Welcome back to a new week on the Ask Pastor John podcast with John Piper. Listener Brittany writes in to ask this, "Dear Pastor John, I currently live in Hungary and am experiencing firsthand the current refugee crisis. There has been so much talk and debating among Christians here about how we are to view the refugees and how we are to view this situation in light of the end times.

Everyone seems to think that this crisis is the end to Christian freedom in Europe because of the influx of Muslims and a sign of the end times. Pastor John, do you see this situation as a start to the beginning of persecution for Christians in Europe? People think that because there will be many more Muslims, that Europe will become a Muslim continent.

What is your opinion on this?" I am reading at the moment Philip Jenkins' book, The Next Christendom. It's about the massive changes, especially in the last hundred years, as the preponderance of Christians has moved from the old established churches in the West, including Europe and the United States, to the global South of Asia, Africa, Latin America.

And part of this change is owing to the increased secularization of Europe and America. Part of it is owing to the stunning vitality and spread of Christianity in the global South. Part of it is owing to the drastic drop in birth rates in modern secular states compared to the comparatively huge population growth in the global South.

And more relevantly here, part of it is owing to immigration as millions of people move around, move from North to South or global South into Europe and America to form problems or blessings. And both are probably true. And some of that is owing to crises like in Syria today and the present situation in Europe with the influx of immigrants.

This has been happening for a long time, this movement from what were formerly two-thirds world or Muslim world or pagan world or newly Christian global South into the formerly old, large established Christian lands. 95% of the population of London is non-white British. That statistic is kind of snuck up on the world, I think.

The biggest churches in London are gatherings of African and Caribbean worshippers. Those immigrants who are flooding into America, into Europe, bring with them their own religion and customs and will inevitably shape the cultures into which they move. If they're Christian, they may bring vitality and power of Christianity in a dying West, but they may be viewed as a threat if they bring another religion like Islam to the heart of France or Germany or Hungary.

And yet, on the other hand, they may be the economic salvation of those very lands because the birth rates have so precipitously fallen that those lands cannot in the generations to come sustain the economic burden that the aging populations need support with. And these lands are the most socialistic in the world except for the communistic countries that still remain.

And that creates an expectation of government provision and heavy taxation and there'll be nobody to tax if they don't have more workers and so there are positive sides to this influx as well as negative ones as they might see them. So Brittany says, this is really her question, that she's talking to people and they're saying, number one, this may be the end of Christian freedom in Europe if Muslims take over and establish Sharia law, presumably.

And number two, is this the sign of the end of the times, the end of history? And she wonders my opinion. My opinion is, and it's a pretty strong opinion, it's a conviction, the present movement of peoples all over the world may, underline that word, result in the disestablishment of Christianity from its prominent place in certain Western countries and may result in a sweeping predominance of Islam or even Sharia law and that this influx may not result in the diminishing of Christianity or the establishment of Islam but in fact may result in a massive spread of the Christian message among more and more peoples so that at the end of the 21st century, Europe is the most authentically Christian that it has ever been.

That's my conviction. Both of those may happen. So no, I don't have any sense of authority to pronounce that this is the end of Christianity in Europe or the beginning of a Islamic state. Who knows? God knows. And we should pray earnestly for the sweeping of the Christian gospel in power across all the peoples who are coming in and all those who have already forsaken it who live there.

Which is simply to say that I believe in the sovereignty of God. Jesus said all authority in heaven and on earth, in Hungary and in France and in Germany and in Syria, all authority is mine. So go make disciples. There is no historical circumstance that exists today that could possibly prevent a great Christian revival in Europe and a great spread of Christian preponderance if God in his sovereignty willed it to be so, and that's what we should pray.

And therefore, my opinion with regard to how the present situation relates to the end times is that we may be on the brink of a final—underline the word "may"—we may be on the brink of a final great outbreak of persecution that would lead to the completion of the Great Commission by the blood of the martyrs, the in-gathering of God's elect, the great conversion of the Jewish people, and the revelation of our Lord Jesus in the clouds to establish his kingdom on the earth that is fully possible in the next years because, again, God is sovereign.

It is not ours to know the times and the seasons. It is ours to witness to the ends of the earth no matter the cost. Here's what I think we can say with certainty regarding the end times, namely that we are in them now and have been in them since the coming of Christ because that's the way the New Testament talks, and it talks in this way about the persecution of the church in every age.

Let me read this passage from 1 Peter 4:12 because it is so pertinent to this question. It says, verse 7 of chapter 4, "The end of all things is at hand." Okay, that's the end of the first century. The end of all things is at hand. "Therefore, be self-controlled, so reminded for the sake of your prayers." Verse 12, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you.

This is what you expect when the end is at hand. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God rest upon you.

"For," here it comes, "for it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome of those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" So I think Brittany and the believers in Hungary and other European countries should press on with every possible means of spreading the gospel and displaying the justice and the mercy of Jesus and how they relate to their post-Christian culture on one hand and these ever-increasing Muslim neighbors on the other.

I think they should pray earnestly that God would turn this wave of immigration into a great gospel advance in ways that no one perhaps can even imagine. That's the kind of God that we have. Amen. Yes, it is. Man, may this be true. What a fascinating and faith-building perspective, Pastor John.

Thank you. And thank you for the question, Brittany. In this episode, Pastor John earlier mentioned a book, it's a book he commends, and it's titled The Next Christendom, the Coming of Global Christianity by Philip Jenkins. Be sure to check that out. Also in the news is Bernie Sanders. And when Bernie Sanders is in the news, socialism is in the news.

And the listener wants to know how Christians should think about socialism, which is exactly what we'll do tomorrow. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. For more on this podcast and to send us your questions, visit us at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. We'll see you tomorrow.