Revolution in World Missions

Chapter 14 The Need for Revolution If we could spend only one minute in the flames and torment of hell, we would see how unloving the so-called gospel is that prevails in much of missions today. Theology, which is only a fancy word for what we believe, makes all the difference on the mission field. When we go to the book of Acts, we find the disciples totally convinced about the lostness of man without Christ. Not even persecution could stop them from calling people everywhere to repent and turn to Christ. Paul cries out in Romans 10 verses 9-15 for the urgency of preaching Christ. In his day, the social and economic problems in cities like Corinth and Ephesus and other places were the same or worse than those we face today. Yet the apostles did not set out to establish social relief centers, hospitals, or educational institutions. Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 2 verses 1-2, When I came to you, I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul recognized that Jesus Christ was the ultimate answer to all man's problems. Although he was concerned about the poor saints, you cannot miss the primary emphasis of his life and message. I have spoken in churches that had millions of dollars invested in buildings, churches with pastors known as excellent Bible teachers with a heart of love for people. Yet I have discovered that many of them have absolutely no missionary program of any kind. In preaching to one of these churches, I made the following statement, While you claim to be evangelicals and pour time and life into learning more and more biblical truths, in all honesty, I do not think you believe the Bible. My listeners were shocked, but I continued, If you believed the Bible you say you believe, the very knowledge there is a real place called hell, where millions will go and spend eternity if they die without Christ, would make you the most desperate people in the world to give up everything you had to keep missions and reaching the lost as your top priority. The problem with this congregation, as with many today, is that they did not believe in hell. C.S. Lewis, the great British defender of the faith, wrote, There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this hell. I would pay any price to be able to say truthfully, all will be saved. But Lewis, like us, realized that was neither truthful nor within his power to change. Jesus Himself often spoke of hell in coming judgment. The Bible calls it the place of unquenchable fire, where the worm that eats the flesh does not die, a place of outer darkness where there is eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth. These and hundreds of other verses tell of a real place where lost men will spend eternity if they die without Jesus Christ. Only a very few believers seem to have integrated the reality of hell into their lifestyle. In fact, it is difficult to feel that our friends who do not know Jesus really are destined to eternal hell. Yet as I stressed in chapter 12, many Christians hold within their hearts the idea that, somehow or other, ways of redemption are available to those who have not heard. The Bible does not give us a shred of hope for such a belief. It states clearly that it is appointed for men to die once, but after this, the judgment. Hebrews 9.27 There is no way out of death, hell, sin, and the grave except Jesus Christ. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14.6 How different our churches would be if we started to live by the true revelation of the Word of God about hell. Instead, local churches and missions, both in the West and in the East, have been infected with death and continue to pass out death to millions of lost souls who surround us. The church Jesus called out of this world to be separated unto himself has, to a great extent, forgotten her reason for existence. Her loss of balance is seen in the current absence of holiness, spiritual reality, and concern for the lost. Substituted for the life she once knew are teaching and reaching for prosperity, pleasure, politics, and social involvement. Evangelical Christianity, commented A. W. Tozer prophetically before his death, is now tragically below the New Testament standard. Worldliness is an accepted fact of our way of life. Our religious mood is social instead of spiritual. The further our leaders wonder from the Lord, the more they turn to the ways of the world. One church in Dallas spent several million dollars to construct a gymnasium to keep our young people interested in church. Many churches have become like secular clubs with softball teams, golf lessons, schools, and exercise classes to keep people coming to their building and giving them their tithes. Some churches have gone so far from the Lord that they sponsor yoga and meditation courses, Western adaptations of Hindu religious exercises. If this is what is considered mission outreach at home, is it any wonder the same churches fall prey to the seductive philosophy of Christian humanists when planning overseas missionary work? Real Christian missions always is aware there is eternal hell to shun and heaven to gain. We need to restore the balanced vision General William Booth had when he started the Salvation Army. He had an unbelievable compassion for winning lost souls to Christ. His own words tell the story of what he envisioned for the movement. Go for souls and go for the worst. What would Jesus do if he walked into our churches today? I'm afraid he would not be able to say to us, you have kept the faith, you have run the race without turning left or right, and you have obeyed my commands to reach this world. I believe he would go out to look for a whip, because we have made his father's house a den of robbers. If that is so, then we must recognize that the hour is too desperate for us to continue to deceive ourselves. We are past the point of a revival or reformation. If this gospel is to be preached in all the world in our lifetime, we must have a Christian, heaven-sent revolution. But before revolution can come, we must recognize the need for one. We are like a lost man looking at a road map. Before we can choose the right road that takes us to our destination, we must determine where we went wrong, go back to that point and start over. So my cry to the body of Christ is simple. Turn back to the true gospel road. We need to preach again the whole counsel of God. Our priority must again be placed on calling men to repentance and snatching them from hellfire. Time is short. If we are not willing to plead in prayer for a mission revolution and let it start in our own personal lives and homes and churches, we will lose this generation to Satan. We can go trading souls for bodies, or we can make a difference by sponsoring Bible-believing native missionaries overseas. Several years ago, 40 Indian villages, once considered Christian, turned back to Hinduism. Could it be that whole villages that had experienced the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ would turn back into the bondage of Satan? No. These villages were called, quote, Christian only because they had been, quote, converted by missionaries who used hospitals, material goods, and other incentives to attract them to Christianity. But when the material rewards were reduced, or when other competing movements offered similar benefits, these converts reverted to their old cultural ways. In missionary terms, they were, quote, rice Christians. When, quote, rice was offered, they changed their names and their religions responding to the rice. But they never understood the true gospel of the Bible. After all the effort, these people were as lost as ever. But now they were even worse off. They were presented a completely wrong picture of what it means and what it takes to follow Christ. Could that be what we fear in North America? No gyms, no softball teams, no converts? The lesson from the mission field is that meeting physical needs alone does not get people to follow God. Whether hungry or full, rich or poor, human beings remain in rebellion against God without the power of the gospel. Unless we return to the biblical balance, to the gospel of Jesus as He proclaimed it, we'll never be able to put the accent where it rightly belongs in the outreach mission of the church. Jesus was compassionate to human beings as total persons. He did all He could to help them, but He never forgot the main purpose of His earthly mission, to reconcile men to God, to die for sinners and redeem their souls from hell. Jesus cared for the spiritual side of man first, then the body. This is illustrated clearly in Matthew chapter 9 verses 2 through 7 when He first forgave the sins of the paralytic, then healed his body. In John chapter 6 verses 1 through 13, Jesus miraculously fed 5,000 hungry men plus women and children. He fed them after He preached, not before to attract their attention. Later in verse 26, we find that these people followed Jesus not because of His teaching or who He was, but because He had fed them. They even tried to make Him king for the wrong reasons. Seeing the danger of their spiritual misunderstanding, Jesus withdrew from them. He didn't want fans, but disciples. The apostles did not fear to tell the beggar that silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give you, Acts chapter 3 verse 6. Then they preached the gospel. I have had similar experiences all across India. I have yet to meet a person who was not willing to hear the wonderful news of Jesus because of his or her physical condition. As Christians, we must follow the example of Jesus. I do believe we must do all we can to relieve the pain and suffering around us. We must love our neighbors as ourselves in all areas of life. But we must keep supreme the priority of sharing the message of salvation with them, and we must never minister to the physical needs at the expense of preaching Christ. This is biblical balance, the true gospel of Jesus.