Dear friends:

This morning, within minutes of each other, two evidences came to my attention of soon-coming demographic crises, further evidence of what many believe is what Jesus referred to as “the end of the age.”

1.  I was reading a September 2005 National Geographic article about Africa, which showed an aerial photo of Nairobi’s Kibera slum, a maze of shacks and open sewers where 800,000 people try to exist. If you do not live there, get on your knees today and thank God for your blessings, and pray for those poor souls.  Driven by drought, war, and hope for a better life, Africa’s rural poor are flocking to such slums.  But get this: By 2050, Africa’s population is expected to double!

2.  This morning, The Drudge Report headlines Pat Buchanan’s alarming new book, STATE OF EMERGENCY: THIRD WORLD INVASION AND CONQUEST OF AMERICA. Buchanan warns: “The children born in 2006 will witness in their lifetimes the death of the West."  Buchahan says, by 2050 there will be 100 million Hispanics concentrated in the U.S. Southwest. Between 10 and 20 percent of all Mexicans, Central Americans and Caribbean people have already moved to the United States.  Every month, the U.S. Border Patrol apprehends more illegal aliens breaking into our country, 150,000, than the number of troops we have in Iraq.

Other demographic crises exist throughout the world.  Such population bombs and desperate attempts to survive spell discontent, civil strife, anarchism, wars, and severe shortages of resources.  Today’s world problems are minuscule compared to what is coming, if Jesus tarries.

In a 2002 letter, Bible scholar J.R. Church discusses the coming resource crisis: "There is one irrefutable reason for believing that Christ is coming back very soon. In the past 40 years, the world population has doubled. Forty percent of the people alive today are under 15 years old. If the increase of the population were to stabilize at 40 years, then by 2040 there would be 12 billion mouths to feed. By 2080 the population will increase to 24 billion. By 2120 there will be 48 billion mouths to feed. Already every night, over half the people in our world go to bed hungry. If Jesus does not come -- if there is no end to the procreation of man, we are helpless to cope with what lies ahead in the twenty-first century."  He also describes the coming crisis in water supplies and mineral resources.

All this is both bad news and good news.

It is bad news in that many are suffering.  It is good news in that (1) coupled with prophesied Middle East events, it is further evidence of the Lord’s soon return, and (2) it presents unprecedented witnessing opportunities to help fulfill the Great Commission.

The late Dr. Bill Bright has shared that in his book, "Touching the World Through Prayer," Wesley L. Duewel, famous missionary statesman, described this worldwide demographic phenomenon and its relevance to the Great Commission.

He says that throughout the world, the villages are static and dying, since the first to suffer in famine are the villagers.  The prospects of enough to eat, education, health services, and job opportunities available in the cities are beckoning the young and ambitious.  The exodus to the cities is a phenomenon that has accelerated.  He said the greatest urban migration in the history of the world will occur during this decade (his book was written in the 1980s) and the next.  It is estimated that one billion people from Third World countries will migrate to the cities during the 1980s alone.

The average world-class city doubles in population every fourteen years, and some in only ten years.  Because of the intense concentration of people living within a smaller radius, we can reach far more in a city than in a village, and in a shorter period of time.  Paul centered his evangelistic efforts in cities, and then the city churches reached out to the villages.

The ripest time ever is now, Duewel says.  Why?  Because in the first 10-15 years after new city dwellers arrive, they are more responsive than at any other time.  While living in the villages under the scrutiny of family, members of the caste, friends, and village priests and religious leaders, it is difficult for individuals who hear the gospel to step out alone.  Upon reaching the city, they are comparatively rootless and often restless and disillusioned in not finding the new home to be the longed-for utopia.  Liberated from the surveillance of relatives and religious leaders, those individuals are vulnerable and ripe for the gospel message.  It is crucial that we reach them now.

Now, since God is sovereign and knows all of this, is it any accident that the greatest gospel outreaches in the history of the world have taken place since the middle of the 20th century (about the time of Israel’s rebirth)?  God knows exactly what He is doing, and His plan is on schedule.  Many ministries are active on the mission field in far-off places, such as in Nairobi's slums, and daily are telling the good news of Jesus' love through the Jesus Film and by other means.  The Jesus Film is the most translated film of any type in history -- at this writing it is already in 952 languages, increasing constantly.  So far film has been used to bring over 6 billion exposures to the gospel in 228 countries.

The massive illegal immigration to the U.S., where Bible Christianity is openly preached 24/7, may be the only way millions of Hispanics will ever hear the gospel.  The other day a Hispanic telephone installer from Peru came to my place and he could barely speak English.  I seized the opportunity and gave him a copy of the Spanish version of The Four Spiritual Laws booklet, which I keep for such occasions.  I also have Chinese language versions.  You can order them at http://www.campuscrusade.com/tracts_and_booklets.htm

With all this, it is imperative that God’s people somehow be involved with helping to fulfill the Great Commission, in whatever way they can.  We do not have time to sit, whine, and wring our hands about temporal problems, and instead we must get busy.  The time is short.  By the hundreds of millions, people are heading for an eternity without Christ.

And the King is coming!

 Jim