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Part 3 of the "Reach the World" Series
The Uniqueness of Our Message
by Aramus Crane, March 18, 2005
What was it that motivated people to give their lives for the
Gospel? There are many answers, but one of the best ones was
voiced by the Apostles when Jesus asked them if they would abandon
Him. "To whom would we
go? You have the words of eternal life."
Christianity is as unique as the divine human who started
it.
No other religion has documentation of their leader raising from the
dead. Few even make such a claim. The immortality of Jesus
Christ is the power of Christianity because it shows that our leader is
omnipotent.
When we lose sight of the uniqueness of our Lord, we consider it
suffering when the pastor speaks about Him 15 minutes into the football
game or when we have to sit on pews without any pads. The messages
of the leaders of all the world's religions begin to sound the same to
us. "They have their beliefs that are just as valid as ours," we
blaspheme. The world today is dominated by relativism.
Universalists consider all ways to God as equal and say we must be open
to other people's ideas that Jesus is not THE Way, THE Truth, and THE
Life. Robert McQuilkin restates what many Christians maintain,
that this point of view makes a mockery of Christ's death because it
would have been of no use. If people could get to Heaven by any
way they want, then God was foolish to send His Son to be mocked,
tortured and killed. Our response to Christ in our actions and
words demonstrates if we have accepted the unique words of Jesus
Christ.
"Is
it fair and just for God to condemn those who have not had an
opportunity to respond to His offer of grace? The Bible does not teach
that God will judge a person for rejecting Christ if he has not heard of
Christ. In fact, the Bible teaches clearly that God's judgment is based
on a person's response to the truth he has received." (McQuilkin
R. "Lost" Perspectives: A Reader.
p.159.)
William Carey opined about the luke-warm attitude towards
missions, "Were the children of light but as wise in their
generation as the children of this world, they would stretch every
nerve to gain so glorious a prize (as world evangelism)" (op cit) Yet,
today, as 213 years ago, Christians lag behind their secular peers in
applying the nerves of the mind to the Lord's work.
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Our response to Christ in our actions and words
demonstrates if we have accepted the unique words of Jesus Christ.
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Use the brain to
innovate
Lehigh University, where I studied engineering was founded in
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania by a railroad magnate and an episcopal
bishop. Their goal was to produce excellent students with
Christian character. I often had the chance to see the old
Moravian settlement that gave the city its biblical name. It had
one of the earliest and best hospitals in the colonies that became the
United States. It was so good that Revolutionary War soldiers
wounded in Philadelphia were transported to Bethlehem, at that time a
day's journey. The influence of industrious Moravians produced an
engineering school rated as one of the best in the country for more
than 140 years.
Although evangelicalism today is often opposed to mental development,
this was not always the case. Many view intelligence as a
hindrance to faith. I don't know how one can listen, read or have
faith without being intelligent, but the way they do shows to me that
it may just be possible. Rather, my Bible says that we should
honor God with our minds. (Matthew 22:37)
The intelligence that God gave us should be used to innovate new ways
to win people for the Lord. Today, people usually take a
cookie-cutter approach that is largely unfruitful. Beach
evangelism using the 4 Spiritual Laws may have worked well in Florida
of the 1980's, but it may not work with Sahara Muslims in the 21st
Century. We must innovate different ways to reach different
people.
"The
Moravian missionaries...were purposely sent to the most despised and
neglected people. [They] were to be self supporting. That
emphasis led to the creation of industries and business concerns which
not only supported the work but brought the missionaries into intimate
contact with the people. Such self-support could not be
undertaken among the American Indians, however, and consequently
communal settlements, such as Bethlehem...were founded with a wide
range of crafts and industries, the profits of which supported the
mission."
"French policy in Canada was
the opposite of the Spanish. Only a small colony was settled to
be a base for trade and a bulwark against the English. The French
wanted the furs and other products of the forests and consequently
disturbed Indian civilization as little as possible. The
missionaries had to develop a strategy consonant with this
policy. Therefore, they lived with the Indians in their villages,
adapting to conditions as well as they could, preaching, teaching,
baptizing individuals, performing the rites of the church, allowing the
converts still to be Indians. Some permanent towns with church
and school were founded on the borders of French settlements, but most
of the inhabitants were transient."
"On the other side of the
globe, in what was to become French Indo-China, now Vietnam, where the
region came under French rule only much later, a radical new
evangelistic strategy was devised by Alexander de Rhodes. This
was necessary because the French missionaries were persecuted and
expelled from the region for long periods. Evangelization could only be
achieved by native agents. Rhodes created an order of native lay
evangelists living under rule who w on converts by the thousands. Stimulated
by this experience, Rhodes and his associates founded the Foreign
Mission Society of Paris dedicated to the policy of recruiting and
training a diocesan clergy, who would be the chief agents in the
evangelization of the country and the pastoral care of the churches,
rather than missionaries. It was a policy marked by outstanding success."
(Beaver RP. "The History of Mission Strategy" Perspectives: A Reader, p.
246)
John Eliot was among the more innovative missionaries to the native
Americans.
"Reading, writing, and simple arithmetic were taught along with Bible
study and religious instruction. Agricultural and domestic crafts
were also introduce so that support in a settled and civilized way of
life might be possible." (ibid, p. 244)
Our
work with the orphans has paralleled that of John Eliot, with
Aurelia teaching reading, writing, and simple arithmetic. I teach
them computer skills so that they can find a decent job to support
themselves when they leave the hospital. The Bible is central to
our work. We use it in reading, writing, and we programmed typing
programs where the children type from the Bible. Sunday evenings
we have church services where they sing Christian songs, learn Bible
verses and hear Bible stories.
Part 1: Reach
the World
Part 2: The
Results of Poor Discipling and Church Planting
Part 3: The Uniqueness of Our Message
Part 4: Self-Glorifying Churches Impede the Gospel Message
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