Observant readers will note that the above heading is the opposite of last month's The worst century yet. Far from espousing the view that truth is relative, we want to explore a paradox that seems apparent in the unfolding of history. We would argue that, whereas in many ways the 20th century has been marked by sad decline, there are also many evidences of God's goodness and grace - indeed more than at any other time in man's history. If we sounded gloomy last month we want to sound as positive as is legitimate this month. It is our firm conviction that there has been no better time to live in God's Kingdom than today. Yes, things are much worse than they have ever been but they are also much better. We have laid out the evidence for saying this is the worst of times. What evidence is there to say it is also the best of times?
Living standards
Many things come to mind. For example, there is the general advance of literacy, of life expectancy and the generally improved standards of living that many people have known across this last century. Think of the decrease in a disease such as leprosy - now curable and far from being the scourge it once was, thanks to the work especially of Christian missionaries. Or think of the defeat of smallpox. Think too of the increasing taming, by various means, of previous killers such as tubercolosis, measles, whooping cough, rubella and chicken pox.
Advances in science and technology are double-edged in many ways but the apparent discovery of all the elements God has used to create this cosmos, our vastly increased understanding of space, telecommunications revolutions, advances in medicine and the countless discoveries and inventions that have made life so much easier and more interesting are surely tokens of God's goodness. To take only two examples - think of the impact the discovery of penicillin has had on the fight against disease. How many lives have been saved in the short time since Fleming's discovery? Then think of something like the audio-cassette. How much good has been done through the dissemination of faithful preaching and teaching by means of this simple yet cheap and effective tool, unavailable to people in previous centuries.
Gospel advance
More obviously, there has been the continued advance of the gospel to more and more people in more and more parts of the habitable globe. Animism and many other forms of paganism continue to be in serious decline in most parts of the world. Atheistic communism has been dealt a crushing blow and, despite its posturing, Islamic fundamentalism has proved unattractive to most in the Muslim world. Apart from biological growth, Islam has seen no real advance this century.
On the other hand, if you take a book like Operation World you can find statistics showing a rise in the number of professing Christians in country after country. Patrick Johnstone wrote in 1993 'We are living in the time of the largest ingathering of people into the Kingdom of God that the world has ever seen.' The serious decline of Christianity in the West can blind us to the fact that in parts of Africa and Asia great progress is being made. By now perhaps as many as 70% of Christians live elsewhere.
As we come to the end of the century some 30% of the world would claim to be Christian. In a world with a population of about 6,000 million, there are now more than 200 million evangelical believers. Thousands of new people join churches every week. Only 15% of the world is totally untouched by the gospel. Think of countries in Africa such as Burundi, Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Zaire, where there are now significant numbers of evangelicals. Or in Asia, think of China, South Korea, Singapore, the Philippines and parts of Indonesia. In South America Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, all now have relatively high percentages of professing evangelicals. In parts of the world such as Byelarus, Moldova, the Ukraine and Romania, the gospel is making advances it never has before. Even in the world's least evangelised countries there are some who have come to faith in Christ.
Bibles and revival
Advance in Bible translation is a concrete example of how the advantages of modern science and technology have been harnessed so that by now only 6% of the world's population is without access to the Bible in a language that they can understand. The exciting story of how the Bible has been translated into more and more languages throughout this century is impressive evidence of the goodness of God.
Many bemoan the lack of revival in our land. It should be borne in mind, however, that this century has arguably seen more revivals than in any previous century. In these last hundred years, it is claimed, revivals of varying depth and breadth have been documented in Armenia, Central Africa, Wales, India, America, Holland, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Burma, China, Chile, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Scotland, Brazil, Indonesia, Quebec, the Pacific Islands and Argentina. Our aim in saying these things is not to create a false optimism about the future but to remind ourselves that just as it would be naive to enter the next century imagining all will be sweetness and light so it would be equally wrong to enter it without expecting great things from God and attempting great things for him. The gospel will be preached in all the world before Christ comes; more and more will come to him. However, God always uses means and it is important for us as believers to play our part in continuing to make Christ known.
In Revelation 22:11 we read Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who is right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy. It suggests a continuing sifting out of the bad from the good. The bad will grow worse and worse, the good will grow better and better. While the Kingdom of Satan continues to decline God's Kingdom will continue to grow. The growth in this century has been astonishing. We have every reason to expect growth in the coming century too until the return of Christ. Let us be committed to doing all in our power to bring praise to Christ.
This article first appeared in Grace Magazine in 1999
