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THE HARVEST IS RIPE
The Harvest is ripe -- Here's proof:
Wycliffe: Vision 2025
Translation projects started in every language on the planet by 2025.
Worldwide evangelism:
In "The Faith Equation," Dr. Marvin Bittinger, Professor of Mathematics at Purdue University and author of over 175 college math textbooks, claims that by 2033 every person on the planet capable of understanding the gospel will have been presented the gospel, according to modern evangelism trends.
34,000 converts each day in South America
28-37,000 Chinese converts daily
23-25,000 African converts daily
16,000 Muslims come to Christ daily - the following stories are all quoted.
"In December 2001, Sheikh Ahmad al Qataani, a leading Saudi cleric, appeared on a live interview on Aljazeera satellite television to confirm that, sure enough, Muslims were turning to Jesus in alarming numbers. "In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity," Al Qataani warned. "Every day, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Every year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity." Stunned, the interviewer interrupted the cleric. "Hold on! Let me clarify. Do we have six million converting from Islam to Christianity?" Al Qataani repeated his assertion. "Every year," the cleric confirmed, adding, "a tragedy has happened."
Stories from Muslim countries: Iraq -- thousands of new Christians since Saddam was overthrown, many new churches started, Egypt -- some reports say 1 million Egyptians have trusted Christ over the past decade or so. The Egyptian Bible Society used to sell about 3,000 copies of the JESUS film a year in the early 1990s. But last year they sold 600,000 copies, plus 750,000 copies of the Bible on tape (in Arabic) and about a half million copies of the Arabic New Testament. The largest Christian congregation in the Middle East, meets in an enormous cave on the outskirts of Cairo. Some 10,000 believers worship there every weekend. A prayer conference the church held in May 2005 drew some 20,000 believers, Afghanistan -- only 17 Muslim converts to Christianity before 9/11/01, but now more than 10,000, Kazakstan -- only 3 known Christians in 1990, but now more than 15,000, Sudan -- more than 1 million Sudanese have converted to Christianity just since 2000, and some 5 million have become Christians since the early 1990s, despite a radical Islamic regime and an on-going genocide that has killed more than 200,000.
Seminaries are being held in caves to train pastors to shepherd the huge numbers of people coming to Christ. Why such a dramatic spiritual awakening? "People have seen real Islam, and they want Jesus instead," one Sudanese evangelical leader said, Iran -- in 1979, there were only 500 known Muslim converts to Christianity, but today Iranian pastors and evangelical leaders say there are more than 1 million Iranian believers in Jesus Christ, most of whom meet in underground house churches. One of the most dramatic developments is that many Muslims are seeing dreams and visions of Jesus and thus coming into churches explaining that they have already converted and now need a Bible and guidance on how to follow Jesus."
Worldwide: 174,000 converts daily -- David B. Barret and Todd M. Johnson of the Global Evangelism Movement.
This is truly the most exciting time in all of history to be alive and a part of His Great Commission. The opportunity has never been more dramatic and the need has never been so huge:
All of history has built up to this point.
Global impact in your hometown.
Multiplication opportunities.
Transportation and communication impacts.
Globalization
English
Current end time events.
Israel, wars and other events.
The 4th qtr., bottom of the 9th, the end-game.
(From a sermon by Nate Herbst, The Great Commision -- Discussion, 11/21/2009)
But, in 1787, a group of well-known and powerful Philadelphians (called the Philadelphia Society) convened in the home of Benjamin Franklin. Dr. Benjamin Rush spoke on the Society’s goal, to see the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania set the international standard in prison design. He proposed a radical idea: to build a true penitentiary, a prison designed to create genuine regret and penitence in the criminal’s heart. Not simply to contain criminals. The concept grew from Enlightenment thinking, but no government had successfully carried out such a program.
Eastern State Penitentiary opened in 1829 and broke sharply with the prisons of its day, abandoning corporal punishment and ill treatment. This massive new structure, became one of the most expensive American buildings of its day and soon the most famous prison in the world.
Each prisoner had his or her own private cell, centrally heated, with running water, a flush toilet, and a skylight. Adjacent to the cell was a private outdoor exercise yard contained by a ten-foot wall. This was in an age when the White House, with its new occupant Andrew Jackson, had no running water and was heated with coal-burning stoves.
The Penitentiary would not simply punish, but move the criminal toward spiritual reflection and change. But the proponents of the system believed strongly that the criminals, exposed, in silence, to thoughts of their behavior and the ugliness of their crimes, would become genuinely penitent. Thus the new word, penitentiary.
The latest Barna survey finds that the most radical differences of opinion on what needs to change in America are between evangelicals and those not born-again. Overall, 82% of American adults say a change in the overall care and resources devoted to children is absolutely necessary in the immediate future. Only 62% of evangelicals agreed. While enhancing the health of Christian churches was the lowest priority among Americans (44%), evangelicals made it one of their highest priorities. Also among top evangelical priorities is upgrading the state of marriage and families and improving the spiritual condition of the nation. In each of these cases, evangelicals were more than 30 percentage points more likely than other adults to say these issues are absolutely necessary for the immediate future. “Overall, evangelical Christians stood out as the segment that holds views that are most dissimilar from the typical perspectives of Americans,” states the report. (Barna Online 8/20/07)
Bible Revision: Authorized A team of Vatican scholars has been authorized to review the Dead Sea Scrolls with the intention of revising the Bible. The Guardian says, “The influence of radical Jewish groups who wanted to overthrow Roman rule is likely to be featured in the new Bible, bolstering those who interpret Christ as a revolutionary who fought political oppression.” An official announcement is expected later this month. (Publishers Lunch 9/11/01)
Moral Choices: New Barna research finds many adults attitudes conflict with the moral positions of their faith. On abortion, 41% of all adults stated that it should be legal in all or almost all circumstances and 55% said it should not be legal under any circumstances or only in a few special circumstances. 36% contend that it is a morally acceptable behavior. 48% believe that sexual relations between consenting adults of the same gender should be legal, while only 25% say that such relations are morally acceptable. Among born again adults, 34% say that sexual relations between gay people should be legal while just 9% say that such activity is morally appropriate. Just 5% of adults believe that having an affair with a married person is morally acceptable, but 17% believe that having an affair with an unmarried person is morally viable. 58% say that co-habitation is morally acceptable and 58% state that having sexual fantasies is morally acceptable. 63% claim that divorce is not a sin. The use of profanity was deemed morally acceptable by 37%. 50% of all adults stated that watching a movie with explicit sexual behavior is morally acceptable. The results of the study caused George Barna, to remark, “Americans are correct in suggesting that the moral state of the country is in decline, but they may be looking in the wrong place to find the genesis of the problem.” 47% hold a non-biblical moral view on at least 4 of the 8 core behaviors tested, suggesting that perhaps the moral problems of the nation are not always attributable to other people but often to our own attitudes and actions. “Religious leaders and people committed to biblical standards of living will be discouraged to realize that matters are highly likely to get worse in years to come. Within the next quarter century we will likely see a state of radical moral amnesia in America. Most people do not believe that there is any source of absolute moral truth. Even born again individuals are abandoning the notion of law based on scriptural principles. Religious institutions could greatly influence people in these areas, but they’d have to substantially alter their existing strategies.” (Barna Online 9/10/01)
Coming Change: 56% of technology experts agree that as telecommuting and home-schooling expand, the boundary between work and leisure will diminish and family dynamics will change. There is notable agreement among the experts that in the next 10 years the internet will be more deeply integrated in our physical environments and high-speed connections will proliferate - with mixed results. They believe the dawning of the blog era will bring radical change to the news and publishing industry and they think the internet will have the least impact on religious institutions. (Pew Internet Report 1/10/05)
In April 1997 39 devotees to a UFO cult called Heaven’s Gate cult led by Marshall Applewhite, killed themselves believing after their deaths they would join an alien space they said was riding piggy-back on a comet. This event brought to the forefront again just how many people actually believe in UFOs and aliens. Although Heaven’s Gate represents the radical fringe of a global UFO movement, there are millions of less-dedicated, everyday followers who believe in UFOs and alien life. In 1997 one poll suggested 40% of Americans believe aliens have visited our planet. Surveys suggest that more than 20 million Americans believe they’ve seen a UFO in the sky- Other data suggests more than 3 million inhabitants of this planet say they have had a personal encounter with a being from another planet–or with a UFO.(Alien Invaders, Charisma July.
