As you might have guessed, 2019 is going to be a HORRIBLE YEAR for militant atheists. Why you might ask?
Consider:
1. France
France has the 8th highest rate of atheism in the world with 43–54% of the population being atheists/agnostics/non-believers in God. France is the country where atheism first made inroads into the Western World (see: French atheism ).
According to The Economist:
France adheres to a strict form of secularism, known as laïcité, which is designed to keep religion out of public life. This principle was entrenched by law in 1905, after fierce anti-clerical struggles with the Roman Catholic church. Today, the lines are in some ways blurred. The French maintain, for instance, certain Catholic public holidays, such as Ascension. But on the whole, secular rules prevail. It would be unthinkable in France, for example, to stage a nativity play in a state primary school, or for a president to be sworn in on a Bible.Right now, France has demonstrations in the streets throughout due to economic conditions and other grievances (see video below) In addition, both evangelical Christianity and Islam are very rapidly spreading in France due to growing immigrant populations (see video below).
On July 12, 2012, the Christian Science Monitor reported:
French scholars say, evangelicalism is likely the fastest-growing religion in France – defying all stereotypes about Europe’s most secular nation...
Daniel Liechti, vice-president of the French National Evangelical Council, found that since 1970, a new evangelical church has opened in France every 10 days. The number of churches increased from 769 to 2,068 last year.
Traditionally, evangelical Christianity often grows rapidly during times of economic/social instability.
Excerpt from the academic paper entitled The Changing Face of Global Christianity by Dr. Todd Johnson & Sandra S. Kim:
As Latourette’s Great Century was coming to a close, churches outside of Europe and the Americas that took root in the 19th century grew rapidly in the 20th century. Africa, in particular, led this transformation growing from only 10 million Christians in 1900 to 360 million by AD 2000. Given current trends, there could be over 600 million Christians in Africa by 2025. Shortly after 1980, Christians in the South outnumbered those in the North for the first time in 1,000 years. In 1900 over 80% of all Christians lived in Europe and Northern America, however, by 2005 this proportion had fallen to under 40% and will likely fall below 30% before 2050. Projections for the future show that the Christian churches of the Global South (Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania) will likely continue to acquire an increasing percentage of global Christianity...
Another daily reality for Southern Christians is poverty. Much of the global South deals with serious issues of poverty and a lack of access to proper health care. Countries that have been hardest hit by AIDS, such as Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Swaziland, are also countries where Christianity is flourishing. Without access to the necessary medical care, accounts of healing and exorcism found in the Bible are taken more seriously. The work of the Holy Spirit exhibited in the ministry of signs and miracles of healing and deliverance from demonic powers has exploded in the ministry of Pentecostal/Charismatic churches in the global South. David Smith describes these churches as “overwhelmingly charismatic and conservative in character, reading the New Testament in ways that seem puzzlingly literal to their friends in the North,” and as “largely made up of poor people who in many cases live on the very edge of existence.” Thus the growth of Christianity in poorer regions implies not only an alternative reading of the Bible, but a different experience of the Bible.
2. China
The New York Times recently published a news article entitled China’s Economy Slows Sharply, in Challenge for Xi Jinping
Most atheists in the world live in East Asia, particularly communist China. Currently, China/Asia is seeing an explosive growth of evangelical Christianity in its midst (see: New report shows growth of Christianity in Asia and Growth of Christianity in China and East Asia and global desecularization).
And remember, evangelical Christianity grows rapidly during times of economic/social instability and China is faced with: a high debt load, an economic slowdown, a current trade war with the USA and potential challenges to its political leaders should a full blow economic crisis occur. If China does economically reform itself and avoid a trade war, this would still be a win for Christianity as the communist state would have less control over the populace.
