Africa more Christian than the US?

[Lamb]

Many African countries have Christian populations. Do you think that the continent of Africa is more Christian than the country of the USA?

 

[tango]

It really depends on what you mean when you refer to a country being Christian. A country is a lump of rock often defined at least partly by arbitrary and invisible manmade boundaries. It cannot have beliefs or faiths.

As far as populations go I think a major problem in the west is that a church often turns into either a business or a social club. Sometimes it really goes off the rails and turns into something more closely resembling a cult.

 

[The Jason]

Africa doesn't have some movement pushing anti-christianity.

 

[psalms 91]

It seems like it

 

[Frankj]

I wouldn't say Africa is more Christian, but I've long considered African Christians far stronger Christians than American Christians.

 

[Lamb]

I wouldn't say Africa is more Christian, but I've long considered African Christians far stronger Christians than American Christians.

Why is that do you think?

 

[Frankj]

Why is that do you think?

They face persecution far beyond anything ever seen in America, murder, kidnapping and slavery, tortured to their death and all sorts of other evils the non Christian (mostly Muslim) Africans put upon them yet still stay faithful to their Christian belief.

How many American Christians do you think are willing to be and do the same to remain faithful to Christ?

 

[tango]

They face persecution far beyond anything ever seen in America, murder, kidnapping and slavery, tortured to their death and all sorts of other evils the non Christian (mostly Muslim) Africans put upon them yet still stay faithful to their Christian belief.

How many American Christians do you think are willing to be and do the same to remain faithful to Christ?

It's hard to know how many in the west who profess to be Christian would stand by that profession in the face of real persecution.

In the west people cry about persecution when they are told not to wear a cross on a chain to work. In the east what they call persecution is when you're dragged out of your house in the middle of the night and never seen again.

 

[Lamb]

I wouldn't say Africa is more Christian, but I've long considered African Christians far stronger Christians than American Christians.

Since it's the Holy Spirit's job to keep us in the faith...I guess the strength is His, not theirs.

 

[Frankj]

Since it's the Holy Spirit's job to keep us in the faith...I guess the strength is His, not theirs.

That's one way to look at it, and I wouldn't disagree.

But I see more to it than just that.

It is said that God never gives us more than we can handle, but I consider this a serious error.

I would suggest that if it actually comes from God it will be more than we can handle and we have to ask him for the additional strength and power to add to our own to accomplish it.

So in that light, it is not the Holy Spirit alone that gives us the power, it is the combination of our own abilities exercised to their fullest in partnership with the Holy Spirit that triumphs over that which we cannot triumph by ourselves. God expects us to do our part.

But that's just my view as a result of my life, not to say that any other view is not equally as valid. We're all like the blind men feeling different parts of the elephant, none is right and none is wrong with all just having an experience of different parts of something much larger in its entirety.

The way I see it.

 

[tango]

Since it's the Holy Spirit's job to keep us in the faith...I guess the strength is His, not theirs.

True, although the people who show up at church on a Sunday and then live the rest of the week as if there were no God, who regard church as little more than a Sunday morning social club, may or may not be in the faith at all. Someone can't be "kept in the faith" if they were never there to begin with.

I know we can't necessarily tell who is who (although sometimes we can and should judge by fruits).

 

[The Jason]

They face persecution far beyond anything ever seen in America, murder, kidnapping and slavery, tortured to their death and all sorts of other evils the non Christian (mostly Muslim) Africans put upon them yet still stay faithful to their Christian belief.

How many American Christians do you think are willing to be and do the same to remain faithful to Christ?

They also live in more poverty. Life in America is very comfortable, even with the rising inflation and other problems.

And being comfortable is a major enemy to spiritual growth.