By: Dr. Jürgen Bühler, ICEJ Executive Director

ICEJ Vision for the New Year

We are living in truly exciting times! Powerful global shifts are occurring which will change our world for decades to come. The former powerhouse of the European Union is struggling even for survival. Entire nations are endangered with bankruptcy, while in parallel Christianity is in decline in our post-Christian Western societies. There are also serious economic struggles in the United States, even while we see nations like China and India on the rise. The Middle East is experiencing major turmoil. For many Christians, the future looks bleak.

The future Church

However, positive and exciting developments are taking place which might escape our attention since they are taking place outside the Western world. For Christians in the West, secularism and Islam seem to be taking over on all fronts. But they should look to the Southern hemisphere, which has become the new vanguard for Christianity. American researcher Prof. Philip Jenkins, in his book “The next Christendom”, documents an unprecedented religious revolution which is taking place. While Europe is losing its Christian identity and churches are shrinking, in the global South (Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia) Christianity is alive and growing.

In Africa, Christianity more than tripled, from 140 million in 1970 to 490 million in 2010. If the recent growth continues, by 2050 Africa will be home to more than 1 billion Christians. While Europe today remains the home to the most Christians (some 590 million), it will be overtaken in the coming years by Latin America and Africa.

What unites all these new expressions of Christianity is simple faith in the Bible and the expectation of God moving in supernatural ways. According to Prof. Jenkins, the fastest growing stream of Christianity is the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement. What started in 1906 as a small revival has turned today into a global movement which has grown to more than 700 million believers, he concludes. Jenkins predicts that if this dynamic growth continues, we will see in the next few decades the number of Pentecostals and Charismatics swell to more than one billion.

He also foresees a new reformation of Christianity where the centers of world Christendom will not lay anymore in Geneva, London, or Rome, but in places like Kampala, Sao Paolo, or Manila. Even in Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation in terms of population, the Church is experiencing an ongoing revival for over thirty years now.

Interestingly, liberal theologies hardly exist in these regions, and neither does Replacement theology. According to Jenkins, while liberal Protestantism never truly represented mainstream Christianity, it will rapidly lose what significance it has had in coming decades.

In our own travels as ICEJ representatives, we have witnessed and experienced this changing dynamic. We see that revived churches of the South not only share a simple trust in the Word of God, but they are also united in a deep love and passion for Israel and the Jews. When I asked some years ago a leader of one of China’s underground churches where their love for Israel comes from, he replied: “We just read the Bible.” It is that simple.

All of this carries the potential for major political changes in coming decades. In some countries, revived Christianity already constitutes a significant portion of the population. Sooner or later, this will translate into political influence. Already last year, we saw Nigeria refuse to vote automatically with the Palestinians on statehood in the UN Security Council due to Christian influence on its government. Other nations may soon follow this trend.

If you live today in Europe or elsewhere in the “Global North”, I want to encourage you with the words of Jesus:

“Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’. Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!”

– John 4:35

Too often as Western Christians, we have become overly pessimistic and even fatalistic about the future. If God can move mightily in Africa, China and Brazil, then there is also hope for France, Germany and Italy. We are living in times of harvest! Don’t say your country is not ready for harvest yet. The real question is: Are you ready for harvest?

The future of the Arab world

The events which led to the Arab uprisings caught even the sharpest intelligence agencies by surprise. While progressive, freedom-seeking elements sparked the on-going revolutions, it quickly became clear that many in the streets were not thirsting for Western-style democracy but a stricter form Islam. The Egyptian people just voted for the adoption of a constitution rooted in Islamic shari’a law. It is getting more difficult for Arab Christians to stay, and many are seeking refuge in Western countries.

In Psalms 18, David called upon God in great distress and the Lord came down from heaven and intervened, yet in a rather unusual manner:

“[He] came down with darkness under His feet. And He rode upon a cherub… He made darkness His secret place; His canopy around Him was dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.”

– Psalm 18:9-11

The end of the story, of course, is salvation and redemption: “He delivered me from my strong enemy…” (Psalm 18:16f). But as God arrived for rescue, He came “with darkness under His feet” and he made “darkness His secret place”.

You might have experienced it yourself. When God comes to deliver, at times it can seem even darker for a short while. Often, this is true for entire nations.

China, which is experiencing a huge revival today, is a good example. By 1948, Christianity in China was making significant progress. Close to one million believers were found in China and the hope and prayers were that this growth would continue. But then came the Communist revolution and all Western missionaries were expelled. For a while, it looked like the end of Christianity in China. The Church went through an extreme time of persecution and hardship. But in the midst of this darkness, revival broke out and just a few years ago the Chinese government set the official number of Christians in China at more than 100 million.

The same is true for Iran today. When the Ayatollahs took over in the late 1970s, it appeared like a thick cloud of darkness was settling upon ancient Persia. Persecution set in and pastors were imprisoned and even executed. But then the churches started to grow. From a few hundred believers, the Church grew to several million today. In fact, Iran at present is experiencing the fastest church growth in the world. Just recently, we received a report from pastors in Iran that 5,000 people are being baptized each month in Tehran alone.

So even though it looks like darkness is descending on many Arab countries today and persecution is increasing, deep in my heart I am full of faith that God is visiting the Arab world. He is answering decades of prayers for revival among the sons of Ishmael.

If you look towards the Middle East, look upon the region with the eyes of faith. Continue to pray for revival in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt, as they border directly with Israel. But also pray for all the nations of the Middle East, that God’s Spirit might be poured out in a powerful way on all these lands which used to be the early cradle of Christianity.

Israel’s future

At his annual New Year’s reception for clerical leaders in Israel, President Shimon Peres opened with an astonishing statement. “Never before were Jewish-Christian relations better than today”, he observed.

He was referring to the many historic churches in the Holy Land but mentioned in particular the relationship with the Vatican. Certainly, there has been progress with these churches, but the biggest development is Israel’s outreach to the growing Evangelical movement. Many Israeli leaders now recognize the potential of this relationship. That a caucus was formed in the Knesset just to engage with Evangelical Christians speaks volumes.

At the same time, Israel will continue to develop as a hi-tech innovator and a beacon of democracy in the midst of a troubled region. The world chairman of the Jewish Agency, Eliezer “Moodi” Sandberg, just recently shared with me his hope for Israel’s future.

“The first waves of Aliyah were motivated by strong Zionist feelings. Part of the future of immigration will be that Jews will decide to move to Israel because they can be part of a great success story in science and hi-tech”,

he said.

What throws a shadow on all this is the still unresolved conflict with the Palestinians. Here, a new and fresh approach is needed which indeed can bring peace to the region. Again, it was President Peres who made an interesting point at the New Year’s reception.

“Our nation is not divided into people who want peace and those who don’t want peace. But it is divided into those who believe peace is possible and those who don’t believe it is possible”,

he noted.

As Christians, we need to be committed to peace. “Blessed are the peacemakers”, Jesus proclaimed. Yet true peace will only come when hearts have been transformed. Therefore, what is needed most is an outpouring of God’s Spirit of Grace and Supplication on the people of Israel. That’s why our prayers are so important today.

The ICEJ in 2013

In Jerusalem, the ICEJ staff started out the new year once again with an intensive time of prayer and fasting. We recognize that if God does not build the house, our work is in vain. God filled us with new expectations for what He will do through us in 2013. Prayer will surely be an important part of our work, and we expect more churches from around the world to join with us in our Isaiah 62 Prayer Campaign.

Another area of ministry which we expect to become more involved in is Israel’s education sector. Just in the past few months, exciting doors have opened for us, and we sense that this is an area where we are called to increase our engagement in future.

In the past year, God opened new doors for us to broadcast our message over global satellite TV. On the Daystar channel, we are reaching an audience of millions three times a week with our “ICEJ Report”. We expect this work to expand further, as will our other new media outlets.

As always, we are fully committed to serve the needy and underprivileged in Israel. This coming year, we are preparing for further expansion of our Home for Holocaust survivors in Haifa and to see that the monthly needs of current residents are met. In spite of all the economic growth in Israel, there is still a large part of the population living in poverty.

We also are planning for another exciting Feast of Tabernacles celebration this year. Last October’s gathering was characterized by much prayer and a strong presence of God; We expect that this fall as well, along with new and exciting events that will bless our pilgrims greatly. The Feast theme of “Harvest” is so timely, as it reflects what is happening around the world.

I truly believe that 2013 will be a year of challenges but also one of great blessings. My prayer is that God would allow us to carry out great exploits for Him and for His glory. Much is still to be done but His resources are limitless. Remember, we serve a Lord who declared about Himself:

“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”

– Matthew 28:18

This means that if He is with us, who can be against us! Let us lift up our heads and do the work of the Lord together!

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Dr. Juergen Buehler serves as Executive Director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.