Compiled from information from - U.S. Center For World Mission, Mission Frontiers Bulletin, Lausanne Task Force, Coral Ridge Ministries and other Evangelical sources.

In order to appreciate this wonderful information that is presented in the Population Growth Chart at the left, let us first look into what the Bible tells about God's projected plan for the family of man on planet earth.

The Bible opens with the words: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Genesis 1:1

Then in verse 26 of that same first chapter of Genesis: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominon over the fish of the sea, and over the fow l of the air, and over the cattle, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him: male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. "Genesis 1:26-28

Starting with one man and one woman, God planned to fill the earth with the family of Adam and Eve

How well that has been accomplished is measured in the chart at the left.

Careful and diligent research by dedicated men and women reveals that the growth was rather slow for many centuries. After thousands of years had passed, the world population at the end of the first century A.D. was less that 200 million souls! But today in less that 1900 years, that total has reached 5,000 million souls!

At the end of the first century the number of Bible Believing Christians numbered no more than 500,000 or about one fourth of one percent of the world population.

Today, in a world population of five billion souls, the Bible Believing Christians number at least 540 million, and that is ten percent of the total population.

Have we entered the post-Christian age? Is the Christian church on the decline? Much is said in the news and on TV today about the decline of moral values and the decline of the church's influence in the world. The question then arises: Is it true that Christians are losing the battle to other faiths and other forces in the world?

The charts here show that just the opposite is true. Instead of declining, the number of evangelical Christians has been growing rapidly. The number of Christians has been growing at more than three times the rate of world population growth. Between 1950 and 1992, Bible believing Christians went from just 3% of the world population to 10% of the population. This is a jump from 80 million to 540 million.

While the West was busy fighting the Cold War, Bible believing Christians were quietly but dramatically winning the battle of ideology all over the world. Today in the Russian Republic, Biblical Christianity is being taught openly in every school of the land.

Many other areas of the world have seen spectacular growth of the Christian church. The number of African Christians has grown from just 3% of all Africans in 1900 to 46% today. Asian Christianity has grown from 16 million to 75 million in just the last nine years. The evangelical movement in Latin America is currently growing at three times the general rate of population. When the Communists took over in 1949 there were only around 1 million Christians in China. While under intense and severe persecution, the number of Christians in China has grown to over 60 million believers today.

This growth trend, while accelerating dramatically in recent years has been continuing relentlessly for almost 2,000 years. In 100 AD there were an estimated

360 non-Christians for every Christian. Today there are only 6.8 non-Christians (Those who do not claim to be Christian) for every evangelical Christian.

God's initiative since AD 100 displays determined and increasing activity to build His church. Note: It took 18 centuries for evangelicals to go from 0% of the world population to 2.5% in 1900, only 70 years to go from 2.5% to 5% in 1970 and just the last 22 years to go from 5% to 10% of the world population. What this means is that now, for the first time in history, there is one evangelical for very 9 non-evangelicals world-wide.

According to Dr. Ralph Winter of the US Center for World Mission, "Despite the rapid increase in world population, the number of faithful Bible-believing Christians is increasing faster than any other large movement or religion. It is doubling every ten and a half years."

In Matthew 13:39b Jesus said to his disciples, "The harvest is the end of the world: and the reapers are the angels."

But before that harvest could be reaped the sowers must go forth into all the world and sow the good seed of the Word of God.

In Mark 16:15-16 Jesus commanded his disciples and apostles, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be dammed."

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Created by Serge Taran.
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Revised: September 11, 1999.