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Over the last several years, we have heard the word "billion" used too many times in the news. We keep hearing of billions of dollars being spent on the war against terror and the hundreds of billions of dollars given in the bailout. DO we know what that number means? A million seconds in the past was twelve days ago. A billion seconds in the past was 331 years ago. A trillion seconds in the past was 31,688 years ago. It's almost hard to comprehend a billion of anything. We also use the term "billion" when we talk about the number of people on this planet who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are approximately six billion people on this planet at any given moment and that number continues to increase by a net gain of about 200,000 each day. Of this incredible mass of people, it is estimated that as many as 1/3 of the total are completely ignorant of the name of Jesus Christ. What is the eternal destiny of these 2 billion souls? Are these people really headed for a place called hell? A person's viewpoint \ufffd\ufffd\ufffd and, indeed, a church's understanding \ufffd\ufffd\ufffd of this issue "throws a searchlight on their understanding of the nature of sin, the content of the gospel and the task of global missions."