THE TRUTH OF CHRIST IN A PLURALISTIC, GLOBALISED WORLD

​“Everyone is now everywhere!”

“Cinema is the new church!”
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These were some of the comments made during the first full day of Cape Town 2010 Congress on World Evangelisation. Os Guiness declared: “Most prominent Christian leaders have clearly articulated the problems but are very unclear on their Christian answers to these problems. In fact, the world has never seen such compromise, cowardice, heresy and apostasy as is being evidenced in, for example, the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.”

​Globalisation and Religious Resurgence
Mr. Guinness noted that there are two realities confronting us today which were not even on the world map at the first Lausanne Congress in 1974. Globalisation is transforming human identity and, against all expectations, we’re seeing widespread religious resurgence worldwide.

Three of the big questions confronting the world today are religious:
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• Will Islam modernize peacefully?
• Which faith will fill the vacuum left by the collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries?
• Will the West return to, or will it continue to sever, its Christian roots?

Mr. Guinness observed that Christianity is the largest, most diverse, most international faith ever seen in the history of mankind. The challenge is that we must be part of the global movement to bring the world real solutions to the crushing issues and pressing questions of our day.

“Will Christians contribute meaningfully and constructively to solutions to the challenges of our age?”
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“How do we live with our deep differences in a globalised and pluralistic world?”

Os Guiness observed that human beings need a sense of meaning and of belonging, and there is no way that secularisation can provide either.

Media
During a time of discussion one evangelist pointed out that every Christian ministry should be a media presence. We have the truth of the Resurrection, evidence, facts, history, reality and logic on our side. The Gospel changes lives and must transform society. We need to utilize every media available in order to communicate the Gospel in a clear and relevant way.

Worldviews
Worldviews are interacting and clashing in the public arena with new intensity. In our globalised and pluralistic world, we need to equip Christians to effectively proclaim, demonstrate and defend the truth – as found in Christ, the source and embodiment of all truth. Christ is the sustainer of the universe, the One in whom all things hold together.

Secularisation
Denial of the existence of God inevitably leads to denial of truth itself. Human beings are constructing gods of their own imagination, or choosing to live in an alternative reality where they vainly believe there is no God. Those who take their faith seriously are viewed with suspicion and often with hostility. Christians who are confident in their faith are increasingly being perceived as arrogant and intolerant.

Education
Over the last 30 years there has been a disastrous shift in Western education away from the authority of the written text. The author’s intent is now displaced by the subjective interpretations of the readers. The existentialism, antinomianism and egalitarianism has gutted many Western institutions of learning objectivity.

Biblical Boldness
The Church needs to boldly and Biblically stand on the Bible as the infallible Word of God and in bold humility call the world back to God and to the claims, the Cross and the commands of Christ.


Frontline Fellowship

P.O. Box 74
Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021-689-4480
Fax: 021-685-5884
Email: mission@frontline.org.za