Christian Civilisation is Under Attack As we celebrate 500 years of the Reformation and consider laying solid foundations for the next 500 years, it is painfully evident that Christian civilisation is under attack from all sides: Socialism and social engineering, gender politics and race politics, abortion and euthenasia, Islamic Jihad and the Pink Inquisition, liberalism, Judaizers, feminism, antinomianism, egalitarianism and a host of other isms, deception in the media, degeneracy in arts and entertainment, unBiblical practices and beliefs in the churches and so much more confront us and demand a bold and Biblical response. A World War of Worldviews There is a battle for the family, a battle for the mind and a war against the children. There clearly is a concerted war against free speech, a battle over history and ultimately a war against God Himself. Far more than the survival of our nations is at stake. We are witnessing concerted attempts to erode and destroy the very foundations of Christian civilisation itself. This is a fight for life and for Faith, for freedom and for our future. Ignore History at Your Peril Yet, all too many Christians are responding with a yawn. “My people are not interested in history!” commented one pastor. My response was: “Well that is exactly why your churches are in such catastrophic decline, your youth are being paganised and your society is being invaded and swamped by radical Islam and flooded with blasphemous pagan filth from Hollywood.” To Build a Better Future Most of the Bible is history. Those who have not learned the lessons of history will be doomed to repeating its mistakes. Anyone who is interested in making a better future needs to study the lessons of history. Worth Less Than a Barkless Dog Reformer John Calvin said that even a dog will bark when he recognises danger for his owner. John Calvin then pointed out that a pastor who fails to preach against sin and warn against evil is worth less than a barkless dog. When Christians Ruled the World The curse of compromise and cowardice is a major cause for the catastrophic decline of Christian influence in society today. The first world Missions Conference in Edinburgh, in 1910, anticipated the imminent fulfiment of the Great Commission. In 1910 Christian nations ruled virtually the whole world. With the exception of China, Japan and the Ottoman Empire, the globe was dominated by Christian powers. Either Protestant, as in the case of Great Britain, Germany and the United States, Roman Catholic, as in the case of the Austrian-Hungarian, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese Empires, or Orthodox, as in the case of the Russian Empire. Anticipating the Fulfilment of the Great Commission Evaluating the Greatest Century of Missions, the 19th century, the first world Missions Conference in 1910 anticipated the extinction of all false religions by 1960. They predicted that every tribe and nation would have been thoroughly evangelised and discipled by 1960. They were anticipaing the fulfilment of the Great Commission and the beginning of the Biblical Millenium on eath – before the end of the 20th century. The Curse of Compromise and Cowardice Considering the spectacular advances that had been made in world Missions througout the 19th century, that was not an unreasonable projection. No one in 1910 could have anticipated the wholesale abandonment of entire nations to communism, to false religions and to heathenism. Nor would any have predicted that the church would retreat from victory to such an extent that many would be questioning the existance of the devil, or hell, or reinterpreting marriage to include that which God, in the Bible, condemns as perversion and an abomination. Derailed Into the Worst Century of Persecution How was the Greatest Century of Missions derailed into the worst century of persecution? More Christians were martyred for the Faith in the 20th century than in all previous 19 centuries combined. The missionary leaders who gathered in Edinburgh in 1910, would never have believed that, in less than a century, Europe would have become mostly secular and that the countries that at that time were being evangelised, civilised and discipled, would, in so many cases, have returned to such pagan savagery and Islamic Jihad. Manipulated into Self-Destruction What no-one at the 1910 Missions Conference in Edinburgh could have envisaged was the devastating impact of two world wars on the heartland of the church and on the missionary sending bases of Europe. Instead of continuing to disciple the world, Christians in Europe allowed themselves to be manipulated into devastating one anothers countries by sinister freemasons and banksters who bank rolled the rise of the Soviet Union. Seek First the Kingdom of God It is absolutely essential that Christians learn the lessons of history and return to the Bible, rediscover our purpose as God's people, to really focus on the fulfilment of the Great Commission, to make disciples of all nations, teaching obedience to all things that the Lord has commanded. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. Our purpose on earth is to fulfil the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith….” Hebrews 12:1-2 Reformation or Revolution This year, 2017, as we celebrate 500 years of the Reformation, we also need to remember another, rather unsavory anniversary. The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. These two monumentally important historic milestones, 500 years since the launch of the Protestant Reformation and 100 years since the disastrous Bolshevik Revolution, present the stark contrast and choice before us: Reformation or Revolution! Dr. Peter Hammond Reformation Society P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725 Cape Town South Africa Tel: 021-689-4480 Email: [email protected] Website: www.ReformationSA.org See also: The Five Solas of the Reformation
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