The 12th Annual Greater Midwest Lectureship begins on Friday evening September 30 and seeks to apply the biblical teaching to some of the critical challenges and issues of today. There was a similar series of studies conducted in 1970 in Fort Worth Texas and it is obvious that the time has come to address these issues again – Thus the theme for the 2022 Lectureship is “For Such A Time As This”.
A. V. Isbell, then President of Fort Worth Christian College wrote the preface of the lectureship book and his observations from then are just as relevant today. Though man continues to search the depths of the sea and has pierced the stratosphere to outer space and has walked upon the moon, built a space station where people “live” for weeks at a time, yet for all this, he has not learned to live in peace, love, and goodwill with his fellowman. He treads the earth (from Chicago to the Ukraine) filled with violence, war, and hate and sits within the shadow of self-destruction. When theft, murder, rape, and every conceivable crime are rampant, and strong men fear to walk the streets alone, surely these are “perilous times” and evil days.
The wiseman Solomon was inspired to pen, “To every thing there is a season, and a time – a time to keep silence and a time to speak.” Amidst the awesome threat of nuclear war; engulfed in a world of lawlessness, rebellion, hatred and greed; when the God of Heaven is dethroned and pornography, unbridled sex, sports betting, along sports of all genres have become the idols of a confused, distraught, and misguided generation, it is not “a time to keep silence” but “a time to speak.” When the dark specter of hallucinating drugs hovers as a pall of death over our people to sap and destroy their physical, mental, and spiritual powers; when young men are losing their joy of masculinity and are pleased to exhibit effeminate traits; and when unashamed women glory in displaying their bodies to the lust of evil men and women, surely it is “a time to speak” lest “the stones cry out.”
In contemplating such gross evils in our society, we should thank God daily for the Church and for the thousands of godly men and women in it. But when materialism, liberalism, and worldliness threaten to engulf the Church and many are “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God,” for such a time as this, strong and courageous men must “cry aloud and spare not.”
Thanks be to God we have such men, strong in faith and sound in doctrine, who “shine as lights in the world, holding forth the Word of Life.” To this end, we commend for your spiritual edification the 12th Annual Greater Midwest Lectures.
“For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Est. 4:14 NKJ)
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