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WHY THE FIELDS ARE NOT WHITE There are certain traditions that live on in the ranks of fundamentalism, and you just never go against those traditions, if you know what's "good" for you. The older I become the less I care what's "good for me" and the more I focus on Bible truth only, and I pray that never changes. For example . . . Most of us have heard preachers, especially missionaries, quote from John 4:35 and say that we need to be winning souls because "the fields are white unto harvest." The intentions are obviously good, but the road of good intentions doesn't always lead to the best destination. Jesus actually said, "Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." (John 4:35) At that time, "the fulness of the time" (Gal. 4:4), the fields WERE ripe unto harvest. That's why thousands came to hear Jesus and believed on him, and that's why the apostles were able to turn the world upside down for Christ. But we are now on the other end of the church age spectrum with a global "falling away" turning people away from God's truth by the millions (II Tim. 4:4). Instead of being white unto harvest, the fields are parched with apostasy, and spiritual tumbleweeds are blowing around with every wind of doctrine that the devil can muster.Application: Sure, we should still witness and preach the gospel, but not with overly-optimistic, Pollyannaish expectations that will only lead to either discouragement or to the fake conversions of empty believism. This isn't Kansas, Dorothy, and it's not Ephesus or Philadelphia, and you'll only make matters worse by thinking that it is. It's Laodicea, and the fields most certainly are NOT white unto harvest.