The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Inspirational video - is this God restoring all Creation?

An inspirational video - is this part of God restoring all creation?? e.g. some sort of optimistic post-millennialism?

That is really cool. Thanks for sharing it Alex. It reminds me that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, a tiny seed (Gospel) that grows into a bush (Church) in which the birds (nations) can rest. God is working to deliver us from evil into righteousness, from the kingdom of darkness He translates us into the kingdom of light. Hallalujah!

Hi Alex,
That’s a neat video, but I think it might be an illusion of getting better, rather than reality. It was interesting to watch one of the next videos that came up after: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hsDn2kNriI :sunglasses:

Sonia

Wow! Yes, I think it is in fact necessary for the Prince of Peace to definitively, physically, return – as Himself you know. I’ve heard people claim He’s already as returned as He’s going to get – in His church. Hmm . . . .

Interesting… I think there’s always been fighting, both on the small scale between individuals & tribes, & entire nations (see the OT). Hopefully it peaked at WWII & we can now agree that fighting is too messy & if we aren’t careful we’ll wipe out the entire planet via nukes or biological weapons :unamused: Also maybe as people become healthier & richer, they become more comfortable & less prone to fighting?

As the percentage of Christians slowly increases globally, shouldn’t we expect things to slowly become better?

Is Christianity expanding globally, or contracting?

Below is an interesting article that touches on the subject. It is interesting to note that as Christianity drops off in Europe and the US, it has taken off in Africa.

pewforum.org/2011/12/19/global-christianity-exec/

I think it’s slowly expanding because there are places, like China, where it’s reportedly growing very rapidly underground but it’s hard to get statistics.

That does look very interesting - I’ll try to take a read later today.

Edit: pewforum.org/files/2011/12/C … endixC.pdf goes into lots of detail about how they estimated the number of Christians in China :nerd:

Maybe … on the other hand, you recently posted an article by a Christian Indian philosopher who predicted the US would start WWIII sometime soon (to restructure the global economy, if I remember right).

It seems to me that as people get healthier and richer they also tend to become greedy and selfish.

One would hope – but at the same time, “Christian” Europe caused a lot of fighting, and right now “Christian” America is doing it too.

I guess I’m rather pessimistic.

The Christian moral principles seem to give nations the ability to attain wealth and power, but wealth and power corrupt, upcoming generations take the wealth for granted and put their trust in the wealth, begin to lose the morality, fall away from God, and use the power unrighteously.

I don’t know – I’m not sure how it will all play out, but I have faith that God has it all in hand and all shall be well in the end. :sunglasses:

Sonia

Good point, although it was a friend who posted that (facebook.com/jourblog/posts/650636601614736) & my comment was “Interesting…” as I was unsure about what to make of it overall, but could see some things in it that might be true.

Maybe, I know many middle class people would like to just sit on a beach & read a book or stay home & watch TV all day - once people have a comfortable standard of living they quite often sit back & chill. Hypothetically if everyone could do that, wouldn’t there be zero needs & therefore the fact most were being selfish wouldn’t have such a negative impact?? e.g. the sci-fi “Utopia” where robots do all the work (but don’t take over the world…)

I think it’s the difference between the sickest & the healthiest, the poorest & richest, might be the greater cause of conflict. If there was a super-abundance of all resources & no way to restrict access to any of them, I can’t see why there would be any greed. e.g. we aren’t greedy about air.

That’s because they weren’t & aren’t George MacDonald type Christians :smiley:

I think I’m slightly bi-polar, some days I’m overly optimistic & some days overly pessimistic :blush:

Yes, it’s problematic when that happens :neutral_face: However my parents were comparatively wealthy & powerful (compared to the 3rd world) but all 4 children ended up as Christians, not taking things for granted too much. Likewise I don’t expect my children or your children to take things for granted & become corrupt i.e. I think Christianity can be passed on from one generation to another successfully (I realise most child go through a period of finding their feet & so it’s not guaranteed they’ll become Christians, but I still think it should be probable).

Indeed :sunglasses:

I think these help keep us humble:
http://www.pewforum.org/files/2012/07/christianity-graphic-02.png
http://www.pewforum.org/files/2012/07/webready-graphic-43.png
http://www.pewforum.org/files/2012/07/christianity-graphic-08.png
http://www.pewforum.org/files/2012/07/christianity-graphic-42.png