Dear Church, the World Isn’t Getting Worse.

It’s easy to think that the world is getting worse. Especially in the light of the recent events: shootings in Oregon, the earthquakes in Nepal, our current presidential candidates (joking, kind of).

The media feasts on the stories of war, disasters, and deranged killers. What the media fails to cover, often times, are the good stories, the ones that give hope and might suggest maybe, just maybe, the world is getting better.

I understand that there are some people who are shocked that I think the world is getting better. I mean, with the Planned Parenthood abortion videos, or the recent Supreme Court ruling, a lot of Christians think that because their values aren’t being honored on a national level, the world must be getting worse.

In fact, one study reveals that 66% of Americans think that the world population living in poverty has almost doubled in the last 20 years. And yet another 29% think that it has remained the same.

According to the United Nations, the truth is that the proportion of people living in extreme poverty has actually almost halved. World Bank data reveal that poverty has fallen from 35% in 1993 to 14% in 2011. Ninety-five percent of Americans are very gloomy about the amount of poverty in the world … and also very wrong.

In addition to that, the church will be glad to hear the following: (I stole these from my friend Brant’s blog and he got them from the book Victorious Eschatology)

1. The Church is growing at a faster rate than ever before – including the first 500 years when it went from 12 people to the entire Roman empire
2. Over 200,000 people are now becoming born-again Christians every day
3. In 100 years Africa has gone from 9% to 45% Christian
4. In 50 years China has gone from a couple million to over 50 million Christians
5. In the last 2000 years the percent of humanity enslaved has reduced from 16% to 0.4%
6. Countries among the most impoverished in the world will see acute poverty eradicated within 20 years if they continue at present rates

All of this to say I don’t think it’s getting worse. But my conviction that the world is actually getting better is deeper than the statistics.

I guess you could say that it has more to do with my understanding of who God is and how he works in our lives.

You see, I can’t see how the church would be victorious if she slowly wastes away during the tribulation, scraping to survive. I don’t think that is God’s intention with his people.

Yes, I believe that we will go through trial and tribulation, but I don’t think it ends there.

I believe we go through trial so that we may be successful, so we can have a deeper understanding of God, and so we can learn in a way that only pain can teach us. When we make something of our pain, when we take the hard parts of life and learn from it, we are victorious in it.

I firmly hold to the conviction that there is NOTHING that the enemy or the world can throw at us that God can’t redeem for our good.

You see, I have seen tremendous fruit come from death, loss, abuse, and hurt, but only when people try to create meaning out of it. When they let God enter their pain and sorrow and see him redeem it.

I’m beginning to think that as a whole, the church is starting to understand the pain that she experiences and she is able to create meaning out of it that spurs her into action.

CHURCH, we ARE changing the world. We are making a difference and I think the stats above show that. But we cannot choose to be victim to our circumstances. We cannot change the world with a defeatist attitude.

Please tell me how worrying about the antichrist or the end of the world is bearing good fruit. Those who act in accordance with such beliefs are often governed by fear, which isn’t how we should be making any of our decisions.

So the next time you hear someone lamenting the state of the world and how much worse it is getting, politely disagree and let them know you think it is getting better. Educate them with the hopeful stats on poverty or perhaps some stats on how the church is growing.

If we believe that we can change the world. If we believe that through the way we live our lives we can make the world better. I think we will see that Christ is truly victorious, even on this side of heaven.