And yet. Perhaps a wave of evangelism is yet in the cards here. And if so, I want to be one of the card dealers.
I see a world historic precedent in the John Knox era in Scotland, when at one point Christians were said to be “coming down from the skies.” I have an intuitive sense here that those stern Calvinists were so convinced of God’s absolute destining power that they could beseech God for many more Christians and that He would grant it. And since they beseeched God for the sake of His kingdom rather than for the sake of their own pride or ego, God granted their prayer from the foundation of the world somehow.
And if we can pray that purely, that the church would grow with actual Christians not just pew warmers, for His glorification, the door would be open for the Lord to grant that kind of prayer. We don’t even have to be “Calvinist” as long as we are assured of His destining power. That’s simply the means, prevalent in that age, by which such assurance might have happened.
Thanks for the reply, I do appreciate them.
Perhaps. The way I see it, by creating deliberate communities of Christ meant to weather the storm and answer his bidding it’s a no lose proposition. If we’re able to turn from the brink and we have a cultural return to God as in the era you mention, then Thanks be to God! If our fate is more bleak then Thanks be to God, we do what we can to survive as a church.
I like win/win scenarios. Something that politics simply doesn’t offer us. In that realm, the best case scenario seems to be picking your favorite flavor of losing.