Just as early Christians benefitted from the roads created by the Roman Empire, so we benefit from electronic and networking advances today.
Eschatological ideas have consequences, and many Christians are beginning to understand how those ideas have shaped the cultural landscape. A world always on the precipice of some great and inevitable apocalyptic event is not in need of redemption but only of escape. As one end-time speculator put it, “the world is a sinking Titanic ripe for judgment.”[6] Any attempt at reformation would be futile and contrary to God’s unavoidable and predestined plan for Armageddon.
Josef Ton, a Christian leader from Romania, was challenged in 1977 by a Christian friend to help set up an organization that would expose communism. Pastor Ton’s response was startling given the oppressive regime that dominated his country. He assured his Christian friend that “Communism is an experiment that has failed. It wasn’t able to fulfill any of its promises and nobody believes in it anymore. Because of this, it will one day collapse on its own. Now, why should I fight something that is finished? I believe that our task is a different one. When communism collapses, somebody has to be there to rebuild society! I believe our job as Christian teachers is to train leaders so that they will be ready and capable to rebuild our society on a Christian basis.” Who could conceive of such a future scenario given the seemingly indestructible nature and advance of Communism and the inevitability of apocalyptic doom?
Pastor Ton’s friend challenged him by claiming that “Communism will triumph all over the world, because that is the movement of the Antichrist. And when the communists take over in the United States, they will then kill all the Christians. We have only one job to do: to alert the world and make ready to die.” Eventually, both men were forced to leave Romania. Pastor Ton started a training program for Christian leaders who remained in Romania. His friend, as Pastor Ton tells the story, “has not done anything for Romania. He simply waited for the final triumph of communism and the annihilation of Christianity.” Contrary to his expectations, neither event came to pass.
Thinking Straight in a Crooked World
The nursery rhyme ‘There Was a Crooked Man’ is an appropriate description of how sin affects us and our world. We live in a crooked world of ideas evaluated by crooked people. Left to our crooked nature, we can never fully understand what God has planned for us and His world. God has not left us without a corrective solution. He has given us a reliable reference point in the Bible so we can identify the crookedness and straighten it.
Buy NowGary relates the early days of American Vision and how much it took to get a book published. Christians should take advantage of modern technology to teach and proclaim the Gospel. Just as early Christians benefitted from the roads created by the Roman Empire, so we benefit from electronic and networking advances today. This excerpt is from the Burros of Berea podcast.
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