The Wayside Pulpit No.14
Evangelism and the Second Advent
The
following article was written, many years ago, by the late Bishop Ryle, the
first Bishop of Liverpool, for the Daily Telegraph's Saturday Religious Comment
column. It was entitled EVANGELISM AND THE SECOND ADVENT.
"I
believe that the world will never be completely converted to Christianity by
any existing agency before the end comes. In spite of all that can be done by
ministers, churches, schools and missions, the wheat and the tares will grow
together until the harvest. And when the end comes, it will find the earth in
much the same state that it was when the flood came in the days of Noah.
(Matt.13:24-30, & 24:37-39)
"I
believe that the widespread unbelief, indifference, formalism and wickedness
which are to be seen throughout Christendom are only what we ought to expect in
God's World. Troublous times, departures from the faith, evil men waxing worse
and worse, love waxing cold, are things distinctly predicted. So far from
making me doubt the truth of Christianity, they help confirm my faith.
Melancholy and sorrowful as the sight is, if I did not see it I should think
the Bible was not true. (Matt.24:12, 1 Tim.4:2, 2 Tim.3:1,13,14)
"I
believe that the grand purpose of the present dispensation is to gather out of
the world an elect people, and not to convert all mankind. It does not surprise
me to hear that the heathen are not all converted when missionaries preach, and
that believers are a little flock in any congregation in my own land. It is
precisely the state of things which I expect to find . . . This is a
dispensation to election and not to universal conversion. (Acts 15:14,
Matt,24:13)
"I
believe that the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is the great event
which will wind up the present dispensation, and for which we ought daily to
long and pray. 'Thy Kingdom come', 'Come, Lord Jesus' should be our daily
prayer. We look backward if we have faith, to Christ dying on the cross, to His
resurrection from the dead, and we ought to look forward no less, if we have
hope, to Christ coming again. (John 14:2, 2 Tim.4:8)"
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Timeless
words of challenge, hope and comfort. And then, when the Kingdom is set up, and
only then, can we hope to witness that "All