The hinge of history is turning. A door is opening slowly, and we have the opportunity of peering through to catch glimpses of things to come. To the optimist the future is bright with promise. He foresees incalculable advances in human knowledge, the possible conquest of disease, the end of poverty, the growth of leisure, and material well-being for all mankind. To him the future is a challenge. He stands on the threshold of the last third of the century head high with hope.
The pessimist, on the other hand, fears the threat of uncontrolled population increase. He sees streets littered with the corpses of starvation victims. And he watches in horror a secularized world without the knowledge of God, as he waits for the four horses of the Apocalypse to ride the plain of Esdraelon. Each viewer has his own vision, each will experience his moment of truth. One is excited by the prospects, the other depressed. But even the depressed, if he is a Christian, is encouraged by the thought that though the world is in chaos, it will soon be reordered by the second coming of the Son of Man into history.
In an effort to find out what Christian leaders in America are thinking as they look through this partially opened door, CHRISTIANITY TODAY asked a number of them this question: “Looking ahead to A.D. 2000, what do you think is in store for mankind?” Each was given a special area to speak about in line with his interests and special competence. Here are the responses.
Medical Science And Human Life
Aldous Huxley and H. G. Wells have proved to be the most accurate forecasters of how science affects our way of life. We can anticipate more of what they predicted. The next moral problem to be faced in the affluent societies is the right to die. If it is right for my parents to decide to have me born, why is it not right for me to decide to die? The argument will center first on patients known to have incurable disease, will be extended to include those suffering from senility, and ultimately will include those merely anticipating life as an invalid or in a senile state.—John R. Brobeck, professor of physiology, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.
The Church And The Nation
Crime, protected by the atheistic Supreme Court and the lower courts with their criminal sympathies; abolition of the death penalty; riots and looting; destruction of the economy by uncontrolled labor unions and an extravagant government; sex; drug addiction; alcoholism; secularism; Communism; no powerful preacher of the Gospel—of course, some faithful preachers, e.g., Martyn Lloyd-Jones, but none who can shake nations as Luther, Calvin, and Knox did: and the result will be the overthrow of the United States by A.D. 2000 (as predicted by Oswald Spengler), the great apostasy, and the Antichrist in priestly robes sitting in the temple of God with a hammer and sickle in his hand.—Gordon H. Clark, professor of philosophy, Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Mass Evangelism
Mass evangelism will play an increasingly vital role. Vocal opposition will probably increase, especially from groups who view evangelism essentially in terms of radical theology and social involvement. But there will also be increasing support from those who see that proclaiming the Gospel to a verdict is essential to biblical evangelism.
Campaigns will be more comprehensive and include witness not only by word but also by fellowship and service. Mass campaigns will more and more become catalysts rather than interludes. Preaching campaigns will be wedded to visitation and home Bible-study efforts.
As for social witness, Billy Graham’s integrated crusades have already been dramatic demonstrations of the Gospel’s relevance in the midst of racial tensions. Ways will be found to bear similar dramatic evangelical witness in the areas of war and poverty.
One great danger is that mass evangelism may be reduced to a technique to be refined. Some may claim that evangelistic effectiveness is due to superb organization, ignoring the spiritual dynamics, forgetting the sovereign power of God in calling evangelists, and forgetting also the power of prayer that has undergirded all great evangelistic movements.
Another danger is that mass evangelism could become extra-church—or anti-church.—Leighton Ford, evangelist, The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
American Education
The use of such aids as television, teaching machines, computers, and other devices not yet developed will doubtless increase markedly. This greater reliance upon technology will tend toward the dehumanization of education and its departure from its basic character as an art. Public education will reflect an even more secularized context than today. The common level of education will doubtless include college training for practically all youth of normal or even mediocre capacity. Yet rising costs will probably force a great expansion of government subsidy.
In line, however, with the present trend to independent education at all levels, an important increase in the number of independent schools and higher institutions may be expected. And here lies the greatest opportunity for Christian education, so long as it holds true to its convictions and maintains high standards.—Frank E. Gaebelein, headmaster emeritus, the Stony Brook School, Stony Brook, New York.
The Population Explosion
Take just one country—India. Unless the birth rate is drastically reduced, a population that has doubled since 1901 will double again—to one billion people—by 2000. In the next thirty years India’s exploding cities will have to absorb 140 million new immigrants. Throughout the non-Western world, where the Church is weakest and smallest, the multiplication of non-Christians will increase the fastest. By 2000 the world will have moved significantly toward total urbanization. Misery will have increased more than affluence, resentment more than understanding.
The Church will either repudiate its suburbanite captivity and define its priority as identifying with the suffering proletariat, or be swept aside as utterly irrelevant to the harsh realities of human existence. I am confident that the believing Church, under the Christ of the common man, will roll up its sleeves and get its hands dirty serving and witnessing in the hostility of a desperately pagan, one-city world. The Cross will be freely proclaimed, and gladly embraced for his sake.—Arthur Glasser, home director for the United States and Canada, Overseas Missionary Fellowship, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Missions And The Church
If present currents continue without a great moving of the Holy Spirit in revival among the established denominations, the year 2000 will see most of these churches near the end of any vital missionary ministry. Their institutional life and philanthropy will have been dwarfed or totally subsumed in the activities of governments.
The increasingly high cost of property will make the mission “church” obsolete and impossible. This may force a return to the New Testament pattern of “the church in thy house,” the cell group at worship.
By that time the day of “missions by money” will be almost as passé as the medieval missions by arms. The Pentecostal groups will be at the apex of their influence. In many of the Roman Catholic lands, evangelical work of Pentecostal type will be huge in scope.
Renewal could conceivably come to the old-line denominations. But this turn seems, at the moment, unlikely.—Cal Guy, professor of missions, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas.
War And Peace
The pressures of ever-increasing populations and of the expectations of the underprivileged peoples will place heavy strain on men’s ability and willingness to share the benefits of society so as to prevent famine, pestilence, and war. The development of new foods from such sources as the oceans and other scientific advances will no doubt increase the world’s productivity, but this will not be enough to assure peace.
These forces may erupt as issues in the struggle between Communism and democracy or in some now unpredictable way unrelated to the present world conflicts. Only if we can manage to restrain our population growth, only if we can help the underprivileged help themselves to achievement, only if we can learn the truth that all men are created by God and are therefore spiritual beings, only if we can experience a spiritual renaissance in which man sees his need for regeneration through Jesus Christ and not mere reformation through human agencies, can we justifiably hope that our plans for peace can be fulfilled.—Mark O. Hatfield, U. S. senator from Oregon.
Scientific Discoveries
Mankind is going to be affected by significant advances in three areas: (1) medicine, (2) communications, and (3) development of natural resources.
In medicine we will see a better understanding of the aging process; of the mind, memory, and consciousness; and of the relation between the physiological and psychological aspects of our nature. Man will arrest the aging process by discovering how life can be preserved indefinitely. Advances in the understanding of the mind will be made to the point where the very definitions of “memory” and “self-consciousness” will be examined.
Communications will advance to the point where great bodies of information stored in one location will be readily available to anyone. If extraterrestrial beings exist, communications will be established with them. Visual communication will be commonplace by the end of the century. It will replace the telephone to a great extent.
The expanding population is going to strain the world’s natural resources, and new products from oceanic exploration will be common. Control of the weather will make possible the utilization of areas of the earth’s surface that are unproductive.—Albert L. Hedrich, head of Communications Research Branch, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.
The Negro
Black and white racists and extremists will find their cause hopeless as the federal government strongly enforces laws to prevent and control outbreaks of racial violence. The majority of Americans will welcome opportunities of working together, using peaceful methods to end segregation and discrimination. Much will depend, however, on whether the Christian Church will completely rid itself of all racism and preach and practice the love of God.
In Africa there will be industrial and economic progress. The apartheid policies of South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, and Angola will face stiffer opposition from blacks and whites within the countries and from outside African nations. Africa will continue to present a tremendous spiritual challenge to the Christian Church and evangelical missions. The Communists will continue their efforts to win complete control, but the greatest deterrent to the Christian Church and mission will be the spread of Islam.—Howard O. Jones, evangelist, The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Intra-Protestant Ecumenism
I am sure in my own mind that the year 2000 will see problems facing the Church that we cannot even imagine at this time. It will show that the ecumenical movement is forever valid, but it will cast certain doubts on mergers as a solution to the problems that plague the Christian Church. The organization of the Christian life of any period is of some significance, no doubt, but it is never the essential thing. The Christian spirit within the hearts of men is the reality. The vital relevance of Jesus Christ to man’s predicament is the final experience. The temptation is to believe that some shifting of the organization will release new power from the Holy Spirit, but this is not true.—Gerald Kennedy, bishop, The Methodist Church, the Los Angeles Area.
The God-Is-Dead Movement
In the final third of the twentieth century, the God-is-dead movement may take one or more these directions: It may have its day as a theological fad and see its literature gathering dust on the shelves. It may vanish from the theological scene as a serious competitor for the attention of the Church, having created a good deal of mischief, but having served at least as a solvent to public indifference to spiritual matters, and having lifted into prominence some neglected facets of Christian doctrine. It may conceivably harden into a theology, quite possibly emphasizing some form of esoteric or agnostic Christology. Or it may develop into an atheistic form of religion, possibly resembling Buddhism in some ways and thereby capitalizing upon the attraction Buddhism has for some intellectuals.—Harold B. Kuhn, professor of the philosophy of religion, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky.
World Revolution And Communism
As we should know from First Corinthians 13:8–10 and as historians have long been aware, prophecies are notoriously fallible. To attempt a forecast for even the year 2000, now less than a generation away, is to risk disproof by the event. We Christians have been warned that at an hour that we know not the Son of Man comes. However, barring that consummation of the age, clearly the world revolution that is affecting all men and all phases of culture will still be mounting. It began at least six centuries ago with the Renaissance and has sprung from Western peoples, what we have been accustomed to call Christendom. It is accelerating and gives no indication of abating. Communism is a phase of that revolution. Although proliferating and giving no evidence of declining, it is not as unified as formerly. Presumably it will become increasingly diverse and less and less centralized either under Moscow or Peking.—Kenneth Scott Latourette, Sterling Professor of Missions and Oriental History, emeritus, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
The Arts
For the modern literary artist, the central question is whether there is relevance between the interior and the exterior world. On one’s belief in this regard hang such questions as whether or not reason is “rational,” or whether meaning has any meaning, or whether subjective awareness relates to objective reality (if any). If the answers are all negative, as for many writers they are, we must plan to live with the anti-novel, the anti-poem, the theater of the absurd, and the universe of the absurd. Nothing may be communicated, for chaos cannot communicate with chaos. Life is a “happening,” without intent, without consequence, and without significance. This is difficult to write “about.” Unless political totalitarianism or social conformism dictates a message and a form, I see little reason to believe that the traditional grounds of literature will re-emerge in the predictable future.—Calvin D. Linton, professor of English literature and dean of arts and sciences, The George Washington University, Washington, D. C.
Situational Ethics
The vaunted “situational ethics” being championed in our age would assign to the present moment and the passing whim greater authority for the individual than the cumulative wisdom of the ages and the authority of Eternal God. It makes the gratification of primal desires more to be sought after than nobility of character. It is man’s arrogant revolt against ethical standards and moral absolutes. Indeed, it bows to no absolutes save personal will and cynical self-interest.
Such a rootless philosophy of life produces anarchic opportunism in personal relationships and threatens our most cherished institutions. It prostitutes liberty into libertinism and hides blatant self-indulgence under the mask of freedom. In short, the exponents of “situational ethics” would deify “situations” which compromise human dignity, and offer the spurious coin of moral individualism for the pure gold of Christian character—the new man on the street, as it were, for the glorious “new man in Christ.” Certainly the domination of a “situational ethics” point of view would be a dire threat to the survival of democracy and to the values that form the warp and woof of the home and all other cherished institutions.—Thomas B. McDormand, president, Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Problem Of Leisure
The September, 1966, issue of the sophisticated French magazine Réaltiés informs us that “with a leisure civilization just round the corner a very prominent Parisian social columnist believes that people “will simply be suffocated by uniformity and boredom.” Precisely: for the natural man, increasing leisure will reinforce the “vexation of spirit” that the writer of Ecclesiastes felt as he realized that “there is no new thing under the sun.” Protestant Christianity must respond to this challenge with a theology of leisure as profound as Huizinga’s secular Homo Ludens. How? By leaving behind Mencken’s definition of Puritanism (“the haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy”) and proceeding to the true biblical stress on the enjoyment of God’s creation (Ps. 19), the beauty of childlike play (Matt. 11:16–19), the divine quality of laughter (Voeltzel, Le Rire du Seigneur), and the great gulf between temporary happiness and that true joy which comes only in the light of eternity (C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy).—John Warwick Montgomery, chairman, Division of Church History and History of Christian Thought, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois.
The Nuclear Threat
Until the middle of this century, man exclusively dependent on chemical energy (with the minor exception of hydroelectric power) derived from the burning of fossilized fuels, such as coal, oil, and gas with the oxygen of the atmosphere. This form of energy is exceedingly rare, even esoteric, in creation as a whole. Nuclear energy, on the other hand, is extremely common and universally present throughout all creation. Most discussions of nuclear energy today seem to miss completely this natural character of it, and tend to concentrate on its destructive aspects. Hydrogen, lithium, thorium, and uranium are natural, pre-existent fuels just as much as coal and oil are, if not more so. Man can use them either for a blessing or for a curse.
The true role of nuclear energy thus becomes abundantly clear. In the twenty-first century two elements will play an essential role—energy and water. To support more than seven billion people will require an immense consumption of energy. It will also require vast quantities of fresh water, mainly for irrigation. The requirements for both energy and water will be able to be met only with nuclear energy.
Nuclear power and sea-water desalting plants will be common everywhere. Nuclear fuels are bound to be as common as coal is now. In such a world, any country will be able to fabricate these plentiful fuels into nuclear weapons at any time it wishes to. The specter of fast destruction in a nuclear holocaust can only grow more acute as time goes on.—William G. Pollard, executive director, Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Psychology, Psychiatry, Mind Control
Rapid assessment and diagnosis and the prescribing of a complete therapeutic program for each patient will be the domain of the computers. New developments in biochemistry and neurophysiology will result in a precise physiology of the mind giving vast control over thinking and feeling processes. New drugs will have an immediate effect on how one thinks and feels, e.g., in increasing one’s memories so that he can recall all he has read or experienced since birth, or blotting out that memory completely. These drugs will arouse or repress anger, affection, sexual desire, and other feelings within moments.
Prevention of mental illness will be brought about by direct manipulation of the genetic apparatus before a child is born and also by application of new findings in ego-psychology and in the theory and practice of shaping behavior of the young. “Programmed teaching,” “rapid reinforcement,” and other methods will be applied via the computer and improved means of mass communications. The immense constructive and destructive potential of these developments is self-evident. But because human nature will remain basically unchanged, men will need more than ever clear-cut moral and spiritual guidelines.—Armand M. Nicholi, Jr., psychiatrist, Health Services, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Trends In Theology
I predict that within the next decade or two, evangelical biblical scholars and Roman Catholic biblical scholars are going to discover each other and actually form societies for mutual exchange of ideas. In biblical scholarship these are the only two groups that take a high view of the inspiration and authority of Scripture. Therefore they will eventually find their mutual conversation more encouraging than trying to keep up a conversation with a body of Protestant scholarship that has in principle and in fact denied any real binding of Holy Scripture upon their religious thought.—Bernard Ramm, professor of systematic theology, California Baptist Theological Seminary, West Covina, California.
The Movement To The Secular
The last third of the twentieth century will, I believe, present a radical change in regard to secularization of our society. In the recent past, there have been a great many people in the life of the West who are secularists at heart but have been ashamed to admit their true position. The solution for these has been mild religion. They have been afraid to oppose the love and worship of God, even though they have been convinced that the very idea of God is obsolete. Mild religion has seemed to be an innocuous middle ground: one ostensibly is not against the historic Christian faith but also avoids any clear or definite commitment to Christ.
Because this situation is rapidly changing, I expect committed Christians to be, by the end of the century, a conscious minority, surrounded by a militant and arrogant paganism, which is the logical development of our secularist trend.—D. Elton Trueblood, professor at large, Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana.
