Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
The resurrected Christ commands us, "Go into all the world and proclaim the Glad Tidings to everyone!" (see Matt. 28:19, 20; Mark 16:15). It was a joyous ministry for the apostles as they fanned out over their known world, because the foundations of ancient paganism collapsed before their proclamation of Christ the Son of God and Savior of the world. People everywhere welcomed the precious message. This same joyous work is our ministry that we have today, two millennia afterwards.
But there are great non-Christian religions resistant to the Christian gospel, such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and of course, Judaism. They teach non-Christian doctrines, and they seem to have an enormous control over their peoples' prejudiced thinking. Is this the will of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Is the gospel of Christ comparatively impotent as it confronts non-Christian religions? Must the great masses of world population always remain resistant?
Daniel 8 and 9 are two of the most profound chapters in the Christian Bible (and Jewish Old Testament). A personal devil is at war with a personal Christ; the enemy learned that bloody persecution could not destroy Christ's church--the gospel was too strong in capturing human hearts. Therefore, the enemy devised a massive apostasy or "falling away" from the original purity of the gospel (cf. 2 Thess. 2:3-7 where Daniel 8 and 9 are explained).
A distorted, confused "caricature" of Christianity took over the church, misrepresenting the love of Christ. In Daniel, this deception is seen as a "little horn" at war with the God of heaven. It alienated the masses from Christ and His plan of salvation, creating this constant resistance to the gospel.
Revelation 18 describes how this process must and will be reversed before the end so that again a church in full possession of the original pure, true gospel proclaims the "fall of Babylon." Once more and at last, the honest in heart all over the world will respond.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 28, 2004.
Copyright © 2016 by "Dial Daily Bread."
