Posted by Mark Stephan
Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:45:00 GMT
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.
Posted in Christianity, Islam, Bible Studies | Tags C4, C5, Christianity, Insider, Missions, Movement | 1 comment
Posted by Mark Stephan
Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:26:00 GMT
There’s a lot of hype going on about culture. I’ve been reading a lot of books, articles, been in conversations that try to understand biblical culture, and how that relates to us. On one side are people who say that God created cultures, and that it makes us unique and uniquely able to display his Glory. They often use the view of Revelation’s Heaven "Every tribe, nation and tongue" as an image that all the cultures will display their beauty in worship to God. On the other side is the view that human culture is not something to be lifted up, but rather is depraved, like our sinful selves and that the Bible relates to us a biblical heavenly culture that is given to us once we’ve been saved and redeemed, and that the acculturation to that culture is the process of sanctification.
While some may consider this as just an academic discussion, and not important to everyday life, I’d argue this is one of the most fundamental questions the church is facing, and the answer to it determines where Christianity will be one hundred years from now.
The Roots of the Culture of Man
It is important to know, and fundamental to the faith that God created man in his image. We were made in the image of God. We were made in a perfect state to live an existence of perfection. We were Holy, and thus in perfect alignment with God’s culture. Holiness and Righteousness is the culture of God and His Kingdom.
Then something happened. We broke the cultural standard of God, we did the taboo, and the result was sin entering the world, ourselves, and that corruption effected our holy culture dramatically leaving it marred and mutated beyond manly repair.
Humanity grew and so did its sinfulness. Humanity’s culture still remained rather homogenous, yet effected by the fall. We built a tower to reach the heavens, and in that attempt, God confused our language splintering us off and spreading us across the earth. As isolated groups of people, our identities and culture developed as isolated groups, becoming more and more unique and different from each others until today where we can look at every part of the earth and find diverse languages and cultures.
The question arises then, what are the ramifications of this people group focused culture on the long-term plan of God and His Kingdom. Does God cherish diverse culture and have a place for it in His fulfilled redeemed Kingdom, or does God have something new that he wants to create?
What the Bible Says
To find out what God has planned for the long-term, we need to look at the heavenly culture of God post-rapture to ad infinitum. While it is clear from the Bible that God is calling people from every Tribe, Tongue, People, and Nation what isn’t clear is what happens to them once the complete regeneration occurs i.e. the redeemed receives their new spiritual bodies.
The Bible Says:
- Our present body is only a "tent" which we will put aside. 2 Co 5:1-3, 2 Pet 1:13-14
- God, through Christ, will deliver us from this present "body of death" (which is the sinful nature). Rom 7:20-25
- God has prepared us for the purpose of being clothed with our heavenly body. 2 Cor 5:4-5
- Although we do not know exactly what our new bodies will be like, we know that they will be like Jesus. 1 John 3:2-3
- Our new bodies will be like Christ’s glorious body. Phil 3:20-21, Rom 8:28-30, Ps 17:15, Ro 6:5-8, 1 Cor 15:49, 2 Cor 3:17-18
- We will be changed instantaneously when we are raised. 1 Cor 15:51-53
- To gain our new body, our current body must die. 1 Cor 15:35-49 (See also Phil 1:21-23)
- Our new body will be incorruptible. Our current body is corruptible. 1 Cor 15:42-44, 1 Cor 15:52-54 (In context: 1 Cor 15:35-58)
- Our new body will be glorified. Our current body is dishonorable. 1 Cor 15:42-44, (In context: 1 Cor 15:35-58)
- Our new body will be powerful. Our current body is weak . 1 Cor 15:42-44, (In context: 1 Cor 15:35-58)
- Our new body will be spiritual. Our current bodies natural. 1 Cor 15:42-44, (In context: 1 Cor 15:35-58)
- Our new bodies will be from God, eternal and in the heavens. 2 Co 5:1-5
- Like Moses and Elijah, our bodies will likely be able to converse with others. Lk 9:28-32, Mt 17:2-3
- People who currently have physical disabilities will not have them in their new bodies. Isaiah 35:3-5
- We will have no racial or cultural distinctions Col 3:9-11
No Culture in Heaven But the Heavenly Kingdom Culture
It is the last point that is of special interest to me. In heaven, with our spiritual and new, incorruptible bodies, there will be no racial or cultural distinction between us. While Revelation shows that people will be called from every tribe, tongue, people and nation it is clear they are called from them, but not called to it. What this means is that the usage of ‘from’ dictates that the Gospel is made for all. No one is left out. It does not necessarily mean that heaven is filled with various cultural expressions and languages. As the body is made anew, our culture and perhaps even language likewise is made to the image of God himself. In the vast picture of the multitudes of people in heaven never do we see any diverse expressions of the human cultural experience. They all worship in uniform praise and song singing out in praise of the one God. We are back to the origins of God’s creation. A holy and perfectly redeemed people worshipping the Lord. We are now completely acculturated to the culture and lifestyle of the Kingdom of Heaven.
So that’s what we will be, but what do we do now?
Our Acculturation to the Kingdom of Heaven
Once we are saved and redeemed, immediately our sinful nature is violently attacked and bombarded by the Holy Spirit of God. A transformation is initiated that will burn through our soul refining us and pulling us forcibly back into alignment to the Character and Holiness of God. We tend to fight this process as while it is for our benefit, it also forces us out of the world, leaving us rejected by the culture and world around us. We are now aliens to this world, having become official, blood-boughten citizens of heaven. It’s life a broth, and literally it is a rebirth. Although bloody, hideous and painful, it is the most amazing and glory filled moments in worldly our life.
This violent process should be embraced by believers world-wide. Yet, unfortunately, it is shunned, and the violence of it is often watered down so that it is not feared, and made bearable to our human comfort. In the hopes of leading more to the gospel many have watered down this gospel of violent transformation to the culture of Heaven, and instead have told people they can keep many if not all of their humanly developed culture intact as not to lose their social connections to the world around them. This however is not the gospel of the Bible. Whether you are an American, Westerner, Asian, Latino, Middle Easterner, African, Indiana, and so on and so forth, no matter what our cultural background is, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Hindu, Atheist, etc.. we are all called to abandon these cultural identities and bring them into alignment to the culture of the Kingdom of God. We cannot tell the Muslim convert that they can keep their culture. God calls them out of it. We cannot tell the American they can keep their culture. God calls them out of it.
Often under the flag of reaching back to the community to reach others who are lost, people try to maintain their culture. However, biblically that is only possible once we have abandoned our culture, embraced the culture of Heaven, and through that new and redeemed life, reach out to the world around us from the position of our new Godly culture. We cannot reach a lost world from being part of a lost culture. We represent the culture we are in. If we are in a lost culture, we only lead people to more lostness. There is no culture on earth that isn’t lost. Only being transformed and being in the culture of Heaven are we truly found, and have a culture worth displaying and sharing.
If the heavenly culture is adhered to and followed, then missionaries will not go from the west to the east and spread ‘western’ christianity. Instead they will display the heavenly culture, and call others out from their past sinful and corrupt culture into the Heavenly culture, not into a western christian culture. At the same time, one cannot argue that their culture is redeemable or that they are required to live out their culture to reach others. There is no distinction of any human on earth. All must abandon their culture and embrace the culture of Heaven.
The following verses really wraps up the whole thought.
Colossians 3:1-17 (ESV)
1If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
I could say it no clearer. Seek the culture of God above. Abandon our sinful corrupt culture of the world below, which lies in idolatry. Together in Christ we have no race or cultural distinctions, but rather we are one whole and united body in Christ that finds our pure identity, cultural or otherwise in Christ alone. We need to put on and acculturate to the identity of Jesus and adopt His culture and attitude of holy living, compassionate giving, and loving as he loved. In everything we do, every word or deed, Christ, His work, and His Holiness should be at the root of it, displaying all with a great thankfulness to God the Father through him.
Also see this excellent Blog Post on this same issue that I found while researching this issue: http://www.albatrus.org/english/living/kingdom/kingdom_god_vs_culture.htm
Posted in Christianity, Bible Studies | Tags Bible, culture, Jesus, Missiology, Missions | no comments
Posted by Mark Stephan
Thu, 28 May 2009 22:58:00 GMT
A great man died and went to see his glorious maker this past week. His name was Ralph Winter.
You can read his bio here:
There is a great article about his accomplishments written here:
He was a great man in that he was a man who understood the call of God to reach the nations. He motivated and created a world-wide movement that still moves today for the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ to every nation, tongue and tribe.
But like most things in life, people have taken a strategy for a mission, and turned it into the goal, opposed to using it as a conduit towards the spirit of the mission itself.
Like all great movements started by great men, left unattended and unscrutinized, they can often go awry. So in the years after Ralph Winter, I think we have several things that we should consider.
For the past couple hundred of years people saw Christian missions as doing good deeds, helping people physically, economically, etc.. This is true, doing good deeds is in fact part of Christian missions. However, their purpose of doing good deeds to point towards Christ was over shadowed by the deeds, simply doing good deeds, and never credit given to the Lord. We can think of a lot of organizations that were started as sincere God breathed mission movements that today are simply forces of goodness, but no substance behind them.
Mr. Winter countered this movement by really stressing the gospel was the purpose of mission, and that the gospel can only be declared to reach every nation if it were indeed methodically made available to every tribe, ethnicity, and in their own mother languages. Ralph Winter’s message was one of strategizing the spreading of the word of the good news. However, this message became dogma in turn becoming a corner stone of modern missions that has become more of a ritualized strategy without heart in practice, than perhaps the spirit of the movement behind it. I am not saying that good willed people with godly passion aren’t using these strategies, but rather that they use them without considering the long-term ramification of believing in and propagating these strategies.
Modern Christian missions has become a movement based purely on statistics and crusades for ethnic groups, with the purpose of making them fall under a category of ‘reached’, rather than a heart felt Spirit led movement to reach every soul on earth with a message of Christ’s salvation that impacts them on a deep and personal level, invoking them to seek Christ in their personal everyday lives.
Revelation 7:9 After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. - NASB
The previous verse has been grossly misused in this cause. The Bible declares that every ethnic group, every tribe, every language will be represented in heaven. So this verse and others like it have been held responsible for the modern mission’s movement to purposely fill heaven with every tribe, people, and tongue. The ultimate conclusion of this philosophy is that If the gospel has been preached and there is one believer, that tribe/people/language can be marked off the list. Ergo, the mission has been reached. The authenticity, deepness, sincerity, and reality of their faith is less important than the strategy to reach them. While many would disagree it has gone this far, all you need to do is look at mission organization marketing pamphlets, missional texts, and courses and you can find it.
Modern Missions has become a capitalistic business of propelling this message. This message isn’t the message of the gospel, but rather the message of the strategy. We have made our means of reaching God’s purpose our goal, not His actual purpose. If we actually had His purpose at heart, we would not focus on Tribes/nations/peoples and the statistics behind them, but rather we would focus on the hurt in every person’s soul in every tribe, nation, people, and regardless of every tribe nation people, we would focus on the gospels power to heal and transfix these broken hearts into healed hearts of passion that seek a transformation that no strategy can initiate. We would not see Turkman, Turk, Kurd, Tajik, Zaza, and other hundreds of thousands of other ethnicities, but rather we would see people, dearly loved by God who need their hearts touched by something nothing else on earth can replace. When the heart is reached, a passion that transcends tribe, tongue, culture, ethnicity, etc.. explodes and spreads like wildfire. This is revival, true revival. Instead we have tried to take an easy short cut and to manipulate the data and try to falsely create revival by trying to mimic a Spirit led revival with an anthropologically scientific man-created ‘revival’.
Ultimately Missions has become racist. We have indeed ignored races to share the gospel in the name of trying to ‘reach’ a particular race. We wrongly assume that since every tribe will be in heaven, that we should focus on the gospel within tribes. We assume that since anthropological studies show that the ‘gospel’ travels best within similar/same cultures, that we should present the gospel within singular cultures ignoring all other cultures, and in the process training the new ‘believers’ to do the same. We have used the data points of God’s work, to try to manufacture more data like it. However, for the past 2,000 years God has used the opposite of this strategy! He used Jews to share with Greeks! He used imperialists to reach Asia. He used Romans to share with Barbarians! He used gentiles to share with the Jews, and so on and so forth. Biblically and Historically we can see that the gospel has never been limited to tribes, but rather it is a trademark of Christ’s passion and power to remove people from their own tribes and send them to a people who are not theirs, a land that they do not know, and a culture that is counter intuitive to their own. God has called us to sacrifice and to use his wisdom, not our own. Not to use anthropological studies to carry out the gospel, but rather to ask Him and be led by His Spirit. Can people share within the same culture? Of course, I am not speaking against this. But all the more can the glory for Christ be, than if he calls you and me to reach out to those who are completely alien to us, and to make our common bond with them, the Love of Christ and his persona glorified!
Numbers are not our goal, the glory of Jesus Christ our Lord is our singular goal! Christ has shown again and again that when we seek HIS singular glory, that His glory infiltrates every heart and mind spreading within and outside every manmade barrier.
So, I beseech you the modern Church in this new age after Ralph Winter, to change and to get out of your mode of strategies to circumvent the hard work of the Lord, but rather focus on the souls of people with the singular purpose of seeing Christ glorified. Do not use statistics to motivate and propel, but instead use the glory of Christ and His love and His passion to motivate and propel. Once people are not objects of ministry or numbers, but rather dearly loved lost souls that Jesus bled and died for, then, and only then will every people, tribe, tongue, and nation be reached, and not only reached, but also with a deep spirit-filled conviction of heart, thrive and spread across the earth.
Posted in Christianity | Tags Missiology, Missions, Ralph, Winter | 1 comment
