20 to 30 Year Olds, READ THIS!
I got saved in 1970 at the age of 20 in a church of 5,000 people. There was in that church a fervent spirit among the 20 – 30 year olds like nothing you can imagine. We had so much zeal that we would have gone to Hell and strangled the devil with our bare hands. THEN…we got side-tracked. Not by sin, not by the world, but by well meaning preachers who assured us that we would be gone in six month…The Rapture was just around the corner. Mix that with, “The devil’s already won” philosophy that was also preached, and scores of zealous young people stopped dead in their tracks and did nothing for God because, “we’ll be out of here in the next six months.” Ten weeks after I got saved God called me to go to Bible college but I almost didn’t go. Why? Because the Lord was going to return before I could graduate 3 years later and I wanted to get busy right now. A wise preacher told me, “If God wants you in Bible college, that better be where He finds you when He returns.” That was GREAT advice. The Lord didn’t keep anyone’s date for the Rapture, I graduated in ‘73 and the rest is history.
I have been preaching for 35 years and for the first time since the ‘70’s I am seeing that zeal again in the 20 – 30 year olds in our churches. There is a group of good young people in our churches in that age group that want to live for the Lord and let nothing stop them. This is not an American phenomenon. I’ve seen the same zeal in Canadian young people. This crowd wants to serve God like none in 30 years. There’s only one thing that can stop them…US! We who were hindered by the errant “Jesus is coming next month” philosophy, and still think that doing nothing in the name of the Rapture, is meritorious are a greater threat to these kids than the devil. We tell them, “Don’t bother making any long term plans because we won’t be here 5 years from now.” (We’ve been saying this for 40 YEARS! Anybody seeing anything?)
If you are between 20 & 30, (this isn’t “hard & fast” there are some zealous young Christians a few years either side of these numbers) let me tell you what to do. What I wish someone had told us. Get together with kids of your age and zeal and look 5 and 10 years into the future. Now, instead of saying, “It’s all over, the devil has won. We can’t stop it.” talk about goals for your country that you are going to work towards personally. Ignore us deadheads! Ignore the, “Don’t get involved politically” argument. Ignore the “Jesus is coming, don’t bother” argument. Ignore the “America is lost, the devil’s already won” argument. We got sidetracked and all we’ll do is side track you.
Those of us who haven’t given up will take care of the next five years. By that time you should be old enough and positioned to take over and really steer this country right. Yes, it will be a fight. A fight with the devil and a fight with the born-again, King James Bible believers who will do all they can to throttle you into the same lethargy they were guided into.
Maybe the Lord will come this year before any of your plans can be put into action. But I would rather the Lord come and find me doing something than doing nothing in the name of the Rapture. How much better would your world be right now if we had known we had 35+ years here? What abominations could we have stopped? We let America proceed towards Hell, confident that we’d be gone in 6 months. What if we have another 35 years here? Are you going to let America continue downhill or steer it back to glorifying God? It’s your choice, and nobody else’s. (You 50+s. Let’s let these young people alone.)