FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)–Evangelize the world rather than speculate on when it will come to an end, urged Jerry Rankin, president of the International Mission Board, at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
“The good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed to the whole world as a witness to every nation and then the end will come,” Rankin said at the Fort Worth, Texas, seminary April 8.
“I believe in the personal, bodily, glorified return of our Lord any time,” Rankin continued. “But I don’t get caught up in eschatology and end times.”
By reading the Bible and looking at world events, one can see “God is at work in unprecedented ways to fulfill his purpose,” Rankin said.
Three years ago, Rankin said, there were 2,161 ethnic linguistic people groups who had never heard the name of Jesus Christ and the number now is only 72.
Rankin said he believes “that God is moving the obstacles to the world’s knowing the redeemer.”
The spread of the gospel, however, has not gone without cost, Rankin reminded.
“There are more countries than ever before that prohibit missionaries,” he said, “but as [the Apostle] Paul said, ‘I may be in chains but the gospel is not chained.’ There is no political barrier that can keep the gospel from penetrating … to all the world.
Rankin shared from Esther 4:14, where Mordecai told his niece Esther that as queen she could not remain silent in the face of a royal decree to persecute Jews.
“God had placed Esther in this strategic position to plead on behalf of her people,” Rankin said.
Just as God called Esther to minister to her people in a certain time in history, God has called his children to minister to the lost in the current time, Rankin said, adding, “He has called us into the kingdom for such a time as this.”
As evidence of God’s work, Rankin said missionary teams are now in Iran, a country once closed to the gospel, and communist China.
“My heart starts to beat with excitement when we see people in China impacting unreached people groups for the first time,” he said. “Places long deprived of the freedom of religion — and now the word of Jesus is being fulfilled.”
Christians are a part of God’s kingdom, not the world’s, and as Christ’s modern-day disciples they are commanded to share the message of God’s kingdom with the world, Rankin reminded.
“Our Lord Jesus came proclaiming another kingdom, the kingdom of God,” Rankin said. “He sent out his disciples to proclaim the good news of that kingdom.”
That everyone in the world has not heard the name of Jesus Christ is not because of economic deterioration, political disruptions or restrictive regulations by non-Christian governments “but simply the lack of laborers, the people of God, that are willing to carry that message of redemption to a lost world,” Rankin said.
