I was sent a link to this article by another ARP pastor who is preparing for mission work in Great Britain (HT: Jodie G.).
Great Britain? Mission work there? I thought that was a Christian country!
Well, the gospel that was once shining brightly has now become very, very dim. Some groups are growing (mainly cults like Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses), and Islam continues to increase, due mainly to large families and immigration. The article notes:
When the light of the gospel shines brightly it is difficult for cults to grow. When there is biblical illiteracy such as prevails in the UK today there the cults have a free hand.
If things do not change in the United States, the outcome may not be much different.
The article concludes with this sobering (but hopefully encouraging) thought:
What possibility is there of revival in such an age of decadence as our own? We must not forget the situation that preceded the eighteenth-century awakening. We have liberalism; they had deism. We have the drug menace; they had rum. We have abortion; they had the degradation of the slave trade. We have contempt for the gospel, especially in places of influence; so did they. We have bishops who tolerate practising homosexuals in the ministry and the blatant public denial of the deity of Christ by one of their number; eighteenth century Britain also suffered a lethargic clergy. Yet in spite of all the obstacles the Holy Spirit intervened in a marvellous way, using humble prayers and a handful of godly leaders. If ever we should seek to unite in prayer for revival it is now! The social decadence of our Western world demands it.
