11. A World Waiting to be Won: The Latter Day Expansion of the Gospel
Quite simply, the power of eternal death and eternal life has been committed to us. The Gospel must go into all the world, and then must the end come. Clearly there is to be a world-wide witness to the true Gospel; and in the rapid growth of the our ministry in the last few years, we are seeing this. But if we don’t play our part in this, it won’t happen. The whole work depends upon our collective prayers and goodwill; and upon local brothers and sisters preaching in their own areas, especially translating what literature they can into their language...and the solid financial support of the Western brotherhood. Without all these factors, not a fraction of the work achieved would have been. Our converts have been made in the following countries [and probably others], where only a few years years ago there were none; and this is all in addition to all those many countries where the brotherhood already exists:
Afghanistan
Albania
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
Belarus
Bolivia
Brazil
Burundi
Cameroon
Cayman
Chad
China
Congo
Croatia
Czech
Estonia
Ethiopia
Georgia
Hungary
Iran
Israel
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Lithuania
Macedonia
Moldova
Mongolia
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Pakistan
Poland
Romania
Russia
Rwanda
Serbia
Solomons
Sint-Maarten
Sri Lanka
St. Lucia
Sudan
Swaziland
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Ukraine
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Vietnam
And the fascinating thing is, that within many of these nations there are a variety of different peoples who have responded to the Gospel. Thus within Russia alone, the last ten years have seen Bashkorts, Chechens, Jews, Tatars and Udmurts baptized- as well as ethnic Russians. Within South Africa, where there have been white believers for over a century, there has been a sudden outbreak of baptisms amongst many of the African peoples living there: Ndebele, Sootho, Tsonga, Tswana, Xhosa and Zulu , along with refugees from Angola, have all been baptized in recent years. And when I was a child, I thought ‘India’ was a country where they spoke ‘Indian’. But it is comprised of 1 billion people, divided amongst many different ethnic groups, many of which have responded to the Truth in the last 10 years.
And as we go to press, we are expecting the first baptisms soon in Egypt, much of South America, Iraq...And moreover, for the first time we have received response to our preaching from hitherto ‘closed’ countries: Ethiopia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Algeria, Lesotho, the very far north of Russia, within the Arctic circle, the frozen northern Sakhalin islands, Paraguay, Ecuador, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan... even a request from a woman whose address is Poste Restante, Grozny P.O., Chechnaya. The stamps torn off envelopes by mission workers are now truly from all the world. Indeed, through internet preaching and the way English is becoming a world-wide language, our message is at least being viewed by men and women in literally every country under heaven. Correspondence courses and Bible Basics are now available or being produced in over 40 languages, due to the work of dedicated local brothers and sisters and Western support- for which we in the field sincerely thank God.
The rate of growth can’t continue- because the world is a finite place. We may or may not have a long way to go, depending on how the Lord judges the extent of ‘witness’ to have been made. Therefore this upsurge in response to our preaching is perhaps the surest sign that the Lord’s return is imminent. There is interest in people absolutely everywhere, from all social and racial groups- even if our Western style preaching has become mismatched to that interest. The Gospel is going to all the world. Not only to every nation, but to every type of person. Even in the West, men from prisoners to the highest business executives are now being baptized; and women from prostitutes to politicians. There is repeated Biblical emphasis that “all men” will hear and respond to the Gospel (Jn. 1:7; 5:23; 12:32; Acts 17:30,31; 1 Tim. 2:4). It can’t mean ‘every man, woman and child who ever live’; for many have lived and died knowing nothing of Christ. It must surely mean that a few of ‘all [types of] people’, ethnically, linguistically, socially, in terms of personality types...will be saved; just as there were representatives of all types of animal gathered into the ark [a type of baptism into Christ, as Peter informs us]. If the rain is a type of the second coming, it follows that before that time, all types of animal, clean and unclean [which Acts 10 interprets as Jews and Gentiles] must be gathered into the ark of Christ. And now in this 21st century, as we come to the end of human history, all types of people are realising deep within them that something is up with this world. They are starting to feel their desperation, for all their show of hedonism. There are far more believers in God today than there were 50 years ago. That’s a fact. Never say or think that people ‘just aren’t interested’. Some of them are, indeed more and more of them are, and they are desperately interested. Men and women are somehow turning to Him, but lack the knowledge. And if we go on with this work, the end will shortly come. Please, please, for all the reasons outlined here, play your part, do your bit, in extending the Lord’s glory in this way, and hastening unto the coming of the Lord. The body of the Lord Jesus has been “day by day fashioned, when as yet there was none of them” (Ps. 139:16 RV). For 6,000 years providence has been at work preparing the people who are now being called into the body. The world has been prepared. It’s waiting for the preacher to win it.
The great commission comes in the context of the Gospel records labouring how the various believers all ‘went’ or were told to ‘go’ with the message to others. This ‘go-to-them’ spirit is what should energize us; and yet in so many church discussions, preaching is pictured as making the church attractive to the outsider, e.g. by making the Sunday morning service more attractive. This ‘come-to-us’ mentality stands in stark contrast to the ‘go-to-them’ spirit of the great commission and the early church.
Appendix: Some Objections Considered
The usual objections and fears to going ‘into the mission field’ hinge around fears of not being able to cope with the new language or country. A survey was done of why missionaries returned from the field prematurely(1). Significantly, those very reasons which are the biggest fears, turned out not to be issues in most cases. Rather, the issues centred around ‘politics’ within the church, problems in relationships and attitudes. These are the very things which stand a good chance of being ironed out before the missionary leaves. And it’s why so much of what I have to say in this series of studies is about developing the right attitudes and relationships. The survey results are worth quoting- and reflecting upon:
1 Inability to maintain a satisfactory devotional life when separated from other sympathetic believers. 8.0%
2 Inability or unwillingness to submit graciously to the discipline or directives of supervisors or senior missionaries.16.5%
3 Inability or unwillingness to work in harmony with fellow missionaries.17.0%
4 Inability to supress a feeling of superiority to natives or native workers, or inability to express an attitude of complete sympathy for same.13.0%
5 Friction or lack of harmonious co-operation between husband and wife to the extent that the effectiveness of the work was impaired.8.5%
6 Inability to adjust to new life or “cut” homeland ties.4.0%
7 Health failures, psychosomatic or psychoneurotic.2.0%
8 Incapacity or unwillingness to formulate and carry out a definite or satisfactory daily detail of operation.11.0%
9 Carelessness or evasiveness in the preparation of financial or operational reports.4.5%
10 Inability to maintain a satisfactory standard of personal or household tidiness to the extent that there was a reflection on the work of the mission and
11 Sex problems.7.0%
12 Inadequate scholastic work or inability to utilize knowledge in a practical manner, such as inability to master a foreign language. 2%
Notes
(1) Gordon Fraser, ‘A Survey Of First Term Missionary Casualties’, Biblioteca Sacra Vol. 115 No. 457—Jan. 1958, p.47.
