Will Christianity one day be eradicated? (Long)

[TexasLidig8r]

Time for some food for thought.

Islam is the world's fastest growing religion and is already the second largest religion in the world today.

http://islamicweb.com/begin/results.htm

Between 1989 and 1998, Europe's Muslim population grew by 100% due mostly to immigration. Even now, the majority "minority" population in France is Islamic.

Purportedly, Islam receives approximately 850,000 converts a year.

There are currently approximately 1.9 billion Christians comprising 31% of the world's population and 1.2 billion Muslims, comprising approximately 20% of the world's population.

But, the world growth rate for Muslims is believed to be 2.13% whereas it is 1.36% for Christians.

Muslims appear to be gaining political and economic power in Europe and of course, control the flow of oil from the Middle East.

Now, the question appears to be, do Christians have the moxy to stem the tide of the growing Muslim popluation and world wide influence?

For centuries, Christians have held the upper hand due to primarily two factors, economic power and military superiority. If you control the purse strings, you control your own population. If you have military superiority, you have the ability to control other nation's populations.

In our lifetime, we have seen the rise of the power of Muslim economics. Muslims control the world's oil supply. With the exception of the Bill Gates' of the world, the world's wealthiest people are Muslims and hail from the Middle East. Multi-national corporations based in Europe and the Far East are controlled, owned and operated by.. Muslims. Muslims now have the ability to affect the world wide economy through the use of the flow of oil. That is not changing anytime soon.

Militarily, things may very well change in the next century as well. The atom genie is already out of the bottle in India and Pakistan. Can we always count on western friendly leaders of head up these nuclear powers? Also, will Iran be successful in developing their own nuclear program?... it certainly appears so.

Of even greater concern is the realization that Muslims have the desire, strength and fortitude to expand their beliefs, not through peaceful missionary work, but through the sword. Going back as far as the "founder" of Islam, Muhammad participated in the beheadings of as many as 600 to 700 Jews in Medina. The Koran, the Muslim's holy book has several references to beheadings...

http://www.faithfreedom.org/oped/SKM40715.htm

Christians, as a major tenet of our belief system, no longer includes spreading the word of God through military means. We spread the word of God through missionary work not through the use of zealots. Christianity is a belief system based on inclusion. Islam is exclusionary.

Certainly, in our lifetime, and our childrens' lifetime and their childrens' lifetime, Christianity will remain the dominant power on the planet. Will that necessarily be true in the next century.. or.. the next?

At what point will the zealotry of Islam, its exclusionary elements, its growth, its growing economic and political power be supported by military capability such that it overwhelms Christianity, if ever? Is it inevitable?

[sooner_born_1960]

Not all that long by SO standards.

[slickdawg]

We need to take out a large swath of them with nukes and remind them who the real world power is, and they should NEVER **** WITH US!

[Rhino]

We need to take out a large swath of them with nukes and remind them who the real world power is, and they should NEVER **** WITH US! Certainly, the Christian thing to do.

[jk the sooner fan]

interesting, and here i thought the mexicans were taking over everything

[TexasLidig8r]

interesting, and here i thought the mexicans were taking over everything

Only the landscaping companies.

[slickdawg]

Certainly, the Christian thing to do.

Well, there's 3,000 + dead americans in New York and DC, plus 300 dead Marines in Lebanon, plus 3,000 dead American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus
17 sailors on the USS Cole, plus the first WTC bombing, plus......

They cheer when we are killed. They want Israel eradicated. They will never
comprehend or embrace diplomacy. They have a stone age mentality, and
that is all they understand.

You never hear them preach peace and love. Hatred is what they live by,
and they ho no problem killing themselves in hopes to take one of us out.

SO we can either sit here and be targets, or we can take the gloves off
and offer a permanent solution.

[Boarder]

So far I have heard that Muslims, Scientologists, Mormons, and Jehovah's Witnesses are all the fastest growing religion. Which means one thing.

The Wiccans are like so slipping.

[Okieflyer]

Yes, the day of the Rapture, Christianity be eradicated! :D

[Rhino]

Well, there's 3,000 + dead americans in New York and DC, plus 300 dead Marines in Lebanon, plus 3,000 dead American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus
17 sailors on the USS Cole, plus the first WTC bombing, plus......

They cheer when we are killed. They want Israel eradicated. They will never
comprehend or embrace diplomacy. They have a stone age mentality, and
that is all they understand.

You never hear them preach peace and love. Hatred is what they live by,
and they ho no problem killing themselves in hopes to take one of us out.

SO we can either sit here and be targets, or we can take the gloves off
and offer a permanent solution. Is that from Jesus's sermon, "Kill all dem raghedz"?

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

Poof! Let's switch to that alterntate energy source. We were so evil to have lead to the establishment of a world economy based on oil!( and FGS, let's not open up off-limits domestic areas for drilling and refineries)

[jk the sooner fan]

wait, is this the day we take everything written as serious?

i can never get it straight

[slickdawg]

Is that from Jesus's sermon, "Kill all dem raghedz"?

It's really simple, kill or be killed. We know they will fight to the death
to try and kill us. Now do we sit here and be targets, or be safe?

There is no winning the hearts and minds of these people.

[jk the sooner fan]

right, just not in the name of christianity

do it in the name of George W. Bush! ;)

[royalfan5]

If everyone would wise up and become Lutheran we would be set.

[Frozen Sooner]

If everyone would wise up and become Lutheran we would be set.

Yeah, you think those ELCA/Missouri synod fights are a little rough now...

[jk the sooner fan]

do lutherans dance and drink?

if so, IN

[royalfan5]

Yeah, you think those ELCA/Missouri synod fights are a little rough now...
Don't forget the WELS too.

[slickdawg]

do lutherans dance and drink?

if so, IN


Of course, they worship some guy named Luther.

[Frozen Sooner]

Lutherans totally dance and drink. Lutheranism is like Catholicism without all the guilt.

[royalfan5]

do lutherans dance and drink?

if so, IN
For the most part yes.

[royalfan5]

Lutherans totally dance and drink. Lutheranism is like Catholicism without all the guilt.
and meat on Friday.

[jk the sooner fan]

i dont mean slow dancing where you've got 12 inches between you and the girl

i mean ...you know, that grinding stuff kids do now a days...

[slickdawg]

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061227/OPINION02/612270303

No, I didn't write this.

Finish this job: Bomb terrorists

There are literally thousands of Vietnam veterans walking the streets of America today hanging their heads in shame because this country blames them for "losing" that war when in reality this is not true at all. They were forced by our politicians to fight with one hand tied behind their backs.

The politicians are the ones who "lost" that war for us. We cannot let anything like this happen again.

Just "staying the course" in Iraq is not enough. We stopped our bombing too soon. That is why our ground troops have suffered such terrific losses. I say pull our ground troops out temporarily, put our B-52 bombers in the air and initiate an intensive bombing campaign focusing on al-Qaida and Hezbollah training encampments throughout the Middle East, whether they be in Iraq, Libya or Syria.

If this means bombing them back into the Dark Ages, so be it.

After they are "softened up," we can put our ground troops back in and finish the job. Let's not lose this one.

Ronnie W. Vaughn

Pearl

[Sooner_Bob]

wait, is this the day we take everything written as serious?

i can never get it straight


:les: It's just the internets!!

[Tulsa_Fireman]

Of course, they worship some guy named Luther.

Luther played the boogie woogie in the strangest kind of way.

[Scott D]

maybe if more christians took the no birth control thought process that catholics are suppossed to have there'd be more christians. :D

[Sooner_Bob]

maybe if more christians took the no birth control thought process that catholics are suppossed to have there'd be more christians. :D

is that before or after marriage? :P

[RacerX]

:les: It's just the internets!!

Love it or leave it. You can't change it.

[BeetDigger]

I don't know why, but Slick's comments made me think of the closing scence to Pulp Fiction. For some reason, I'm envisioning Slick as Jules and Rhino as Ringo.

[Okla-homey]

Christianity will never be "eradicated."

A hymn written in 1866 captures my sentiments on the subject.


The Church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord,
She is His new creation
By water and the Word.
From heaven He came and sought her
To be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her
And for her life He died.

She is from every nation,
Yet one o’er all the earth;
Her charter of salvation,
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With every grace endued.

The Church shall never perish!
Her dear Lord to defend,
To guide, sustain, and cherish,
Is with her to the end:
Though there be those who hate her,
And false sons in her pale,
Against both foe or traitor
She ever shall prevail.

Though with a scornful wonder
Men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed:
Yet saints their watch are keeping,
Their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song!

’Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace forevermore;
Till, with the vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest.

[achiro]

i dont mean slow dancing where you've got 12 inches between you and the girl
I need that much room anyway

[royalfan5]

i dont mean slow dancing where you've got 12 inches between you and the girl

i mean ...you know, that grinding stuff kids do now a days...
There are some oddball Scandanavian Lutherans that don't dance but I've never heard anybody say no to dancing.

[yermom]

we need some Christian terror organizations

that'll show 'em

i really like the idea of bombing Iran and Syria back to the Stone Age, i hope there aren't any Christians that live there. maybe we could warn them somehow. nah, they shouldn't be living in Sodom anyway

[Pricetag]

So far I have heard that Muslims, Scientologists, Mormons, and Jehovah's Witnesses are all the fastest growing religion. Which means one thing.

The Wiccans are like so slipping.
I've also heard that NASCAR is the fastest growing "sport."

[Scott D]

we need some Christian terror organizations

that'll show 'em

i really like the idea of bombing Iran and Syria back to the Stone Age, i hope there aren't any Christians that live there. maybe we could warn them somehow. nah, they shouldn't be living in Sodom anyway

that's ok, plenty of Christians think you along with most every other American is living in Gomorrah :D

[Frozen Sooner]

we need some Christian terror organizations

that'll show 'em

I'm telling you, when it's nothing but Lutherans it's going to be lutefisk bombs all the TIME.

[Penguin]

No way is Christianity going away. It's too much of a big business.

I was at my folks place last week and my dad watches religious programming 8 hours a day. There was one program that showed people how to fill out a home equity loan application so that people can donate the equity to the church.

99% of the evangelists on tv are thieves. There's no way that is going away.

[Scott D]

No way is Christianity going away. It's too much of a big business.

I was at my folks place last week and my dad watches religious programming 8 hours a day. There was one program that showed people how to fill out a home equity loan application so that people can donate the equity to the church.

99% of the evangelists on tv are thieves. There's no way that is going away.

nah, thieves like them are enterprizing, they'll just find a new racket.

[yermom]

this is what the Jesus camps are for ;)

actually, even if they try to take over the world, they have the Hindus to deal with first, they have our back

[BeetDigger]

I'm telling you, when it's nothing but Lutherans it's going to be lutefisk bombs all the TIME.


Don't forget the lefsa.

[Frozen Sooner]

Don't be silly. NOBODY would be insane enough to use lefsa as a weapon.

[royalfan5]

I'm telling you, when it's nothing but Lutherans it's going to be lutefisk bombs all the TIME.
Only from the Scandanavian ones. Us German Lutherans don't mess with lutefisk.

[Frozen Sooner]

True. But don't pretend that suicide strudel is somehow better. ;)

[royalfan5]

True. But don't pretend that suicide strudel is somehow better. ;)
We'd use killer kraut.

[OklahomaTuba]

No fears here, The Book has a good ending.

[jk the sooner fan]

No fears here, The Book has a good ending.

amen to that

[OklahomaTuba]

I do think we as Christians need to wake up and sound a call to arms though, but in deeds of kindness and not in acts of war. Maybe have a global mission to help bring the teachings of Jesus as the Son of God to Islam. I think it would help unite the entire Church.

Kill them with Kindness and Love as they say.

The Middle East could sure use that me thinks.

[Sam Spade]

Well, there's 3,000 + dead americans in New York and DC, plus 300 dead Marines in Lebanon, plus 3,000 dead American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus
17 sailors on the USS Cole, plus the first WTC bombing, plus......

They cheer when we are killed. They want Israel eradicated. They will never
comprehend or embrace diplomacy. They have a stone age mentality, and
that is all they understand.

You never hear them preach peace and love. Hatred is what they live by,
and they ho no problem killing themselves in hopes to take one of us out.

SO we can either sit here and be targets, or we can take the gloves off
and offer a permanent solution.
Didn't some bearded guy say something about "turn the other cheek?"

;)

[Frozen Sooner]

I do think we as Christians need to wake up and sound a call to arms though, but in deeds of kindness and not in acts of war. Maybe have a global mission to help bring the teachings of Jesus to Islam.

Kill them with Kindness and Love as they say.

The Middle East could sure use that me thinks.

:blink:

I could get behind that.

[Mongo]

I do think the Christians need to wake up and sound a call to arms though, but in deeds of kindness and not in acts of war.

Kill them with Kindness and Love as they say.

The Middle East could sure use that me thinks.

I would love to drop a 100 kiloton warhead of kindness

[TexasLidig8r]

I do think we as Christians need to wake up and sound a call to arms though, but in deeds of kindness and not in acts of war. Maybe have a global mission to help bring the teachings of Jesus as the Son of God to Islam. I think it would help unite the entire Church.

Kill them with Kindness and Love as they say.

The Middle East could sure use that me thinks.

ah.. but would you even remotely have a listening, open minded audience? We Christians are regarded as infidels, non-believers, not even worthy of an honorable death.

Followers of Judaism have not believed, since the time of Christ, that Christ is the Son of God.

Since Muhammad "ascended" into heaven (679 A.D.?), followers of Islam have not believed that Jesus is the Son of God.

With the followers of Islam obtaining greater economic and military power, and with world wide communication being what it is, should we realistically believe that Muslims will embrace a message that we hold as absolutely true, but would subject them to derision, exclusion and.. possibly death?

Is the global mission of which you speak, and which for the record, is an admirable goal, going to result in more martyrs than anything else?

[Scott D]

you are regarded as an unworthy infidel because you are a whorn.

[Xstnlsooner]

I gots dis feeling iz all gonna play out de way iz sposd 2!!

[Harry Beanbag]

I would love to drop a 100 kiloton warhead of kindness


I did that today after lunch. It felt great.

[Boarder]

I've also heard that NASCAR is the fastest growing "sport."
Well, that's true of course. Duh.

[Vaevictis]

I'm not sure I buy the economic premise. The followers of Islam may have a lot of oil, but the oil is eventually going to run out. And instead of investing that money wisely, they have a nasty tendency to **** it away on opulent luxuries, such as gigantic towers in the middle of the desert, massive hotels, fleets of cars for one person, etc.

In a few hundred years, they'll be just like half of Europe's nobility was a century ago -- good names, big houses, and so much debt that they're soon to lose everything they own.

People talk about how oil is the most important strategic resource around, but it's really the second most important strategic resource around. The most important one, people don't talk about much around here because we've got quite a bit of it, and even so, we still have issues. What is it? Potable water.

Guess which natural resource most of the Islamic dominated nations (hell, most of the non-first world) are terrifically short on? Uh huh.

[Octavian]

It'd be nice if all the world religions would migrate to Mars

[GottaHavePride]

It'd be nice if all the world religions would migrate to Mars

Seriously, considering how much **** is started in the name of organized religion I wouldn't mind seeing ALL organized religion go the way of the dodo bird, with people instead developing personal relationships with the spiritual nature of the universe. That would require independent thought, though.

[sooneron]

Seriously, considering how much **** is started in the name of organized religion I wouldn't mind seeing ALL organized religion go the way of the dodo bird, with people instead developing personal relationships with the spiritual nature of the universe. That would require independent thought, though.
:pop:

[royalfan5]

Seriously, considering how much **** is started in the name of organized religion I wouldn't mind seeing ALL organized religion go the way of the dodo bird, with people instead developing personal relationships with the spiritual nature of the universe. That would require independent thought, though.
Then we'd be at the mercy of the organized atheists and agnostics.

[Hatfield]

i doubt it would ever be eradicated, but i think a question for the those curious is why do they see evidence of it "slipping"

[Kels]

"The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church."

Tertullian

[yermom]

Then we'd be at the mercy of the organized atheists and agnostics.

because they've gotten soft ;)

[Frozen Sooner]

"Organized" atheists and agnostics? Jeez, we'd probably just implement a five-year plan to deal with you guys, then have to revise it to a second five-year plan, then finally ship all your asses to a gulag or something while we thought about it.

[royalfan5]

"Organized" atheists and agnostics? Jeez, we'd probably just implement a five-year plan to deal with you guys, then have to revise it to a second five-year plan, then finally ship all your asses to a gulag or something while we thought about it.
Would there be non-stop Carl Sagan showings in the Gulags?

[Blue]

One day Christ will eradicate.

[Mongo]

"Organized" atheists and agnostics? Jeez, we'd probably just implement a five-year plan to deal with you guys, then have to revise it to a second five-year plan, then finally ship all your asses to a gulag or something while we thought about it.


Yes, but we wacko religious types stockpyle weapons while you sissies try and take them away. Koresh has nothing on me:D

[GottaHavePride]

Yes, but we wacko religious types stockpyle weapons while you sissies try and take them away. Koresh has nothing on me:D

Consider me a well-armed agnostic. And agnostics dont give enough of a crap about it to organize. Atheists now, some of THEM are militant. ;)

Does Taoism fall under the "agnostic" blanket? I read a lot of Taoist writings. I wouldn't really call myself Taoist, though.

[proud gonzo]

yeah, i don't think Taoism has a snarky bastard sect ;)

[Frozen Sooner]

Consider me a well-armed agnostic. And agnostics dont give enough of a crap about it to organize. Atheists now, some of THEM are militant. ;)

Does Taoism fall under the "agnostic" blanket? I read a lot of Taoist writings. I wouldn't really call myself Taoist, though.

They do.

And mainly I was just kind of making a joke about how the only real "organized" atheists in history have been pretty disorganized, but I couldn't come up with a better way of doing it.

[yermom]

the Communists seemed pretty organized :eek:

[Frozen Sooner]

You think so? Massive inefficiency and disorganization was what led to the downfall of their system. No incentive existed to be organized and efficient.

They wanted to be organized, but when it came right down to it they were one of the most massively disorganized totalitarian states of all time. Hitler made the trains run on time. Stalin made them run in reverse.

[yermom]

well, they certainly were effective for a while

maybe if the Russians hadn't wasted all that time and energy on Space and the Olympics they would have gotten somewhere ;)