Answering Christianity Today's Online Magazine Article
Posted by Mark Stephan
Please read this article: http://www.christianitytoday.com/globalconversation/december2009/index.html
Here is my answer to this article:
People get very emotionally charged on this issue, and we shouldn’t. We need to look at this the way we should, and that way alone. i.e. What does the Bible, and the Bible alone say about this issue. The problem with today’s missionaries, and I am one, is that we tend to be weak on our biblical theology, and even weaker on our biblical missiology. Our churches and organizations focus on numbers (not correct theology) send us out to ‘do’ without truly looking at the spiritual, thus theological ramifications of it. It does not matter to me if someone is on the field for decades, or never been. As my advice does not come from the wisdom of men, but from the Word of God. Sadly, we as men tend to trust academicians, social sciences, anthropology, and statistics more than we rely on God’s Word. We then use these social sciences and ‘strategies’ and force, beat, and warp the Word of God to agree with us. We say the numbers prove that the Holy Spirit is in it. If so, then the number 2 religion in the world, Islam, is truly divine and we might as well leave the Muslims to themselves. We say that C5/C4 ‘believers’ (I use this term loosely) believe in Jesus as Lord. But studies on the leadership of these movements show the opposite. The following statistics of 72 "Messianic Muslim" leaders shows the degree to which falsehood has been propagated within these communities. • 50% go to traditional Mosque on Friday. • 31% go more than once per day for Salat affirming prophethood of Muhammad. • 96% say there are 4 sacred books: Torah, Zabur, Injil, (all parts of the Christian Bible) and the Qur’an • 66% affirm the Qur’an as the greatest of these. • 45% don’t affirm God as Father/Son/Spirit. • 45% feel close to Allah when hearing the Qur’an read aloud. These numbers show that whatever the intent of western missionaries to propagate the C4/C5, its effect is devastating. Also, it should be known, that the C4/C5, Insider Movement is a movement created by the west and pushed by the west. This is not an indigenous movement. Thus we’re not pushing the western culture on these folks, but we are doing just as a bad thing and pushing their old idolistic culture on them. There are many indigenous Christians who came out of Islam who are extremely upset about this. Read this excellent article by one such believer being hurt by the Insider Movement/C4/C5. http://budurl.com/fm9w Ultimately this debate comes down to whether or not man’s culture is divine, and should be kept in lieu of the Kingdom Culture. If we value man’s culture as divine, then we will keep it intact at all costs, and it’s not culture that must change, but the Bible. If we see man’s culture effected by the fall, then we will leave it for the culture of the Kingdom of Heaven, and God’s gospel remains true and unchangeable. I wrote an article on that here: http://budurl.com/wla9 I contest it is man’s culture that must contextualize to the Gospel, not the Gospel that must be contextualized to man’s culture. The Corinthian church had the same problems of syncretism and idol worship. The "Messianic Jewish" church had the same problems with the Judaisers. The Jewish religion had the same problem with the Pharisees who worshiped the law more than they worshipped God. When we focus on earthly things more than the heavenly Kingdom of God, then we will always fall into idol worship. So why then, are we teaching these people to delve deeper into something that is a known lie? Let this not be so. I recommend reading: Titus 1:10-11,13- 16 If you follow twitter please follow the Biblical Missiology twitter feed: https://twitter.com/biblemissiology If you use Facebook please follow the Biblical Missiology Fan Page: http://budurl.com/2g3v Once we get Missiology back on the track of Theology, then we can discuss the attitude of how we as believers in the faith interact with one another out of love. But without the Biblical Word of God as our foundation, how do you expect this conversation to continue? If we do not rely solely on the Word of God, and not man’s wisdom, I predict that there will a greater schism and cults will come out of this debate. The church in the next 100 years depends greatly on this very issue. It is not to be taken lightly. You have only seen the beginning of this debate, and it will only grow. My question is, do these proponents of the C4/C5 Insider Movement want to be seen as the next Josiah Smith, or Muhammad? The Lord himself will judge your motives. As propagators of this fallacy, as supposed teachers of God’s word, you are held to a much higher standard. Matthew 23:15, "Woe to you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves."
I have written a larger rebuttal to the insider Movement C4/C5 that will be posted on this site soon.
