People who don't believe in God, or follow false gods, are very obstinate. An effective missionary presence can even enhance that; from Graham's "Decision" magazine:
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The Church’s first great revival occurred when 3,000 Jews came to Christ on the day of Pentecost … Since the early 1700s, God has brought about a number of notable revivals … Perhaps the most remarkable revival has taken place in China since the last missionaries left in 1953. In 1980 there were 2 million Christian believers in China–and by 2000 there were approximately 75 million. God chose to have the missionaries removed before the explosive growth occurred, that He might receive the glory.
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I've highlighted salient portions throughout – but am uncertain how that growth is determined? As in most commie regimes, just asking the question is a good way to volunteer for brain experiments. His charity does have a field hospital where patients can be confident the chaplain providing care does not have too broad a definition of marriage. It can be so embarrassing refusing treatment in field hospitals not having mandatory statements of faith for volunteers to sign.
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policies require most contractors and some full-time volunteers to sign a statement of faith that includes a declaration that “we believe that marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female.” … A. Timothy Lunceford-Stevens, said he has filed a complaint with [New York] Human Rights Commission after he tried to volunteer at the field hospital but was turned away because he refused to sign the statement of faith.
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We have been responding in the Name of Jesus Christ. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has been on the ground, sending crisis-trained chaplains to offer spiritual and emotional help and also training pastors and church leaders. Samaritan’s Purse has sent planeloads of relief supplies to the region, including an Emergency Field Hospital
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Appropriate crisis training is so important, in this dynamic environment. Obviously God has not chosen to remove missionaries here. The piece explains about earthquakes in various places and nation rising up against nation. Civil war is not mentioned specifically but there are places where tribes are chopping one another up and usually shooting the farmers too, eliminating workforce and expertise in one fell swoop, so famines take off even in once productive breadbaskets. In the face of so much evidence, how can there be any pushback against prophecy?
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War between major powers is going out of style … This decline has been nearly continuous, with each century experiencing fewer great power wars than the previous one, the only exception being the upturn in the twentieth century. There were twenty-two great power wars in the sixteenth century, eleven in the seventeenth century, eight in the eighteenth century, five in the nineteenth century, and six in the twentieth century … about 20 percent of the half-decades since 1815 have witnessed the initiation of a great power war, compared with nearly 60 percent in the previous three centuries.
Of course, the upturn in the twentieth century involved not just an increase in the number of wars, but also in their scale and lethality. The two world wars of the 20th century were each larger than any conflict ever seen previously reflecting industrialization of warfare in terms of weapons production and logistics.
The decline of major wars in the nineteenth century surely reflected the increased costs of engagements … taken to an extreme during the Cold War where … both sides busied themselves with building up weapons arsenals that would never be used. According to the bizarre logic of the time, military forces and weaponry were most useful if they were never used at all.
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