Difference between revisions of "Christianity in Africa"

Latest revision as of 05:04, December 7, 2025

Watoto Children's Choir from Kampala, Uganda. In recent years, Christianity has seen a rapid growth in Africa.^[1]

In 2005, there were four times as many non-Western World Christians as there were Western World Christians.^[2]

Christianity in Africa has ancient roots going back nearly twenty centuries. In the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 8:26-40), it is documented that a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch, of great authority under Queen Candace of Ethiopia, was converted to the Lord by St. Philip the Apostle and baptized. Africa is the most religious country in the world (See: Religion and Africa).

Evangelism in Africa successfully focuses on the Gospels, particularly the Gospel of Mark whose author is considered African, and on portions of the New Testament that reference Africa. This is in contrast with the West, where the declining Christianity is increasingly dominated by readings from the Old Testament.

Christianity in Africa is currently a monumental success story, as Conservapedia predicted, and the hidden reasons behind that astonishing growth are becoming increasingly better known and more studied. For the needs of the Global Church, the successes of the Church in Africa will need to be replicated, first in Asia, where many have never known Christ, and then it can be used to re-invigorate missionary efforts to re-evangelize Europe and the Americas.

As of 2023, there are an estimated 718 million Christians from all denominations in Africa,^[3] up from about 10 million in 1900. ^[4]. The same Gordon Conwell university Study of Global Christianity projects 750+ Million Christians for Africa by 2025!^[3]

In the Bible

Acts 8:36-38 describes the incident: "As they traveled, they reached a body of water. The Eunuch said, "Here's some water. Why can't I be baptized here? Philip replied, "If you believe with your whole heart, you can!" He answered, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. He halted the chariot and they went over to the water, and Philip baptized him."

In Early History

The Church Father St. Irenaeus said of this man: "This man was also sent into the regions of Ethiopia, to preach what he had himself believed, that there was one God preached by the prophets, but that the Son of God had already made His appearance in human nature (secundum hominem), and had been led as a sheep to the slaughter; and all the other statements which the prophets made regarding Him." ^[5] St. Matthew the Apostle is also said to have preached to the Ethiopians.

Many of the Church Fathers of the first few Christian centuries were thus from Africa. This includes Origen, Tertullian, St. Clement of Alexandria, St. Cyprian, St. Athanasius, St. Augustine etc. After the rise of Islamism, Africa would fall to the new religion of Mohammed.

Rapid growth of Christianity in Africa in recent times

African Christians clapping at an open air meeting.

In recent years, Christianity has seen a rapid growth in Africa.^[6] See: Global Christianity

See also: Historical examples of the exponential growth of Christianity

Updated figures for 2021 show that there are now nearly 685 million Christians in Africa, already vastly surpassing projected figures for 2025.^[7] It shows Christianity continues to grow among every Continent and Tribe, just as was prophesied in the Scriptures long ago by the Prophet Daniel and Saint John the Apostle. The Prophet Daniel saw Christ at the right hand of the Father receive worship from people of every tribe and tongue and St. John the Apostle, in the Book of Revelation, prophetically foretells a vast multitude that no man could number, adoring and praising God and Christ. The updated projection for 2025, from Gordon Conwell, is now an amazing 760 Million!

New data from the Gordon Theological Seminary shows that, for the first time ever, more number of Christians live in Africa than on any other single continent.^[8]

"The results show Africa on top with 631 million Christian residents, Latin America in 2nd place with 601 million Christians, and Europe in 3rd place with 571 million Christians."^[9]

The statistics from the World Christian Encyclopedia (David Barrett) illustrate the emerging trend of dramatic Christian growth on the continent and supposes, that in 2025 there will be 633 million Christians in Africa.^[10]

For more information, please see: Study traces exponential growth of Christianity in Africa

Catholic Church in Africa

Philip Jenkins reported in the Catholic Herald: "In 1900, the whole of Africa had just a couple of million Catholics, but that number grew to 130 million by the end of the century, and today it approaches 200 million. If current trends continue, as they show every sign of doing, then by the 2040s there will be some 460 million African Catholics. Incredibly, that number would be greater than the total world population of Catholics as it stood in 1950."^[11]

By 2025, one-sixth (230 million) of the world's Catholics are expected to be Africans.^[12][13]

Accordingly, the latest available figures for 2020 show that 640 Million Africans are now Christians, reaching and surpassing the earlier estimate for 2025.^[14] As of 2020, Catholics worldwide were 1.33 billion.^[15] Similarly, the projections for Catholics have been exceeded, with 234 African Catholics, for the year ended 31 December 2017.^[16]

The way that things are going on in the African Continent, there are good prospects of there being over a billion African Christians in 20 years.

Successes of African Christianity

• greater emphasis on fasting and prayer, totaling 50-100 days per year
• rejection of the liberal agenda on social issues by the West, including rejection of the homosexual agenda and transgender agenda
• greater population growth with a much higher birth rate
• greater emphasis on the Gospels rather than on the Old Testament
• seeing diversity in the Apostles and early Christians, while Western liberals wrongly insist otherwise

Learning from the African Church's extraordinary success

• Learning from the African Church's extraordinary success, Christian Today, 2024
• Church in Africa Growing “stronger”, Nuncio in Kenya Says, Faults Church in Europe for Losing “its inner compass”, Aciaafrica.com, 2024

Religion by Nation

Muslim Genocide of Christians in Africa

Nations of Northern Africa, A few Nations of Northwestern Africa and the Horn of Africa, currently still have Muslim majorities or Muslim governments. Only a few of these nations have crossed the line from religious discrimination into genocide!
See Modern Genocide of Christians

See also

• Christian marriage
• Afterlife
• Global Christianity
• Christianity by continent
• Future of Christianity
• Christianity in Asia
• Christianity in Australia, Oceania, New Zealand
• Christianity in Europe
• Christianity in North America, Caribbean
• Christianity in South America, Central America
• Coptic Church
• Ethiopian Church
• Roman Catholic Church

References