I think the gospel is fundamentally offensive and we should always expect it's to be under attack if we are standing for Jesus.

However, I think we have allowed an obstacle course of myths that we could dispel to build up almost in front of the stumbling block that it's Christ for

our friends to trip up on. And I think there are many things that Christians find themselves

anxious about, on the defense of about, ashamed of believing, that actually really do stand up

under serious scrutiny. Welcome to the Crossplay podcast, a show where we sit down with authors each week

for thoughtful interviews about the Bible, theology, church history, and the Christian life.

I'm Matt Tully, and today I'm talking with Rebecca McLaughlin. Rebecca holds a PhD in English

literature from Cambridge University, study theology at Oak Hill College in London, and co-founded

vocable communications,

a firm dedicated to helping leaders deliver messages that change minds.

She's also the author of Confronting Christianity, 12 Hard Questions for the World's

Largest Religion with Crossway. In our conversation today, Rebecca and I discuss an important

question. Is Christianity on the decline? In doing so, she also addresses two of the most common

charges against our faith, that it's anti-science and that it's homophobic.

Let's get started. Rebecca, thank you for joining us on the Crossway podcast.

I'm excited to be here.

So 50 years ago,

sociologists predicted that the world would be much more secular by now than it actually is.

And they predicted that religion would eventually be a thing of the past. But it turns out that they were wrong. They were very wrong.

What happened?

It turns out that that actually didn't happen at all.

That not only has religion not declined as prophesied,

...