No Crumbling Crown, Part I

An Examination Of The Problem

When Rome finally legalized this new off-shoot of Judaism the Emperor Constantine called together bishops from all across the empire to codify Christian belief. The great heresy that was addressed in the council was that of Arianism, a belief regarding the fundamental nature of Jesus' existence.

These past two weeks, I've been wondering if the world, in the next 50 years or so, may be in need of another Council of Nicaea. To give you some background on my thought processes, last week, my church brought Adam Benner, missionary to the Hmong people of Southeast Asia .This week we invited a speaker from the FECAT, a graduate-level seminary servicing the Francophone nations of Sub-Saharan Africa.

After speaking with each of them it was interesting to see that the needs in Laos are similar to the needs of nations like Angola, Mali, Gabon. Don't get me wrong. I don't mean to just point at nations with histories of political and socio-economic strife. Let me include industrialized, modern nations like the China's on both sides of the strait for starters.

The need that they were expressing wasn't a need for evangelism. The problem seemed to be a lack of leadership and teaching at all levels. The typical pastor in Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa pastors 5 churches. The typical church in America (I don't have stats, but I enjoy the parallelism) employs about 5 pastors.

Globalization and the exposure to popular Western Christian media, here I'm referring to Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn and their ilk, has probably worsened the need for teachers and leadership by introducing historically bad theology and teaching into the church. I'll firmly hold the line to my daying day that the health & wealth gospel that they're teaching, what they are exporting to the rest of the world is a calamity and disaster that we will be judged for in Heaven. The crusades that these guys held are probably doing about as much ostensible damage to the Kingdom that the crusades of the Middle Ages did for Christian reputation among Muslims.

I personally wonder how many untrained teachers there are rising up around this world teaching a syncretic Christianity? That's how Candomble, Hudu and Santeria started. Christianity is rapidly spreading to every corner of the world. It's not a Christianity that we're used to. In 100 years, China may be the largest Christian nation in the world. It may also surpass Indonesia as the largest Muslim nation in the world. Sub-Saharan Africa is the fastest growing region of Christian advancement in the world. What happens when that region surpasses China? What if India surpasses Africa? What will it mean to be a Christian in 2050?

Will we need a new Nicaea to sort things out?

In the first one the bishops voted overwhelmingly to defeat Arianism, prohibited self-castration and created a uniform date to celebrate the Resurrection that was separate from the Jewish passover. What would happen if a new one was held in 2050?

• Pentecostalism is the fastest growing denomination in Christianity.
• America is increasingly in favor of women pastors.
• There is an increasing trend away from evangelism and towards discipleship oriented programs.
• Many Christians are increasingly concerned about social justice.
• Fewer Christians today believe in Hell than 50 years ago.
• Many Christians believe that "belief in Jesus" is not required for "salvation."
  
• Several denominations have changed their stance on homosexuality.
• A huge number of Christians do not hold the Bible as actually having come from God.

What would happen at a new Nicaea?