19AR24-05

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AR 24:5 - Is it always God's will to heal?

In this issue:

HEALING - responding to a common misunderstanding

STATISTICS IN RELIGION - "more 'God-and-Country' black Protestants than you'd predict"

+ faith is on the rise globally, but in the West, "fuzzy secularity and a complex religious landscape coincide"

Apologia Report 24:5 (1,413)

January 30, 2019

HEALING

"Is It God's Will to Always Heal?" -- when I (RP) worked at the Christian Research Institute from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, this was one of the most frequent questions that came our way. Little has changed since then. In his September 4, 2018 article, Tim Barnett of Stand to Reason presents a good approach to the delicate issues involved.

"My friend Alex is dying from brain cancer. ... He described how parents from the Christian school where he worked came over to express their concern that Alex wasn't getting better. More than that, they expressed concern about why he wasn't getting better. They told Alex and his wife that he could be healed if he only had enough faith. They told him that it was his own fault - his lack of faith - that was preventing his healing.

"Furthermore, they described how immediate physical healing is guaranteed in the atonement. Just as there is spiritual healing - forgiveness and justification - in the atonement for all who believe, there is also immediate physical healing in the atonement for all who believe.

"God has done His part (they said). Our immediate physical healing has been bought and paid for in the death of Christ. Now it's up to us to receive that healing through faith. So, the problem isn't on God's end; rather, it's on our end."

The misconception that it is always God's will to heal is most widespread among Pentecostal and charismatic Christians. Barnett's introductory response links to a biblical theology of suffering <www.bit.ly/2W8wAly> that he has developed in greater detail. He begins with the foundational biblical principle that "In a fallen world, we should not be surprised by suffering." <www.bit.ly/2HomVUE>

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STATISTICS IN RELIGION

"Splicing and dicing American religion today: How about a seven-party Pew typology?" by Richard Ostling (GetReligion, Sep 6 '18) -- reports that "the ubiquitous Pew Research Center is splicing and dicing its survey data to discern a new seven-party system, what the title of its latest report <www.pewrsr.ch/2Mp06z6> calls 'The Religious Typology: A New Way to Categorize Americans by Religion.' ...

"Pew labels 40 percent of U.S. adults as 'highly religious,' sharing traditional belief in the God of the Bible and looking upon faith fondly, segmented into these three groups." They are:

1 - "Sunday Stalwarts" 17%

2 - "God-and-Country Believers" 12%

3 - "Diversely Devout" 11%

("Next come two types of 'somewhat religious' Americans.")

4 - "Relaxed Religious" 17%

5 - "Spiritually Awake" 15%

("Finally, Pew defines two 'non-religious' categories.")

6 - "Religion Resisters" 12%

7 - "Solidly Secular" 17%

Pew "underscores some data points. Evangelicals dominate among the Sunday Stalwarts, which explains their cultural impact. 'Mainline' Protestants and Catholics, by contrast, are quite evenly spread among categories 1 through 5 with Catholics surprisingly thin on Stalwarts. There are more 'God-and-Country' black Protestants than you'd predict. Jews are profoundly polarized with hefty numbers in both the most religious and the most secular categories. And much else." <www.bit.ly/2Ms7Znc>

"Why Faith Is Becoming More and More Popular" by Harriet Sherwood -- this report from the UK's Guardian newspaper announces that "Faith is on the rise and 84% of the global population identifies with a religious group. ...

"How many believers are there around the world?

"If you think religion belongs to the past and we live in a new age of reason, you need to check out the facts: 84% of the world's population identifies with a religious group. Members of this demographic are generally younger and produce more children than those who have no religious affiliation, so the world is getting more religious, not less – although there are significant geographical variations.

"According to 2015 figures, Christians form the biggest religious group by some margin, with 2.3 billion adherents or 31.2% of the total world population of 7.3 billion. Next come Muslims (1.8 billion, or 24.1%), Hindus (1.1 billion, or 15.1%) and Buddhists (500 million, or 6.9%). ...

"But the third-biggest category is missing from the above list. In 2015, 1.2 billion people in the world, or 16%, said they have no religious affiliation at all. This does not mean all those people are committed atheists; some – perhaps most – have a strong sense of spirituality or belief in God, gods or guiding forces, but they don't identify with or practise an organised religion."

Sherwood breaks down the sub-groups and related geographic distribution including: "97% of Hindus live in three Hindu-majority countries: India, Mauritius and Nepal, while 87% of Christians live in 157 Christian-majority countries. Three-quarters of Muslims live in Muslim-majority countries.

"In contrast, most Buddhists (72%) live as a minority in their home countries."

Further, "religion is on the wane in western Europe and North America, and it's growing everywhere else." Details follow, but "It's mainly down to births and deaths, rather than religious conversion." Nevertheless, "23% of American Muslims say they are converts to the faith, and in recent years there has been growing anecdotal evidence of Muslim refugees converting to Christianity in Europe.

"China has seen a huge religious revival in recent years and some predict it will have the world's largest Christian population by 2030."

Sherwood also briefly explores "science and religion" and the lack of "religious literacy." Regarding the latter: "Myths and factual inaccuracies about religious beliefs and texts are common, and many say that education about religious education is as important to understanding the world as history, geography, science and art are.

"According to Harvard's Religious Literacy Project <www.rlp.hds.harvard.edu> ... There are many consequences of this illiteracy, but the most urgent is that it fuels conflict and antagonisms and hinders cooperative endeavors in all arenas of human experience. [Ding! Ding! Ding!]

"Religious literacy is a particular problem of the developed West, where fuzzy secularity and a complex religious landscape coincide." The Guardian, Aug 27 '18, <www.bit.ly/2TaLl5u>

For a good deal of historical context related to conflicting statistical journalism, look no further than what we've mentioned in our back issues: <www.bit.ly/2FM3gfZ>

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