Back to the Petri Dish
It has been said that the culture of Europe is post-Christian. Another way of expressing this could be to say that it has been immunized against Christianity.
The way a vaccination works is sterile or dead pathogens are introduced to the body. They cause a mild form of the illness, but the body reacts by developing defenses against the invasion and since the pathogen cannot increase it is not a threat.
This is exactly what has happened to the Gospel in Europe. It has been sterilized. Somewhere along the way an attack at the foundations of the faith began, from within the “ranks” no less, as European Biblical scholars and experts destroyed the Scriptural foundation of the Gospel by raising doubts about the texts.
It wasn’t long afterwards that the secular philosophies of the 19th and 20th centuries created movements and political situations that were completely against Scriptural teaching, but the “churches” of the day sided with power and tarnished their integrity, further weakening the foundation of the Gospel.
In much of Europe that last half of the 20th century was dominated by outright hostility to Christianity with imposed Atheism and Materialism being taught to all the population. But throughout it all a secular institution known as religion was allowed enough of an existence to convince people that this was the face of Christianity… old empty buildings and traditions.
Today, even where the real church exists, it is a sterile shell of what it should be. It does not reproduce. It does not spread. It is content to live and let die, and thus the culture is in effect immunized against the Gospel.
We need a fresh sample please.
The way a vaccination works is sterile or dead pathogens are introduced to the body. They cause a mild form of the illness, but the body reacts by developing defenses against the invasion and since the pathogen cannot increase it is not a threat.
This is exactly what has happened to the Gospel in Europe. It has been sterilized. Somewhere along the way an attack at the foundations of the faith began, from within the “ranks” no less, as European Biblical scholars and experts destroyed the Scriptural foundation of the Gospel by raising doubts about the texts.
It wasn’t long afterwards that the secular philosophies of the 19th and 20th centuries created movements and political situations that were completely against Scriptural teaching, but the “churches” of the day sided with power and tarnished their integrity, further weakening the foundation of the Gospel.
In much of Europe that last half of the 20th century was dominated by outright hostility to Christianity with imposed Atheism and Materialism being taught to all the population. But throughout it all a secular institution known as religion was allowed enough of an existence to convince people that this was the face of Christianity… old empty buildings and traditions.
Today, even where the real church exists, it is a sterile shell of what it should be. It does not reproduce. It does not spread. It is content to live and let die, and thus the culture is in effect immunized against the Gospel.
We need a fresh sample please.
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