Question: I hear so much on radio and television about the last decade of this century leading up to ...

Question: I hear so much on radio and television about the last decade of this century leading up to the year 2000 being a time of unprecedented revival. Is this biblical? What do you think?

Response: The Bible, of course, has nothing specific to say about the last decade of this century. However, it seems to teach the opposite for the last days: false prophets, apostasy, Laodicea, evil increasing. Referring to “Washington for Jesus ’88,” pastor Samuel Hines, chairman of the Washington, D.C. host committee, declared that the march of tens of thousands of Christians in the nation’s capital “put Satan on notice that his day is over.” If so, one can only wonder what Christ meant when He raised the question, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find [the] faith on the earth?” (Lk 18:8).

Was Christ referring to a complete absence of faith or to the proliferation of a false “Christianity” that, like the weeds in His parable of the sower, will have overgrown and choked out true faith? Neither alternative bodes well for “Evangelism 2000.” Satan’s day is yet to come when he will rule the world through Antichrist and it will not be over until Christ comes, defeats him and locks him in the bottomless pit (2 Thes:2:8And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
See All...; Rev:20:1-3 [1] And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. [2] And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, [3] And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
See All...). To suggest that a Christian march or any other human efforts will end Satan’s day is to deny the clear teaching of the Bible and to live in delusion.

One cannot fault the enthusiastic zeal, but at the same time one wonders whether the year 2000 hasn’t become almost a magical symbol. Why should so much suddenly be accomplished in this decade that was never done before? Even more troubling is the silence concerning the Rapture. Has that hope been forgotten? In all of the planning there seems to be no question that the church will be here indefinitely—and that it is up to us to save the world from the very destruction which God intends to bring upon her in judgment.