Modern Times
The bloody power struggles that were based on religious differences raged from the early 1500s. But by the mid 1600s, armed conflicts had settled down and there was general tolerance of different religious views in the West. The later 1600s and 1700s were times of much philosophical free thinking from which developed several schools of thought about Christianity. These included the Empiricists, Rationalists, Deists, Jansenists, Quietists, Arminians, and Pietists. Today there exist hundreds of individual Protestant churches, each interpreting Christianity differently and choosing a unique form of worship. Today the world has about two billion self-declared Chrstians, with the Roman Catholic Church claiming about 50%, the Eastern Orthodox about 10%, and the rest distributed among the many Protestant denominations.
It is notable that the United States was born in the late 1700s with its Constitution allowing complete freedom of religious choice. No other governments offered this freedom at that time. Up until then, a ruler's choice of religion became the one religion of the state, so that church and state were intertwined. Freedom to worship without political interference became the standard of practically all Western governments in following years.
The early Christians faced great adversity in their struggle to grow the faith. Their perseverance led to Christianity becoming a major organized religion offering numerous forms of worship that can appeal to a broad range of believers. With so many different churches available, it should be easy for any Christian to find a favorite church. Yet regular church attendance is on a downward trend. US statistics indicate that less than half of all self declared Christians attend church service regularly. In Europe the percentage is even less. Some would debate whether regular church worship is necessary to practice the faith. But Jesus wanted churches to be used to spread the faith. Churches today continue to reach out and adapt worship services to appeal to the majority of Christians who do not attend regularly, with even more proliferation of non-denominational Christian worship. From the most modest of beginnings, Christianity now has about a third of the world population as followers who believe in the message that God has provided through Christ.
