| “By the year 2000” is
the most electrifying phrase in the statement; it also
causes the most hesitation. No one objects to the idea
of goals for the year 2000, but here we see “every
people” and “every person.” Doesn’t
the presence (twice) of the word “every” make
these goals for AD 2000 seem audacious and perhaps even
foolish?
Suppose we could arrive at the place
where we were absolutely confident that every person
on earth has heard the Gospel and understood it, that
is, everyone who is over 2 years old, say, and also
not so old as to be unable to hear, or so sick as to
be unable to think. In any case, suppose we could come
to the place where every “hearing” person
has heard. At midnight on a certain night—we have
finished the job!
One day later, over a million more
tiny tots have arrived at the age of two, and over a
million more people have plunged beyond a condition
of intelligibility.
[Note that God must know what to do
with all such people. There are probably 500 million
children in the world at any given time under the age
of two. Who knows how many older or sick folks there
are?]
But this is the point: is God really
playing with statistics...watching curves on a computer
graph? Is He mechanically waiting for a certain number
of souls to be saved? Is counting peoples and persons
the name of the game? Is that all He expects us to shoot
for by AD 2000? What CAN be done by the year 2000? What
is it that we can all pray for?
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