An Amazing Fact: It is estimated that more than 2 billion people watched as the last of 33 Chilean miners was delivered safely to the surface after having been imprisoned for nearly 70 days in a hot, humid, dark, apartment-sized hole half-a-mile down inside the earth. This actually broke the record for the longest stay underground and created one of the most dramatic survival stories in mining history.
“He also brought me up out of a horrible pit.”
—Psalm 40:2
All over the world, people were glued to their television sets watching one of the greatest rescue efforts of all time come to a successful climax.
Seeing that explosion of joy as the first miner emerged from the dark depths—a loving father reunited with his wife and hearing his young son call out “Papa” … well, I normally don’t get very emotional, but it brought tears to my eyes.
After the initial massive cave-in trapped the men, they sat in darkness and despair for more than two weeks wondering if they would ever be found. You can imagine their sheer joy when the rescuers drilled the first four-inch pilot hole into the chamber in which the miners were sequestered. One of the first things they asked for was light.
That first lifeline from above also gave them bread, clean water, fresh air, and another essential component for survival … Bibles.
Jose Henriquez, the 24th miner out, had asked his friends to send down Bibles. One local church quickly responded, providing Bibles personalized with a miner’s name. Plus, Psalms 40 was highlighted in each Bible. It reads in part, “I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined to me, and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit.”
“Give thanks to those who sent us the Bibles,” a miner identified as Renan said. “[The Bibles] gave me so much faith that I would leave here.”
I’m sure you can see the touching spiritual parallels in this story. God has sent Jesus, the Light of the world, down into our dark planet to bring us up to the mansions He has prepared. Millions of souls are imprisoned in hopeless darkness, trapped in the “horrible pit” of sin. We must send them the hope of heaven.
I pray that you will join me in this great rescue effort today, because we are certainly living in a time of global spiritual confusion. I believe these are the last of the last days; the signs of our times are exactly what Christ predicted for the time leading to the day of the Lord. The evidence is clear:
- Major economies of the world are unraveling (Revelation 18:11).
- Rampant immorality is being exported through global media (2 Timothy 3:13).
- Natural disasters and outbreaks of disease continue to mount (Matthew 24:7).
- Rumors of terrorism and war abound (Matthew 24:6).
The New Dark Ages
It almost seems as if we have entered a new period of Dark Ages. “Darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people” (Isaiah 60:2).
Of course, the Dark Ages were a time of great spiritual ignorance without the light of God’s Word. The few Bibles that existed were chained in churches and written in a tongue that few could read. Twisted pagan doctrines about purgatory, indulgences, praying to dead saints, and God’s eternal, sadistic wrath were introduced into the church to manipulate the masses with fear and to exploit them in greed.
But then came the Light. Just as God moved brave souls to translate the Bible into the language of the people, He also provided the technology of the printing press to broadcast the truth far and wide. People everywhere began to read the Word of God and were delivered from the dark doctrines of devils.
“Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you” (Isaiah 60:1). For several centuries the light of the Reformation saved millions and sent missionaries to the four corners of the earth.
But now the church has been gradually slipping steadily back into the dark pit. Christians everywhere are confused about core doctrines and moral values as the media blurs the truth. And without a strong biblical foundation, unbelievers remain in their sins—with no one to accurately communicate Jesus’ message to them. (See 2 Peter 1:19, 20.)
Cosmic Conflict, Part 2
I believe the world urgently needs a new Reformation for today. And I cannot think of a better way to help this happen than through our next major DVD production in the Cosmic Conflict series.
We’re going to call it Cosmic Conflict 2: The Battle for Truth. It will be an amazing witnessing tool you can share with people who are trapped in spiritual darkness. And we have big plans to use it to reach millions of people with the gospel truth!
Our first Cosmic Conflict DVD was about the origins of evil, how humanity fell into sin and darkness, and how Christ came to rescue us from our sins.
It’s now been translated into six of the world’s major languages, including Spanish and Chinese, with countless copies distributed globally. And kids love it too. It tells them the biblical truth about good and evil in a vivid way they can understand.
Now this exciting, up-and-coming Cosmic Conflict 2: The Battle for Truth DVD will be about how the church fell into spiritual darkness and superstition during a great apostasy and how God used the Reformation to bring the light of His Word back into the church and the world.
- It will boldly identify spiritual Babylon, the harlot of Revelation 17.
- It will plainly explain how the church fell into the confusion of the Dark Ages.
- It will unveil how God’s true church was driven into the wilderness.
- It will identify crucial doctrines that have lost by modern churches.
I’m very excited about this project because we are hoping to incorporate live footage from Rome, Europe, and the Holy Land. A powerful script is already completed—but in order to move forward with the production, we need your help with an immediate infusion of funds.
To produce this high-quality DVD, we need to raise $450,000. This program will have the potential to reach millions globally through media, the internet, and personal distribution. Will you prayerfully consider a special financial gift to reach people with the everlasting gospel?
And just like the rescue team who worked ceaselessly to save the Chilean miners from their dark prison, Amazing Facts and you can bring the Light of the gospel to a world in darkness.
Your friend in the final work,
Pastor Doug Batchelor