Into The Eighties

As we cross the threshold of another year and another decade, what word from the Lord assures our heart and renews our hope?

"HE MUST REIGN" (1 Cor. 15:25)

Nations may rage and peoples imagine a vain thing, but God's decree remains unalterable:

"Yet I have set My King upon My holy hill of Zion

I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance,

And the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession

(Psa. 2:6,8)

Towards fulfilment of that pledge God is controlling modern history. The nineteen-eighties we believe will see a further acceleration of events towards the great final climax of the manifest triumph of the Lord Jesus Christ. For each new decade this century has brought a greater speed of change under the momentum of new technology and revolutionary thought.

The "era of the silicon chip" has already dawned. This is expected to have profound effects on industry and communications during the eighties; with far reaching social results as automation displaces human operatives. Prospects for the eighties are also overshadowed by the energy crisis, and nations strive in fierce rivalry for a share of the world's apparently inadequate oil supplies. There is feverish quest for alternative sources of energy. The spectre of rising inflation brings fear and insecurity to millions. Most sinister of all, immense powers of destruction are at the disposal of nations in the "nuclear club". Super powers eye one another with suspicion, while smaller nations engage in open war. The whole international scene is like a troubled sea that cannot rest.

Nor is the "religious world scene" any less complex. Oriental faiths make their impact felt in the Western world. Strange new cults have made successful appeal to thousands of young people, disillusioned by the hollowness of entertainment and materialism in affluent societies. Yet the Roman Catholic Church still retains its immense traditional appeal for millions, as Pope John Paul II's spectacular visits to Mexico, Poland, Eire and the U.S.A. have shown. While despite setbacks, the ecumenical movement steadily pursues its aim to bring about the union of Christendom.

So at the outset of the eighties the world situation seems increasingly confused. Yet to the Christian believer certain broad trends in world events are brought into focus when viewed through the "lens" of divine revelation in Scripture. It is rather like the optician's eye tests. He places different lenses in the testing frame, and asks his client to read rows of letters on a chart. By trial and error he arrives at a combination of lenses which is most suitable. At first his client finds letters blurred or even unreadable; but as if by magic, lens adjustments make them stand out clearly, legibly. They have been brought into focus. So the "lens" of God's Word enables the believer, as helped by the Holy Spirit, to discern a pattern taking shape from all the apparent confusion of modern events. Certain developments stand out in bold relief, impressively, confirming that an unseen divine Hand is moulding world events after the counsel of His own will.

Nor has God abdicated this control of the nations in the twentieth century. They are but clay and He is the Potter still. Discerning believers will continue to monitor God's dealings with the nations in a spirit of wonder and expectation - wonder at God's watching over His word to perform it before our eyes; and expectation of the coming again of the Lord Jesus to the air to take from this world all who are members of the Church which is the Body of Christ (1 Thess. 4:15-17; Eph. 1:22,23).

"For yet a very little while,

He that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry" (Heb. 10:37).

For this we wait, believing that the Lord's coming to the air is the next event scheduled in the divine calendar of prophetic fulfilment. Nor is this dependant on developments which must precede the rise of the Antichrist and the Lord's return to earth to take His great power and reign. But when we see the pattern of these developments already taking shape, we feel the force of the word:

"When these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your

heads; because your redemption draweth nigh" (Luke 21:28).

We pray that, as for the past 90 years, this magazine may continue to be used for the encouragement and instruction of disciples of Christ in doing the will of God for our time - throughout the eighties, or until our Master comes!

"Teach me Thy way, 0 LORD" (Psa. 86:11).

unknown | Jan 1980
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