Dear Editor,
Eric Barger’s article ‘Churches in Jeopardy’ (en December 2017) was timely and important. We certainly need to be aware of some of the unscriptural ideas seeping into the church, and be warned about their potential detrimental impact. However, I don’t share Eric’s pessimistic view of the future of the church, where ‘error will be the norm … and orthodoxy will be the oddity.’ I don’t buy into the scenario of inevitable decline, which can easily discourage faithful people.
Firstly, we need to look at the church on a world scale, not just the situation in the West. There is tremendous growth in China and other parts of Asia, and also in parts of Africa and South America. This growth will continue, since the Bible says that in heaven there will be a ‘great multitude … from every nation, tribe, people and language.’ (Revelation 7.9).