The third basic presupposition underlying conservative mission-
Philosophy of the Christian Mission 245
3. Man's Condition, Need, and Destiny
The third basic presupposition underlying conservative missionary philosophy (besides the Word of God as the final foundation and the Gospel as the good news of God's redeeming grace) is man's essential predicament. Two components are involved in this
problem. One has to do with man's condition and need, and the
other with man's ultimate destiny if his need is not met.
Fundamental to a conservative philosophy of missions is the assumption that man is a sinner. He has been alienated from God by choice. He is irremediably lost in his natural estate. This is true whether one holds to federal theology which assumes that guilt is transmitted through Adam to Adam's helpless race so that by imputation all men are born both sinful and guilty, or whether one accepts the idea that Christ's death atoned for the guilt of the human race and that until a child reaches the age of accountability and commits overt sin (which all do who reach the age of accountability) he is without guilt.
Sinful man cannot redeem himself. His best efforts-do no more than condemn him. He does not have within him the seed of everlasting life. This means that his greatest need is redemption, which is to be found only in Christ. Redemption does not consist in reformation, although it is intrinsic to redemption and obviously de-
sirable. But a reformed sinner may not be a redeemed sinner, whereas a redeemed sinner is always a reformed sinner, too. Redemption, then, cannot spring from within the sinner. Rather it comes from God as a gift of His grace and is communicated through the Gospel by personal faith which results in regeneration. Thus regeneration is the vital need of the sinner. All other good traits and characteristics are desirable, but the best man with the finest of these is no better off than the most dissolute man because the criterion is not that of outward conformity to desirable traits and characteristics, but regeneration. oe Man's desperate condition offers no realizable hope outside of - Christ. But man still has within him a potential of what he can become in Christ. So no une need despair of man as though his situation were hopeless and irretrievable. Original sin and consequent
_ guilt can never destroy the possibilities which are latent in man ~ when he has been redeemed. Thus, to view the dilemma of man