Signs of the Times

Laton E. Holmgren

Bible Society

The Rev. Dr. Laton E. Holmgren ABS General Secretary in the American Bible Society Record New York, New York

When [the Bible] is faithfully read and its teachings known and practiced, the Church is a vigorous and vital force in the world. With this mandate resting heavily upon them, the Bible Societies are today endeavoring more earnestly than ever before to provide the Scriptures in the languages the Church speaks... where the Church lives and does its work...

A new and creative relationship with the churches is developing, whereby the Scriptures will be more widely used by clergy and laity in a dynamic dialogue with contemporary men....

Last year...the Archbishop of York, President of the United Bible Societies, issued a call to the churches of his country to engage with the Bible Societies in a massive effort during the next three years to increase Scripture distribution threefold:

"A silent revolution is taking place throughout the world which will affect the whole future of mankind....Every year the world's population explodes by 60 million people. At the same time literacy is exploding. In a few years...there will be a passion for reading....Vast quantities of propaganda, much of it anti-Christian and entirely undesirable, are pouring into those newly literate areas. Inevitably this will influence the ways of life of these peoples, their governments, and their attitude to other countries for many years to come. During the next formative 20 years the course of the world will in large measure be steered toward good or evil according to what is done now. The answer depends upon how each of us responds to this, one of the greatest opportunities in history for Christianity to spread into all the corners of the earth."

A call to advance by the United Bible Societies has now gone to churches in almost every country on the earth, and the response is magnificent!...

The task ahead, shared jointly by churches and Bible Societies, is surely to see that every man on earth shall have the opportunity and, if necessary, repeated opportunities, to possess for himself in the language he speaks a copy of the written Word.

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