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God so used one man, Patrick of Ireland, in the 400s to so change Ireland that it would be a base from which the Gospel would be carried to the ends of the earth in that day! Patrick led thousands to Christ in Ireland. He started over 700 churches in twenty-eight years! He trained and set apart 700 bishops and 3000 ministers to further disciple the people who had come to Christ. He started training centers to equip believers to carry the Gospel to their own—and to the world. And Patrick understood something we’ve lost: That is, the institution of civil government was God’s institution and must operate by His truth, the Bible, if it is to fulfill its purpose of protecting God-given rights of life, liberty, and property. He reformed (reshaped) Ireland’s governments to agree with Biblical principles. This is exactly what we need in America today!
Patrick’s disciples would carry to the world this Biblical message of reshaping cultures through Christ. They confronted the Barbarians, who were over-running Europe at the time, and neutralized with the Gospel of Christ their savage destruction. Indeed one historian believed they saved civilization, writing a book entitled: How the Irish saved Civilization. It stated that Irish believers became “teachers of whole nations, the counselors of kings and emperors.” (The Story of the Irish Race (N.Y., The Devin-Adair Co., 1967), p.232) Many Christians from England and Europe also came to Ireland to be taught how to change their nations with the Gospel.
One of the greatest of Patrick’s disciples was Columba, who was heir to the throne of Ireland, but renounced it to serve Christ instead. He established thirty Christian training centers in Ireland; then, about 562 A.D., carried the Gospel to the Island of Iona off Scotland’s western coast. From there he and his followers carried it to all of Scotland; later disciples carried the Gospel to England and began to reach the Anglo-Saxons, a barbarous group which had conquered the Celts in England earlier.
There are also indications that some of those early Irish missionaries may have brought Christ to this continent of America. Stories from journals of those early Irish missionaries leave strong testimony they preached the Gospel on this continent. Right here in Clay County, Kentucky, where I live, may have been one of those places. A rock fell into the highway here several years ago, which has on it a number of Christian sayings. These Christian writings, inscribed in ancient languages, are found in many places on this continent. The Ten Commandments have been found engraved on cave walls. Jesus Christ is praised as God’s Son in some of these writings. When you put it all together, I believe it points to the work of those early Irish missionaries, who went throughout the world sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
All of this started from the work of one man, Patrick, who though being in his late fifties, went to Ireland to be God’s man, no matter what the cost. He spent the “fourth quarter” of his life carrying the Gospel to those who didn’t know Christ; then discipling them to change their whole culture by developing Biblical institutions of education, economy, and government.
What will be said of you and me a hundred years from now? Will our impact keep growing because we planted into our children and others the seeds of truth from the Bible? Or will we live for pleasure, prestige, and possessions; having heaven say of us, he “…died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments…” (Luke 16:22-23)?
Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—and for your children! And you won’t like what that brings to you. I’m Don Pinson; this has been Think About It.