ETERNITY IN THEIR HEARTS

Don Richardson

This book starts with some interesting information about the apparent
bridges of the gospel present in folk religions across the world. However, it’s
followed by tiresome repetition and highly speculative biblical interpretation.
Also, the book is divided in 2 main parts the Melchizedek Factor (first half - is
saturated with examples of how the Lord has revealed Himself to all people)
and the Abraham Factor (second half - demonstrates how God's purpose
throughout Scripture and throughout history has been to draw all people unto
Himself. This book raised some questions about how God has worked in history
apart from Israel to save sinners, and as we all know God saved, save, and will
save sinners all around the world. The author doesn’t really address those
questions, but he is trying to demonstrate how God has prepared many people
to hear the good news about Jesus, they received this news with joy, because
God left a witness with them over the centuries.
The Melchizedek Factor
It’s a deep dive into the testimony of the One True God found within
many heathen cultures. All these cultures have their traditions. Not only do
heathen cultures have traditions of an omnipotent Creator, but they also have
oral traditions of the Biblical narrative. Some missionaries who discovered
these traditions were pleasantly surprised and used them for the Gospel’s
advantage. Missionaries who rejected these traditions had measurably less
success.
It’s also a preparation for the gospel. Millions converted to these
counterfeit religions and their descendants today are often harder to
evangelize than those who follow folk religions.
The Abraham Factor
The Abraham factor was revealed to the world through the Abrahamic
covenant recorded in Genesis 12:1-3, were God called Abraham out of his
country and choose him as a father a special nation. The amazing part in this is
that will include all people. And we as Christians must align with this now six
thousand years after.
 By the time of the Messiah, most Jews were completely unaligned with
this eternal purpose of God. Even Jesus’ disciples did not grasp this all-peoples
perspective. Time and again, Jesus tried to subtly show them the error of their
ethnocentrism, but they did not learn until long after His resurrection. The
book of Acts shows the apostles’ reluctance to take the Gospel to all peoples.
Eventually, they embraced this calling and many of the twelve were martyred
in distant Gentile lands.
The book also spread the gospel from the Old Testament up to today.
For instance, the ancient Greeks experienced a destructive plague in the 6th
century before Christ and after sacrificing to every god in the pantheon
experienced no relief. The men of Athens sent for a priest from Cyprus who
told the men the only deity who possessed power to abate the plague was a
god unknown to them. The pagan priest told the Athenians there are a few
premises that must be true about this "god," based on the given facts. Namely,
he must be good and gracious because what sort of God would help a people
who did not know his name. He must be benevolent enough to overlook their
error. The men did what the priest asked and sacrificed to this "unknown god"
and the plague ceased. The Greeks created a monument to this nameless god.
The book is an encouragement in sharing the Gospel, to see how God
has indeed places eternity in every heart and shows how important is to share
the gospel and realise the importance that the Lord places all blessing to all
nations through His Son.
I also think that this book prepared us to know Him better that we do, as
there is always something to be discovered about God and all the things that
he did for us to end up with all the blessings. Also is an eye opener about how
the other religions should be viewed by Christians. Amazing how God prepared
the Gospel message in the hearts of people in faraway places and then prepare
his servants to communicate the message.
All religions presented the in the book frequently featured a good and
powerful Creator who deserve our worship, some transgression that alienated
man from his Creator many years ago, an ancient prophecy promising that one
day “white man” would arrive with a “book” to tell them how could be
reconciled with the unknown Creator they were still clumsily attempting to
worship. But truly GOD put eternity in their hearts of all His creatures. He was
tilling the earth for centuries, priming the Gentiles everywhere for the good
news. For as soon as the missionaries arrived, they were almost invariably
greeted with joy, and proceeded to baptize happy thousands.
The book was informative and hard to understand in the beginning but
going along was a fascinating material, was a good read and really different
than what I was expected to be, heavy in few parts and difficult to follow but
the subject is the one who matter as is presenting to us one of God’s primary
eternal purpose and also made me understand more how responsible i am
about the amazing gift received from God. I did like a quote from the book
“We, therefore, hold in our hands the possibility of bringing God’s 4,000-year-
old promise to final fruition. Representing the Abraham factor, shunning all
alliance with the Sodom factor, and acknowledging the Melchizedek factor
with the tithe of credit it deserves—WE CAN DO IT!”