The Marvellous Message of the Bible
Open a newspaper these days, listen to the news on radio or TV, and invariably you get the impression of trouble. Our world is torn by strife -- strife between political parties; strife between ethnic factions; strife between nations. It is beset by problems -- hunger, pollution of land and water, and ever present violence; problems of society, revealed by increasing crime rates and over-crowded prisons; by hospitals filled with patients, many of whom are there because of mental stress; and by an alarming number of victims of drug abuse and alcoholism. Looming over all is the frequent threat of economic crisis, with widespread unemployment and material hardship. The "under-developed nations" are in debt to the world banks (that is, chiefly those of America and Western Europe) to staggering sums running into billions of dollars, with no prospect of ever being able to repay the loans.

20th Century World Trouble
But there is one feature above all which reveals the hopelessness of the world's condition. If a visitor from another planet were to come and examine affairs on earth, he would find the human race divided into nations, all insisting on preserving their distinct identity. Within nations, religious and racial groups compete with one another -- or indulge in outright conflict. Cries of peace are matched with strident calls for war, as new alignments between nations allow oppressed minorities to claim their 'rights'.

Much has been made of the 'end' of the Cold War, of disarmament by the former superpowers, and the removal of the threat of nuclear attack. Yet the world is still spending vast sums on arms. If our visitor asked why nations are doing this, he would be told it was "for defense". If he asked, "Defense against whom?", he would learn that it was out of fear of other nations. In other words the nations are spending fantastic sums of money every year in creating the power to frighten and destroy because they cannot trust one another. Here is the core of the problem. And no one knows how to stop it! There is no prospect at all of this immense burden being lifted. And meanwhile the development of ever-more terrifying nuclear weapons goes on . . . No wonder feelings of pessimism and hopelessness are widespread today. And this is the "advanced" and "civilized" 20th century!

A Hundred Years Ago
But 100 years ago there was a very different impression around. The 19th century was an age of optimism, of great development in many ways. Increased scientific knowledge resulted in spectacular technical progress through inventions. Industrial production was rising, bringing greater wealth. Education was being made available to all sections of society, and important results were predicted. As men and women became better educated, so it was argued, they would choose more noble pursuits and take pleasure in literature and in arts like music and painting. The result would be a higher moral tone in society, with improved behavior resulting eventually in world peace.

Politicians promised a new social order of justice and equality for all. As wealth became better distributed, people would be better off and so would no longer envy one another. "Banish poverty and you'll banish crime" was one of the watch cries of the last century. So the finest powers of the human mind would be developed and peace would be preserved among the nations. Church leaders boldly joined in and confidently predicted that in process of time all nations would accept "the gospel of Christ". The world would be conquered by preaching.

What a shock the events of "this haggard twentieth century" (Winston Churchill) have been! The dream has faded under the impact of two world wars and the ever-present threat of new and even more deadly weapons. H. G. Wells, that apostle of evolutionary progress, expressed his disillusion in two books published at the end of his life, Mind at the End of its Tether and The Fate of Homo Sapiens. In them he declares that there is no hope for humanity: "There is nothing but the dark". And that was in 1945, before the first atomic bomb was dropped! How the hopes of mankind have been shown to be vain: first, the belief that the Christian religion would unify the world -- long since abandoned; then the expectation that political progress by the growth of democracy would bring peace -- no one believes that today; then the hope that science would be the means of changing the world for the better -- and the results of scientific ingenuity have proved the sharpest of double-edged weapons. There is no substantial hope left of a thorough world change.

The Source of Hope
But there is one source amongst us which has never misled us by encouraging false expectations. It is the Bible. Throughout the Bible human history is seen as ending in a great climax, frequently called "the time of the end" or "the last days", and certain passages tell us quite clearly what those "last days" will be like. One of the clearest and most striking is in Luke 21. The disciples asked Jesus what would be the sign of his coming (they meant his return to the earth) and of "the end of the world" (Matt. 24:3). Jesus replies with a description of conditions which his followers would experience after his ascension to heaven. Then he speaks particularly of the Jewish people:

"They (the Jews) shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all the nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles (nations), until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" (Luke 21:24).

This is a most remarkable prophecy, all in one verse. Look what it says:

(1) The Jews were to suffer severely as a result of war. Forty years after Jesus' ascension to heaven, in A.D. 70, the Roman armies invaded Judea, destroyed the city of Jerusalem, burnt the temple, and expelled the Jews.

(2) Jews were driven into all the nations of the earth where for centuries they were persecuted; whole communities were sometimes exterminated.

(3) For centuries the city of Jerusalem fell under various national powers. The Romans, the Arabs, the Turks, and latterly the British!

(4) But the words of Jesus foretell an end to this domination by the nations. We have been privileged to see it in our own days. In 1948 the nation of Israel was reestablished as a State in the land of Palestine; in 1967 Israel recovered control of the city of Jerusalem, which has become their national capital again.

In other words this remarkable prophecy of Jesus has actually been fulfilled in our days. How important then must be what he says next:

"And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth, distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after (expectation of, R.V.) those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken" (vv. 25-26).

This is a striking picture of a world in distress. "Ah", say some, "but clearly it is figurative, not literal. Just look at those allusions to the sun, moon, stars, sea and waves, and powers of heaven". Very well, let us remove from Jesus' words everything that could possibly be figurative and read what is left:

". . . upon the earth, distress of nations with perplexity . . . men's hearts failing them for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the earth."

This is not a figurative description. It is fearfully literal: it has to do with nations, men's hearts, fear, and perplexity, because of dreadful events. Remarkably the second word for "earth" literally means "the inhabited earth" --nothing figurative about that. And his term "perplexity" implies "at one's wits' end . . ."

Now there is no escaping the conclusion to be drawn from this part of Jesus' discourse: at a time when the domination of Jerusalem by the nations comes to an end, mankind upon the earth is to experience world-wide distress, fear and perplexity. And this is exactly what has happened before our eyes.

One hundred years ago the "wisest" of men were quite deceived about the course of world developments of the following century, our age. They were completely mistaken. Yet here is Jesus, speaking 1900 years ago, giving us a true picture of the course of events; and the Bible records it for us. The Bible has been right in this vital matter of the future of mankind when only a century ago the most learned men were quite wrong. Let us just store that fact in our minds for the moment while we consider further matters of the same sort.