RE: Good Faith Media: Global Christian Population to reach 3.3 BN by 2050.
July 29, 2023 at 12:58 am
Christianity thinks in terms of decades and even half centuries. We are not concerned with this or that short term trend in this or that local place, particularly one as measured by this or that dubious poll from a liberal source. We are concerned with gradually building a Civilization and a Culture of Life and Love. Maybe by 2030, maybe by 2050. But in the end Humanity, by God's Grace, will get there, after some Tribulation, and Jesus Christ will establish His Messianic Kingdom of 1000 years spoken of by St. John the Apostle in the Book of Revelation, which will be a temporal Kingdom of Peace and Love that will last a long time. This will happen after Israel accepts Jesus Christ as her Messiah. From: https://catholicism.org/ad-rem-no-310.html
Quote:"Saint Paul speaks much more clearly in the Epistle to the Romans. The whole eleventh chapter treats of the subject of the mystery of the election of the Gentiles and the falling away of the Jews. Saint Paul reminds the Romans that there were Jews who were faithful and accepted Christ. He also reminds them not to be complacent but to take a lesson from the rejection of the Jews, that if God would not spare the chosen people from His wrath, neither will he spare the Gentiles, should they fall into sin. He says, “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery (lest you should be wise in your own conceits) that blindness in part has happened in Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in” (Rom. 11:25) This has always been interpreted by Catholics to mean that there will be a general conversion of the Jewish nation.
An impressive list of Fathers can be brought out who refer to this future conversion as a fact. Included are Tertullian, Origen, Saint Hilary, Saint Ambrose, Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Jerome, Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Saint Prosper of Aquitaine, Saint Gregory the Great, Saint Isidore, Saint Bede the Venerable, and Saint Anselm. Saint Cyril of Alexandria says this: “Towards the end of time, Our Lord Jesus Christ will effect the reconciliation of His former persecutor Israel with Himself. Everybody who knows Holy Scripture is aware that, in the course of time, this people will return to the love of Christ by the submission of faith…. Yes, one day, after the conversion of the Gentiles, Israel will be converted, and the Jews will be astonished at the Treasure they will find in Christ”(!) (Commentary on Genesis, Bk. 5).