TEN THINGS I SEE IN ‘99
By
Jerry Falwell
INTRODUCTION
1. I SEE THE NEW MILLENNIUM AS A SENSE OF DESTINY.
I am not one of those “crazies” that predicts that the Lord will come in the Year 2000 because we don’t know when the Lord is coming. He said, “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father” (Mark 13:32). As a matter of fact I agree with Martin Luther who said, “If a man happens to predict the right time when the Lord is come, He will change it because He said “no man knows the hour.”
The man on the street thinks that something is about to happen. The Year 2000 carries a sense of destiny. We finish a year, a decade, a century and a millennium. None of us has any idea what it means to enter a new century or a new millennium . . . but we’ll learn.
I expect a lot of new unexpected and unplanned events and benefits.
One hundred years ago in the year 1900, no one would have predicted two world wars, a world-wide movement of Communism that would threaten the world and die, that we would land a man on the moon, that we would fly a space probe around Mars, or that we would have eliminated some of the world-threatening diseases such as polio.
Think of what has happened in the last fifteen years. In 1985 there was no Internet, now it is world-wide. In 1985 there were two world powers, but now Communism has been destroyed.
I face the new Millennium with great sense of anticipation because I trust God who has given us everything. The Year 2000 will bring a sense of destiny.
2. I SEE A NEW SPIRIT GROWING WITHIN THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST.
A hundred years ago the battle between Fundamentalism and Liberalism consumed all our energies but today conservatism is “the last man standing.” Liberalism is dead, there are a few corpses around in some churches that need burying.
In my day I have seen several pastor friends with great desire to grow, with great desire to be the biggest, with great desire to be the most successful. But that spirit is changing. Today the people of God come to the house of God and what do they want? They come needy and they want help. They come lonesome and they want fellowship. They come empty and they want to be filled. They come sinful and they want to be cleansed. They come hurting and they want to be healed. People want the Church to be God’s house where they meet God . . . touch God . . . know God . . . experience God.
I sense a different spirit that is growing the Church. Churches are growing because they are good, not the opposite, i.e., growing because they want to grow or be the biggest.
I sense a deeper commitment in the Church to Jesus Christ and the Bible as God’s Word. While all churchmen are not as tenacious as I am, I’m glad they at least give outward allegiance to Jesus and the Bible.
3. I SEE MORAL AND ETHICAL DECAY ALL ABOUT ME.
Fifty years ago the hippies in Haight-Asbury sections of San Francisco began a counter-culture with a view of overthrowing our culture. I don’t like to admit it, but they have weakened our society and damaged our institutions. There were five things that were very stable when I was a boy, these were the five institutions of society:
1. the schools,
2. government,
3. the family,
4. business, and
5. the Church.
These institutions are all reeling because media and the population in general question their role in society. These five institutions are also reeling with moral decay. With the growth of individual rights, we have seen the decline of institutional rights. First the schools; federal judges no longer allow school teachers to be teachers, teachers have become social facilitators. Second the home; federal judges no longer allow parents to be parents, governmental social service agencies remove children from parents. Third the government; the government is filled with people from the President down who will lie, commit adultery, perjure themselves, all with seemingly little consequences. Fourth, the institution of business has become so hampered by laws that appear to be anti-business. Today it’s hard for a business to survive. The anti-business laws protect the environment, the consumer, and society, and it seems like it’s open game on any business. We can tax business, legislate business, place fines on businesses, but we forget that the business is the engine that drives our society, provides capital to meet our needs and has given us one of the finest levels of life with the highest level of quality living ever known to man. The fifth institution is the Church. Obviously, the Church has eroded its influence on the world. Think about the scandals of pastors with misbehaviors, bringing shame on the pulpit of America.
I see the growth of AIDS and it could be prevented by a change in the lifestyle of homosexuals. I see an explosion in abortion and it could be solved by a change in the lifestyle of our young. I see an explosion in the use of drugs and alcohol, and it could be solved by a change in the lifestyle of Americans. I see an explosion in crime and violence and it could be solved by allowing our schools, families, and government to deliver consequences to people who violate the law. However, I am not just for throwing people in jail. Robert Raikes who began the Sunday School movement 229 years ago said, “Vice can be better prevented than cured.” I believe that if we were to teach absolutes in public schools, and allow teachers to expect obedience in the public schools, we would curb much of the lawlessness in the nation.
4. I SEE A CONTINUED TECHNOLOGICAL EXPLOSION THAT WILL IMPACT EVERY AREA OF LIFE.
We have no idea what 500 channels of television will do to us and our way of living. We have no idea what is going to happen when the Internet touches every part of our life. We have no idea what will happen when a cashless society takes the place of “good ol’ hard cash.” We have no idea what will happen when we reach a cyberspace point in the future where we are completely immersed in an information-driven world with the explosion of knowledge, the likes of which we have never seen. I can place the largest religious library in the world on several computer chips, and/or a CD ROM, then pack it into a suitcase and carry it with me next time I board a plane.
I see the continued technological explosion as both a blessing and a curse. We will have more, to do more, to go more and accomplish more. This is a blessing, but what good is all the technology if God is not in it?
5. I SEE A TREMENDOUS NEED FOR LEADERSHIP IN EVERY AREA OF LIFE.
One of the things we need at the Presidential level is a leader to step forward to lead America in integrity, wisdom, and truth. We need a leader today who has the wisdom and character of our Founding
Fathers.
We have a tremendous gap in the leadership of the Church. I look for men to step forward who have great vision to see the lostness of their neighborhood and to see the holiness of God. We need leaders who can see what a great church will do for their community. I don’t see many pastors with great vision and leadership.
I see a tremendous gap in the leadership of the home. I don’t see many fathers leading the family to follow God, rather I see a lot of fathers who are given to sports, recreation, entertainment and getting ahead in life. I wish I could see more fathers who would take the spiritual leadership of their home.
A pro-wrestler ran for governor of Minnesota and got 80% of the vote of the young people under age 30. Why? Because the young people are fed up with politics as usual and bureaucracy that do nothing. This pro-wrestler promised to do something, and the young people voted for him. Our young people are looking for leadership in the older generations, so much so, that they will vote for a pro-wrestler. Why? Because he wanted to lead the state. Youth are looking to us for leadership. I am not sure they’ll find it. Our young people will have to become the leaders, they will have to become men and women of the future who will lead us to a higher level of living for God.
6. I SEE A TREMENDOUS MOVEMENT OF LAY PEOPLE IN THE CHURCH.
When I look at the Promise Keepers’ movement, I see primarily a movement of men who want to do something for God. When I look at the growth of the cell movement, I see lay people involved in reaching their friends for Jesus Christ. The largest church in the world has 650,000 members. On Friday night, approximately 65,000 cells will meet in homes throughout Seoul, Korea, to worship God, study the Bible, evangelize their friends and do the work of the ministry. I maintain that this church is lay people at work!
The Sunday School is the work of lay people teaching the Word of God. While some churches are struggling with their Sunday School, I support Sunday School because it is still the best place for lay people to serve Jesus Christ.
7. I SEE A TREMENDOUS PRAYER MOVEMENT ACROSS THE WORLD.
One of the things that encourages me for the coming Millennium is that God’s people are praying. Dr. William Orr, Professor of Awakenings at Fuller Theological Seminary taught a class for us at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary in 1984. Dr. Orr was the greatest authority on revival before he died in 1985. He said,
“When God begins to do something, He sets His people apraying.” That’s the way the Welsh people like Dr. Orr said it. “Apraying.” That means action and activity. I want us to be “apraying.”
I see in the prayer movement today:
A. Prayingwalking. All over the world there are people walking their neighborhoods, walking around cities, walking and praying. Prayerwalking is “praying on site with insight.” Last month the people of Thomas Road Baptist Church prayerwalked Lynchburg, praying for people all over our city.
Revival broke out in a city in Argentina when the lay people began to pray. They walked around every block in the city, praying for the unsaved people in every home in the city. Then they walked around every police station praying for law enforcement. Then they walked around every school, praying for the educational system. They did the same thing around fire departments, hospitals, and all the government buildings. They did the same thing to the city hall. Today that city has one church with 100,000 people, meeting in a theater that they purchased.
B. Prayer summits. In the Pacific Northwest pastors get together for three or four days just to pray for the needs of one another. Now the prayer summits have spread to lay people who are coming together to pray.
C. Fasting and prayer conference. Bill Bright has asked for 2 million people to fast and pray for 40 days before the coming of the next Millennium. He is asking them to fast and pray for world-wide revival.
At his last Fasting and Prayer Conference in Houston, Texas, 1,500 people gathered together to pray for three days. But the most important thing is that the prayer meeting was uplinked to 4,001 churches across America. The Wesleyan Church here in Lynchburg had a downlink and our people went over there to pray. Over 127 different Christian radio networks in America picked up that prayer meeting to broadcast it around the world. The American Armed Services Network broadcasted that prayer meeting, it was even broadcasted to a military base in Antarctica. It was one of the greatest concentrations of prayer of all times. Our Dr. Towns was one of the speakers at that conference.
D. The World Prayer Center. God’s people have raised money and have built a $7 million prayer center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It will have one of the largest network systems linking intercessors around the world so that people with needs can contact the World Prayer Center to mobilize a tremendous amount of prayer for that need. There has never been such a network since Pentecost. Again, Dr. Towns represented me, speaking at that dedication of the World Prayer Center.
8. I SEE CHANGES IN THE AMERICAN FOREIGN MISSIONS STRATEGY.
In 1985 there were 55,000 American missionaries on the field, most of these were World War II veterans who had been abroad, saw the world; got their education and returned to foreign nations as missionaries. By 1990, the number was down to 44,000, and the number continues to decline. By this year, there are 41,000, and the number of American missionaries will probably continue to go down.
But at the same time, the effectiveness of our mission’s program will continue to grow. Why? Foreign missions work is no longer dependent upon the white-faced American missionary who went abroad to plant churches, and win people to Jesus Christ. That is what I call primary evangelism. Americans are now working through the nationals, they are training the nationals to plant churches to win their own people, in their own tribe, preaching the gospel in their own language. Probably the foreign missions outreach of the gospel has never been greater than it is today; because there has been a paradigm shift in leadership on the mission field. It has gone from the American doing the primary work of missions, to the American training the nationals to do the work of missions. I call this partnership missions.
As the number of American missionaries goes down, there are more missionaries being sent out from third world nations into the nation field. That doesn’t mean that America is doing less, it means that God is raising up many missionaries from other countries to come alongside America and partner with us in the endeavor to reach the world for Jesus Christ. Therefore, I see us training nationals, mentoring nationals, giving strategy to nationals, providing resources to nationals, and getting the work done in a new way in the new Millennium.
9. I SEE THE CONTINUED CHALLENGE OF THE 10-40 WINDOW.
The 10-40 window includes all those nations from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific rim within the latitude and longitude including North Africa, the Middle East, India, China, Japan, and Indonesia. The 10-40 window includes 97% of unreached people in the world. It includes the least evangelized mega cities of the world. These are also called world-class cities of one million or more people. The people in the 10-40 window include those who live in Muslim nations, Buddhist nations, Hindu nations, and Shinto nations, the dominant non-Christian religions of the world. Note the following statistics of those in the 10-40 window: Islam has 1.1 billion people, Hinduism has 1 billion people and Buddhist nations have 600 million people.
The 10-40 window has 8 out of 10 of the poorest people of the world, these make up 2.4 billion people who live on less than $500 a year.
Only 8% of all evangelical missionaries work in the 10-40 window. In the 10-40 window only three countries will give a visa to enter as a traditional missionary. Most of the nations in the 10-40 window will not accept a missionary to evangelize their people. Therefore, we must send in Christians as teachers, businessmen, farmers, doctors, and all other types of trained individuals who will go in with a vocation; they must carry Christ in their hearts and make Christ the passion of their personal witnessing; these Christians will have to reach the nationals and train the nationals to do the work of evangelism in their nations.
10. I SEE THE Y2K AS A SERIOUS THREAT TO WORLD STABILITY, WORLD BUSINESS, WORLD PEACE AND WORLD PROSPERITY.
The Y2K threat could wipe out everything we have attained because when people can’t communicate with one another, their distrust turns to violent acts of hostility and aggression.
JERRY: GET YOUR MATERIAL HERE.
CONCLUSION:
I want to see everything as Jesus saw things. I read in Scripture what Jesus saw:
“When Jesus saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted, and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Then said He to His disciples, ‘the harvest is truly plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth laborers unto the harvest.’”
I want to see the multitudes as Jesus sees them.
I want compassion for people, as Jesus loves them.
I want a shepherd for the sheep as Jesus cares for them.
I want laborers for the harvest as Jesus commands.
I want prayer intercessors as was Jesus’ wish.
I want a world-wide harvest of souls.
If you have never really accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, would you do it right now? Do not delay or put it off. If you would like to receive Christ by faith, pray this simple prayer in your heart:
Dear Lord,
I acknowledge that I am a sinner. I believe Jesus died for my sins on the cross, and rose again the third day. I repent of my sins. By faith I receive the Lord Jesus as my Savior. You promised to save me, and I believe You, because You are God and cannot lie. I believe right now that the Lord Jesus is my personal Savior, and that all my sins are forgiven through His precious blood. I thank You, dear Lord, for saving me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, God heard you and saved you. I personally want to welcome you to the family of God and rejoice with you.
For more information on the TRBC Pastor’s Bible Class, log on to the Internet for TRBC Home page at www.trbc.org/pbc.
