F
Flopfoot
Guest
I live in Sydney so of course there have been dozens of WYD meetings and what with the theme of WYD being Acts 1:8, when Jesus told His disciples 2000 years ago to go out and spread the word, I have heard a lot of talks telling us to get fired up by the Holy Spirit and go do the same. So I guess it has made me think about it a little.
And I been thinking, the situation today is much different from how it was in the disciples’ time. In their time, almost no one in the world had heard of Jesus. Most of the people in the world didn’t even know about the Father. And even of those few who had heard of Jesus, many didn’t know about His Ressurection, or the new covenant, or the Holy Spirit.
They didn’t have to be extremely convincing and/or spend much time at any one particular place - their job was to spread the word to as many people as they could, and any who believed, believed, and any who didn’t, didn’t, but they had to get the word out there so people could at least have a chance to hear it and decide whether or not to believe it.
Well in our day, the word is already spread, to every nation on earth. There are still some remote villages in the 3rd world that don’t have enough connection or communication with the bigger cities to have heard about Christianity yet, but missionaries are working on that at the moment.
Here in the West, in the 1st world, there are churches in every village and town. The bible has been printed into all the main languages we speak and is available at nearby shops. There’s also mention of Christianity in newspapers and on television, and there’s detailed information about it on the Internet. In short, there’s basically no one in the West who hasn’t heard of Christianity or doesn’t know where to find more information about it if they wanted to.
Maybe, this means that when we evangelise in the West, we’re really just echoing. We’re not spreading the message, the message has already been spread, and we’re just repeating what people have already heard, and didn’t want to hear the first time. Like what’s the point of posting a blog telling people there is a God? They’ll do the same thing they do with everything else they read on the net that they don’t like, they’ll just ignore it. They’ve heard it before, and if they wanted to know more, if they accepted it, they would have joined us already.
Some may think that evangelisation can’t be finished so long as there are non-Christians in the world. But that would mean that evangelisation requires successfully making converts - and God doesn’t require us to be successful, He requires us to be faithful. If the word gets spread, and some or even all don’t accept it, that’s still evangelisation. After all, if God actually expected us to convert the ones who wouldn’t accept, that’s a bit of a massive ask isn’t it, that’s more than He asked or expected of the 12 disciples, and they were mostly saints.
So if someone is non-Christian, that doesn’t necessarily mean they haven’t been evangelised and that we have to do it, it might mean that they have heard the word, and didn’t accept it, especially in the West (sorry for belabouring the point). And to a person who doesn’t accept, what are we supposed to do? Pester them? Drag them into the Church? Blow on them? No, we don’t have to do anything, we have already spread the word, the rest is between them and God.
So anyway, that’s why I think it’s a bit odd, the focus of this WYD at the moment (not to mention, the focus of many other Christian groups), to go out and tell the message to people, when we don’t have anyone to tell.
And I been thinking, the situation today is much different from how it was in the disciples’ time. In their time, almost no one in the world had heard of Jesus. Most of the people in the world didn’t even know about the Father. And even of those few who had heard of Jesus, many didn’t know about His Ressurection, or the new covenant, or the Holy Spirit.
They didn’t have to be extremely convincing and/or spend much time at any one particular place - their job was to spread the word to as many people as they could, and any who believed, believed, and any who didn’t, didn’t, but they had to get the word out there so people could at least have a chance to hear it and decide whether or not to believe it.
Well in our day, the word is already spread, to every nation on earth. There are still some remote villages in the 3rd world that don’t have enough connection or communication with the bigger cities to have heard about Christianity yet, but missionaries are working on that at the moment.
Here in the West, in the 1st world, there are churches in every village and town. The bible has been printed into all the main languages we speak and is available at nearby shops. There’s also mention of Christianity in newspapers and on television, and there’s detailed information about it on the Internet. In short, there’s basically no one in the West who hasn’t heard of Christianity or doesn’t know where to find more information about it if they wanted to.
Maybe, this means that when we evangelise in the West, we’re really just echoing. We’re not spreading the message, the message has already been spread, and we’re just repeating what people have already heard, and didn’t want to hear the first time. Like what’s the point of posting a blog telling people there is a God? They’ll do the same thing they do with everything else they read on the net that they don’t like, they’ll just ignore it. They’ve heard it before, and if they wanted to know more, if they accepted it, they would have joined us already.
Some may think that evangelisation can’t be finished so long as there are non-Christians in the world. But that would mean that evangelisation requires successfully making converts - and God doesn’t require us to be successful, He requires us to be faithful. If the word gets spread, and some or even all don’t accept it, that’s still evangelisation. After all, if God actually expected us to convert the ones who wouldn’t accept, that’s a bit of a massive ask isn’t it, that’s more than He asked or expected of the 12 disciples, and they were mostly saints.
So if someone is non-Christian, that doesn’t necessarily mean they haven’t been evangelised and that we have to do it, it might mean that they have heard the word, and didn’t accept it, especially in the West (sorry for belabouring the point). And to a person who doesn’t accept, what are we supposed to do? Pester them? Drag them into the Church? Blow on them? No, we don’t have to do anything, we have already spread the word, the rest is between them and God.
So anyway, that’s why I think it’s a bit odd, the focus of this WYD at the moment (not to mention, the focus of many other Christian groups), to go out and tell the message to people, when we don’t have anyone to tell.