Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (4th Edition): A Reader

A Reader

Fourth Edition

Contributing Editors

David J. Hesselgrave

Professor Emeritus, School of World Mission and Evangelism

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Paul G. Hiebert

Professor of Mission and Anthropology, School of World Mission and Evangelism

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Stephen T. Hoke

Vice-President of Staff Development and Training, Church Resource Ministries

Adjunct Professor, School of World Mission and Institute of Church Growth

Fuller Theological Seminary

J. Herbert Kane

Professor Emeritus, School of World Mission and Evangelism

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Lloyd E. Kwast

Chairman, Department of Missions

Talbot Theological Seminary

Donald A. McGavran

Dean Emeritus, School of World Mission and Institute of Church Growth

Fuller Theological Seminary

Kenneth B. Mulholland

Dean and Professor of Missions

Columbia Biblical Seminary and School of Missions

A Reader

Fourth Edition

Editors:

Ralph D. Winter

Founder

U.S. Center for World Mission

Steven C. Hawthorne

Curriculum Development

Institute of International Studies

Associate Editors:

Darrell R. Dorr

D. Bruce Graham

Bruce A. Koch

1605 Elizabeth St

Pasadena, California 91104

© 1981, 1992, 1999, 2009 by the Institute of International Studies

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because most of the material in this reader is used by non-exclusive permission, William Carey Library is

unable to grant translation, reprint or reproduction permission on all articles. Please note the source as shown on the first page of each article and write the original publisher. If you do not have the address, you may write:

Rights and Permissions

William Carey Library

1605 Elizabeth St

Pasadena, California 91104

Phone (626) 720-8210

Published by

William Carey Library

1605 Elizabeth St

Pasadena, California 91104

Cover Design: Chad M. Upham, modified by Katie Koch

Cover photos courtesy of Caleb Resources, International Mission Board and Create International

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Perspectives on the world Christian movement : a reader / editors: Ralph D.

Winter, Steven C. Hawthorne ; associate editors: Darrell R. Dorr, D. Bruce

Graham, Bruce A. Koch. — 4th ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-87808-827-X

1. Missions. 2. Evangelistic work. I. Winter, Ralph D. II. Hawthorne,

Steven C., 1953- III. Dorr, Darrell R. IV. Graham, D. Bruce. V. Koch, Bruce A.

BV2070.P46 2009

266—dc22

2008046331

ebook First Edition released December 2012.

ebook created by Primalogue Publishing Media Private Limited, www.primalogue.com

Contents

Forewords

Leighton Ford and S. Douglas Birdsall

Introduction

Ralph D. Winter

The Biblical Perspective

1. The Living God is a Missionary God

John R. W. Stott

2. Israel's Missionary Call

Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.

3. Everyone’s Question: What is God Trying to Do?

Stanley A. Ellisen

4. The Bible in World Evangelization

John R. W. Stott

5. Mission and God’s Earth

Christopher J. H. Wright

6. Blessing as Transformation

Sarita D. Gallagher and Steven C. Hawthorne

7. The Biblical Foundation for the Worldwide Missions Mandate

Johannes Verkuyl

8. The Story of His Glory

Steven C. Hawthorne

9. Let the Nations Be Glad!

John Piper

10. Beyond Duty

Tim Dearborn

11. On Mission With God

Henry T. Blackaby and Avery T. Willis, Jr.

12. Witness to the World

David J. Bosch

Two Forces

Jonathan Lewis

13. The Gospel of the Kingdom

George Eldon Ladd

D-Day before V-E Day

Ken Blue

14. Building for the Kingdom

N.T. Wright

15. The Kingdom of God in the Life of the World

Lesslie Newbigin

16. God at War

Gregory A. Boyd

To Inaugurate His Kingdom

N.T. Wright

17. Jesus and the Gentiles

H. Cornell Goerner

18. A Man for All Peoples

Don Richardson

A Violent Reaction to Mercy

Patrick Johnstone

19. The Master’s Plan

Robert E. Coleman

20. Mandate on the Mountain

Steven C. Hawthorne

21. Discipling All the Peoples

John Piper

22. Acts of Obedience

Steven C. Hawthorne

The Wall and the Canyon

Steven C. Hawthorne

23. The Turning Point: Setting the Gospel Free

M. R. Thomas

24. Become Like, Remain Like

Harley Talman

A New Creation

David Anthony

25. The Apostle Paul and the Missionary Task

Arthur F. Glasser

26. The Church in God’s Plan

Howard A. Snyder

27. Prayer: Rebelling Against the Status Quo

David Wells

28. Strategic Prayer

John D. Robb

29. Lost

Robertson McQuilkin

30. The Uniqueness of Christ

Charles Van Engen

31. The Supremacy of Christ

Ajith Fernando

32. If I Perish

Brother Andrew

33. Suffering and Martyrdom: God’s Strategy in the World

Josef Tson

34. The Hope of a Coming World Revival

Robert E. Coleman

35. Apostolic Passion

Floyd McClung

The Historical Perspective

The Expansion of the World Christian Movement

36. The Kingdom Strikes Back: Ten Epochs of Redemptive History

Ralph D. Winter

37. The History of Mission Strategy

R. Pierce Beaver

38. Asian Christianity: Facing the Rising Sun

Scott W. Sunquist

39. The Two Structures of God’s Redemptive Mission

Ralph D. Winter

40. Missionary Societies and the Fortunate Subversion of the Church

Andrew F. Walls

41. Three Mission Eras: And the Loss and Recovery of Kingdom Mission

Ralph D. Winter

42. A History of Transformation

Paul Pierson

43. The Social Impact of Christian Missions

Robert D. Woodberry

44. Europe’s Moravians: A Pioneer Missionary Church

Colin A. Grant

45. Women in Mission

Marguerite Kraft and Meg Crossman

46. A Historical Survey of African Americans in World Missions

David Cornelius

47. Student Power in World Missions

David M. Howard

Pioneers of the World Christian Movement

48. An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens

William Carey

49. The Call to Service

J. Hudson Taylor

50. China’s Spiritual Need and Claims

J. Hudson Taylor

51. Tribes, Tongues and Translators

William Cameron Townsend

52. The Glory of the Impossible

Samuel Zwemer

53. The Bridges of God

Donald A. McGavran

54. The New Macedonia: A Revolutionary New Era in Mission Begins

Ralph D. Winter

The Status and Future of the World Christian Movement

55. The State of the Gospel

Jason Mandryk

56. No Longer Emerging

Beram Kumar

The Surging Non-Western Mission Force

Bruce A. Koch

African Sending

Timothy Olonade

Brazilian Sending

Bertil Ekström

Korean Sending

Chul Ho Han

Indian Sending

K. Rajendran

Chinese Sending

Enoch Wan

Filipino Sending

Berting Fernando

Latin American Sending

Carlos Scott

Now is the Time

Bill Taylor

Old Ways for a New Day

David Ruiz

57. New Pioneers Leading the Way in the Final Era

Yvonne Wood Huneycutt

58. Expecting a Harvest

Patrick Johnstone

59. From Western Christendom to Global Christianity

Todd Johnson and Sandi S. K. Lee

The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity

Philip Jenkins

60. Are We Ready for Tomorrow’s Kingdom?

Ralph D. Winter

The Cultural Perspective

Pioneers of the World Christian Movement Understanding Culture

61. Understanding Culture

Lloyd E. Kwast

62. Culture, Worldview and Contextualization

Charles H. Kraft

63. The Flaw of the Excluded Middle

Paul G. Hiebert

64. Is God Colorblind or Colorful? The Gospel, Globalization

and Ethnicity

Miriam Adeney

Created to Create Culture

Erich Sauer

65. Clean and Dirty: Cross-Cultural Misunderstandings in India

Paul G. Hiebert

Culture and Communication

66. The Role of Culture in Communication

David J. Hesselgrave

67. Redemptive Analogy

Don Richardson

68. Making Disciples of Oral Learners

International Orality Network

69. Why Communicate the Gospel through Stories?

Tom A. Steffen

Transforming Worldviews through the Biblical Story

D. Bruce Graham

70. Three Encounters in Christian Witness

Charles H. Kraft

71. Finding a Place and Serving Movements Within Society

Paul G. Hiebert

Culture Shock: Starting Over

Paul G. Hiebert

Closing the Gap

Donald N. Larson

72. Communication and Social Structure

Eugene A. Nida

Identity in Culture

73. The Difference Bonding Makes

Elizabeth S. and E. Thomas Brewster

74. Identification in the Missionary Task

William D. Reyburn

75. Identity With Integrity: Apostolic Ministry in the 21st Century

Rick Love

Google-Proof Transparency

L. Mak

As Unknown, Yet Well-Known: Commending Ourselves as Servants

Bob Blincoe

76. Missions and Money

Phil Parshall

Different Views Concerning Relationships and Money

Joseph Cumming

The Role of the Righteous Rich

Jonathan J. Bonk

Gospel and Culture Change

77. Do Missionaries Destroy Cultures?

Don Richardson

78. Discovering the Holy Spirit’s Work in a Community

T. Wayne Dye

79. Cultural Implications of an Indigenous Church

William A. Smalley

80. The Missionary’s Role in Culture Change

Dale W. Kietzman and William A. Smalley

81. The Willowbank Report

The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization

The Strategic Perspective

Strategy for World Evangelization

82. Finishing the Task: The Unreached Peoples Challenge

Ralph D. Winter and Bruce A. Koch

83. Covering the Globe

Patrick Johnstone

God’s Symphony of Effort

Bruce A. Koch and Krikor Markarian

84. The Challenge of the Cities

Roger S. Greenway

85. From Every Language

Barbara F. Grimes

86. Who (Really) Was William Carey?

Vishal and Ruth Mangalwadi

87. The Mission of the Kingdom

Ralph D. Winter

88. On the Cutting Edge of Mission Strategy

C. Peter Wagner

89. Christian Witness to the Chinese People

Thomas Wang and Sharon Chan

90. Christ Movements in the Hindu World

H. L. Richard

Strategies for Transforming Communities

91. State of World Need

World Relief

92. Evangelism: The Leading Partner

Samuel Hugh Moffett

93. Transformational Development: God at Work Changing People

and Their Communities

Samuel J. Voorhies

94. What is Poverty Anyway?

Bryant L. Myers

95. The Urban Poor: Who Are We?

Viv Grigg

96. Cities and Salt: Counter-Cultures for the Common Good

Tim Keller

97. Wiping Out HIV

Kay Warren

The Church—The Greatest Force on Earth

Rick Warren

98. Healing the Wounds of the World

John Dawson

Strategies for Church Movements

99. A Church in Every People: Plain Talk About a Difficult Subject

Donald A. McGavran

100. The Spontaneous Multiplication of Churches

George Patterson

101. Organic Church

Neil Cole

102. Church Planting Movements

David Garrison

103. Mission Comes Home

Andrew Jones

104. Evangelization of Whole Families

Wee Hian Chua

105. Dependency

Glenn Schwartz

106. His Glory Made Visible: Saturation Church Planting

Jim Montgomery

The Shopping Window of God

Wolfgang Simson

107. Going Too Far?

Phil Parshall

The C-Spectrum

John J. Travis

108. Must All Muslims Leave Islam to Follow Jesus?

John J. Travis

Going Far Enough?

Ralph D. Winter

109. Insider Movements: Retaining Identity and Preserving Community

Rebecca Lewis

Three Types of Christward Movements

Rick Brown and Steven C. Hawthorne

Case Studies

110. A Pioneer Team in Zambia, Africa

Phillip Elkins

111. Distant Thunder: Mongols Follow the Khan of Khans

Brian Hogan

112. The Zaraban Breakthrough

Ken Harkin and Ted Moore

113. Planting Churches: Learning the Hard Way

Tim and Rebecca Lewis

114. Pigs, Ponds and the Gospel

James W. Gustafson

115. A Movement of God Among the Bhojpuri of North India

David L. Watson and Paul D. Watson

116. Ourselves as Servants: Latin American Workers in the Middle East

Andres and Angelica Guzman

117. A Movement of Christ Worshipers in India

Dean Hubbard

118. A Movement to Jesus Among Muslims

Rick Brown

119. An Upper Class People Movement

Clyde W. Taylor

120. The Impact of Missionary Radio on Church Planting

William Mial

121. The Awakening of the Persian Church

Gilbert Hovsepian and Krikor Markarian

122. South Asia: Vegetables, Fish and Messianic Mosques

Shah Ali with J. Dudley Woodberry

World Christian Discipleship

123. Beyond Loving the World: Serving the Son for His Surpassing Glory

David Bryant

124. Reconsecration: To a Wartime, Not a Peacetime, Lifestyle

Ralph D. Winter

125. Life on Purpose

Claude Hickman, Steven C. Hawthorne and Todd Ahrend

Strategic Pursuit of God’s Purpose

126. Join the World Christian Movement

Ralph D. Winter

127. Live with Intentionality

Caroline D. Bower and Lynne Ellis

128. Just Willing

Casey Morgan

All or Nothing?

Greg Livingstone

129. Your Journey to the Nations: Ten Steps to Help Get You There

Steve Hoke and Bill Taylor

130. The Awesome Potential for Mission Found in Local Churches

George Miley

Be a Church Whisperer

Larry Walker

131. Welcoming the World at Your Door

Douglas Shaw and Bob Norsworthy

132. Missio Dei or Missio Me?: Short-Term Missions and God’s Global Purpose

Roger Peterson

133. Restoring the Role of Business in Mission

Steve Rundle

Blessing Berabistan: Doing Mission Differently

Nicole Forcier

Tentmakers: Integrating Work and Witness

Ruth E. Siemens

134. The Lausanne Covenant

Subject Search Index

Scripture Index

About the Editors

Acknowledgements

Photo Credits

Forewords

First Edition: Leighton Ford

God is raising up a new army of Kingdom volunteers in our day.

Across every continent are emerging World Christians—young women and men with world horizons, committed to Exodus lifestyles, possessed by the goal of discipling the nations to Jesus Christ the Lord.

At the close of a recent conference in Korea, one hundred thousand Korean youth pledged to spend a year overseas spreading the good seed of the gospel! In Europe periodic mission conferences draw thousands.

And in North America, the Urbana Conventions of InterVarsity as well as the training programs of Campus Crusade, the Navigators, InterVarsity, Youth With A Mission and many groups and denominations, are part of this stirring.

Like a great eagle, God is hovering over His people’s nest, stirring the young birds to spread their wings and carry the eternal gospel to every nation.

At the dedication of the Billy Graham Center, the student body president of Wheaton College gave a moving call for us to be World Christians—dedicated to reaching the lost and feeding the hungry peoples of the world. At some secular campuses, the Christian student groups are seemingly outstripping some of their Christian-college counterparts with their zeal for evangelism and missions! At the secular university which my son and daughter have attended, the Christian movement has grown from seven to seven hundred in less than a decade! Many of them are eager for their lives to count for more than merely secular success.

We may be on the verge of a movement comparable to the great waves of student volunteers at the beginning of the century.

If so, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement can be a key tool. The editors have given to us an impressive collection of readings. I know of nothing quite like it. (Incidentally, the editorial partnership of Ralph Winter with Steven Hawthorne and friends is in itself a splendid example of partnership between senior missionary experience and younger missionary vision).

I commend this volume because it sets world evangelization in its proper priority. What beats centrally in the heart of our missionary God, as revealed in the Scriptures, must always be central in the agenda of His missionary people.

Then also, world evangelization appears here as a possibility. No sub-Christian pessimism arising from false guilt rules here, nor is the vision glorious intimidated by false Messiahs. Jesus said, This Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, then will the end come (Matt. 24:14). Without apology, arrogance or timidity, the viewpoint represented in this volume believes that what He has said will indeed be done, and that He wants us to be part of it.

Then, as the title says, this volume gives to world evangelization perspectives. Today’s aspiring missionaries need to understand first the biblical mandate, but also history and culture and strategy. Understanding mission history and the challenges of crossing cultural boundaries may help to save us from fear on the one hand, and unnecessary mistakes on the other. When Billy Graham was a college president in the late forties his school adopted the slogan, Knowledge on Fire. This book is based on a belief that missionaries have a calling to think as well as to love and give and speak! As John Wesley once said to a critic who was downplaying his education, God may not need my education, but he doesn’t need your ignorance either.

In addition, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement can help eager hearted disciples to see world evangelization also in terms of passion, power, and participation. Before evangelism is a program it is a passion. Always, the key to missionary enterprise can be summed up: Jesus, priceless treasure. Only a new wave of missionaries in love with Jesus and captured by His boundless promise of the Spirit will truly be His witnesses to the uttermost parts.

God had one Son and He made Him a missionary. My prayer is that the Father would use this book to help equip and send a great host of sons and daughters from every nation to every nation until His name is known and praised by every people.

Leighton Ford, Chairman

Lausanne Committee for

World Evangelization

October 1981

Fourth Edition: S. Douglas Birdsall

The whole Church taking the whole gospel to the whole world. Although this is the stated vision of the Lausanne Movement, world evangelization is the very heartbeat of our missionary God and His people. The question posed to every generation is how we can more effectively communicate the truth of the gospel to all peoples.

Although the gospel message is timeless, the world today has become increasingly complex from the time of the early church. With innovations in transportation, massive migrations of people, and evolving mass media and communication avenues, we are constantly bombarded with competing messages and philosophies. The challenge to better herald the truth of the gospel in the myriad of voices in this world remains before the Church. Additionally, we are unable to look at our world today without seeing the tremendous and growing contributions of the global south. From geopolitics, economics and finance, education, sports and fashion, no day goes by without touches and influences from the majority world. We are truly living in a global age.

Cooperation and partnership are vital to effectively engage in this complex world with the hope of the gospel. We need to be well informed and nuanced in our understanding of the biblical mandate, mission history and the challenges of cross-cultural interaction.To this end, this updated edition of Perspectives on the World Christian Movement is an important instrument for the global church. This volume helps us to hear more younger leaders, women, voices from the global south and current cross-cultural practitioners giving fresh thought and inspiration on the current challenges of world evangelization.

History reminds us that vibrant movements that neglected to bring up new and younger leaders through the ranks have subsequently subsided and disappeared. Every movement needs the experience of those who have gone before us, the commitment of those currently engaged in ministry, and the leadership, enthusiasm, vitality and promise of a new generation. We hope to gather the wisdom of the past, the strength of the present, and the hope and passion for the future.

The global Church must be committed to finding a new equilibrium in which the Church as a whole can communicate the gospel creatively, holistically and powerfully. The shifts from the global north to the global south, and from one generation to a younger generation are tremendous. Resources, influence and the level of cooperative partnership remain dramatically uneven, however. In light of this imbalance, we must be committed to finding a new equilibrium where the whole Church can interact on the basis of shared calling, vision, need, resources

and mutual respect.

It is indeed for the whole Church to bring the whole gospel to the whole world.

S. Douglas Birdsall, Executive Chair

Lausanne Committee for

World Evangelization

Massachussetts

January 2009

Introduction

Books of this size don’t appear out of nowhere. We’ll tell you about that phenomenon in a minute. First, pause for a moment to evaluate the book you have in your hands.

BIG book! Can you take the time to mine its wisdom? All of us are rattled and distracted almost every moment of every day. More people pressing in upon us. Less fresh air.Less space. More knowledge. Our young people are the most traveled of any previous generation. We are rafting the white waters of a turbulent world.

So much has changed since the first edition in 1981!

Then we were impressed that the task remaining was too big. Now we are impressed by how relatively small it is.

The workers available then were primarily from the West. Now the workforce is increasingly from Africa, Latin America and Asia.

The number of sincere Bible-reading believers in the world has almost tripled since then, and is racing out of control today—with fascinating consequences.

Let’s stop for a moment. What is the human being? No other form of life seriously ponders things you can’t see with the naked eye—the galactic clusters and the atoms—or knows so much about them. Yet, we are still like children within a largely mysterious universe, whether we try to fathom the galaxies or the mitochondria. We are as oblivious to most of reality as we are about the hundreds of thousands of tiny spiders, called dust mites, which are found in the average pillow. Okay. We can give up and live an animal existence, like a cow munching the grass within eyesight. We can try to push reality out of view. But for those attracted to a book like this the world confronts us forcefully with all the same problems of past centuries. Except they are bigger now—bigger wars, more resistant bacteria, bloated cities, rampant evil and danger—as well as unprecedented problems mixed with unforeseen and incredible gains.

Enough musing. Let’s get to work. You may have some pressing questions:

The book itself. This is the fourth edition of this collection of readings. What is different?

The course of study. What is the easiest way for your life to be enriched with the insights here?

The movement. How is this course inspiring other courses and multiplying all over the world?

The perspective. What is startlingly unusual about this view of the world?

The urgency. Why is all of this so impelling and crucial?

The Book Itself

Roughly 25% of the 136 chapters and the 26 additional sidebar articles are brand new or have been extensively revised from the previous edition. The original 1981 edition was like a vase of rose buds. In this edition we have a vase of blossomed flowers plus some more buds. Steven Hawthorne assembled a brilliant, hard-working team that pulled all of this together.

No one person could ever go to all the places that the 152 globally active authors of these pages have been, nor live through all of their experiences (roughly 5000 years of dedicated service). However, by drawing together the key thinking of all these marvelous people, a given person can peruse these pages and leapfrog over a lot of wandering and blind alleys, avoiding or shortening the search for sound perspective.

Many older people, looking back on useless detours, regret that they did not do more reflection earlier. Can you avoid that tragic surprise? Can this book help? It can’t be read at one sitting. It won’t help if left on the shelf.

The Course

Humanly speaking, the extensive readings you have in your hands cannot be easily digested through sheer, individual willpower. Going through this together with others is not just more enjoyable—you won’t learn and retain as much unless you can listen and talk.

In North America, over 460 active class coordinators working with the Perspectives Study Program sponsor an ever increasing number of 15-lesson classes utilizing a different, live instructor each week. There were 183 such classes in 2008 alone. One to three week intensives are also offered. See www.perspectives.org for locations.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. While our own classes have produced well over 80,000 alumni in the US, more than 180,000 additional copies of this volume have been employed in other ways, many of them used in over 100 Christian colleges and seminaries.

Whether or not an individual anywhere can meet with a class, we do recommend a disciplined weekly pattern. You can, if you wish, get college credit, graduate or undergraduate—even if you use the materials on an individual-study basis. Write to us about the latter. Hundreds who do not live near a formal once per week class are studying by correspondence or online.

We strongly encourage anyone using this reader to use it with the companion Study Guide. The Study Guide is divided into 15 three-part lessons (enrichment, certificate, credit) designed to organize and integrate the readings in this text for a broad spectrum of students. For professors developing their own courses, we encourage the use of the Study Guide as a framework and resource. (Professors can ask for a guide to the quiz questions by contacting the Perspectives Study Program at www.perspectives.org.) Our only caveat is that classes not be titled or promoted as Perspectives or Perspectives on the World Christian Movement unless associated with the Perspectives Study Program.

The Movement

The impact of Perspectives on the World Christian Movement extends beyond the course itself. Perspectives has inspired the development of many other courses. We rejoice when others find ways to join and expand this movement. We are spectators of the surprising work of God in our time. The following are examples of the efforts by those impacted by Perspectives to extend the movement for frontier missions into different audiences and cultural contexts.

First, Jonathan Lewis created a shorter course using selected readings from the original course and developing his own guide material in English, called World Mission, and in Spanish called Mision Mundial.

From this, a Condensed World Mission Course was created in southern Philippines. Within a few years it was renamed the Kairos course, and has spread to at least 25 Asian, African, South Pacific and European nations. Meg Crossman developed a similar 13-week course based on Perspectives which is now called PathWays to Global Understanding.

Bob Hall in New Zealand generated his own use of this Reader, providing an adapted Study Guide that is used in both New Zealand and Australia. The English Reader is being used as well for courses in the UK, Canada, India, Nigeria, UAE, South Africa and for Indonesian college students. Perspectives Readers have been translated into Chinese, Korean and Portuguese. Additional translations of this book that are underway, planned, or hoped for are French, Spanish, Arabic, Hungarian and Indonesian.

Then, our own team produced an adult Sunday School curriculum, Vision for the Nations, employing videos and its own study guide in a 13-week, 45-minute format. Another shorter version, NVision, is a one-day seminar that is being used in several countries to whet appetites for a longer version. God’s Heart for the Nations is an inductive Bible study.

Specially focused Perspectives-like courses keep emerging, like Encountering the World of Islam, available in three languages. Most recently, a multi-media course for children, called Outside the Lines, was produced.

These resources and many others are a part of a vital and growing movement. In order to support and encourage the movement, we have developed the Perspectives Family designation for developers who want their curricula to be reviewed and formally recognized as being consistent with the core ideas contained in the standard Perspectives course (see www.perspectivesfamily.org).

Not all courses are slimmed down. Members of our team worked intensively for six years to generate two 32-semester-hour expansions, one designed for first year undergraduate students, called the Global Year of Insight (see www.uscwm.org/insight

). A more extensive course leads to a Master’s degree. Each college or university has its own name for this larger version we have named World Christian Foundations. It is a 32 (M.A.) semester-unit program.

This extensive curriculum employs 120 textbooks, which constitute a marvelous basic library, plus additional Readers, which encompass over 1,000 additional chapters and articles from other books and journals. All of this is orchestrated in 320 carefully engineered, four-hour study sessions and is designed for part-time, individual study over a period of two years.

This curriculum can be the foundation for a Ph.D. but is more likely going to be a platform for serious Christian service, combining as it does the content of a seminary degree as well as much more than that in the complex picture of global Christian mission. For more information see our web-site at www.worldchristianfoundations.org

. All of these courses and curricula are what we call foundational education—important for every serious believer. Vocational training must follow for specific involvements such as a missionary on the field or mobilizer at home.

As the senior editor, my time-involvement has decreased while the interest of all of us has increased. That’s not entirely new. The very first edition was produced in the main by younger activists who were themselves the product of the course. This is more than a course, it’s a movement!

The Perspective

The content of this book and its Study Guide comes as a shock to most students. Why? For one thing it is full of so much verifiable optimism!

One major reason for this optimistic perspective is found in the fact that this course traces the Great Commission back to Abraham and presents the historical period of human history as a single unfolding story. It is not common for people to recognize that the commission to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 has the basic functional elements of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. But they are there. It is quite a wrench of conventional Christian perspective to speak of the 2,000-year impact on global history of the believing community of the Jewish people before Christ, and to recognize that God was faithfully unfolding His purpose and expanding His kingdom from Abraham onward.

It is just as uncommon for the average believer today, in a secularized world, to perceive the unbroken thread throughout the next 2,000 years. Is it a single story on a global level? We believe so. This is an unusual perspective.

We understand that the Kingdom of God, which is relentlessly pressing back the darkness of the world today is, nevertheless, not of this world. We seek not the subjugation of all nations to ourselves. God is calling to Himself a new creation, a new people, but we do not believe He is doing away with cultures that make peoples distinct. All peoples (biblical nations) must become equidistant to the grace and the blessings of our living Lord and reflect His glory in worship.

However, it is virtually impossible today to get a very detailed or comprehensive grasp of the World Christian movement. Is this because those actively engaged in the cause are too few in number? Hardly. There may be 500,000 people working full-time in Christian mission efforts far from their home and kindred.

Is it because the cause is too small or has failed? Hardly. You cannot account for a single country of Africa or Asia in the United Nations that is not there for reasons significantly related to the Christian mission. Indeed, the formation of the United Nations itself has some amazing relationships to key people produced by the missionary movement.

Is it because missions are in the decline and are virtually out of date? America’s overseas mission force is larger today in personnel and in money than ever in history, and you will soon see that this cause is not out of date. The least likely reason is that the cause of missions is too new to get into the curriculum. On the contrary, it is in fact the largest and longest-standing concerted effort in the annals of human history, and certainly the most influential.

Why, then, can you search the libraries of this country, scan college and university catalogs, or peruse the curricula of public schools or even private Christian schools and fail to find a single, substantive course on the nature, the purpose, the achievements, the present deployment, and the unfinished task of the Christian world mission?

The Urgency

As implied earlier, things have changed momentously since the first appearance of this book. The world has never known a more significant transition than we see in the period between the 1974 bombshell of the International Congress on World Evangelization held in Lausanne, Switzerland and the end of the century. The chapter in this book entitled The New Macedonia was the senior editor’s contribution to one of the plenary sessions at that huge conference which drew more people from more countries than any previous human gathering. That same year the urgent reason for what we call the Perspectives Study Program was constituted by the unexpectedly large number of students—some 5,000—who awakened to global challenge at the previous December’s Urbana Missionary Conference. That summer the precursor to this course was launched for their benefit on the campus of Wheaton College under the title Summer Institute of International Studies. Just two years later, in 1976, we published a Reader entitled Crucial Dimensions in World Evangelization.

But today, 34 years later, explosive, new, totally unexpected developments cast a much more optimistic light on things, as well as reveal new obstacles to be surmounted.

For example, there may well be a larger number of sincere Bible-reading followers of Jesus in Africa, India and China who do not label themselves Christian than there are, in those same countries, sincere Bible-reading followers of Jesus in groups that do call themselves Christian. Hmm! This kind of Bible-based faith, now out of control, is pregnant with significance and even danger. Some of these groups do not have adequate access to the Bible itself, although the Bible is the source of their surprising energy.

Welcome to a rich, disturbing and urgent exploration!

Ralph D.Winter

Pasadena,California

October 2008

The Living God is a Missionary God

John R. W. Stott

Stott_John John R.W. Stott is Rector Emeritus of All Souls Church in London. He has served as President of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity and as an Extra Chaplain to the Queen. His many books include Basic Christianity, Christian Mission in the Modern World, and The Church and the World. Stott has addressed five Urbana Student Missions Conventions. For 25 years he led university sponsored mission trips on five continents.

Adapted from an address given at Urbana ‘76. From You Can Tell the World by John R. W. Stott, 1979 by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of the USA. Used with permission of InterVarsity Press, PO Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515. ivpress.com.

Millions of people in today’s world are extremely hostile to the Christian missionary enterprise. They regard it as politically disruptive (because it loosens the cement which binds the national culture) and religiously narrow minded (because it makes exclusive claims for Jesus), while those who are involved in it are thought to suffer from an arrogant imperialism. And the attempt to convert people to Christ is rejected as an unpardonable interference in their private lives. My religion is my own affair, they say. Mind your own business, and leave me alone to mind mine.

It is essential, therefore, for Christians to understand the grounds on which the Christian mission rests. Only then shall we be able to persevere in the missionary task, with courage and humility, in spite of the world’s misunderstanding and opposition. More precisely, biblical Christians need biblical incentives, for we believe the Bible to be the revelation of God and of his will. So we ask: Has he revealed in Scripture that mission is his will for his people? Only then shall we be satisfied. For then it becomes a matter of obeying God, whatever others may think or say. Here we shall focus on the Old Testament, though the entire Bible is rich in evidence for the missionary purpose of God.

The Call of Abraham

Our story begins about four thousand years ago with a man called Abraham, or more accurately, Abram, as he was called at that time. Here is the account of God’s call to Abraham.

Now the LORD said to Abram, Go from your country and kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Gen 12:1-3).

God made a promise (a composite promise, as we shall see) to Abraham. An understanding of that promise is indispensable to an understanding of the Bible and of the Christian mission. These are perhaps the most unifying verses in the Bible; the whole of God’s purpose is encapsulated here.

By way of introduction we shall need to consider the setting of God’s promise, the context in which it came to be given. Then we shall divide the rest of our study into two parts. First, the promise (exactly what it was that God said he would do) and second—at greater length—its fulfillment (how God has kept and will keep his promise). We start, however, with the setting.

The Setting of God’s Promise

God chose one man and his family in order, through them, to bless all the families of the earth.

Genesis 12 begins: Now the LORD said to Abram. It sounds abrupt for an opening of a new chapter. We are prompted to ask: Who is this ‘Lord’ who spoke to Abraham? and Who is this ‘Abraham’ to whom he spoke? They are not introduced into the text out of the blue. A great deal lies behind these words. They are a key which opens up the whole of Scripture. The previous eleven chapters lead up to them; the rest of the Bible follows and fulfills them.

What, then, is the background to this text? It is this. The Lord who chose and called Abraham is the same Lord who, in the beginning, created the heavens and the earth and who climaxed his creative work by making man and woman unique creatures in his own likeness. In other words, we should never allow ourselves to forget that the Bible begins with the universe, not with the planet earth; then with the earth, not with Palestine; then with Adam the father of the human race, not with Abraham the father of the chosen race. Since, then, God is the Creator of the universe, the earth and all mankind, we must never demote him to the status of a tribal deity or petty godling like Chemosh the god of the Moabites, or Milcom (or Molech) the god of the Ammonites, or Baal the male deity, or Ashtoreth the female deity of the Canaanites. Nor must we suppose that God chose Abraham and his descendants because he had lost interest in other peoples or given them up. Election is not a synonym for elitism. On the contrary, as we shall soon see, God chose one man and his family in order, through them, to bless all the families of the earth.

We are bound, therefore, to be deeply offended when Christianity is relegated to one chapter in a book on the world’s religions as if it were one option among many, or when people speak of the Christian God as if there were others! No, there is only one living and true God, who has revealed himself fully and finally in his only Son Jesus Christ. Monotheism lies at the basis of mission. As Paul wrote to Timothy, There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2:5).

The Genesis record moves on from the creation of all things by the one God and of human beings in his likeness, to our rebellion against our own Creator and to God’s judgment upon his rebel creatures—a judgment which is relieved, however, by his first gospel promise that one day the woman’s seed would bruise, indeed crush, the serpent’s head (3:15).

The following eight chapters (Gen 4-11) describe the devastating results of the Fall in terms of the progressive alienation of human beings from God and from our fellow human beings. This was the setting in which God’s call and promise came to Abraham. All around was moral deterioration, darkness and dispersal. Society was steadily disintegrating. Yet God the Creator did not abandon the human beings he had made in his own likeness (Gen 9:6). Out of the prevailing godlessness, he called one man and his family and promised to bless not only them, but through them, the whole world. The scattering would not proceed unchecked; a grand process of ingathering would now begin.

The Composite Promise

What then was the promise which God made to Abraham? It was a composite promise consisting of several parts. Each of these promises was elaborated in the chapters that follow Abraham’s call.

The Promise of Land

God’s call seems to have come to Abraham in two stages: first in Ur of the Chaldees while his father was still alive (11:31; 15:7) and then in Haran after his father had died (11:32; 12:1). Abraham was to leave his own land and, in return, God would show him another country.

After Abraham had generously allowed his nephew Lot to choose where he wanted to settle (he selected the fertile Jordan valley), God said to Abraham: Lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants forever (13:14-15).

The Promise of Posterity

He was to go from his kindred and his father’s house, and in exchange for the loss of his family God would make of him a great nation. Later, in order to indicate this, God changed his name from Abram (exalted father) to Abraham (father of a multitude) because, he said to him, I have made you the father of a multitude of nations (Gen 17:5).

God gave Abraham another visual aid, telling him to look now not to the earth but to the sky. On a clear, dark night he took him outside his tent and said to him, Look toward heaven and number the stars. What a ludicrous command! Perhaps Abraham started, 1,2,3,5,10,20,30…, but he must soon have given up. It was an impossible task. Then God said to him, So shall your descendants be. And we read, He believed the Lord. Although he was probably by now in his eighties and although he and Sarah were still childless, he yet believed God’s promise and God reckoned it to him as righteousness. That is, because he trusted God, God accepted him as righteous in his sight (15:5-6).

The Promise of Blessing

The words bless and blessing occur five times in 12:2-3. The blessing God promised Abraham would spill over upon all mankind.

I will bless you. Already God has accepted Abraham as righteous or (to borrow the New Testament expression) has justified him by faith. No greater blessing is conceivable. It is the foundation blessing of the covenant of grace, which a few years later God went on to elaborate to Abraham: I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you…for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you and I will be their God (17:7-8). And he gave them circumcision as the outward and visible sign of his gracious covenant or pledge to be their God. It is the first time in Scripture that we hear the covenant formula which is repeated many times later: I will be their God and they shall be my people.

The Progressive Fulfillment

A land, a posterity, a blessing—but what has all that to do with mission? For that, let us turn now from the promise to the fulfillment.

The whole question of the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy is a difficult one in which there is often misunderstanding and much disagreement. Of particular importance is the principle that the New Testament writers themselves understood Old Testament pro- phecy to have not a single but usually a triple fulfillment—past, present and future. The past fulfillment was an immediate or historical fulfillment in the life of the nation of Israel. The present is an intermediate or gospel fulfillment in Christ and his Church. The future will be an ultimate or eschatological fulfillment in the new heaven and the new earth.

Immediate Historical Fulfillment

God’s promise to Abraham received an immediate historical fulfillment in his physical descendants, the people of Israel.

Posterity

God’s promise to Abraham of a numerous, indeed of an innumerable, posterity was confirmed to his son, Isaac (Gen 26:4, as the stars of heaven), and his grandson, Jacob (32:12, as the sand of the sea). Gradually the promise began to come literally true. Perhaps we could pick out some of the stages in this development.

The first stage concerns the years of slavery in Egypt, of which it is written, The descendants of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong; so that the land was filled with them (Ex 1:7; cf. Acts 7:17). The next stage I will mention came several hundred years later when King Solomon called Israel a great people that cannot be numbered or counted for multitude (1 Ki 3:8). A third stage was some three hundred fifty years after Solomon; Jeremiah warned Israel of impending judgment and captivity and then added this divine promise of restoration: As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured so I will multiply the descendants of David my servant (Jer 33:22).

Land

So much for Abraham’s posterity; what about the land? Again we note with worship and gratitude God’s faithfulness to his promise. For it was in remembrance of his promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he first rescued his people from their Egyptian slavery and gave them the territory which came on that account to be called the promised land (Ex 2:24; 3:6; 32:13), and then restored them to it some seven hundred years later after their captivity in Babylon. Nevertheless, neither Abraham nor his physical descendants fully inherited the land. As Hebrews 11 puts it, they died in faith not having received what was promised. Instead, as strangers and exiles on the earth they looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Heb 11:8-16,39,40).

Blessing

God kept his promises about the posterity and the land, at least in part. Now what about the blessing? At Sinai God confirmed and clarified his covenant with Abraham and pledged himself to be Israel’s God (e.g., Ex 19:3-6). Throughout the rest of the Old Testament, God continued to bless the obedient while the disobedient fell under his judgment.

Perhaps the most dramatic example comes at the beginning of Hosea’s prophecy, in which Hosea is told to give his three children names which describe God’s awful and progressive judgment on Israel. His firstborn (a boy) he called Jezreel, meaning God will scatter. Next came a daughter Lo-ruhamah, meaning not pitied, for God said he would no longer pity or forgive his people. Lastly he had another son Lo-ammi, meaning not my people, for God said they were not now his people. What terrible names for the chosen people of God! They sound like a devastating contradiction of God’s eternal promise to Abraham.

But God does not stop there. For beyond the coming judgment there would be a restoration, which is described in words which once more echo the promise to Abraham: Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered (Hos 1:10). And then the judgments implicit in the names of Hosea’s children would be reversed. There would be a gathering instead of a scattering (Jezreel is ambiguous and can imply either), not pitied would be pitied, and not my people would become sons of the living God (Hos 1:10-2:1).

The wonderful thing is that the apostles Paul and Peter both quote these verses from Hosea. They see their fulfillment not just in a further multiplication of Israel but in the inclusion of the Gentiles in the community of Jesus: Once you were no people but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy (1 Pet 2:9-10; cf. Rom 9:25-26).

This New Testament perspective is essential as we read the Old Testament prophecies, for what we miss in the Old Testament is any clear explanation of just how God’s promised blessing would overflow from Abraham and his descendants to all families of the earth. Although Israel is described as a light to lighten the nations and has a mission to bring forth justice to the nations (Isa 42:1-6; 49:6), we do not actually see this happening. It is only in the Lord Jesus himself that these prophecies are fulfilled, for only in his day are the nations actually included in the redeemed community. To this we now turn.

Intermediate Gospel Fulfillment

God’s promise to Abraham receives an intermediate or gospel fulfillment in Christ and his Church.

Posterity

Almost the first word of the whole New Testament is the word Abraham. Matthew’s Gospel begins, The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac…. So it is right back to Abraham that Matthew traces the beginning not just of the genealogy but of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He knows that what he is recording is the fulfillment of God’s ancient promises to Abraham made some two thousand years previously. (See also Luke 1:45-55,67-75.)

Yet from the start Matthew recognizes that it isn’t just physical descent from Abraham which qualifies people to inherit the promises, but a kind of spiritual descent, namely, repentance and faith in the coming Messiah. This was John the Baptist’s message to crowds who flocked to hear him: Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham (Matt 3:9; Luke 3:8; cf. John 8:33-40). The implications of his words would have shocked his hearers since it was the current belief that no descendant of Abraham could be lost.¹

God has raised up children to Abraham from an unlikely source—the Gentiles!

And God has raised up children to Abraham, if not from stones, then from an equally unlikely source—namely, the Gentiles! So Matthew, although the most Jewish of all the four Gospel writers, later records Jesus as having said, I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness (Matt 8:11-12; cf. Luke 13:28-29).

It is hard for us to grasp how shocking, how completely topsy-turvy, these words would have sounded to the Jewish hearers of John the Baptist and Jesus. They were the descendants of Abraham, so they had a title to the promises which God made to Abraham. Who then were these outsiders who were to share in the promises, even apparently usurp them, while they themselves would be disqualified? They were indignant. They had quite forgotten that part of God’s covenant with Abraham promised an overspill of blessing to all the nations. Now the Jews had to learn that it was in relation to Jesus the Messiah, who was himself Seed of Abraham, that all the nations would be blessed.

The Apostle Peter seems at least to have begun to grasp this in his second sermon, just after Pentecost. In it he addressed a Jewish crowd with the words: You are the sons…of the covenant which God gave to your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your posterity shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ God, having raised up his servant [Jesus], sent him to you first, to bless you in turning every one of you from your wickedness (Acts 3:25-26). It is a very notable statement because he interprets the blessing in the moral terms of repentance and righteousness and because, if Jesus was sent first to the Jews, he was presumably sent next to the Gentiles, whose families of the earth had been far off (cf. Acts 2:39), but were now to share in the blessing.

It was given to the apostle Paul, however, to bring this wonderful theme to its full development. For he was called and appointed to be the apostle to the Gentiles. To him was revealed God’s eternal but hitherto secret purpose to make Jews and Gentiles fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel (Eph 3:6). Paul declares with great boldness, Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his descendants (Rom 9:6-7).

Who then are the true descendants of Abraham, the true beneficiaries of God’s promises to him? Paul does not leave us in any doubt. They are believers in Christ of whatever race. In Romans 4 he points out that Abraham not only received justification by faith but also received this blessing before he had been circumcised. Therefore Abraham is the father of all those who, whether circumcised or uncircumcised (that is, Jews or Gentiles), follow the example of [his] faith (Rom 4:9-12). If we share the faith of Abraham, then he is the father of us all, as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’ (vv. 16-17). Thus neither physical descent from Abraham nor physical circumcision as a Jew makes a person a true child of Abraham, but rather faith. Abraham’s real descendants are believers in Jesus Christ, whether they happen to be Jews or Gentiles.

Land

What then is the land which Abraham’s descendants inherit? The letter to the Hebrews refers to a rest which God’s people enter now by faith (Heb 4:3), and in a most remarkable expression Paul refers to "the promise to Abraham and his descendants, that they should inherit the world (Rom 4:13). One can only assume he means the same thing as when to the Corinthians he writes that in Christ all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours" (1 Cor 3:21-23). Christians, by God’s wonderful grace, are joint heirs with Christ of the universe.

Now we are Abraham’s seed by faith, and the earth’s families will be blessed only if we go to them with the gospel.

Somewhat similar teaching, both about the nature of the promised blessing and about its beneficiaries, is given by Paul in Galatians 3. He first repeats how Abraham was justified by faith and then continues: So you see that it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham and who therefore are blessed with Abraham who had faith (vv. 6-9).

Blessing

What then is the blessing with which all the nations were to be blessed (v. 8)? In a word, it is the blessing of salvation. We were under the curse of the law, but Christ has redeemed us from it by becoming a curse in our place, in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (vv. 10-14). Christ bore our curse that we might inherit Abraham’s blessing, the blessing of justification (v. 8) and of the indwelling Holy Spirit (v. 14). Paul sums it up in the last verse of the chapter (v. 29): If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

We have not quite finished yet. There is a third stage of fulfillment still to come.

Ultimate Fulfillment

God’s promise to Abraham will receive an ultimate or eschatological fulfillment in the final destiny of all the redeemed.

Posterity, Land and Blessing

In the book of Revelation there is one more reference to God’s promise to Abraham (7:9 ff.). John sees in a vision a great multitude which no man could number. It is an international throng, drawn from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues. They are standing before the throne, the symbol of God’s kingly reign. That is, his kingdom has finally come, and they are enjoying all the blessings of his gracious rule. He shelters them with his presence. Their wilderness days of hunger, thirst and scorching heat are over. They have entered the promised land at last, described now not as a land flowing with milk and honey, but as a land irrigated from springs of living water which never dry up. But how did they come to inherit these blessings? Partly because they have come out of great tribulation, but mostly because they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; that is, they have been cleansed from sin and clothed with righteousness through the merits of the death of Jesus Christ alone. "Therefore are they before the throne of God."

Speaking personally, I find it extremely moving to glimpse this final fulfillment in a future eternity of that ancient promise of God to Abraham. All the essential elements of the promise may be detected. For here are the spiritual descendants of Abraham, a great multitude which no man could number, as countless as the sand on the seashore and as the stars in the night sky. Here too are all the families of the earth being blessed, for the numberless multitude is composed of people from every nation. Here also is the promised land, namely, all the rich blessings which flow from God’s gracious rule. And here above all is Jesus Christ, the Seed of Abraham, who shed his blood for our redemption and who bestows his blessings on all those who call on him to be saved.

Conclusion

Let me try to summarize what we learn about God from his promise to Abraham and its fulfillment.

First, He is the God of history.

History is not a random flow of events, for God is working out in time a plan which he conceived in a past eternity and will consummate in a future eternity. In this historical process Jesus Christ, as the Seed of Abraham, is the key figure. Let’s rejoice that if we are Christ’s disciples, we are Abraham’s descendants. We belong to his spiritual lineage. If we have received the blessings of justification by faith, acceptance with God and the indwelling Spirit, then we are beneficiaries today of promises made to Abraham four thousand years ago.

Second, He is the God of the covenant.

God is gracious enough to make promises, and he always keeps the promise he makes. He is a God of steadfast love and faithfulness. This is not to say that he always fulfills his promises immediately. Abraham and Sarah "died in faith not having received what was promised, but having seen it and greeted it from afar (Heb 11:13). That is, although Isaac was born to them in fulfillment of the promise, their seed was not yet numerous, nor was the land given to them, nor were the nations blessed. All God’s promises come true, but they are inherited through faith and patience" (Heb 6:12). We have to be content to wait for God’s time.

Third, He is the God of blessing.

I will bless you, he said to Abraham (Gen 12:2). God…sent him [Jesus] to you first, to bless you, echoed Peter (Acts 3:26). God’s attitude to his people is positive, constructive and enriching. Judgment is his strange work (Isa 28:21). His principal and characteristic work is to bless people with salvation.

Fourth, He is the God of mercy.

I have always derived much comfort from the statement of Revelation 7:9 that the company of the redeemed in heaven will be a great multitude which no man could number. I do not profess to know how this can be, since Christians have always