A very interesting conversation at "Grail Country" on YouTube. Here's my own comment on the video, in regards to Christianity dying out:
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"Christianity may die out, but that would be the most Christian thing for Christianity to do!"
Nate is a very wise man for saying this, and Christianity does seem to contain the seeds of it's own self-immolation, especially in regards to the doctrine of the antichrist.
When you read the Bible in a synthetic fashion, it's difficult to come away with any feeling other than Christianity, as it's currently practiced, will ultimately fail in it's objective to save the world. There are many reasons for this, but ultimately the issue seems to be a fundamental lack of understanding of the transaction that God has made with us mere mortals, even though it's quite explicit in the Bible itself. That transaction is thus: "I've given up my LIFE for you. Now, to follow ME, you must give up your own life, even unto death, just like I did." That transaction makes sense when you factor in the resurrection, and the idea that none of us really die, it's more of a transition to a new realm of existence. But you actually have to BELIEVE all that, and probably a majority of Christians just don't. They'll pay lip service to following Jesus, but their own agenda and goals will always be supreme, not God's. And they do this cute little self-deception despite multiple, repeated warnings of an eternity in hell from Jesus himself if you depart from God's will. He ain't messin' around.
When you read the Bible closely, it's not really "unbelievers" who are going to be sent to hell, it will be believers who failed to take the message seriously. In other words, the most severe judgment will be for those who knew better. That's why Jesus told the pharisees that tax collectors and prostitutes will be entering the kingdom of heaven before they ever did. The most severe judgment will be for God's own servants.
Another clear example of this is the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. The rich man is sent to eternal damnation because he failed to do exactly what he knew from the law and prophets to do: take care of those less fortunate than him. That's why Abraham refuses his request to have Lazarus goes visit the rich man's brothers, because Abraham said they have the law and the prophets to instruct them, if they don't listen, the fault will be theirs, not God's. Oh how awful it will be to have to deal with the consequences of your own actions, or in the case of the parable, inactions!
Right now, in the very times we are living in, we are seeing how Christianity is mostly failing in Western Civilization, as everyone chases after the gadgets and gizmos of modernism, even those who know better. Mathematically, when you seen something like this occur, it's only a matter of time before the rate of decline increases steadily, and total collapse of the system becomes certain. We are already witnessing this in real time across most of western Europe.
It seems that the one place on earth where the Christian message still has some life to it is in Africa. TGrog's point about the charismatic movement has a lot to do with the growth and popularity of Christianity amongst Africans. It seems to be the only form of Christianity left that has any real life left in it.
So will God allow Christianity (as we know it) to self-destruct in the West? Yes, yes he will. But maybe that's for the best, as the old forms are just old wineskins that are not capable of handling the new wine he wants to pour out. Ultimately God wins, and his WILL will be on EARTH as it is in HEAVEN. You can take that to the bank.
Just don't get too attached to your own personal form of Christianity as you know it, as it might become obsolete sooner than you realize.
Date video posted to YouTube: February 15, 2024
Length: 1 hour, 25 minutes, 15 seconds
- Pseudo Boethius
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