Christianity and the 21st Century

     I wanted to make this article to set the tone of the rest blog.  Its not a completely random first post and its beefy because I don't want you guys eating Scooby Snacks of some pop fluff piece.  The 21st century has to be one of the most challenging and unique times to come.  With it we have had a very historical political climate, extremely violent conflicts/wars happening simultaneously, a worldwide economic meltdown, widespread unemployment in a post manufacturing service economy, gangs fueling a large chunk of violence, an explosion of subgroups/cultures and a rapid expansion of technology not seen since the industrial revolution.   Not only are the kids today scared about our future, with a little over half of our college graduates unemployed, but the parents are worried about the future as well. 

     Now the first think you are telling yourself is. "How is this any different from the early 1900s or the 1960s? Didn't they have gang problems with the mafia, economic woes, cultural clashes and massive wars?" One thing and one thing only has set the divide, the internet.  Not only do we have the internet but its nearly everywhere and most electronic devices have the ability to connect online from cell phones to video games, computers obviously, iPads, and iPods, while scientist along with engineers are already trying to pioneer internet enabled contact lenses. 

     With all of this technology, its made a 196,939,900 sq mi planet feel relatively small.  It has opened all of the conflicts of the world and reduced them to a simple click of a web page.  Our generation of kids had to grow up quick and face the reality of the world at a early age.  No longer do we have to wait for breaking news coverage getting transported to the new stations.  We can get it instantly over the internet.  War footage is given to us during a live stream and we can constantly monitor economic climates across the globe with a blackberry.  With unlimited information and a generation of kids with egos larger than their IQ, our post modern culture has become nihilistic, cynical, morally relevant and self-absorbed on a level never seen before. 

Generation Y has a lot of negative connotations attached to it.  Some exaggerated, others spot on.

This has created a perfect spiritual storm to wreak havoc on not only on society but more importantly the Christian community.  The internet allows an even greater opportunity to spread anti-religious sentiments to a larger group of impressionable teens.  Due to this fact, a lot more kids are now choosing alternative religious views and are walking away from the faith.  The internet has allowed access to anti-faith arguments with massive popularity of books like The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins surpassing 2 million english sales. The churches are closing doors at an by the thousands while bible teachers fuss over widely established doctrine and people are viewing their faith as irrelevant for their lives.

What does this all mean for Christianity and the Gospel?

The good news(I'm not talking about the "good Good News" just yet buddy, hold your britches!) is that the Christian community has access to the same resources and the internet has caused a rapid explosion of christian culture.  The Purpose Driven Life by pastor Rick Warren sold over 30 million copies showing that despite the rise of alternative religious views, Christianity has also been tremendously strengthened by the use of our new social media age. At every burst of anti-gospel sentiment, the church has met and vastly exceeded its responses aggressively and with more scholarship than ever before. Pastors across the country can minister to someone thousands of miles away through the internet and access to resources are done by a mouse click.  We are on the verge of seeing a christian explosion akin to the evangelical explosion of the 1980s.

With the rise of the Emerging church(There will be an article on that later) and plenty of reformed ministry breaking in the new century, we can promise that the culture will be set and matched.  Our culture has become a big threat to scripture but God is even bigger as well as well as the new churches exploding on the scene.  Something even more bizarre is the fact that Jesus is more popular than ever highlighted in books like They Like Jesus but Not the Church by Dan Kimball.  Pastors are stepping up and defending the bible's integrity from criticism like never before.  

Christianity is not only responding strongly to the culture here in America but across the world as well with a surge in Christianity in China.  Christian persecution is rising as well from government authorities who wish to hold a vice grip on its citizens.  Despite the fact that the official state religion is atheism, more and more people are finding faith to the point where China might be a a Christian led nation in the future. Christianity may be becoming less popular here in America but its spreading everywhere else in the world due to the power of instant communication.

Chinese Christians praying.

With all of this said we must not forget what time Christianity started.  After the ascension of Jesus, where he went to Heaven, it was up to literally 12 guys, known as the apostles, to spread the good news(salvation through Jesus) of Jesus Christ.  The Apostle Paul started the spread of Christianity towards the gentiles(non-Jews) and they did this during the most jacked up time in history in a culture only second to Greece when it came to hedonism. It was the same culture where sex with a slave(slaves were considered property and you could even pimp them out to other people for pocket change)was not consider adultery, politics was cut throat, literally, violence was a common occurrence on the street, and watching people getting slaughtered in the Colosseum was the the ancient Rome's equivalence of Jersey Shore.

Ancient Rome made Jersey Shore look like PBS daytime special for the whole family

Lets not also forget what early Christians were up against.  The most that will happen to you today in America is minor to moderate ridicule along being labeled a "fundie","bigot" or "Jesus Freak".(In some other countries punishment for Christianity is execution.)   In Rome, they did not play around and punishments for Christian faith were very cruel and unusual including being skinned alive, having your breast cut off if you're a woman, being toasted and grilled alive, becoming a snack for a 500lb lion, being tied to an anchor and thrown in the water just to name a few. Christians paid severely for faith in Jesus and the apostles, who were expected to take Christianity to the ends of the Earth, was the size of your average bible study group.  If anything it makes the challenges now of the 21st century seem small and insignificant.  The apostles worked to the bone for their faith until they were either martyred or went into exile after being thrown in boiling oil ala Apostle John.

My favorite verse of all time surprisingly is not John 3:16 but 2nd Timothy 1:7 which states "For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline."  No matter how many times people say Christianity will be gone by the end of the century, or claim its obsolete, we will rise and we will overcome.  Our generation is more than interested to actually learn about the gospel where it was seen as a social obligation before. We have a large group of teens charging headstrong into missions and a plethora of more than qualified teachers and scholars, and I feel they will address the needs of the people more than secular humanism can ever conceive. We will see Christianity cruise easily through this Century into the 2100s.  There is a good chance I wont live that long to see it but I don't doubt out ability to stay strong. The same internet that gave rise to a nihilistic culture is the same internet that is spreading the gospel like a unquenchable wild fire.  Christianity is looking very bright for the 21st century.

Modern day baptism

The protestant church's equivalent of the Avengers(or Justice League for you D.C. fans who support inferior comic book superheroes *cough*) with leaders like John Piper, Tim Kellar, Mark Driscoll, Matthew Chandler, Kevin DeYoung, Kathleen Nielson, Francis Chan and a host of other leaders.

So that was it?  THIS is what you was hyping about? Man, you were talking about your blog like it was the sequel to the long waited Great Gatsby passed though your family secretly from F. Scottie himself.

I can see the angry mob I will get by the end of this year already.

Yeppppp.  That's it, I wanted a first post to be an examination of the times to gain perspective of where we are before I start heading in.  For example I have an untold story of Noah(Its going to be a unique perspective on the story) draft that's still simmering on the stove top, I want to write a post about the emerging church, I want to do a videogamer's guide to the gospel(its sort of my baby but its in mid brainstorming), I want to do an idiot's guide to the book of Acts going through the entire book, an examination of politics and Christians and some more serious pieces on real issues that affect Christians everyday like sex trafficking(awareness and how can Christians respond to it), drugs(Can we take drugs? Why did God make marijuana if he didn't want us to smoke it? etc, gonna start pushing boundaries here), racism/discrimination(cross historical examination or racism and Christianity along with a message to how we can wipe it out today. Its will be more controversial), pornography(Oh boy, I'm already pushing boundaries now. lol Not sure if I wanna write this, especially with family reading my blog and gossipy relatives who can't keep stories straight and will tell all kinds of lies to my parents. "DID YOU KNOW WILL HAS PORN ON HIS FACEBOOK? hmph, use to be a sweet little ol' christian boy...."), homosexuality(I'm gonna need an ice cold beer and some Advil before I even THINK about touching this, I expect a ton of controversy and I'm not posting a verse or two, I'm writing a genuine and honest ARTICLE. I wanna talk to the LGBT club at ECU as well as pastors and other people. I might not even write it TBH.  YES, I'm a nerd so I know its bad to combine drugs and alcohol due to the potentially dangerous effects. Please do not combine alcohol and Advil at home because it can increase your risk of ulcers and your stomach lining bleeding.), poverty, etc.  I also want to do some more doctrine based articles on matters such as the prosperity gospel, Hell, lordship salvation, etc.  Its going to be neato so ummmm, yeah. Starting this blog only showed me how much I wasn't ready to teach on level of detail I want to do for this blog so I have a ton of reading(both scriptural and non scripture from theologians/pastors), listening and praying to do.  I want to have interviews, show different perspectives on some matters, have guest, do mock interviews, and just have fun and do it big.  Its gonna be a hodge podge of culture, teaching scripture, and examinations.  I promise to keep the scripture teaching needle point accurate and biblical. So yeah, cool beans and keep an eye out on your Facebook.  I'm gonna put myself out there for the Kingdom, I'm not perfect, but I am a christian and God taught me a thing or two about a thing or two.

God Bless and have a safe weekend!