Christian Mission: A Concise Global History

Christian Mission: A Concise Global History by Edward Smither is a book gives the history of the spread of the Gospel by professing Christians.  It follows it spreading down through the years through various continents.  Each chapter deals with different time periods of its spreading: "Mission in the Early Church", "Mission in the Medieval church", "Mission in the Early Modern Church"…etc.  It was quite interesting to learn about various people God used in its spread it.  I also loved the maps, they were very interesting in and of themselves, Maps showing the Roman Empire, Territories and Voyages of the Vikings, and one showing the colonization of Africa after the "Berlin Conference of 1884"" I didn't realize that European countries had control of pretty much the whole of Africa as one map showed the colonization of Africa by Europe, France, Belguim..etc.

I found it very interesting that some  of the early missionaries were simply Christian merchants giving out the Gospel as they went about their business.

But there were several things that made me not very fond of the book overall.  First, from various things the author says, he seems to believe that Roman Catholicism promotes the true Gospel.  I didn't understand that.  Just because someone believes that the Bible teaches the Word of God, believes in the Trinity and that Christ provides salvation does not mean that they are saved or that they are preaching or believing the saving Gospel.  You can preach a false Gospel that promotes the Bible, to some degree, includes the Trinity and Jesus dying for the sins of mankind.  I don't doubt that  there could be and were some true Christians within the Roman Catholic church structure, but it's in spite of it, not because they promote the true Gospel.

This is what I understand of Roman Catholicism: they promote other mediators between God and man:  besides Christ Jesus, they have Mary and the Saints as mediators, which directly contradicts 1 Timothy 2:5:  which says that there is one mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ. I've also gathered that, you can either do your own good works to earn grace/forgiveness (like penance), and you can rely upon the good works/merit of past saints to earn you grace as well.  Otherwise you'll clean your slate in purgatory, which is still heresy as it takes away from Christ's marvelous saving grace (without our works being a part of it) and demonstrates a heretical perspective of sin, how bad it actually is (as if we could actually have the capacity to completely pay for it ourselves over any period of time).  These things are in one way or another a works based salvation which is not true salvation (Eph 2:8-9; 2 Tim 1:9; Rom 3:28…and more)

 We must remember that the Apostle Paul spoke vehemently against works based salvation and in writing to the Galatians he writes against them accepting any Gospel that does not match up with what he and the other Apostles taught and that anyone, even if it is an angel, who is teaching another Gospel was to be "Anathema"(Gal 1:6-9).

And another things I didn't like was that the Smither seems to think that organized mission movements are necessary.  He says things like, ""The sixteenth century protestant reformation did not produce a viable global missionary movement that paralleled the work of the Jesuits, who had emerged from the Catholic Reformation. - How do we explain this lack of global engagement in mission on the part of sixteenth century protestants?" and also  "A pastor has a duty to send members out as missionaries or to minister to immigrants in his community".  Where does the Bible say this? Pastors, yes, should give out the Gospel when God gives them opportunity, but their task is not to focus on unbelievers, but on believers, they are primarily to watch over the flock of God (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet 5:1-2) .  Smithers mentions Roland Allen in this book, an Anglican missionary who ended up critiquing the way mission work was done (like having organized missions), I've read Allen's book, "The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church and the Causes that Hinder It" and highly recommend it.  He challenges the assumption that we need to force and organize mission work and explains that the church will grow 'spontaneously', as it were because true Christians WILL evangelize on their own without needing a parachurch organization to do it and without a pastor needing to organize it.

As I mentioned, it is quite an interesting book, it's that the above perspectives of the author made me not like the book overall.

Many thanks to the folks at Lexham Press for sending me a free review coy of this book (My review did not have to be favorable)

My Rating 3 out of 5 Stars

This book may be purchased at Amazon.com and Christianbook.com

Made for the Journey - By Elisabeth Elliot

Made for the Journey by Elizabeth Elliot is an account of her first year as a missionary to Ecuador.  I've read it before as it was previously published as These Strange Ashes. 

Elliot started her missionary full of excitement and triumphal expectation.  She was heading out the jungle to attempt to learn the Colorado Indian language in order to reduce it to writing and translate the Bible into that language. There is a note of underlying criticism throughout of the 'traditional' missionary way of doing things. Having started her work, she fights to have success in even figuring out the language.  She combats laziness in herself, but does start making some progress with the language.  Then everything falls apart.  People die, in tragic ways, including her main language informant.  She has difficulty continuing the study, but does have a good amount of language information to leave with those who would stay while she moved on to different work.  And then, after she leaves, the suitcase she entrusted to the missionary left behind with all (yes, ALL) of the language information is stolen and never recovered.  All of her work seemingly for nothing.

Elliot grappled with the thought, does God actually want these people saved? She came face to face with the sovereignty of God.  As she comments, "Faith's most severe tests come not when we see nothing but when we see a stunning array of evidence that seems to prove our faith vain." Now, I want to note here that though Elliot seems to believe in the overall sovereignty of God, she seems to have some trouble with the particular sovereignty of God, God's work inside of us. At the beginning of the book, in contemplating mankind she says, "Why did He give them in the first place freedom of will, power to choose, when surely He knew that their choices would be evil?...The power to exercise the will has been delegated to us and God will not usurp it."  But God does usurp our wills.  Changing someone into a completely new person is a very drastic act, a very personally invasive act. When we become Christians God changes our will, He makes us New Creations (2 Corinthians 5:17), we are taken out of slavery to sin and we become the slaves of God(Romans 6:22).  I think that Elliot unconsciously acknowledges this in her writings as she seems to contradict herself in places.

There are a few other things I had trouble with, for instance, she talks about the hard part of a missionary trying to figure out how to convert people to Christianity without changing their culture.  I don't completely understand this fear of changing the culture of those we witness to.  Yes, we don’t want to convert people to our ethnic culture, but the culture of those who convert to Christianity will inevitably change. For instance, If people have a culture where they do not wear clothes, they will find in the Bible that God is the One who instituted the wearing of clothing. They will realize that wearing clothing is an acknowledgement of humanity's fallenness. That after the Fall, public nakedness is presented in the Bible as a shameful thing.  Even after we become Christians, though our inner man is renewed, our outward flesh is not yet glorified (2 Cor 4:16, Rom 8:10-11,23).  Though, interestingly, it looks as though clothing will be worn even in the New Heaven and new earth (Rev 6:11, 7:9).  Any practice of any particular culture that is not in accordance with God's will, will disappear in the lives of people who grow in Christlikeness.  And that's not a bad thing.

That said, I still really liked this book.  I just needed to get those things out of my system.  Elliot writes very, very well and really pulls you into the account. You feel as though you are in the jungle with her, experiencing her excitement, exhaustion and confusion. You can "see" and "feel", as it were, the jungle around you and the strange sites and the different people she comes in contact with, her descriptions are so vivid. She portrays clearly her own bewilderment with the acts of God in her work as a missionary, but then pulls the perspective back to submission to God's sovereignty and rightness, whether or not one sees the "why" or the "rightness" of things, we believe in the righteousness of the God who allowed them and so submit. I'll end with a quote from the book, "Faith, prayer, and obedience are our requirements.  We are not offered in exchange immunity and exemption from the world's woes.  What we are offered has to do with another world altogether."

Many thanks to the folks at Revell Reads (A division of Baker Publishing Group) for sending me a free review copy of this book! (My review did not have to be favorable)

My Rating:  5 out of 5 Stars

*****

This book may be purchased at Christianbook.com and Amazon.com

The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church: And the Causes Which Hinder It - By Roland Allen

The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church by Roland Allen is a rather short but very thought provoking book.  In it, he somewhat implicitly asks the question, Who builds the Church? Leading to that thought, he critiques our method of Evangelization, are we doing it right? Do we need to organize the expansion of the church?  Do we need to establish mission stations, do we need missionaries who depend upon appeals for money for their support.  Will the Gospel spread if we don't purposefully come up with a plan to spread it?

Allen warns that what we are trying to do in our methods is to organize the work of God, to dictate where people will get saved and a time period in which their salvation must happen.  But as Allen points out, "For spiritual work spiritual organization is necessary; but can we create a spiritual organization of spiritual forces?  Only a divine intelligence can do that.  But we attempt to do the work of that divine intelligence; by fixing our stations and immobilizing our men….But to be God's agents in spiritual movements we must follow, not lead.  We want to lead, and, in trying to lead, we are simply left behind.  We say:  'Here we will have our buildings,' but the spiritual movements may be growing unseen by us in another place and by other means….The organization is always too late.  For we can organize the external results of a spiritual movement, but we cannot organize a spiritual movement. "

 One of the main points of the book  is that we don't need professional missionaries or Christian organizations dedicated to evangelism in order to spread the Gospel. The Church is the only Christian organization promoted by the Bible and therefore we should assume that the Gospel will be spread by means of its members working within that organization rather than in a parachurch organization.  How will the Gospel be spread in other countries? Well, Allen points out that God can use any way He wants. He can use a member of a local church in Lansing, Michigan going on a business trip to Ethiopia to spread the Gospel to an Ethiopian he meets in the process of doing whatever work he does there.  Let's say he talks to Ethiopian about the Gospel, the Ethiopian believes, and the American Christian gives him a Bible and goes back to America, as his business is done. But even though that American Christian leaves, the Ethiopian studies the Bible given to him, and spreads the Gospel to his fellow Ethiopians and thus a church can springs up, without there being any money having ever been particularly dedicated to spreading the Gospel in that area of Ethiopia.  Christ will build His church.

Interestingly, Allen points out that the "great commission" is not repeated in the epistles, and the Apostles did not make evangelistic appeals to the churches, they didn't give out calls for people volunteer to go into far away countries to spread the Gospel.  They apparently assumed that the Holy Spirit would bring individual church members to the right people and to the right places without their needing to organize the work or plan it out.  This may sound absurd today, but we don't need "Professional Missionaries", all Christians are missionaries.  He points out that people "have been obsessed with the idea that a man to express his missionary zeal properly must be a member of some other body within the Church and that church membership is not sufficient." 

 Oh, and by the way, this guy was writing in the 1920s! It is still so applicable to today, perhaps more so than even in his day.

Another thing that Allen critiques that really seems to be prominent in our day is the "Social Gospel"; warning that feeding the poor and helping the sick is not the Gospel itself. You really can't preach the Gospel without "using words".  "'Seek ye first,' said Christ, 'the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.' Putting intellectual enlightenment and social reform first in time, we have, by deeds which speak louder than words, taught men to seek 'all these things' first, and some today justify their action by identifying intellectual enlightenment and social and political reform with the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness.  To identify the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness with social and political doctrines always has led, and always must lead, to disaster.  The Kingdom of God and His Righteousness are founded in Christ, but these doctrines and reforms can easily be divorced from Christ, and are pursued by many who won no allegiance to Christ." To apply this today, ending world slavery, creating democracies and republics, is not the Gospel of Christ.  Somewhere in the book Allen says something along the lines of: A person can become a vibrant Christian and remain a slave, a person can be a dedicated, enthusiastic Christian and live in a country ruled by a dictator, a Christian can be a joyful Christian and be malnourished.  A change of outward circumstances is not the Gospel.  Christ is All-Sufficient, no matter what circumstance we find ourselves in.  Point to Him first, and anything else that He thinks is needed for the convert will come after their acceptance of Him.

Lastly, Allen greatly laments Christian organizations reliance upon money.  He notices that anytime missionaries see an opportunity for the further spread of the Gospel they make it seem as though it cannot take place without money. Christian organizations unconsciously teach their converts that money is the power of God unto salvation. "They continually bemoan the fact that their greatest difficulty, their most serious anxiety, their most bitter disappointment, arises from the lack of support from home.", lacking the support either of money or of more paid recruits, they assume that the work of God won't get done, not considering that perhaps God doesn't want it to happen their way, perhaps God wants that particular organization to close. That's one of the questions he asks, would a Christian organization be willing to close in order to further its cause if that's what it would take?

There are other things Allen addresses that are quite interesting and intriguing thoughts.  But, to sum up Allen's book:

He warns us that we are trying to make people into New Creations ourselves, essentially taking the job of the Holy Spirit into our own hands.  We don't need to make people moral before they can come to Christ, that will come afterward, we don't need to change people's surrounding  circumstances before they can be a vibrant Christian.  We don't need money to spread the Gospel. We don't need professional missionaries and Christian organizations to spread the Gospel. We don't need money to create a church.  Christ will build His church. 

 I highly recommend this book.

Many thanks to Wipf and Stock Publishers for sending me a free review copy of this book! (My review did not have to be favorable)

This book may be purchased at Amazon.com

My Rating:  5 out of 5 Stars

*****

Fool's Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion - Os Guinness

Fool's Talk:  Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion by Os Guinness is quite a convicting book, a book that really makes you  think about how serious we really are about evangelism/apologetics.  It provokes the question:  how much thought do we really put in our conversations (or even our small-talk) with unbelievers?  Do we hold back on saying anything related to the Gospel because we are ashamed of being considered foolish because of our belief in God's Word?  Or if we do evangelize, are we just sticking with simple pre-contrived evangelization questions like, "If you were to die today and stood before God and He asked you why He should let you into Heaven, what would you say?"  Are we willing to truly put thought into persuading someone of the truth of Christianity, giving answers to their questions, and asking thought-provoking questions ourselves, rather than merely turning to someone else's pre-designed method of evangelism.  Do we not seriously think of persuasion outside of some other persons pre-written evangelization answers/questions (though not outside the word of God)?  And are we loving when we talk to others, truly more concerned about winning the person rather than just winning an argument?  

This book's author does an excellent job at making one think about the answers to questions like the above.  For instance, as evinced above, he critiques modern-day evangelism, and makes the case that the 'method' used to evangelize actually does matter, "Recent forms of evangelism are modeled on handbooks for effective sales technique…After all, if all truth is God's truth, it is surely legitimate to use the best tricks of the trade, but this time use them in the service of the truth." "Not so…" Guinness answers. "…The Lord's work must always be done in the Lord's way.  The method must serve the message.  Technique is never neutral.  It can be positive and useful, and it can also be harmful.  Sometimes it an even be so brilliantly effective that its danger lies in its weaning us away from needing God at all.  True apologetics is the art of truth, and its art must be shaped by the distinctiveness of the truth it proclaims." 

He also does an excellent job at keeping one's perspective straight, because, though we do want to persuade others as best we can, and as Scripturally as we can,  we are not to have the posture of winning discussions with non-believers at all-costs, the truth is true even if we do not defend it well, or even if we don't have answer to a certain question.   Not matter how good are argument is, God is ultimately the only One who can change a person's heart and give them faith, though we do hope to have the opportunity to be used of God in helping others see the truth of the Gospel, "Faith's certainty lies elsewhere than in the rapier sharp logic or the sledgehammer power of the apologist.  At the end of the day, full certainty comes from the conviction of the Holy Spirit."

There were some things in the book that had I had trouble with though.  At one point the author says, "The next time you see Auguste Rodin's Thinker look at it closely"  Ummm…. Sorry but if that work of 'art' is what I think it is (an unclothed statue of a man…who is in the process of thinking…probably trying to figure out what he forgot to do that day, he forgot to put on clothes!) I think that then next time I see it I'll look away quickly!  I don't care if it doesn't show anything really inappropriate, it's the implication of nakedness that bothers me.  Naked statues don't fit the list of  attributes the Apostle Paul gives as to what we should think on/meditate on in Philippians 4:8,  "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure…(ASV)"etc.

Also, I really have trouble with some of Guinness's statements…I was really shocked by some in particular, "Just so did God shame the world's folly, subvert the world's pride and put death to death through the death of his Son.  And the sober truth is surely that this was the way, the only way that it had to be done.  There was no other way.  God is always able to respond to sin and defiance with power….Power, however, usually overcomes by destroying what defies it.  Thus, as Reinhold Niebuhr insisted, there is a limit to what even the power of God can do as power alone, for 'such power does not reach the heart of the rebel.'  Power can fence us in, but only sacrificial love can find us out.  Power can win when we are ranged against it, but it cannot win us."  That REALLY takes away the miracle of Christians being made by God into New Creations, their hearts of stone that couldn't love God being made, by God, into hearts of flesh that love Him and His ways.  That's power, being used because of God's love yes, but it's His transforming power just the same! If God didn't use power to change our hearts to love Him,  and give us faith, we would not believe in Him, nor would we wish to follow His ways! See  Colossians 2:8-16, that's not just love, that's God's power!  He acts with His power because of His love for us!  Just as God will do with the nation of Israel in the future (see Ezek. 36)

Some parts of the book get a bit tedious as you get more into it, but overall, I liked the book, and think that it is a good resource for helping us give thought about the answer we should always be ready to give when asked about the hope that we have (1 Pet. 3:15).  I'll end with one of my favorite quotes from the book: 

"To follow Jesus is to pay the cost of discipleship, and then to die to ourselves, to our own interests, our own agendas and reputations.  It is to pick up our crosses and count the cost of losing all that contradicts his will and way - including our reputations before the world and our standing with the people and communities we once held dear.  It is to live before one audience, the audience of One, and therefore to die to all other conflicting opinions and assessments.  There is no room here for such contemporary ideas as the looking-glass self; and no consideration here for trivial contemporary obsessions such as one's legacy…" 

Many thanks to the folks at InterVarsity Press for sending me a free review copy of this book! (My review did not have to be favorable)

One of the places where this book may be purchased is Amazon.com

The Evangelism Study Bible

The Evangelism Study Bible is intended to help with Evangelism.  It has a lot of footnotes, commenting on the relevance of many verses to evangelism.  It also contains various charts explaining/expounding on certain topics, like the fruit of the spirit, the whole armor of God…etc.  There are many 'commentary' boxes, discussing various evangelism related topics, that are inserted throughout the Bible as well.  One in particular I appreciated dealt with the question, "Do You Have to Know the Date You Were Saved?", and it deals with the source of our assurance of our salvation being Christ, "…when Scripture speaks of salvation, it goes back to a fact, not a date.  If you are trusting in Christ alone, you are saved, regardless of when the divine transaction took place…..The one who saved us gives us security, not the 'when' of our salvation." I also appreciate that many of the footnotes remind us that, though we are privileged to serve God by giving out the Gospel, we are not responsible for anyone's conversion, salvation is the work of the Holy Spirit, He can convince/change people's hearts, and we cannot do that. 

I haven't read/looked at many topical Bibles, and I don't really like the concept of a topical Bible.  I think that they have the tendency to distract from what the various texts of the Bible are actually saying, and rather than exegesis, I think they probably promote more eisegesis  .  I have found my misgivings justified by this Evangelism Bible.  Here are some examples:  in 1 Corinthians 16:1-2, Paul writes:  "Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also:  On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside…"  The footnote for theses verses reads, "We are to give financially to promote God's work.  Some of those finances should be specifically designated for evangelism.  Jesus taught a basic principle in Matthew 6:21 and Luke 12:34 - our hearts follow our treasure.  Investing in non-Christians encourages a heart that cares for unbelievers."  Paul said nothing about evangelism in these verses, rather, he is talking about caring for the needs of fellow believers.  The emphasis of the Scriptures is on loving our fellow believers in  Christ, and cultivating that love, and this is emphasized so much that it appears that it ought to be our priority, rather than our love for unbelievers.  We love unbelievers of course, but our priority is to love our family in Christ, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. (Joh 13:35)

And a second example, in their comments on Phil. 1:6 which says, "being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;"  They write, "'You' is plural.  Paul was not referring to their individual spiritual growth, but rather to their work together in spreading the gospel.  We should keep this perspective in mind in our own evangelistic efforts - working together produces greater results than working alone."  Huh?  That sounds to me like a ridiculous conclusion.  Of course 'you' was plural! He was writing to the Philippian church which consisted of several people, not just one person.  That does not mean that Paul was not speaking about their spiritual growth/sanctification/work of salvation.    The editors of the notes in this Bible may be a bit too biased on the 'theme' of this Bible, or, to put it in an odd way, too focused on Evangelism, which makes me wary of their ability to truly exegete the Scriptures. And I'm sure that this would be the case for me in in regards to any topical Bible. 

All in all, I've not seen anything about this Bible that changes my opinion on topical Bibles.  It's okay, but I wouldn't particularly recommend it. 

Many thanks to Kregel Academic and Ministry for sending me a free copy of this Bible for me to review (My review did not have to be favorable.)