re: Time to abandon America…

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Open-air preaching to crowds clearly worked for Peter

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Peter was not some random on a street corner in the year of our lord 2025 with a sign. The answer is no, it doesn’t work today and never has in modern times. You could argue that it’s had the opposite effect based on sharp declines in reported numbers of practicing Christians.

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The answer is no, it doesn’t work today and never has in modern times. You could argue that it’s had the opposite effect based on sharp declines in reported numbers of practicing Christians

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Christians are not to prioritize pragmatism over faithfulness.

God is the one who converts, not man, and I'd argue the focus on seeker-sensitivity and manipulation for conversion is more to blame for the declines in those practicing Christianity, as there has been more of a focus on the alter call and one-and-done conversions than teaching the truths of God's word and making mature Christians.

The Great Commission from Jesus was to go and make disciples of the nations, not merely converts. We are not to just preach the gospel, but to bring people into the Church for teaching and care so that the cares of the world and the wiles of the evil one don't snatch them away.

Cool post, DU alter

What is wrong with you OP?

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There's a name for that, it's called quitting. Quitting is for pussies. You do you.


Marxists have infiltrated the Republican Party (neocons). Our treasury doesn’t do shite. The housing prices should have already dropped. It is complete bullshite

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I agree, we are in a dire way, but quitting isn't the way to go.
We proved our votes and voices matter when Trump was elected. We need to stay strong and loyal to the purpose of our great nation.

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Peter was not some random on a street corner in the year of our lord 2025 with a sign. The answer is no, it doesn’t work today and never has in modern times. You could argue that it’s had the opposite effect based on sharp declines in reported numbers of practicing Christians.

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Peter wasn’t some elite religious figure giving a polished talk— he was a fisherman whom Jesus called to preach the Gospel. There was nothing inherently special about Peter himself. He was simply a man filled with the Holy Spirit. What mattered was the message he preached: Repent and Believe upon Jesus Christ. That is what converted people on the day of Pentecost, not Peter’s status, credentials, or cultural moment. And let’s be clear: Peter himself was nothing special. This is the same man who denied Jesus three times out of fear. If effectiveness depended on the charisma, résumé, or social status of the preacher, Peter would have been the last candidate to see three thousand people converted in a single day.

The point is that God uses ordinary, flawed, fearful men to proclaim an extraordinary message. The power is not in the preacher — it’s in the Gospel itself. That’s why mocking the person or their method misses the point entirely. God has always chosen “the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27), and He delights in using imperfect vessels so that the power is clearly His. If there was something special about Peter then God would not receive all the glory.

If people aren’t being converted in modern times, maybe the issue isn’t that preaching “doesn’t work,” but that much of what passes for preaching today isn’t the Gospel at all. When pulpits are filled with “your best life now,” self-help, country club membership, after school programs and social gospels, it’s no wonder there’s a decline. That’s a far better explanation than pretending God’s ordained means of salvation suddenly stopped being effective in the 21st century.

Scripture tells us exactly how God brings people to faith:

Romans 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? … How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace… 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

God’s method hasn’t changed. He the same yesterday, today and forever. Faith comes by hearing the preached Word — not by marketing trends, not by cultural relevance, and not by watering the message down.

So yes, the preaching of the Gospel still “works,” because God is the one who makes His Word effective. The decline in Christianity says more about the decline in faithful preaching than it does about God’s chosen means.

People hate this kind of preaching because it exposes what they’d rather keep hidden. Scripture says plainly that the natural response to the Gospel is hostility, not applause. Jesus Himself said:

“Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19)

Street preaching, open proclamation, and calls to repentance shine that light in a very public way. That’s exactly why it makes people uncomfortable. It confronts sin directly instead of flattering the ego or blending into the culture.

Mocking the preacher doesn’t refute the message — it simply reveals the heart’s reaction to the light. People love darkness, and the Gospel drags the darkness into the light.