Fundamentals for a Philosophy of the Christian Mission

Fundamentals for a Philosophy of the Christian Mission

by Harold Lindsell

239Every movement is undergirded by a basic philosophy whether that philosophy is known and expressed or unknown and unarticulated. The missionary activities of those who are wedded to a conservative theological viewpoint are founded on a basic philosophy which is generally known to them and which, while it has not appeared in print too often, has been adequately articulated in the minds of those who accept it. Although it is impossible here to delineate all of the presuppositions undergirding conservative missionary endeavor, there are five which are worthy of mention.

1. The Infallible Word of God

The foundation of all conservative missionary work is the concept of the Bible as the infallible Word of God. By this it is construed that the Bible, in the autographa, is without error of any kind, whether historical, geological, theological, etc. The view disavows mechanical dictation, and allows for differences in individual styles of writing. It embraces the idea that revelation progresses and adheres to the dictum that while all Scripture is inspired not all Scripture is necessarily true. Thus it holds that the Bible is inspired from cover to cover, but recognizes that many statements are simply accurate records of what wicked, lying, or sinful men > are reported to have said.

240Those who believe in an inspired Scripture acknowledge that the Bible was not entirely given by revelation (i.e., directly to men) through supernatural media even though parts of the Bible were so given. Rather it is a historical record and is thus not suprahistory but a record of God’s dealings with men in concrete life situations. It contains all that man needs for salvation, providing a faith to live by, and commandments to be obeyed. The Bible is not only to be understood existentially, but also as a document which conveys propositional truth. This truth is above and beyond man. It stands outside of man so that its truth remains unchanging whether man bows before it or experiences it.

The Bible projects a world view. It is the source book from which man derives God’s absolutes, which come from above and not from beneath. Its precepts are binding upon man and particularly upon those who are related to God in and through Jesus Christ. Thus any conservative philosophy of the Christian mission finds its rationale within the revelation of God in the Scriptures. Derivative truths, logically inferred from Biblical principles, are acceptable only as they find their ultimate validity in the Word of God written. 2. The Gospel of Christ

The Word of God written has for its purpose the unveiling of Jesus Christ to men. This means, of course, that propositional truth and one’s assent to it has no meaning unless it leads to the person of Jesus Christ. The foci around which the plan of God unfolds are the two Words—the Word of God written and the Word of God incarnate, Jesus Christ. The incarnation of Christ had for its primary purpose the reconciliation of men to God. This reconciliation was effected in Christ through the Gospel. Thus the Gospel is the second presupposition underlying conservative missionary endeavor.

The Gospel itself has definite content; 1 Corinthians 15:14 is most frequently alluded to as defining the content of the Gospel. At the heart of the Gospel is the death of Christ. His death is looked upon as more than an example. Intrinsic in that death is the idea of atonement. The atonement itself embraces several elements. The first is the idea of satisfaction. An offended God whose being had been transgressed against by sin demanded that guilt be expiated. Christ, by his shed blood, did this very thing. He rendered satisfaction to a holy God who, in turn, was now able to forgive sin. 241Paul expounds this theological concept when he speaks of God as the “just and the justifier” in Romans 3:26. The problem, of course, is posed by the nature of God when the question is asked, “How can a holy God forgive sin and let the sinner go free unless the demands of justice are met and satisfied?” Conservative theology believes that Christ’s atonement on Calvary fulfilled these necessary conditions so that satisfaction was rendered which made possible the forgiveness of the sinner. The atonement of Christ was effective because Christ was the sinless Son of God of the same essence with the Father. Therefore the value of his death was infinite.

The second idea intrinsic in the Gospel is the fact of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. Paul argued cogently that if Christ did not rise from the dead then there is no hope, no salvation, no eternal life (1 Cor. 15). Christ was “raised again for our justification.” Thus resurrection and justification are inextricably linked together. If there was a resurrection there can be justification. But if there was no resurrection there can be no justification. The belief in the physical resurrection, then, leads to several conclusions. First, Christ is not a dead saviour but a risen and living Lord. Secondly, the resurrection is prima-facie-evidence that his atoning work on Calvary was effective. It truly satisfied the justice and righteousness of God. Third, it demonstrates that there is victory over death and sin. Because Christ lives we shall live also. He is the first fruits which guarantee that we, like him, shall be raised from the dead incorruptible.

The Gospel does not simply comprise a set of doctrines. At its heart lie the death and resurrection of Christ. But the preaching of these doctrines will never bring spiritual life to man. Indeed unless the other two components of the Gospel are pressed into use the preaching of the first two will be sterile. When the facts of Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection have been presented, man must then be faced with his great decision. Missionaries must confront him with the person of Jesus Christ and show him what action he must take. Simply, it is to urge upon man the necessity of Gospel repentance. Repentance consists in recognizing one’s lost condition, having a godly sorrow of heart for sin, turning from that sin, and looking to Jesus Christ in faith for justification.

The preaching of the Gospel is only complete when the aspect of that message has been presented. Knowing that Christ died and rose, and having repented, man is to be acquainted with the 242fact of the forgiveness of sins. The announcement of the forgiveness of sins when man has met the conditions of Gospel repentance is the capstone to the structure of the missionary message. Its inclusion makes possible a full-orbed Gospel. The significance of the last two constituent elements of the Gospel cannot be overstated. To preach Christ’s death and resurrection alone is to emasculate the Gospel. These primary facts are designed to bring man to a place of decision. Alternatives are placed before him. Moral choices are propounded. Volition is called into play. He is informed of what he must do and what the results will be if he does it. Then he is urged to make the proper choice.

Following hard upon the message underlying missionary endeavor is the method or the means by which the message is made known to man. The message is the “what” of the Gospel; the means is the “how.” Obviously the supreme method of communicating the Gospel is through preaching. Conservative missionary strategy has been largely devoted to this aspect of making the Gospel known. It has exalted evangelism and has been rightly criticized at times for its neglect of the social aspects of the Gospel. While one cannot excuse this oversight, nevertheless it can be explained in the context of the driving desire to make disciples of unbelievers as quickly as possible. This preoccupation with evangelism has been modified considerably over the past two decades and many changes in method have taken place.

Traditionally, conservative missionary methods have included medical missions and educational work in addition to evangelism. These means have been expanded across the years. But their usefulness has been consciously kept within narrow confines. Thus it is true that in principle and practice these two methods of communicating the Gospel have never been looked upon as ends in themselves. The humanitarian aspect of medicine and education is not considered to be a proper reason for their use. It is an incidental by-product of means which have for their primary objective the conversion of men. In other words, medicine and education are only means to an end. And the end in this instance is evangelism. To the extent they are useful in accomplishing the primary objective they are valued and employed. This view, obviously, runs at cross currents with that expressed in Hocking’s Re-Thinking Missions in which the humanitarian element of medicine and educa243tion was accepted as a desirable goal and divorced from evangelism, as though the use of the former to attain the latter goal was an intrusion into the private lives of men.’ Conservative missionary theory assumes that the nature of the Gospel supposes proselytism and any good means to this end is justifiable and desirable.

The means of spreading the Gospel have not been exhausted by the use of evangelism, medicine, and education. Translation work, colporteur endeavors, radio, tracts, Gospel trucks, book stores, literature, magazines, and other means are employed. Through these auxiliary means conservative mission agencies have performed prodigious feats but always with the same end in mind—evangelism. The greatest single agency whose work is devoted exclusively to translation work is that of the Wycliffe Bible Translators. More than eight hundred people are engaged in this strategic ministry, which is absolutely basic to evangelism proper. The work normally involves learning the languages, reducing them to writing, forming alphabets, translating the Scriptures, and then teaching the people to read their own languages. Furthermore, conservative missionary agencies have moved forward vigorously in the use of radio as a means of spreading the Gospel. A chain of such stations covers practically all the world, reaching even into Russia. Among the newest means is that of magazine distribution. Coordinated by the organization Evangelical Literature Overseas (ELO) publications have been brought into existence in many parts of the world. The Sudan Interior Mission publishes Africa Challenge, which runs into hundreds of thousands of copies for each edition. The substance of all this is the conviction that, while the message remains unchanged, the methods by which the message is communicated change from generation to generation. The only valid tests for any method are twofold: (1) Is it a legitimate means in itself; and (2) does it have a useful function as a means to the evangelistic end.

In this discussion of the Gospel, the theological content of it and the methods by which it may be spread have been unfolded. That 244leaves for consideration the third aspect of this second presupposition—the objective of the Gospel. What precisely does the conservative expect to do with the Gospel? What goal lies before him? When has the missionary obligation been fulfilled?

First and foremost, conservative missionaries distinguish between Christianization and evangelization. The former supposes the possibility that the world will become Christian even though this objective may be immediately unrealizable. It looks for the permeative influence of the Gospel to leaven culture until the objective is fulfilled. Evangelization, on the other hand, presupposes that the world will never become distinctively Christian. Rather it understands the task of missions to be that of making the Gospel known to every creature. It accepts the fact that there will always be those who will reject the Gospel as well as those who will accept it. But it never envisions the possibility that all the world will embrace Christ and his teachings. Basically the difference derives from a variance in eschatological viewpoint. Conservative theology accepts the premise that the second advent of Christ is a necessary prerequisite to the ultimate triumph of God. This advent is related to the missionary task in that the Gospel must first be taken to all the world for a witness. Christ’s second advent will occur when this task has been completed. The obvious fact that Christ has not come indicates that the Great Commission has not been fulfilled as yet. When it has been fulfilled Christ will come again.

Within the context of this vision—that the evangelization of the world is the single objective of the missionary mandate—there are two questions which are left unanswered with respect to the fulfillment of the Great Commission. And the Bible provides no clear answers to. these questions. The first is the extent to which the Gospel must go before the mandate has been finished. Must every single person hear the Gospel or must there be simply a witness among every tribe and nation? The second is even more perplexing for this seeks to solve the problem, “When has a man heard the Gospel?” Has the Gospel been communicated when someone has heard John 3:16? Has the commission been fulfilled when a man has heard the Gospel once? Indeed, can we be sure that every time a missionary speaks he has given the Gospel? There are no ready solutions to these problems and they must be allowed to rest in

2453. 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 desirable. 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 to desirable traits and characteristics, but regeneration.

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 one 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 246pessimistically is to forsake hope. To view it optimistically as though all men were to be saved is to embrace the unrealism of a Pollyanna. Somewhere between lies the true Christian concept. Not all men will be lost nor will all be saved. But all have possibilities, and for those who turn to Christ there is fulfillment and realization in part in this life and in full in the life to come.

Regeneration is the real need of man. But man may not be regenerated either because he has never heard the Gospel without which regeneration is impossible or because he has refused to avail himself of the benefits of the Gospel when he has heard it. Whichever it may be the end is the same. He is permanently separated from God. Heaven and hell, then, are the competing options which the unredeemed man faces. The knowledge that the man who has never heard of Christ is separated from God is a prime factor in stimulating conservative missionary zeal. Knowing that his only hope lies within the Gospel, it follows that man must be given the opportunity to make a rational choice.

4. The Inadequacy of the Non-Christian Religions

Implied in the statement of man’s essential predicament is the fourth assumption which undergirds this philosophy of missions. All other religions, save Christianity, are inadequate and cannot provide salvation. All of them are under the judgment of God. No man who embraces any other religion and believes and practices what it teaches can entertain hope for a proper relationship to God. Neither ignorance nor effort toward a good life will suffice. No other way or road leads to everlasting life save Christianity. This is a highly dogmatic pronouncement, but it lies at the heart of all conservative missionary emphasis. Its adherents properly believe and claim that it is the teaching of the Scriptures; it is a “given” to which they subscribe without reservation. Eclecticism has no part in this theology and the exclusiveness of Christianity is assumed.

It should not be supposed that this idea of the inadequacy of the non-Christian religions is a view reserved to conservative theology alone. Hendrik Kraemer expressed a similar conclusion in different words. Despite individual dissent from this proposition the findings of the Madras Conference in 1938 reflected the same idea:

We believe that Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life for all, that He alone is adequate for the world’s need…. There are many non- 247Christian religions that claim the allegiance of multitudes. We see and readily recognize that in them are to be found values of deep religious experiences and great moral achievements. Yet we are bold enough to call men out from them to the feet of Christ. We do so because we believe that in Him alone is the full salvation which man needs.²

Elements of a primitive revelation may be found in all of these non-Christian religions. But they are so marred and defaced that no one can find salvation in and through them. Similarities do exist but all of them are radical dissimilarities when examined against the backdrop of the Biblical revelation. The existence of the real always supposes the possibility of the counterfeit. And the counterfeit itself supposes there must be a reality which it simulates. At best, then, all non-Christian religions are counterfeits of the one true faith.

3. The Church in the Plan of God

This brings us to the final assumption in the philosophy of the Christian mission. It has to do with the Church in the plan of God for the world. The Church is a redemptive fellowship which exists in the world for the sake of believers. Within this first purpose of the Church it is the will of God for His people to be of one mind, united in the faith, and using the means of grace for growth as well as for fellowship. But the Church exists not only for the benefit of those who are properly related to Christ. It exists also for those who are not properly related to him. It is to this second purpose for the Church that we address ourselves.

The Church is a witnessing fellowship living in the world for the sake of the world. It is not of the world, but it is in the world. Hence it is never the business of the Church to withdraw itself from the world. Rather it is to find its mission in the world while refusing to identify itself with anything that is of the world and the spirit of evil. It is called upon to go to the depths in its identification with lost mankind, having for its one goal the evangelization of the world. It is not the function of the Church to be a witness-bearer as though this were but one strand of its corporate business. The Church is witness. And when this is not true the Church is not the Church. The motivation of the Church as the bearer of the Gospel derives from the nature of the body, the command of the risen Lord to go, 248the love of Christ which constrains his people, and the moral, physical, and spiritual needs of the world.

There is no room for pride or boasting in the Church. The treasure which it possesses is held in earthen vessels. It can never communicate the Gospel as though the recipients were in any sense indebted to those who bear the Gospel. Rather those who have the Gospel are indebted to those who have it not, and this because Christ is Lord of the Church. Such an attitude suggests that the Gospel bearers will never be concerned with the treatment they receive nor be discouraged when their message is rejected. Their sole business is to bring the message, suffer the indignities, and leave the results to God. The twofold function of the bearers of the light is to bring man into the same fellowship of the Gospel and

build him up in the holy faith until he has been conformed to Jesus Christ. Unfortunately there is one vital disjunction. Individuals who

willingly subscribe to commitments for the Church as a whole do so as long as they are not personally involved. Hence hardly anyone will dispute the corporate responsibility of the Church as mission. But few will accept individual responsibility. The commands of Scripture, however, are not only addressed to the Church at large but to individuals as well. Thus there is personal and individual responsibility which no believer may escape. Clergy and laity alike are bound by Scripture to this responsibility. Every believer, therefore, has a threefold responsibility for the evangelization of the world: to go, to give, and to pray. Those who do not go abroad (they are still witness-bearers at home) because they are not called must still give and pray. It is only when the Church in toto takes seriously the command of Christ and involves itself seriously in these three ways that true dimension is given to the mission. And the compelling sanction for members of the body of Christ is the final judgment of believers when an account of one’s stewardship must be rendered.

These are the five basic presuppositions which underlie a conservative philosophy of the Christian mission. Their validity stems from the conviction that they constitute a Biblical “given” and can be regarded as absolutes which bind the consciences of concerned believers. The history of missions is replete with notable examples of individuals and agencies who have performed yeoman service 249for the cause of Christ Precisely because they believed these presuppositions and lived in accordance with them. Men like Carey, Judson, Livingstone, Taylor, and Studd, are such. The continued conviction that these presuppositions are true will produce now and in the years to come men who will do likewise for God in fulfilling the Great Commission. The acceptance of these standards will ever result in lives of devotion and self-sacrifice which alone are true evidences of belief in them.

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