The Progress of Missions: The Man-ward Perspective
December 29, 2008 – 2:19 pmIn Chapter 12 of For the Sake of His Name, Dr. David Doran tackles the subject of the call of God to missions. He introduces the material on “the call”, by presenting a question posed to Hudson Taylor [see MM's intro to this series: The Progress of Missions: Intro] by a Chinese gentleman regarding why English missionaries had not brought the truth about Jesus to China sooner:
One day, when talking with his missionary friend, Mr. Ni raised the question, “How long have you had the Glad Tidings in your country?”
“Some hundreds of years” Hudson replied. “What? Hundreds of years? My father sought the Truth,” he continued sadly “and died without finding it. Oh why did you not come sooner?”
To this question, and the issue of the progress of missions, Dr. Doran offers the two perspectives that the Bible reveals: the first is the God-ward Perspective and the second is the Man-ward Perspective.
The Man-ward Perspective
The last two paragraphs of the previous post The Progress of Missions: The God-ward Perspective:
God has provided a clear revelation of Himself to all people, but mankind’s response has been to reject this revelation. This revelation is so clear that it leaves man “without excuse” (v. 20).
So God not only has the right to govern the progress of missions according to His own purposes, but He is right in all of His dealings with mankind. Any and all who are lost eternally are so because of their own sinfulness and because they have rejected the witness of Him given through general revelation. If God permits some of the nations to sit in darkness in terms of gospel preaching, it does not mean that He has left “Himself without a witness” (Acts 14:17).
The Man-ward Perspective:
However, most of us recognize that the real issue at stake in the fulfillment of the Great Commission is on the man-ward side of the equation. From a man-ward perspective, we must acknowledge that God has given us the responsibility to take the message of Christ to the ends of the earth. God has chosen to use people as the means by which He will carry out His work. In fact, according to Romans 10:13-17, this is the exclusive means God will use:
For “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.” 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!” However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. (NASB)
The key portion of this passage for our consideration is found in v. 15, “How will they preach unless they are sent?” The logic of this text is clear:
Salvation is granted to all who call on the Lord. But people cannot call on the Lord if they do not hear the word that proclaims Christ. And that word will not be heard unless someone preaches it. But a preacher is nothing more than a herald, a person entrusted by another with a message. Thus preaching, finally, cannot transpire unless someone sends the preachers.1
This text stresses two things. First, it makes absolutely clear the need for the gospel message to be taken in order for people to come to Christ. Contrary to what some are teaching, there is no way to God except through explicit faith in Jesus Christ.2 Second, it teaches that the message is carried by those who are sent. But we need to ask, “Sent by whom?” And the obvious answer to that question seems to be, “Sent by God.” As one commentator aptly notes, “The point of the fourth question is that true Christian preaching, through which Christ Himself speaks, is not something which men can accomplish on their own initiative: it can only take place where men are authorized and commissioned by God.”3
While I recognize that the issue of a missionary call has often been debated, and the debate itself has often been quite confusing, I am not comfortable with the position that a call is unnecessary. In this regard I take a somewhat different position than those who were at the center of the Student Volunteer Movement. They argued very strongly that every Christian should go to the mission field unless clearly directed by God to do something else, and that no “special call” from God was needed to enter the missionary endeavor.4 Based on the text above and others like it, I believe that God does work in a special way to direct servants to the mission fields of the world.
1 Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 663.
2 See chapter 10 (”The Necessity of Going For the Sake of His Name”) for a more detailed discussion of this subject.
3 C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans: A Shorter Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985), 262.
4 Timothy C. Wallstrom, The Creation of a Student Volunteer Movement to Evangelize the World (Pasadena, CA: William Carey International University Press, 1980), 20-22.
