The Second Great Awakening splintered the Protestant Church in America a great deal further. Still doesn't compare to the number of "denominations" we would have without a sacred text.If the Bible is useless in reviving Christendom, then what kind of "Christendom" are you referring to? Imagine all the splinter groups that would arise without any foundation such as a sacred text or a Messiah who ushered in a new creation.Christianity can teeter on post-apostolic doctrine, even such foreign doctrine introduced many centuries later, like ecumenism and rapture theology. Christians have become soft from it, finding nothing but comfort in their faith and very little courage.
They once had a will to conquer, and so they conquered. Not so anymore, so people suffer where anti-Christ drives the faith out, such as the Near East and North Korea.
Christianity can make an impact, I think, when people read the Scriptures for what they say.
As much as I love it, I don't think the Bible can serve the purpose of guiding our revival of Christendom. It's too much given to individual interpretation, there's too much intra-denominational conflict over how it should be interpreted, and much of it just doesn't make any sense (i.e., the Old Testament story about the kids who called an old, holy man, "Bald", and were hence eaten by a bear). Lastly, there's disagreement among Christians worldwide about what role the Bible serves in their Christian lives. I agree with the main thrust of your argument, however.
A church on every corner? No, a church in every house.
Creation divested of its Creator can certainly account for some bizarre stories like the unusually cruel punishment for ridiculing an old man, but God's new relationship, not with Jews now but with Christians, is a story not of a people who conquered a couple of cities and then suffered for the next thousand years but of a people who conquered the world, especially during the Middle Ages.
Unity, not division, is what conquerors ride into battle with.
The Protestant Reformation did exactly that -- it splintered Christianity into a thousand different denominations. Thus began the religion's downfall. Every evangelical church out there claims to have a better 'handle' on the Bible than all the rest.
To each his own, as you say.