While browsing the Internet the other day, I came across the name of John R Mott, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946. I had a look at his Wikipedia page and discovered that in 1900 he wrote a book titled "The Evangelization Of The World In This Generation". This is how he described his mission:
Here it is again
(with my comments in red)
He was never "obligated" to evangelize the world. He was just making a pest of himself; barging in on unsuspecting victims and haranguing them about a religion in which they had no interest. Imagine if a Hindu had confronted John Mott and told him that Hindus had an obligation to convince Christians that Ganesha actually existed. John Mott would have been horrified by such nonsense - yet Mott himself was preaching the same sort of nonsense.
It is our duty to evangelize the world because all men need Christ.
That is nothing more than Christian rhetoric. The gospel of Matthew does, indeed, contain The Great Commission where Jesus orders his disciples to preach the good news to the whole world, but nobody has a "duty" to obey that order two thousand years after it was given.
As for that business about "all men need Christ"; it's just not true. Take me for example. I've been without Christ all of my life and everything is going quite well for me. Why would I "need" a Christ who threatens to murder anyone who speaks against him? To tell the truth; if that cruel bastard ever comes back again, I'll see if I can get him arrested for incitement to commit a felony.
Christian Scriptures and the careful and extended observation of earnest men the world over agree that with respect to the need of salvation all nations and races are alike.
Here John Mott is assuming that the "earnest men" are all Christians who want everyone else to also join their religion and thus gain salvation. John Mott would never regard a Sikh or a Shinto as an "earnest man" and it would never occur to him that their idea of salvation does not include a conversion to Christianity.
The need of the non-Christian world is indescribably great. Hundreds of millions are to-day living in ignorance and darkness, steeped in idolatry, superstition, degradation and corruption.
John Mott casually declares that non-Christians are living in ignorance and darkness. Is he trying to say that only Christians can be educated; only Christians can see the light? You bet he is. He is saying that all non-Christians are, by definition, degraded and corrupt. Talk about Christian superiority!
He complains that non-Christians are "steeped in idolatry" yet what does he do every Sunday morning? He kneels down in front of an idol - Jesus on the Cross - and asks that idol to forgive his sins.
John Mott also complains that non-Christians are superstitious yet fails to notice that Christians are equally superstitious. They sincerely believe that Peter was able to pay his taxes when a fish gave him some money. They sincerely believe that dead Christians climbed out of their graves and walked around Jerusalem. They sincerely believe that David killed two hundred men, cut off their foreskins, and used those foreskins to buy a wife. They sincerely believe that the sun stood still so that Joshua had extra daylight to win a battle. They sincerely believe such idiotic rubbish and then they have the cheek to regard non-Christians as superstitious!
Reflect on the desolating and cruel evils which are making such fearful ravages among them.
When it comes to desolating and cruel evils we can put Christianity right at the top of the list. I'm thinking of the Inquisitions where tens of thousands of people were tortured in church basements and then burned alive in the town square while devout Christians watched and cheered. John Mott was born the 19th century and the Inquisition was still executing blasphemers and heretics during that same century - yet he has the audacity to claim that the Christian inquisitors are the good guys while non-Christians are cruel and evil.
See under what a burden of sin and sorrow and suffering they live. Can any candid person doubt the reality of the awful need after reviewing the masterly, scientific survey by Dr. Dennis of the social evils of the non-Christian world?
John Mott lists Dr Dennis as an authority on the social evils of the non-Christian world and we'll take a look at what he has to say in the next post.
No one who has seen the actual conditions can question that they who are without God are also without hope.
Once again we have a fine example of the swaggering superiority for which Christians are so famous. John Mott implies that Christians live the free and easy lifestyle while non-Christians - every single one of them - is "without hope". Such pomposity and arrogance. How did he ever manage to win a Nobel Peace Prize?
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