Dear friends:
About 34 years ago, when the Lord first began showing me that we were in the final years of His plan for earth-dwellers, I was near the end of my career in the U.S. Air Force. I had a traveling job, and with my team of 6-12 inspectors I would travel all over the U.S. pulling surprise no-notice inspections on unsuspecting organizations at selected bases. We usually arrived at night, stayed in a motel, and surprised the organization with an alert before daylight the next morning. Needless to say, we never won any popularity contests!
This is said introduce a point. To get to our destinations, sometimes we had to fly commercial, but sometimes we were able to get hops on available Air Force planes, usually the low and slow, propeller-driven, ex- World War II types, not pressurized, typically the old C-47 Gooney Bird (the civilian DC-3). This meant we usually had to often fly THROUGH storms, not over them! Not fun.
But it also meant that we flew low enough where we could see a lot, if the weather was clear. Many times at night, I would sit and gaze out the small window at the amazing sight below me lights penetrating the blackness as far as I could see.
Lights, lights, and more lights. For miles, and miles, and miles, with no end. Cities appeared as piles of sparkling jewels. Arteries between cities were like sparkling necklaces. Outside the urban areas were endless little, random dots of light. Surprisingly, even in the sparsely settled West, dots seemed to be everywhere, many probably just a single home site out in the country. Few square miles were actually void of light. Click here.
(Scroll right to see the rest of the world.)
And all this was over 30 years ago. Population statistics show that the U.S. population has increased about 40 percent since then! Think how many more lights there are now.
Then I would think of the same nation and real estate just over 100 years before, and the sparse population. All travel was by walking or horseback. And just 100 years before that, when the few people in the wilderness areas were the native American tribes.
The explosion of population and the plethora of lights in this former wilderness shouted to me that Jesus is coming soon! Similar population explosions are being experienced throughout the world.
Another trend is urbanization, with people congregating in large numbers into small areas, highly dependent upon one another, and extremely vulnerable to transportation breakdowns and shortages of food and water, especially in emergencies, whereas people in agrarian societies were more independent. People are now more influenced by and can by brainwashed by mass media controlled by a few. Populations are now more ripe for a charismatic leader who has the solutions to all their problems, which could erupt overnight on a mass scale.
Some might scoff and say that there is still plenty of room left for many more people. In one sense, this is true, but resource availability is a problem. About 3-4 years ago, J.R. Church wrote:
There is one irrefutable reason for believing that Christ is coming back very soon. In the past 40 years, the world population has doubled. Forty percent of the people alive today are under 15 years old. If the increase of the population were to stabilize at 40 years, then by 2040 there would be 12 billion mouths to feed. By 2080 the population will increase to 24 billion. By 2120 there will be 48 billion mouths to feed. Already every night, over half the people in our world go to bed hungry. If Jesus does not come -- if there is no end to the procreation of man, we are helpless to cope with what lies ahead in the twenty-first century."
Church goes on to say, "According to scientific estimates, the oil supply from Arab nations will be depleted within the next 30 years. Almost all of the gold, silver, tin, copper and other minerals that feed our industrial appetites have been located and mined. Their supply is also running out." I don't believe Church mentioned it, but water resources are also becoming a problem in burgeoning populations.
But, alas, God is not caught by surprise!
In his book, "Touching the World Through Prayer," Wesley L. Duewel, famous missionary statesman, described this worldwide demographic phenomenon and its relevance to the Great Commission.
He says that throughout the world, the villages are static and dying, since the first to suffer in famine are the villagers. The prospects of enough to eat, education, health services, and job opportunities available in the cities are beckoning the young and ambitious. The exodus to the cities is a phenomenon that has accelerated.
The late Bill Bright wrote, The average world-class city doubles in population every fourteen years, and some in only ten years. Because of the intense concentration of people living within a smaller radius, we can reach far more in a city than in a village, and in a shorter period of time. Paul centered his evangelistic efforts in cities, and then the city churches reached out to the villages.
The ripest time ever is now, Duewel says. Why? Because in the first 10-15 years after new city dwellers arrive, they are more responsive than at any other time. While living in the villages under the scrutiny of family, members of the caste, friends, and village priests and religious leaders, it is difficult for individuals who hear the gospel to step out alone. Upon reaching the city, they are comparatively rootless and often restless and disillusioned in not finding the new home to be the longed-for utopia.
Liberated from the surveillance of relatives and religious leaders, those individuals are vulnerable and ripe for the gospel message. It is crucial that we reach them now.
Bright wrote, Now, since God is sovereign and knows all of this, is it any accident that the greatest gospel outreaches in the history of the world have taken place since the middle of the 20th century? God knows exactly what He is doing, and His plan is on schedule.
The middle of the 20th century also saw the miraculous and prophetic rebirth of the nation of Israel, signaling the end times. This was not a coincidence!
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