to say that John shrewdly discerned the signs of the times, and proclaimed himself the Forerunner because he saw that the people were eager for the Messianic era.1 It was the preaching of John that drew the crowds, that startled the people of his time. He had a message that always wins “a response in the human heart—sin and judgment, repentance and forgiveness.”2 We have only scraps and fragments of that message, hardly two pages in all. But that cry of John is still heard wherever the gospel goes.