ETERNITY IN THEIR HEARTS

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11 NKJV

The Preacher understood that man has an awareness and a longing for the eternal, and that God has put this in their hearts. We can say that eternity is in our hearts because we are made in the image of an eternal God. The well-known missionary and author Don Richardson used the phrase eternity in their hearts to describe the phenomenon of redemptive analogies in most all aboriginal cultures. Almost every culture has traditions, customs, or ways of thinking that reflect basic Biblical truth, and these can be used by missionaries to explain the gospel.

Don Richardson, author of the bestselling book Peace Child, has studied cultures throughout the world and found startling evidence of belief in the one true God within hundreds of them. He wrote the book to show how the world is already prepared for the Gospel and how the Gospel was prepared to go out into the world. Eternity in Their Hearts covers the stories and legends of 25 different tribes and people groups around the world from the Greeks, to the Canaanites, to the Inca, to tribes in India, China, Korea, Burma and more.

The first story Richardson addresses is about Epimenides, a “prophet” who was aware of an unknown god without a name the Greeks had not appeased. He proposed a sacrifice of a “clean” animal quite similar to how the Jews did it, and offered it to the nameless god. This is the account Paul used in Acts 17 when addressing Mars Hill. He knew of the story and revealed the name of this unknown God to the Greeks (Acts.17:22-31). Another story was about Pachacuti, the king of the Inca shortly before the Spanish Conquistadors arrived. To the Inca, the sun god was the chief of the gods. However, Pachacuti realized that the sun could be covered by a mere cloud and was only visible half the time. He discovered there was a single omnipotent God who was above and beyond all the others. Unfortunately, the Incas had no one who brought the Gospel to them before the Conquistadors wiped them out. Richardson kept pointing out was how all these tribes had within their culture the things that pointed to God. These peoples were lost, but many of them longed for and sought the answer that was promised. Some were known to be waiting for “the book from God.” How amazing is our God to have placed redemptive analogies in all cultures to bring all men to Himself, bearing out the truth from Ecclesiastes that God "has also set eternity in the hearts of men" (3:11). When Jesus commissioned His followers to take the gospel to the whole world, He gave them His Holy Spirit to help them accomplish this task. What a joy it would be to discover God's redemptive plan for every culture in your nation.

PRAYER POINTS

ME: Have you ever personally responded to Jesus' commandment in Matt.28:18-20? Are you willing to step out of your comfort zone into another culture to share Jesus' love with them?

US: Pray that the Church will again discover the joy of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to other cultures.

THEM: There are so many cultures who have not yet received the good news about Jesus Christ. They have been divinely prepared to receive the gospel, if only someone would go and share it. Pray and ask the Lord how you can become involved in cross-cultural evangelism and discipleship. It was meant for every Christian to be equipped by the Holy Spirit and be up to the task.

Remember your John 17 memory verse.

"I have seen, at different times, the smoke of a thousand villages—villages whose people are without Christ, without God, and without hope in the world." – Robert Moffat