Who was Jesus? He was a remarkable man—but His true identity has occupied thinkers for centuries.

This question can actually be answered by reflecting on some of the astonishing claims Jesus made about Himself. In fact, Jesus once made the audacious claim to be able to forgive sins—something only God alone can do.

So, at this point, Jesus was effectively claiming to be God.

So who did Jesus really think He was? Well, there are three ways of assessing Jesus’ astonishing claim:

• First, Jesus was wrong about being God and he knew it, so he was a liar.
• Second, Jesus was wrong and he didn’t know it, so he was crazy.
• Or third, He wasn’t wrong at all. He was speaking the truth, and if so, then He would truly be the Lord.

Liar, lunatic, or the Lord — the only three options.

So, who do you think Jesus was?

Article supplied with thanks to City Bible Forum.

Feature image: Photo by Sára Sedlmajerová on Unsplash

About the author: Robert Martin oversees the work of City Bible Forum in Melbourne and is the host of the Bigger Questions radio show / podcast.

Are we getting more Christians in the West? Or less? Is there a quiet revival? Or is that just noisy hope?

For every set of stats such as the Bible Society UK’s Quiet Revival report, there is a pooh-poohing naysayer who says that it’s all smoke and mirrors. And it’s hard to argue with the census data over the past twenty years.

Australian data shows that in the past two censuses an extra 900,000 people ticked “No Religion” each time. What’s the bet that that occurs again in 2026 with the next census?

But something is going on. We’re seeing a definite Christianity vibe shift. It’s clear that the public conversation around Christianity has increased hugely in the past few years. The algorithm doesn’t lie:

Whether at the intellectual level, with the likes of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Tom Holland; the popular cultural level with the likes of Nick Cave and Joe Rogan, or the baldly theological conversation level – with the likes of spokespeople such as Justin Brierley and Wes Huff, the conversation is ramping up. So perhaps not a revival, but signs of spring. Or as Brierley would say, a returning tide.

And of course there are the anecdotes. If I had a fiver for every pastor or ministry leader who tells me that – contrary to any experience in the past – young people, especially young men, are turning up “cold” at church to ask questions about faith and baptism, then I’d race down to the Nike store and buy me a couple of pairs of those expensive carbon-plated racing shoes.

Put it this way, the stats may be still saying that religion is in decline, that there are less Christians. But what is becoming clear is that those who are Christians are more Christian! We’re not necessarily experiencing “more Christians”, but we are certainly experiencing a phenomenon of those who are either staying Christian, or indeed becoming Christian, being “more Christian”. They’re signing up for all of the add-ons.

They know there are few kudos from the world for holding Christian views, so they are coming to the faith with eyes wide open. They’re past caring whether they may get cancelled by people whose own lives are so despairing and whose opinions are so random, that they cannot be taken seriously. So there is a definite surge in interest right at the very time many were predicting the Christian branches to die off and wither completely.

Which kinda makes sense. Pope Benedict said of the church, “Pruned, it grows”. Perhaps what we have seen has been as much a work of God as anything else. Honestly? I want heterodox churches to die. I don’t want them hanging around like vultures seeking out the pickings. I also don’t want lost young people turning up at such churches and being made twice the sons of hell that they were from these cultural pharisees.

We knew that the pruning idea is a theological reality well before Benedict ever said it, but I believe we are seeing that now in a major way. The falling away was a necessary falling away. In fact what we have experienced the past couple of decades is John the Apostle’s assertions writ large and wide:

Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. (1John 2:18-19)

The collapse of nominalism in the West can, at some level, be linked to the ” going out” – the drift from a robust orthodox faith, that was experienced in the West. Not to say that dead orthodoxy doesn’t kill either, but not in this most recent decline. The terminal collapse of a modernist, progressive Christianity antithetical to orthodox beliefs and practices is antichrist in all of the ways that the Apostle John speaks of. And it shows that “Less Christian” is merely a stepping stone to “Not Christian at all”. At least not in any way that the Bible would describe.

But then again when the Bible is no longer authoritative in your Christian community, then it won’t be long before it isn’t a community of Christians. It won’t be long before it is a community of activists whose gospel seems, conveniently and suspiciously, to line up with whatever agenda is on the progressive “to-do” list this decade.

Don’t think, however, that progressives are re-examining their beliefs and saying “You know, maybe we got this wrong!” Not on your life! Such types tend to double down and see orthodox beliefs as the enemy of progress. They are withering and dying. They aren’t even robust to be pruned. They’re just dropping off.

But that’s no great loss. In fact the census data, including here in Australia, is proof that we are experiencing a reduction in the “More Christian” category, but simply a collapse of non-attending, non-observing nominalism.

Once it was easy to put a pencil strike through the religion of choice that you never engaged with. Now it’s just as simple to put an online “tick” on the “No Religion” option.

The fact that 1.8million Australians ticked the “No Religion” box in the last two censuses, is simply an acknowledgement of this nominal decline. Whoever they were, they weren’t you! You weren’t coming to census night after a particularly bad Kids’ Church experience on Sunday when one of the mums had a go at your pedagogy, and saying “Right, that’s it! I’m done with Jesus!”

By and large the young men seeking faith (and there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that young men are turning up unannounced at churches), are not seeking it in places that have deconstructed. Or in other words, apostatised. I’ve said it often, but no one is committing to churches that seem no different to what is on offer in the world. Why get out of bed on a cold Sunday for that?

So we may not be seeing “more Christians”, but we are definitely seeing that those seeking Christianity, are seeking the “More Christian” version of it. Or as James Marriott calls it in The Times article he wrote this past weekend, Full-Fat Faith. None of this skimmed milk version. And spare me the oat “milk” or almond “milk”. Or in US terms, give me the full 3.25 % stuff, none of this aenemic 2 per cent.

Marriott, an agnostic himself, makes this observation:

The pseudo-rebellious anti-Christian pose once common in the mainstream media makes little sense to younger people. “You don’t feel the need to rebel against it because it’s not hegemonic in the first place,” says Esmé Partridge, 25, a writer and recent convert. If you’re young, the establishment is obviously secular. Nowadays, it is precisely Christianity’s marginal status that lends it glamour and charisma, comparable perhaps to the appeal of exotic-seeming eastern religions in the 1960s. Bizarre as it may seem to older readers, “trad” Catholicism, with its mantillas, rosaries and the Latin Mass, has been a feature of New York’s edgier-than-thou hipster scene for so long it is now almost a cliché.

Which is all just hunky dory. Except of course, with this caveat: When we live in a culture in which to be on the edges is to be the “cool kids” then we might just find out that when “cool” shifts again, people will leave again in droves.

Yet my experience in talking to pastors is that no one is coming because of the “cool” factor. They’re coming primarily because of the other critical observation that Marriott makes:

Meanwhile, the traditional consolations of a well-lived secular life are weakening. Romance, friendship, family and materialism figure less prominently as sources of meaning in the lives of a generation that is poorer, lonelier, less sexually active, less sociable and less likely to start a family. And in the age of the smartphone, inane short-form videos and social media doom-scrolling are undoubtedly addictively entertaining but not very profound or spiritually nourishing.

The meaning and purpose bucket has been emptied by the shallowness of the modern immanent frame. It’s as if living life only for yourself and for your immediate pleasures and fulfilment – the expressive individualism we all speak of – isn’t the way life is intended to be lived. Fancy that!

Now this is not to say that many young people reject the traditional Christian faith because of its robust and angular (in their eyes) perspectives on sexual relationships. There are many young people seeking out Tarot, Psychic readings etc, which all offer you a sense of control over your world with any pesky ethical commitments. But there’s no “full-fat” in any of that stuff. It will exhaust itself eventually. I am confident of that.

So are there “more Christians” That much can be, and is being, disputed. But are those who are becoming Christian – especially the younger crowd – “more Christian”? That much seems to be clear. Let’s see where it goes.

Article supplied with thanks to Stephen McAlpine

About the Author: Stephen has been reading, writing and reflecting ever since he can remember. A former church pastor, he now trains church and ministry leaders, and in his writing dabbles in a number of fields, notably theology and culture.

Feature image: Canva

While headlines often paint a picture of religious decline in Australia, new research is highlighting a different—and surprising—story: Australians are returning to Christianity in unexpected numbers.

Social research group McCrindle has just released An Undercurrent of Faith: Exploring Australians’ renewed relationship with Christianity, a study combining analysis of Census data with a nationally representative survey of over 3,000 Australians. 

The findings reveal that nearly 800,000 people who identified as having “no religion” in 2016 listed Christianity as their faith by the 2021 Census. That number jumps to 2.4 million over the past three Census periods.

Mark McCrindle, social researcher and founder of McCrindle, shares about the findings of their new report.

“Most people are aware of the headline story over the last decade has been the decline in Christianity,” Mark said.

“In fact, in 10 years from census data, it went from 61% of the population down to 44%. So that’s a pretty big drop. But amidst that, we’re seeing changes.”

One key driver of this shift is how Australians now define religion. People are less likely to claim Christianity based solely on upbringing or tradition and more likely to do so from a place of personal belief.

“Cultural Christianity is dissipating,” Mark said. 

“People who tick the Christianity box are more likely ticking up because of a personal conviction rather than sort of an ancestral connection with that faith.”

Not Just Migrants, and Not Just the Elderly

The report breaks common assumptions. 

While it’s often thought that migration is the major source of religious growth, the largest increase came from older Australians—those aged 55 and over. This group experienced a 48% increase in people moving from no religion to Christianity between 2016 and 2021, far outpacing their 15% population growth.

Younger generations are also navigating their spiritual journeys in nuanced ways. While Gen Z and Gen Y are less likely to identify as Christian overall, those who do are far more likely to be regular churchgoers. More than 70% of Gen Y and 68% of Gen Z Christians attend church at least monthly, compared to just 26% of Boomers.

“If you look at all of the baby boomers… only 26% of them go to church”, Mark said.

“They’re more likely to tick the box and not go to church than actually go to church. But when you get down to the youngest generation Generation Z… 68% of them go to church, so the point is at least 2/3 of young people who tick Christian in the census form follow that up by regular church attendance.”

Openness and Opportunity

The study also found that nearly half of Australians are open to spiritual conversations, especially among Gen Z and Gen Y. Religion may no longer be the taboo subject it once was.

Mark explained that churches and other ministries should be encouraged to see the number of young people who went from no religion to Christianity.

“One in six of them had had no Christian background at all… they clearly aren’t ticking the Christianity box because of the family influence.” Mark said.

“I think that highlights the fruitfulness of ministry in Australia even amongst young people”.

The data suggests that early exposure to faith can have a lasting impact, even if it takes years to bear fruit or if people drift away from their religious upbringing.

“Even if young people walk away from [faith] as they move from their teenage years into their 20-something years… that seed may be something they come back to… and reengage in the Christian faith.”

“Based on this data, there is going to be a drift away from that Christian faith if it’s not grounded in something solid in terms of belief and lifestyle”

While the decline in Christian identification is widely reported, the deeper story points to a nation still spiritually curious. 

Top reasons Australians are turning to Christianity include a desire for personal meaning, connection to something greater, and answers to life’s biggest questions.

Article supplied with thanks to 96five.

Feature image: Canva 

Easter is celebrated in various ways: indulging in chocolate, enjoying the company of family and friends, taking time to relax on the public holiday, and (or) the remembrance of the most brutal death in history.

Whether one believes Jesus to be the Son of God or simply a man, it is undeniable that his death, the crucifixion, was like no other.

“And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him,  and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’” Matthew 8:28-29.

The crucifixion was the most shameful way to die, reserved for the worst non-Roman criminals. To hang naked on a cross exposed to onlookers and the stigma in being a criminal.

Despite the horror of Jesus’s death, there is a message of hope and joy. Through the torture, Jesus sacrificed himself for humanity. A sacrifice that spans through eternity. The gift of repentance, forgiveness, and therefore, salvation. Easter’s everlasting gift.

So, this Easter, I hope you feel God’s presence and experience his love. That you may come to realise, like the Roman centurion did, that:

“Truly this man was the Son of God.” Mark 15:39, Matthew 27:54.

Article supplied with thanks to Life FM in Adelaide.

Feature image: Golden sunlight casts a warm glow on the rippled dunes of White Sands National Park, New Mexico, USA. Photo by Joseph Corl on Unsplash