Magyar Egyház, 1963 (42. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1963-02-01 / 2. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 9 CONSUMMATION OF THE WORLD When Jesus will say at the Last Judgment to his beloved ones: “Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” and to his enemies: "Depart from me, you cursed, into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels,” we might say that the history of mankind will be ended in this world. The righteous will enjoy an eternal life in heaven with Christ, his enemies will be cast into the eternal torments of hell. After all this, what will happen to this world, the earth, the sky as we know them today? Acording to the bible “the heavens (sun, moon, planets) will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up” (2.Peter3:10). Although these words give us some idea as to that incredible destruction that will take place, yet it is entirely beyond our human imagination to realize its full meaning. However, there is a remarkable promise attached to the description of the total, final destruction of the world. “According to the promise of God, we wait for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2. Peter 3:11). Probably these words mean that God will re-create the world and in that new world there will be no sin. How will that new world look, what kind of beings will live in it? — these are speculative questions which we cannot answer. For a humble believing Christian it is enough to know that he will be free of all sins and will live for ever in perfect happiness with Christ in heaven, and all the miseries, disorders that human sin caused in the world will disappear. As to the consummation of the world we still have to mention that it will be done by God and not by man. In spite of the fact that according to the present human science man is able to destruct the whole mankind with his terrible inventions, we strongly believe that the end of the world wil come only when it should come according to the secret wisdom of God. Since it was God who created this world, therefore He is the only Power who can destroy it. Stephen Kovács WHAT IS A MISSIONARY? “The Great Commission” of our Lord Jesus Christ is His words as recorded in Mark 16:15, “Go, ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Our Lord Jesus gave this great command not only to the disciples who crowded around Him during His last days upon earth but also to every believer down through the ages. Fulfilling this great Missionary Commission is the Rev. Paul Kovács now serving the Lord in Montevideo, Uruguay. He and his wife are ministering to Hungarians there, amid the hardship of this South American mission field. The children of our Sunday and Saturday Bible Schools have been learning about the work of missionaries. Since the fall of this year, the youngsters bring special missionary offerings in to school, especially on their birthdays when they put their coins into a “Happy Birthday” cake bank. As the children remember their own birthdays, they are helping other little Hungarian boys and girls in South America to learn of the birthday of our Lord Jesus and that He was born to be their Saviour, too. Thus far, we have mailed one offering gift to the Hungarian Mission Church and the Rev. Paul Kovács for use in the Lord’s work in Montevideo but we shall continue this project and we prayerfully look to the future when we hope to see a missionary zeal grow among our people here at home. We have had the opportunity of corresponding with the Rev. and Mrs. Paul Kovács. They tell us of depressing economic conditions surrounding them. Theirs is a Missionary Congregation of 150 Hungarian families and of these families only 85 can afford to bring any offerings at all — therefore they are regarded as a missionary Church. They are renting a hall for their one hour worship service each Sunday. Indifference to religion, poverty, inflation, poor medical care, low morals and poor economic status are the prevailing conditions, a perfect target for Communist infiltration — while many women turn to prostitution as a way of life. Would you like your children to live under these conditions? Hungarians in South America still are living under just such conditions. God’s Word clearly teaches us that without accepting Jesus Christ as our way of salvation, all men shall be lost (John 3:36). God entrusts the gospel to us, His children and He commands that we take it to those who have never heard. And if we refuse, He tells us in Ezekiel 3:18,19, “When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet, if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from this wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.” Perth Amboy, N. ]. Elizabeth Varga Seven Hundred Million Illiterates An estimated seven hundred million adults, or twofifths of the world’s adult population, are illiterate and the figures are rising by 20 to 25 million a year, according to M. Maheu, acting secretary general of UNESCO. He told an opening session of a preparatory commission of experts meeting in Paris for the UN campaign on world literacy that “the collectivity of nations possesses the material, technical, and institutional means within one generation, if not totally to eliminate illiteracy, at least reduce it to sufficiently feeble proportions . . . The question is to know if we really want it.” MAY 5 Discussions on Missions, Home and Abroad, Christian Education and Leadership and Promotion of our “Magyar Egyház” will share the program spotlight at the annual conference of the Eastern Area United Church Women. The session will take place on Sunday, May 5, 1963, at the Hungarian Reformed Church in Trenton, New Jersey.
