What Remains of the Original New Testament Church?

This morning I was reading the introduction in my study Bible to the book of Titus. It was talking about the early church that Paul planted in Crete, and that got me thinking. Having spent my whole life living in America, there is oh so very much about the Mediterranean region that I do not know.

Is there still an active church in Crete?

Ha! Well, if you’re from that region, you might laugh at this question because Crete is statistically reported to be around 98% Christian.

But how would I know?

Crete is an island in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Greece. I often get it mixed up with Cyprus, which is also in the Mediterranean but closer to Syria and Israel. Here’s a map from my study Bible, enhanced by me with this circle I drew around Crete, to give you the basic idea of where Crete is:

Okay, great, some of the church is still there, but what about those areas just north of Israel, where Paul traveled and wrote letters to the people that make up parts of the New Testament? Like Ephesians and Colossians, for example.

I always find it discouraging that the very place where Christianity began is now not a Christian area at all.

Israel? Eh…Well, it’s a center for Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike, but Jesus followers are certainly not in the majority there.

Ephesus, Lycia, Laodicea, Colossae, all mentioned in Paul’s letters? Well, that is modern day Turkey, which is now 98% Muslim. When the Arabs came in and take over, they did an extremely thorough job of it. Christians now make up less than 1% of Turkey, as Christians have fled the country due to religious persecution over the years.

But once you get into Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Crete, and Italy you see that Paul and his contemporary’s missionary voyages had quite a long-lasting impact, as these areas are now predominantly Christian nations.

Even in Paul’s day, they persecuted Christians in all of these cities for converting to Christianity, but what about now? How much of these cities are Christian now? Just out of curiosity, I looked up the modern numbers.

Christians in Modern Day Places from the New Testament:

Jerusalem: 5% Christian

Antioch: now lies buried in ruins

Ephesus also in ruins

Malta: 98% Catholic

Rome: Italy is about 83% Christian, and obviously Rome is the long-standing center for the Roman Catholic Church. This is so amazing when you stop and realize how many Christians died in Rome, to include Paul and Peter.

Colossae: also a city that no longer exists, located in modern day Turkey

Corinth: Ancient Corinth is gone, thanks to the Turkish invasion of 1458, as well as an earthquake that leveled the place. There is a modern day Corinth, located near the old one, in the peninsula of Peloponnese of Greece. Greece is 98% Eastern Orthodox Christian.

Philippi: Philippi of the Bible was abandoned after the Ottoman Conquest. However, there is a present day Filippoi nearby. It is now part of Greece, so that area is also 98% Eastern Orthodox.

Thessalonica: It’s located in modern day Greece, so we’ll go with the 98% Eastern Orthodox number, though that’s not exact for the specific city. This one is actually still a thriving metropolis, the 2nd most important city in Greece. Thessaloniki is in the exact location of ancient Thessalonica.

…..And America: The early church’s reach wasn’t just to the missionary journeys made by the apostles. Their teachings passed to generation after generation after generation, so the early church is obviously still affecting us today right here in America.

Just out of curiosity, I looked up our current Christianity numbers in the United States.

According to the 2017 Gallup poll, about 75% of Americans are Christian, with 48.5% of Americans as Protestants and 23% as Catholics.

75% of Americans are Christians. The next biggest group is basically atheists and agnostics, at 21% of the population. All the other groups make up a tiny percentage. Did you notice that more people in Italy and Greece claim to be Christian than in America?

All in all, I’d say the church is alive and kickin’. We aren’t always united or even practicing what we preach. However, the church never was perfect, was it? From the get go, we made mistakes. I think that is because it’s an entire organization run by humans, and humans are fallible. We are not above errors or even sin.

Also, perhaps as a modern day church we are relying too much on our own power and understanding, rather than relying on God.

However, we serve a just, powerful, and merciful God who loves us where were are, in spite of our imperfections, and helps us to become better. Now it’s up to us to rely on the Holy Spirit to teach us to act more like Jesus so we can keep passing on the love of Jesus to our future generations.