Article October 5, 1963 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from Laton E. Holmgren, Earl L. Douglass

The Reverend Laton E. Holmgren, D.D. in the American Bible Society Record New York, New York

Out of a population of something like 244 million people in Africa, there are as yet scarcely 20 million Protestant Christians. ... The successful thrust of Islam southward is making our task more difficult (Muslims are sending 4.000 missionaries to Africa every year and currently converting the pagan at the rate of two for every one who is won for Christ).... It is estimated that there are 700 languages spoken in Africa; yet the whole Bible has only been translated into 59. In eleven countries of Africa, there is as yet not a whole Bible available in any vernacular.

On the positive side, there are many encouraging aspects in the African scene. There is a slow but steady increase in the standards of living right across the continent. The gradual increase of literacy and education provide us with a wast number of new and avid readers. The new zeal for social and political reform is often the result of convictions born of the Christian Gospel and there is generally throughout Equatorial Africa a sympathetic attitude toward the Protestant Church. Statistics for black Christians south of the Sahara show that the numbers have been doubling themselves about every 12 years since the beginning of the century.

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