World Without End Begins With His Return

Last fall in South Africa there was a gathering of the global church to discuss world evangelization. Here is a description from the website of the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism.

Over 4,000 leaders from 198 countries were together in Cape Town, South Africa, to confront the critical issues of our time as they relate to the future of the Church and world evangelization.

I am sure that most of the presentations given had to do with the strategy of meeting the physical needs of people in places of the world who live from day to day without the necessities of life. Who would argue with this?  Of course we feed the poor, clothe the naked, give drink to those who thirst.  As a result of our showing compassion and love, our hope is that people will respond to the message that God loves them, and that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. However, as I interviewed a participant who went to Cape Town about the event, he was glowing with reports of how social justice was being lived out throughout the world, and Christians were leading the way. Now, don't get me wrong, I think these kind of reports shows that God is at work through His Church.  What I was stunned by was the lack of preaching on the return of Jesus Christ. 

We live in a day when the news from around the world is living out the prophetic words of scripture, and the gathering of the worlds leading Christians never focus on it, not even once?   I don't want to be critical but let's be honest and truthful.  The blessed hope of the Church, global and otherwise, is the return of Jesus Christ. The conditions in our world read like Matthew 24, and we don't notice?  How can we be a prophetic voice in our world without giving people the hope of His return?  We are closer today than ever to a one world government with one global financial system.  We are experiencing more devastating earthquakes in varying places in our world, and yet we are silent about these signs?  Then there is the issue of deception in the church, as the new evangelical voices of the emergent church are leading people away from Christ, not toward Him. All these signs and more are in our faces everyday. So how is it that when we gather 4,000 global Christians together to inspire them about evangelism, we say nothing about these signs as forewarnings of His return? How can that be? 

This is not a critique on what was said in Cape Town, it is an observation of what was missed. Most Christians don't want to engage in prophetic discussion, they don't care, and it doesn't matter to them. However the news headlines continue to remind us that we are living like those in Noah's day before the flood, unaware of the pending disaster about to come upon us.  

Here is a link that I think keeps it honest and truthful!  Until next time.....K

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNZvfiKrJHo&feature=related