What are current issues facing Christianity?

Answer 1

The internet. Informations are now available with a click of the mouse. The clergy can no longer bind followers in ignorance.

In a society where ignorance of the simple Christian faith is brought about both by the addition of so many things which are essentially not Christian into churches with the name 'Christian', and where people are indoctrinated into the non-scientific theory of evolution, naturalism and humanism, there is a challenge to communicate the Gospel of Christ. Science and human philosophy is like a god to so many in western culture as is materialism.

Simultaneously, in western cultures, there is a rise in belief in Eastern religions, the Occult and Islam. As people leave their traditional 'roots' they will come to believe almost anything. Belief in all sorts of deceptions such as the influence of past lives, horoscopes, satanic and occultic and new age teachings and practices has replaced the vacuum filled by rejection of the Christian gospel. Much of this is an after-effect of the age of skepticism brought about by the wholesale acceptance of evolutionary presuppositions into the thinking of many Christian scholars in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, whose outdated arguments are still gladly used against The Bible by many 'Biblioskeptics' today., despite the many arachaeological and other evidence which flatly refutes them.

It is interesting to note in this connection the research done by the 'Skeptical Inquirer' magazine into belief in superstition, occult etc. Contrary to their presuppositions they found Bible-believing Christians least likely to accept 'whatever comes along' and were honest enough, at least in this case, to report this. Together with this is the challenge to provide meaning and purpose in life, where so many are taught a mindless determinism, since we are just a blob of matter determined by our DNA and where leading anti-theists like Richard Dawkins proclaim 'that's just tough - it's the way it is.' No wonder suicide is on the rise, when all the basis for meaning and purpose is eliminated. The challenge to Christianity here is to highlight such ultimate meaninglessness, which is incidentally admitted openly by people such as Dawkins, and to point to the ultimate purpose and meaning to be provided by knowing our place in the universe and knowing the one who made it all and who died for us because He loves us.

Christian churches themselves have not been exempt from both moral decline and decline in belief in 'traditional Christianity' and so many are searching for a new identity. The question is whether they will define the Christian faith in terms set by the world or by the maker of the world.

Other issues include the issue of Creation versus evolution and the desire for some Christians to allow supposed scientific 'proofs' to override clear Biblical teaching. The role of women in the various churches, together with Homosexuality are other topics which create discussion and debate in this current age.

Various Christian churches, and of course individuals, have their own specific issues, and different ways of dealing with them as well. For example Christians in the Catholic tradition will look both to the Pope and to tradition, whereas other may look to the Bible itself, or to other sources of 'authority' such as Luther and the confessional writings for the Lutherans, Wesley for the Methodists etc. This pluralism can and has itself become an issue within Christianity as 'authority' is itself an important issue and some controversies relate not to an issue itself but to who or whom has the right to make 'authoritative pronouncements'.

Of the many Concepts of afterlife, Reincarnation is the only one with Plausible proofs.

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