As we approach the point which marks a two-thousand year lapse of time since our Savior left us on earth with a great task to accomplish, namely, the evangelism of the nations, it is imperative that we pause to consider what precisely we are striving to accomplish; how far we have advanced on our goal; and what strategies we have in place for the continuation and ultimate completion of our mission. Is it possible that, in all our zeal for the work of the Kingdom, we are hindered at points by a lack of essential clarity on exactly what that work entails, and how we might best go about it? It would seem, simply by the fact of the overwhelming diversity of ways in which various Christian churches and organizations would answer these questions that the answer must at least in some cases be yes. If this lack of unity and vision in the worldwide Church poses certain obstacles to the accomplishment of the great commission, then how might we take a definite step towards overcoming those obstacles, and equipping the Church to pour out her energies in a united effort to reach the world? I would propose that we must first acknowledge the problems which inhere in our current situation, and then construct a full-orbed biblical theology of Christian mission; by which we may hope to address those problems which we have already recognized to be detrimental to our evangelistic efforts. This [post] does not presume to be that biblical theology of mission; but it is my desire that [it] may at least serve to highlight a need for more extensive work in that area, as well as provide a few rough ideas for a direction to pursue toward that end.
Archive for the ‘Missions’ Category
Ann Hasseltine Judson, wife of Adoniram Judson, was one of the first female American foreign missionaries.
Ann Hasseltine was born at Bradford, Massachusetts, [United States], December, 22d, 1789. She was converted at the age of seventeen, and after completing a pretty thorough and extensive course of study at Bradford Academy, she engaged, not from poverty, but from a sense of duty, in teaching the young. As she opened her school with prayer, her little pupils at first seemed astonished at such a beginning, as some of them had probably never heard a prayer before. She taught school in Salem, Haverhill and Newbury.
Her marriage took place at Bradford, February 5th, 1812, and on the 19th of the same month Mr. and Mrs. Judson embarked for Calcutta. They reached Rangoon in July, 1813.
She set out to return to America by way of London in 1821, and after spending a year in England and Scotland she sailed for New York, where she arrived on the 25th of September, 1822, but proceeded at once to Philadelphia. While here she composed and published a “History of the Burman Mission.” She spent some time in Baltimore under medical treatment. She also visited Washington. In June, 1823, she embarked again for Rangoon, where she arrived in December, 1823, after an absence of two years and a half.
In the latter part of the nineteenth century, an English Baptist pastor wrote a pamphlet in which he surveyed the state of Christianity in various countries. Although Europe was the obvious stronghold of the Christian faith at that time, this pastor said it was a “melancholy fact that the vices of Europeans have been communicated wherever they themselves have been; so that the religious state of even heathens has been rendered worse by intercourse with them” (64). He went on to observe in his pamphlet:
Of those who bear the Christian name, a very great degree of ignorance and immorality abounds amongst them. There are Christians, so called, of the Greek and Armenian churches in all the Mahometan [i.e., Muslim] countries; but they are, if possible, more ignorant and vicious than the Mahometans themselves. The Georgian Christians, who are near the Caspian Sea, maintain themselves by selling their neighbors, relations, and children, for slaves to the Turks and Persians.… It is well known that most of the members of the Greek church are very ignorant. Papists also are in general ignorance of divine things and very vicious. Nor do the bulk of the church of England much exceed them, either in knowledge or holiness; and many errors, and much looseness of conduct, are to be found among dissenters of all denominations. The Lutherans of Denmark, are much on par with the ecclesiastics in England; and the face of most Christian countries presents a dreadful scene of ignorance, hypocrisy, and profligacy. Various baneful, and pernicious errors appear to gain ground, in almost every part of Christendom; the truths of the gospel, and even the gospel itself, are attacked, and every method that the enemy can invent is employed to undermine the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ (64-65).
Adoniram Judson was an American Baptist missionary, who served in Burma for almost forty years.
Adoniram Judson (1788-1850) was one of the most remarkable men of his age. Described by one of his biographers as the “Christian Hero of the Nineteenth Century,” he was truly the “Pioneer of American Missions.” Like the apostle Paul, it could be said of Judson that in labors he was “more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons frequent, in deaths oft.”
Judson’s Early Infidelity
Although he was the son of a congregational preacher, Judson was an unbeliever as a youth, graduating from Brown University in 1807 as a confirmed infidel. While commencing a tour of the United States, however, he began to have serious doubts about his deistic concepts and returned home for the express purpose of examining thoroughly the claims of the Christian religion.
His Conversion Experience
While browsing through a private library in Boston one day, he took from the shelf a book entitled HUMAN NATURE, ITS FOURFOLD STATE by the noted deceased Scottish minister Thomas Boston, (a valuable addition to any preacher’s library!). Becoming convinced both of the divine inspiration of Scripture and his lost condition, he earnestly began seeking the truth.
What is the 10/40 Window?
The 10/40 Window is the rectangular area of North Africa, the Middle East and Asia approximately between 10 degrees north and 40 degrees north latitude. The 10/40 Window is often called “The Resistant Belt” and includes the majority of the world’s Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists. The original 10/40 Window included only countries with at least 50% of their land mass within 10 and 40 degrees north latitude. The revised 10/40 Window includes several additional countries, such as Indonesia, that are close to 10 or 40 degrees north latitude and have high concentrations of unreached peoples. An estimated 4.50 billion individuals residing in approximately 8,717 distinct people groups are in the revised 10/40 Window. The 10/40 Window is home to some of the largest unreached people groups in the world such as the Shaikh, Yadava, Turks, Moroccan Arabs, Pushtun, Jat and Burmese.
Charlotte Digges "Lottie" Moon was a Southern Baptist missionary to China who spent nearly forty years living and working in China.
Introduction
Lottie Moon was born Charlotte (Lottie) Diggs Moon on December 12, 1840, in Albemarie County, Virginia. She entered the world as a part of Southern aristocracy prior to the Civil War, a war that would devastate her family’s fortunes. Her family’s wealth was 1/40 of its pre-war value after the war ended. She would die on December 24, 1912, aboard a ship in the Japanese harbor of Kobe. She was frail, weak, and nearly starved having just passed her seventy-second birthday. She weighed no more than fifty pounds.1
Lottie served our Lord for thirty-nine years on the mission field, mostly in China. “Best estimates” say that this mighty, little woman towered all of four feet, three inches. It was never said that she was beautiful, but this little lady had a certain attractiveness about her and a powerful personality that would be essential in her service on the mission field. She taught in schools for girls and made many evangelist trips into China’s interior to share the gospel with women and girls. She would even preach, against her wishes, to men, because then as now there were not enough men on the mission field.
I have no doubt, having spent many months in her biography and letters, that Miss Lottie would be both amazed and embarrassed at all the fuss that is made about her each year by Southern Baptists. She knew that in 1888 Southern Baptists, at her request, raised $3,315.00, enough to send three new women missionaries to China. She, however, could never have imagined, that: Read the rest of this entry »
“How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “” HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!” … So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” – Romans 10:14,15, 17
My aim in this article is to show from Scripture that the historic faith as taught by Jesus (John ch. 6), Paul (Rom ch. 9), Augustine, and the Reformers that God’s sovereignty predetermines His chosen from among the nations (Revelation 5:9; Rev. 7:9-10), should be the greatest motivation to world missions. “A people for His Name” will be established from among every people. A corresponding aim is to show the harmful error of both synergistic theology and hypercalvinism since they each disrupt the delicate balance of understanding God’s sovereign will in the salvation of His elect. I cannot underscore the importance of understanding this enough as it should give us all great hope that we will be instruments in efficaciously bringing forth the harvest of those Christ purchased with his blood.
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