by Scott H. Northrup
We stand on the threshold of the twenty-first century. For what will this new century be known when its history is finally written? What will be its greatest discovery?
Prediction is dangerous. One hundred years ago in the year 1902, when my grandparents were elementary school children, the horse was still the primary mode of daily transportation. There was still no indoor plumbing. No man had ever flown. The daily lives of the people who lived then were more akin to the Golden Age of Rome than they were to us today. And yet there were folks in those days who were saying that the patent office could be closed because all the major inventions had been discovered. Their science could answer all the pertinent questions.
Who could have imagined or predicted the changes our grandparents have lived to see during the twentieth century? Where will this great engine of change take us in the next hundred years?
My answer to this may seem absurd to many. Still I have good reason to believe that the 21st century will ultimately be known as the age in which essential Christianity is generally accepted to be the truth. By essential Christianity, I mean Christianity without its cultural baggage. The reality of a supernatural God known by ordinary people will be well-documented, attested, and generally accepted by society. It will be called the age of the Holy Spirit. The seeds of this new age were laid back in 1902 when men like John Lake and Charles Parham, men schooled in Enlightenment thinking, began to discover the miraculous events of the first century church were happening in their day. This began to happen in mass at the re- "discovery" of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit in Topeka and in Azusa Street, Los Angeles.
We are living in a culture that has dubbed itself a post-Christian society, certain of the demise of Christianity, figuring that Darwin and others have largely discredited it and that it is only a matter of time for it to be obliterated from the planet. How do I know this is NOT SO? How do I come to believe that the discovery of Christianity's Truth will be the great discovery of the 21st century? Simply this - because this truth has reached ME! And if little ol' inconsequential ME can discover the greatest truth of all, it's inevitable that eventually everyone will know it (Him). I have experienced what the Bible calls the baptism in the Holy Spirit. I have had a taste of "the powers of the age to come." (Acts 6) It's really astounding when I think of it. I was an atheist. I had been educated in science and steeped in the intellectual culture of the late twentieth century. And then HE CAME and "messed up" my world!! On the day I prayed to be filled with the Holy Spirit and I felt what was like an electromagnetic wave pass through my body, my life changed forever. The Truth is out there, friends, and it will become known. I believe it will happen in our lifetime. I believe it will happen because truth (He) has a way of being found out. I believe it will happen because of the intellectual integrity of many of my scientist friends, who are honest seekers after the truth. It will happen because the barriers to communication are coming down and humans understand more than ever before. We will finally come back to home base. It's only a matter of time. God is patiently waiting for the precious fruit of the earth, for the latter rain. (James 5)
The fact is, seeds planted at Azusa Street are finally coming to fruition. The reality of the Holy Spirit is already well-known to millions in Africa. They have seen supernatural power manifesting in the great services of Reinhardt Bonnke, where over a million people at one time have witnessed modern miracles, where that same supernatural wave of power that I felt has passed through hundreds of thousands of people at the same time.
The prophets of old predicted a time when "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (Habakkuk 2:14) Based on the Word of God and my own experience, I am extremely hopeful tonight as I write this. We stand on the threshold of the greatest revolution ever to occur in human history, the coming of the Kingdom of God on the earth. Make ready, make ready!
@ copyright 2002 by Scott H. Northrup. All rights reserved.