[aron]

Let me restate my premise (cf #s 103,107): assuming the whole world gave you(us) unfettered access to present your(our) gospel, what assurance do you(we) have that it would go any better than the previous times the world was wide open to the Christian message?

I find too often a variation of, "They won't listen to our gospel message" that I quoted in #118, and I'm noting here that when everyone was listening it still didn't go so well. Which indicates two things. First is that things perhaps deteriorated more quickly and severely than most realize. It wasn't just, "they adopted a clergy-laity system" or "Constantine the Great married the Church to the world". No, those were symptoms, the problem was earlier, more severe, deeper. It wasn't just, "The Bad Old RCC, Evil Harlot Babylon" We really need to look intently. Don't take anything for granted. The LC version of Church History was so superficial as to be a Kipling-esque "Just So Story"

Jesus rose from the dead, to glory - this we believe. Everything else, test it. Prove all things. WL teaching that if we just gathered on the "local ground" all problems would be solved in our "glorious church life" was either a delusion or a scam, or some combination of both.

Second and related, is that the problem (and its solution), doesn't rest on "them" but on "us" or more specifically on "me". If you make the whole world sit down quietly, and tell them to listen up, and give me the mike, I could only say, "I repent". That's why I pointed out that Jesus wouldn't let others call him "good", and that he told his disciples, "If you, being evil..." If we want a Great Awakening it starts with a personal awakening. And a personal awakening starts when you realise you've been lulled into sleep. Look at Jesus arguing with the Pharisees in John 8 and 9. He said, "Because you insist that you see, your blindness remains". Too many Christians, who claim to be "close followers" (a la WL & LSM), yet they still don't think this verse applies to them. It's always the other guy.