Is Christianity Growing or Dying?

On Thursday, Sept. 24, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took aim at pro-Palestinian protesters in his address to the United Nations. Referring to the civil unrest that was going on outside the UN, Netanyahu called those who were assembled "phony human rights protesters." Then, in what seemed like a non sequitur, he dropped in a little something about Christianity, asserting: “On Christians, you know that their numbers are plummeting everywhere in the Middle East where they’re being persecuted and hounded, except one place: my country, Israel, where the Christian community is growing, thriving, succeeding.”

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The prime minister makes a good point. According to the Alliance for the Peace of Jerusalem, "Christians in Israel are thriving and growing, especially in comparison to their experiences in Palestinian-controlled areas as well as surrounding Muslim nations." Christianity Today tells the story of Elisha Lazarus, a Messianic Jew and reservist in the Israel Defense Forces. Since the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, "[T]here is a seeking, because when people lose the sense of control in their lives, and they see that it's not in their hands and death is even imminent at times, they look for God, and they look for answers," Lazarus said.

But the growth is slow in Israel. Some even claim it's declining, like media personality Tucker Carlson, whom we cautiously quote. Carlson claims Christians in the Holy Land are disappearing and insists: "Their numbers are not growing. They are shrinking, and there's a huge debate about why." The Alliance for the Peace of Jerusalem, however, sides with Netanyahu and states the facts are that Christianity in the Jewish state "has consistently grown rather than declined over the past eighty years." Perhaps Carlson was talking about Israel, including the West Bank and Gaza, although that is unclear. But what about in the US, where it was always the dominant faith, or elsewhere in the Middle East outside Israel? What is the situation in these parts of the world?

Christianity on the Ropes?

A report by Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary's Center for the Study of Global Christianity indicates that faith in Jesus has trended upward. In 1900, there were more than 500 million people worldwide who called themselves Christians. By 2000, almost 2 billion people claimed Christianity as their religion, driven by the expansion of the faith as well as conversion. "Today, more than 2.6 billion people around the world are Christian. Christianity is projected to reach 3 billion before 2050," according to the seminary study.

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This week, The Washington Free Beacon published an article asking if US Christianity is in decline. Citing a Pew Research Center poll, The Beacon notes Christianity in America has been relatively stable, at between 60% and 64% of the population. They also point out that at the Ivy League universities, the numbers are much lower. (File that under "Now tell me something I don't already know.") However, young American men appear to be attending church more often, and some are even calling this a period of Christian revival in the US, as Liberty Nation News reported earlier this year. To put it succinctly: "There is one thing we can say for sure. After decades of religious decline, people have stopped leaving churches. Secularization is on pause," wrote Lauren Jackson, a reporter for The New York Times.

The Ups and Downs of Christianity

Now it's time to get to the nitty-gritty. In Europe, including Great Britain, Christians are in "steep decline," according to The Beacon. The problem there, of course, is one of population, as Christians are less likely than Muslims to procreate at the replacement level. Across the globe, there's no arguing about where Christianity stands or where it is headed.

Annual growth in Africa is 2.6%, and in Asia it's 1.3%. The Middle East’s Christian population is shrinking. In the all-important race between Islam and Christianity, believers in Jesus still hold a comfortable lead of 2.6 billion to Muslims' 2.1 billion. However, the trend is that Islam is growing faster than belief in Christ. So, to the question of whether Christianity is growing or dying: The answer is growing, and in places one could never imagine, except perhaps Jesus himself.