The World is Getting Better!

By Harold Eberle

The world is getting better! Start off the year with this optimistic view.

As I travel around the world and minister, I find Christians in my own country very pessimistic. I don’t see it in Africa. In fact, in poorer regions of the world I meet Christians with incredible hope and vision. Even in the midst of poverty and oppression, they have confidence that the Kingdom of God will expand and eventually will take control of their countries. Here in North America I see the opposite. Christians seem to have so little faith.

It makes me mad. I think it is a demon of pessimism. Don’t submit to it. Resist him and he will flee from you.

A quick dose of the truth will help you see clearly. Just glance back in time and take a few snap shots of how life was at various moments in the past.

As an American, I can glance back 200 years and see the conditions of my country in the early 1800’s. Of course, there were some godly individuals laying the foundations of our government, but the moral and ethical climate of America was tragic. The enslavement of tens of thousands of Africans was a curse upon our culture. Thousands of Chinese people also were being brought into our country to serve as forced laborers. Several of our early presidents owned slaves. President Jefferson is known to have fathered several children through his slaves. The native Americans were being forced off of their lands and many murdered. Pioneers who pushed into the West had almost no churches to attend until years after their settlements were established. A recent book entitled Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Church, draws on the church membership records of that time and reveals that the percentage of US citizens attending church then was much smaller than it is today. It also reports that the age of sexual consent in some states was 13 years old. History books also tell us that alcoholism was at its highest rate in our country’s history. Things were not better morally, ethically, nor spiritually at that time in our history. The good old days were not so good.

Glance back further and look at the whole world 2000 years ago. Around the time Jesus came into the world, the Roman Empire was controlling civilization, which centered around Europe and Northern Africa. Most of the Roman and Greek peoples worshipped many gods, such as Zeus and Venus. Even the Roman emperor was considered a god, and people throughout the Empire had to pay tribute to the emperor, recognizing him as divine. Outside of the Roman Empire people in most of Africa, Asia, and Australia worshipped nature, demons, and their own dead ancestors. Here in North America the people had no revelation of the coming Messiah, and in South America millions worshipped a bloodthirsty god who demanded human sacrifices, often numbering in the thousands in one ceremony.

When Jesus came to the Earth, there was only one tiny little nation located in the Middle East that had a revelation of the one true God, and even its citizens were living in a time of great doubt. All of the rest of the world was lost in darkness. As the apostle Paul wrote: “...formerly you, the Gentiles...were at that time separated from Christ...having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:11-12). That was the condition of the world 2000 years ago.

So many Christians today miss this. They don’t realize how far the world has advanced. They forget that today Christianity is the largest religion in the world, with 5,000 to 10,000 new born-again Christians every hour. However, when the news media brings some tragic event into the living room of their homes, they lose sight of the big picture. They immediately fall for the lie that everything is going down hill. They forget that the same television is broadcasting the Gospel to every corner of the Earth for the first time in history.

I recently heard a sincere believer ask, “Is America going to collapse like the Roman Empire did because of moral decay?” How foolish!

First of all, the Roman Empire did not collapse because of moral decay. The city of Rome was destroyed in 410 AD and usually the date 476 AD is assigned to the fall of the Empire. But consider the conditions of the Empire in the Fifth Century, compared with any time earlier in its history. As I already mentioned, the people were worshipping many gods in the First Century. In the year 313, Christianity was legalized, and within 100 years, over 75% of the population of the whole Empire were confessing Christianity. Of course, many of those people may not have understood Christianity as we do today, but get a grip, they were a lot better off with 75% going to church than they were in the First Century when they all were worshipping the Greek and Roman gods!

More importantly, we need to consider why the Roman Empire fell in the Fifth Century. Daniel the prophet gave us the answer when he interpreted the dream of King Nebuccanezzar (Dan. 2:31-45). Daniel explained that a “Rock” would come into the Earth at the time of the Roman Empire and eventually that Rock would grow into a mountain which would destroy the Empire. Daniel also made it clear that the Rock was the eternal Kingdom of God. According to Scripture what destroyed the Roman Empire? The expansion of Christianity. And that is exactly what happened. When the vast majority of those in the Empire embraced Christianity, the whole culture changed. The emperor no longer could demand to be worshipped. By the Fifth Century, almost all of the temples of the false gods had been turned into Christian churches. Certainly there was still evil in the Roman Empire, but the savagery of the masses watching people being murdered in the Coliseums was eliminated. Christianity changed the culture. Good overcame the Roman Empire.

The same thing happens today when Christianity comes into a country where false gods are worshipped and/or dictators rule. When Christianity flows in, people take on Christian values. When people realize that they are created in God’s image, they begin to want to rule themselves rather than serve a dictator. When people recognize that we all are created in God’s image, they put an end to murder and slavery. Wherever Christianity goes, values and societies change.

Of course, today there are still terrible atrocities going on in the Earth. But we must not lose sight of the bigger picture. Many Christians are fixated on abortion, which is, indeed, the curse of our generation. However, we must not fixate on this. The battle is not over. We still can change things. God has not given up. Neither have I!

Christians sometimes ccompare today’s baby slaughter with those which happened in the days of Moses and Jesus. Babies were murdered en masse, but Satan did not succeed either time in stopping the deliverance which God had planned. Moses came. Jesus came. The Evil One will not succeed this time either. The Joshua Generation is now in the Earth. They will lead the Church into the full promises of God.

Consider from another perspective this scourge of abortion. Everything Satan does ultimately brings his defeat. Killing the Savior brought salvation for the world. With that revelation, consider the tragic outcome of today’s abortion crisis. Who has been removed from the Earth? The babies of those who believe in abortion. Those people are without a generation to fill their shoes. Of course, God is grieved over the slaughter of the unborn. Of course, we must show compassion to people who have been involved in this holocaust. But do not be fooled: God will turn all things around for His glory and victory.

Whenever someone asks you, “What is this world coming to?” give them the truth: “It is coming to the feet of Jesus!” It is happening rapidly—very rapidly.