DO YOU THINK THAT THE MILLENNIUM IS IMPORTANT?

FIRST OF ALL I think that there is a lot of doubt about the way in which this nation is to celebrate the event. The Dome and a great celebrity, who, we are told, will upstage the Queen, is hardly the way to face what might turn out to be a third millennium.

The right place, for the Christian, must surely be in church in solemn recollection and rededication just as, in previous years, Christians (at least in the North of these islands) would have kept every new year.

Why not set about getting together a committee in your area to arrange such an event. Don’t leave it to the humanists, the atheist and the hedonists.

But all that is about how we ought to keep the night itself and I trust that all the great churches and chapels will be open and thronged with serious minded worshippers.

For the Millennium is important. Of course, all instructed Christians are aware that we probably passed the true millennium by the end of 1996!

Nevertheless, we are creatures of time and it is very significant that another century has passed with a task and an expectation still ahead.

The task is the evangelisation of the world, which is a task woefully inadequately attempted as yet. There are millions who have never heard and we must hope that the churches re-dedicate themselves to complete this major job in the coming century. At the present time, few Christians really care much about those unnumbered souls who are dying and pass into the night.

Secondly, there is an expectation. If the Lord has not returned by January 31,1999, then this must be our great expectation for the years of the next millennium.

We need to remember that it has been a very short time indeed since the incarnation as compared with the age of the universe and therefore it becomes more likely, as time goes by, that our Lord will return upon the clouds as he promised.

If you care to think seriously about this, do study Matthew Ch. 24 vv 29-31, Ch. 24 vv 36-44, Acts Ch. 1 vv 9-11 and I Thess. Ch. 4 v 13 to Ch. 5 v 11.

P.S. We need some more questions. Please send them to the Editor

John Pearce. Bury St Edmunds