Since the start of the Industrial Revolution and the advent of Darwinism, Christian institutions have been very much under siege. Not only is church attendance way down (especially in Europe), but also there are fewer and fewer among the ranks of nominal Christians who have anything like the deep devotion and faith we read about in the pages of the New Testament. Christianity is fast becoming little more than an ethnic heritage. And even nominal Christians are a minority in the world—only about one third of the world’s current population is even nominally Christian. Yet the New Testament lays down very stringent requirements to be a follower of Christ—so only a tiny fraction of even the nominal Christians meet the scriptural standard of what it means to be a disciple. Relatively few people are being saved—yet God says that He wants all people to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4).

Has Christ failed? Is God unable or unwilling to reach out to mankind and save the world? Why is the world still shrouded in darkness, when the followers of Christ have had almost 2,000 years to spread the word?

Prophesied long ago

The erosion of Christianity is not new, and it is not a surprise. Christ spoke of it, and revealed it to the apostles—both during His ministry and in the vision given to John in the book of Revelation. Paul, John and Jude all mentioned it. The outward, visible signs of collapse that have appeared over the last two centuries are just the most recent manifestations of a process that has been going on since the first century.

Paul warned the church at Thessalonica that they would encounter false teachers who would say that Christ’s return was imminent (2 Thessalonians 2:1-7). He gave them one sign to look for in determining whether the end of the age really was near: There must first be a great apostasy. The King James Version renders the Greek word apostasia as “falling away”—that there must “come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed” (verse 3). Paul went on to say that this evil was already active in the world in their time: “For the mystery of iniquity [evildoing] doth already work…” (2 Thessalonians 2:7). One of the major signs of Christ’s return is a great falling away from the truth—the erosion of Christianity on a grand scale.

The words of Jesus agree that the end of the age will be a terrible time to be a Christian: “Then they will deliver you up to tribulations and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:9-12). It will be so hard to hold on to our faith that Jesus lamented, “When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).

Ambitious men have always grabbed for power over the organized Church. We have the first-century examples of Diotrephes, whom John denounced in 3 John 1:9-10, and Simon the sorcerer (Acts 8:9-24), who tried to buy his way into the ministry. Gibbons’ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire details many more such accounts in later centuries. In the end time, the use of religion for personal and political gain will be as bad as it’s ever been. That is one reason why the love of many will wax cold. People will be thoroughly disillusioned with religion.

One reaction to the apparent failure of organized Christianity to win the hearts and minds of the human race has been to water down the requirements for being a Christian. The New Testament is very specific about what God expects of Christians, and yet preachers have failed to teach this to prospective converts. In their urgent passion to get as many people “saved” as possible, they have filled their churches with people whose commitment is shallow—people who have no idea what it means to be a Christian—and who will quit just as quickly as they joined. It is a great disservice to give people a false sense of security in their relationship to Christ. So many people are unaware of what they must do to be secure in their salvation. They will be shocked when their Lord says to them, “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23). We are commanded to teach new converts the full teachings of Christ (Matthew 28:20). It is not enough to persuade people to accept Christ. That is only the beginning.

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).

Generation after generation have grown up not knowing Christ, not knowing God’s Word, not prepared to really grow as a Christian and not prepared to endure to the end. They, like the Church in Sardis, are alive in name only (Revelation 3:1). The Christian movement seems to have lost its momentum. In this age, the true knowledge of God is not sweeping the world—it’s being swept aside and buried under a tidal wave of competing religious and philosophical ideas. And yet God inspired the prophets to speak of a time when everyone in the world would know Him and have opportunity to repent and receive His forgiveness. (Jeremiah 31:34; Hebrews 8:11; Isaiah 40:3-5; Luke 3:3-6; Joel 2:28) and when the true knowledge of God would inundate the world as thoroughly as water covers the ocean floors (Isaiah 11:9).

How the world will be saved

The question is not whether God wants to, or can, save the world, but when He will do it! In this age, few are saved. In this age, salvation is by invitation from the Father only (John 6:44). The real age of salvation begins after Christ’s return, when the devil is imprisoned (Revelation 20:1-3) and his dominion over this world is ended (2 Corinthians 4:4; Luke 4:5-6). Once Satan’s spiritual broadcast of hate and filth is switched off (Ephesians 2:2; Revelation 20:3), the world will at last be receptive to God’s spirit. The salvation of the world fundamentally cannot be accomplished as long as Satan is on the loose.

All those then living will be called to salvation. And all those who have lived down through the ages without being invited to salvation, will be raised to life and called to salvation in the judgment period (Ezekiel 36:27; 37:13-14; John 5:25, 28; Revelation 20:4-16).