparison, the obstacles met over the last five hundred years. Perhaps even the last one thousand years. Society forgets sometimes that up till the beginning of the last century the world was still on horseback as it had been since man first discovered horses. The changes in this one century are mind boggling. Over the next 500 years they will be, even to our great big 21st century brains, unimaginable. As we evolve, the efficacy of the religion of the Christian God is in serious jeopardy. Christian dominance and subsequent ability to perform the great goodness it is renowned for may become neutralized or perhaps taken over by technology which has no links to faith. What would the world look like without the dominant presence of Jesus Christ? The reassuring element of all this negativity is that we follow a God who is loving, forgiving, peaceful, omniscient and a deity who has faced all of earth’s and humanity’s challenges and, he will continue on that path. He is also a pretty powerful God. To us, the future may seem fearsome; to God, these are bumps in the road. That is not to say, however, that over the next five hundred years we won’t feel the bumps and that our faith will not experience some very major changes. Things are about to heat up; maintaining faith has always been our greatest defense and so far, our greatest strength. There can be no doubt that Christians will continue to endure in the face of any adversity. To quote the great Nobel laureate, Bob Dylan, “It's a hard rain's a’gonna fall.” And so, let it fall. God has a way of creating rainbows. Comments are closed.
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