Despite man’s natural tendency to boast, history has proved again and again that he is a failure, in deep need of God and His grace.

The Age of Innocence closed with man rebelling against his Creator and becoming a fallen, sinful creature (Rom. 5:12).

The Age of Conscience opened with one murder (Gen. 4:8) and before another age was ushered in “the earth was filled with violence” (Gen. 6:11).

Then came Human Government, but the world’s first ruler made a spectacle of himself through drunkenness (Gen. 9:20,21). Little wonder we soon find the race intoxicated with its own importance so that God had to confuse their language at Babel (Gen. 11:4,7,8).

The Age of Promise came next, with Abraham failing to enter the promised land through unbelief (Gen. 11:31-12:3). It closed with Israel, his seed, failing to enter the promised land through unbelief (Heb. 3:19).

The Age of Law began with Israel worshipping a golden calf before Moses had even gotten down from Sinai. Little wonder it ended with the rejection of Christ.

The Age of Grace commenced with the Apostle Paul, God’s ambassador of love and grace, persecuted and imprisoned (Eph. 6:20). This showed man’s attitude toward God and His grace. It will be brought to a close as man continues persistently to go on in his sin rather than accept redeeming grace through Christ (II Cor. 4:4; II Tim. 3:1-5).

The Kingdom of Christ, which is to follow the present age, will begin with our Lord rebuking strong nations (Micah 4:3) and will close with multitudes, who for a time had rendered enforced obedience, following Satan (Rev. 20:7-9).

How all this demonstrates man’s need of God and salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ! “All have sinned” (Rom. 3:23) but, thank God: “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13). Though surrounded by sin and rebellion, multitudes down through history have called and have been saved.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

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