Reply #21: Southern Baptists had a program called Bold Mission Thrust [View All]

[ktowntennesseedem]

a few years back. Started in the 50's in effort to reach the whole world for Christ by the end of the 20th century. Many believe that the second coming will happen after everyone has heard the gospel, and almost as many believe in millennial dispensationism, which in a nutshell means that the second coming should be sometime around the end of the 20th-beginning of the 21st century. (Y-2-K really freaked these people out!) So spread the gospel till the last person has heard, then Jesus can return right on time!

All that came of it was an increase in missionaries, increase in money donated, and a few more prayers said. As 2001 approached and the Southern Baptist became consumed by in-fighting between fundamentalists and moderates, it slowly became clear that they were nowhere close to achieving the goal, and by the mid-90's Bold Mission Thrust faded into obscurity.

I was raised Southern Baptist and had a ring-side seat for all the action. I'm still a Christian who believes in love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, humility, tolerance (Jesus advocated that long before SpongeBob ever did!), etc. But I gave up on Southern Baptists years ago. I'm so liberal now they'd probably try to conduct an exorcism if they ever got me into one of their fundamentalist churches!