While students of prophecy are
occupied with historical signs of the approaching advent of
Christ, there are three spiritual portents that should be
carefully taken note of.
1. A phenomenal
world-encirclement of the Gospel.
Never before has there been such a sovereign movement of
God to see that "every nation" has had the Sound of
salvation in Jesus Christ registered in it "for a
testimony". By persons, radio, and literature this outreach
and "Sound" is a mark of our time which just cannot be
mistaken for its range. It may only be the essential fact of
salvation in and by Jesus Christ, but again "their voice is
gone into all the earth".
Jesus said that it would be so
of necessity, "and then shall the end come".
2. The filling up of the cup of
iniquity.
It is a question whether, in so short a time, there has ever been
such a landslide of iniquity. Iniquity is now legalized in those
countries which have the greatest history and tradition of the
evangelical faith. Israel's release from Egypt synchronized with
the "iniquity of the Amorite" being full. May it not be
so for the Church?
3. A deep and largely hidden
spiritual movement on the part of a "Remnant" for
something more real in the knowledge of Christ.
Disillusionment and spiritual hunger are making many seek food
and reality with the result that - as Billy Graham has said -
many circles of hungry Christians are seeking spiritual fullness outside
of organized Christianity.
First published in "A Witness and A
Testimony" magazine, Nov-Dec 1967, Vol 45-6