The other day I was sitting in the waiting room of a dentist office, waiting for my turn to enter the torture chamber.  The sign revealed that they are now calling it an "operatory."  It made me think I was about to get brain surgery.  But maybe not a bad idea.

Anyhow, I picked up a Newsweek magazine, which featured the late Charles Darwin on the cover, with a feature article about this icon of this world's atheists.   In the article there was a time line of major events concerning faith and science.

I was reminded that in 1948 the U.S. Supreme Court made its infamous ruling which prohibited teaching the Bible in schools.

A year earlier in 1947, the Court ruled, in Everson v. Board of Education, that the First Amendment erected a "wall of separation" between church and state which must be kept "high and impregnable." The Court cited no precedent from previous rulings. The case was an official betrayal of America’s Christian heritage.

Just the previous decade, in United States v. Macintosh (1931): the Supreme Court declared, "We are a Christian people... according to one another the equal right of religious freedom, and acknowledging with the reverence the duty of obedience to God."

Therefore, 1947-48 was the landmark period marking the decline of religious heritage and culture in America.  It was also a landmark year for the world.

I was reminded that this same time period saw the most significant prophetic event in the past 2,000 years -- the reestablishment of the nation of Israel.  In 1947 the United Nations recognized the new nation and on May 14, 1948, she was born.  Arab guns immediately began blazing, and the end-time conflict between Isaac and Ishmael began.

Not surprisingly, at the same time, God began to pour out His Spirit.

Billy Graham began his worldwide evangelistic ministry in 1949, the year he gained national attention with a preaching campaign he called a "crusade," in Los Angeles.

Other great world evangelistic ministries soon began.  Among them were Rex Humbard in the early 1950s; Bill Bright began Campus Crusade for Christ in 1951; Pat Robertson and Christian television in the 1960s; there are many more.  The worldwide charismatic renewal exploded in the 1960s, along with exploding world evangelism through such on-fire Pentecostal denominations such as the Assemblies of God.

The following Web site lists ten major prophecies that were fulfilled in 1948: http://100prophecies.org/page3.htm

The last half of the 20th Century was prophetically profound.

THE FIG TREE. The fig tree began to sprout in the last half of the 20th century after  Israel was reestablished in 1948.  In the miraculous 1967 Six-Day War, Israel recaptured Jerusalem from "the Gentiles," fulfilling Jesus' prophecy about "the times of the Gentiles" now being complete. In the 1967 war, Israel also "sprouted" to the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Gaza.  (While world data are not available, it is a known fact that in the number one Gentile nation, America, there has been in a precipitous cultural and spiritual decline precisely since -- yes, the 1960s. For example, a Heritage Foundation study in the mid-1990s of 19 leading cultural indicators concluded that, "Over the past three decades we have experienced substantial social regression.")

DANIEL’S PROPHECY.  Daniel chapters 9-12 hold keys to the timing of the Lord's return. In about 550 B.C., Daniel prophesied the time of both Christ's first and second coming, and it can be demonstrated how the prophecy was accurately fulfilled at His first coming. It seems obvious that the passage also would contain the key to the timing of His Second Coming. However, the angel Gabriel, who gave Daniel this information, said that the understanding of the timing of the second coming was "sealed" until the "time of the end"; in other words, it could not be understood until this special period of history.

In addition to other clues, Gabriel gave two key conditions that would prevail at that time: "travel and education (knowledge) shall be vastly increased" (chapter 12, verse 5, Living Bible).

Travel: World travel, and even between cities and states, was minimal until the 20th century. Travel began to increase with the advent of the internal combustion engine in modern times, and it was not until the middle of the last century that travel literally exploded. The main factor was the advent of the jet aircraft engine, first used on a commercial airliner in the 1950s! Almost everyone, at least in advanced societies it seems, is now traveling. Without a doubt, travel has "vastly increased" since the 1950s.

Education: Education and knowledge also exploded in the 20th century. From the time of Christ until 1900, it is estimated that man's knowledge doubled. In just the next 50 years, from 1900 to 1950, it doubled again. Then it began an extremely rapid doubling; first every seven years, then every two years in the 1960's. It appears that the 1950's marked the time in history when knowledge and education "vastly increased" and literally began exploding. This means that according to Daniel, sometime about 1948 when Israel was reborn, God began to unseal, and is now unsealing, the vision of Daniel to give us understanding of the time of Christ's soon return.

Earthquakes. Also like increasing birth pangs, Jesus also said there would be earthquakes in various places. From official records, scholars have researched the frequency of earthquakes and report an astonishing increase since -- yes, just the middle of the 20th century, when Israel was reborn and all the other signs began.  While debated and denied by some, a study shows that in the 1940s there were only 51 earthquakes worldwide above Richter 6.0; in the 1950s, 475; the 1980s, 1,085; and in the 1990s, 1,514 (Matthew 24:7). (Source: Prophecy in the News magazine, October 1996, and the National Earthquake Information Center.)

The Good News. God also says that in the last days, "I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh" (Joel 2:28). People are coming to faith in Jesus Christ all over the world in record numbers. Some individual evangelical organizations are seeing millions of conversions. There is a great outpouring in the former Soviet Union, in China, Africa, and elsewhere. Joel's prophecy began to be fulfilled at Pentecost, nearly 2,000 years ago, but it will greatly intensify just before the return of the Lord. We are seeing it now.

The Great Commission Fulfilled. Jesus tells us: "This gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14). We are near that time. Hundreds of missions organizations are rapidly closing on that goal. Just one of them, Campus Crusade for Christ, already has more 27,000 full-time staff and up to 550,000 volunteers in over 186 countries in areas covering 99 percent of the world's population, plus they are working with thousands of churches and other organizations.

It’s amazing what can go through one’s mind in a dentist’s office, to try to take the mind off the torture to come.