Many sincere followers of Jesus Christ, inspired by his Great Commission (Mt.28:19), have set out in the name of sharing the gospel. To be sure, most of them have had pure intentions and were full of faith.Some of these offered a real life of faith and benevolence that becomes our Lord. On the mountains, in deserts, and among primitive societies, they preached the salvation offered by God in Christ Jesus.They took hold of eternity through the glorious plan of the Father, the radiance of Christ, and the guidance of the Spirit. However since humans, being little gods, are so capable of finding ways to make everything look like themselves, the self-seeking were naturally also among those who set out in Jesus’ name to share the gospel. However they were unable to produce fruit like that of the sincere believers. Since they could not produce spiritual fruit, they became more tied to their methods, and as time progressed, began to cling to it increasingly. Finally, they figured out how to justify this behavior and found even their justification in the gospel itself. They shifted all the blame to darkness and evil, and in order to take the power from that evil, another power was needed—the power of man’splans, projects, empty prayers and budgets.
We will not stop them from devising whatever they will, but they will see that in the name of gospel proclamation they will not be able to proclaim the good news unless they return to the simple basics that our Lord Jesus intended for them to communicate.
Who holds the power?
The common belief in churches and mission organizations is that the gospel of Christ is accepted only with great difficulty in some parts of the world. The devil is viewed as the primary cause of this resistance to the gospel. Of course, Satan’s complete opposition to God and his temptations on top of our self-centeredness are real issues, but some churches and missionary organizations have greatly exaggerated this. It has been so exaggerated that it is as if the devil has been brought to a place of greater power than God and the salvation he offers in Christ. Suggestions begin to be made that prayers must be very fervent and intense because we must pray passionately to save people in these kinds of places from Satan’s influence, slavery, and rule. As can be seen, each error continually leads to another. It is presented as if God will act according to the fervency of our prayers. In short, in these difficult places, breaking the great power of the devil and bringing into effect the gospel of the Almighty God, is taught as if it ultimately depends on us.
All of these and similar views, well-developed during the 20th century and carried into the 21st century, are beliefs of some of the Protestant groups of our day. As we’ve seen, these beliefs unfortunately are full of theology that is far from scriptural.
These mistaken perspectives essentially seek to detract from the glory of God and the power of Christ’s salvation and are at odds with the reality of his being the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end (Rev.1:8).
The LORD God is the almighty Master of the whole universe. He bestowed his own Word on the world explaining the scope of its reach by saying, “everyknee will bow and everytongue will confess” (Rom.14:11). At the same time, while his Spirit continually works in hearts, he uses sincere believers and sees them as a vehicle of his own benevolence.
This is to say, as is clearly expressed in Scripture, that all ministry belongs to God. He calls, justifies and sanctifies his people, and he most definitely sends them out. So by preparing the hearts of the saved, those not yet saved, and those who will be saved the one Master of this work brings them together onto one road.
Our part is to take our own place in this wonderful plan. So if we join in this process of receiving from the Lord and giving to others as those receiving a real blessing we will obtain real spiritual reward from this ministry. However, if we deliberately refuse to join in this, we will of course be among those who have lost the glorious blessing of the ministry of God. However, as we said at the beginning, when we take our direction from flawed theology, we usually end up at an improper understanding of ministry. We fall prey to the idea that if we do not carry out the work, those who are in the dark and in the hand of the devil will not be saved. In short, if we see ministry as “partnering with God,” we begin increasingly to usurp God’s role from him and to judge between people as if we are their God. In this way, we automatically get stuck in another swamp of bad theology. We can outline the problematic beliefs resulting from this faulty theological perspective as follows:
The belief that some regions have essentially been taken from the hand of the sovereign God and have been given over to the devil’s rule.
The belief that these regions’ complete salvation from the rule of evil is conditional on our continual begging and prayer.
The belief that, without us, the saving work of the almighty God cannot be completely carried out.
Which of us is the savior?
Those who hold to this kind of theology before entering into ministry in missions will always end up with a ministry established on the wrong foundations. Missionary efforts that forsake the Scriptures and the basic teachings of Christ, no matter how well thought-out or planned from the world’s perspective, no matter how economically strong they are, will never bear real spiritual fruit.
Because we forget the teaching “Not by might nor by power, but by [his] Spirit”and the reality of his unilaterally bestowed goodness seen in the truth that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,” (John 3:16) ministry is brought to the point that it’s not in his image, but in our own fallen image. In this way, we make ministry resemble what we understand of ourselves.
Unfortunately, this describes the current situation. This is to say that ministry almost completely reflects human cultural and socioeconomic status. Instead of being light to the nations simply by worshipping the Lord and leaving the work of changing hearts to the all-sufficient saving power of God, thousands of sincere believers with man-centered approaches have started to see themselves as the savior.
Presuming to be the light rather than taking light from the source and reflecting it has pushed all churches with this mindset toward institutionalization and even beyond that to forming para-church ministries with a “me-and-my-program” mentality.
Today many institutions and organizations that call themselves Christian unintentionally or intentionally announce to the world that the best ministry being done in the name of Christ is the ministry that they carry out in their own particular way. In this sense, they even act as if they are spiritual conquerors of other organizations or ministries. Yet in Christ’s understanding of service, the basic principle is “whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Mt. 23:12).In Christ’s teachings, what we see is the Creator’s spiritual reality, not the world’s material reality. In Jesus’ concept of service, “the last shall be first, and the first shall be last” (Mt. 19:30). For those who understand this, there is great wisdom in these important points of Scripture. So it is important to assess how these institutions and organizations present themselves, and in making this assessment, we must use questions based on these truths of Scripture. Then will it become obvious who is and is not ministering in the name of Christ.
To whom does the Church belong?
A church, in reality, is a congregation that belongs to Christ. It is a place for people rejoicing in salvation and lifted up with Christ, beyond merely the material, to the spiritual. There these people worship the heavenly Father in Christ. In the guidance of the Spirit, they study the apostolic teachings, they pray and sing hymns, they break bread together, and they share their lives (Acts 2:41-42). A church is a place where the fullness of salvation taken from the Creator is distributed among the people. Worship is foundational.
Unfortunately today however, some institutions using the name of “church” have turned into big businesses focused on their work with plans, programs and budgets. Leaders afraid of losing their jobs instead of pleasing God make decisions that please people. At the same time, Jesus’ name is constantly on their tongues. The name of Christ used this often has become a name used for self-interest and for gaining material strength. In the same way, in Acts, Simon saw the name of Jesus as a supernatural power and wanted to use the glory of Jesus Christ only for his own interest, name, and glory (Acts 8).
Unfortunately, some churches are not even aware that their theologies have shifted far to one side or the other of the historic apostolic faith. Some of these who define themselves as “evangelical” have almost removed the Father and the Spirit from the doctrine of the Trinity. In the same way, other churches who define themselves as “charismatic,” have almost removed the Father and the Son from the Godhead.
We do not mean to assert that there are no respectable believers, churches, church institutions and organizations that have sincere faith in Christ and his gospel and who cling to the Scriptures and the ways of God. However, most of those continuing on this loyal path of faith, because of the impression of Jesus’ teachings on them, are not interested in announcing their ministries to the world anyway. These are those who are the real followers of Christ and witnesses to the faith. Thanks to God’s work through them, his plan of redemption has been carried out up to this point and will continue to advance tomorrow. However the examples we are talking about here are unfortunately those who are often up front drawing attention to themselves and, even more disheartening, are the examples most visible to those of other faiths.
What is the gospel?
Many Jews and Muslims who see evangelism activities combined with an ego-based “promotion” mentality (which advertising of all kinds constantly reinforces for all of us) have difficulty seeing Christ in the organizations and institutions who take this approach as they profess to minister in his name. What is even further disheartening is that the believers in these organizations continue to ask, “Why do they not see Christ in us?” For someone to be able to ask this question after having seen so many poor examples means they are an ignorant person counting themselves among the wise.
The path of Jesus Christ is not a road to a memorized religious creed. It is a way of life. It is a lifelong spiritual endeavor. It is dying to ourselves on the cross with our Lord Jesus and rising to a new life, where Christ is formed within us (Mrk. 8:34). To summarize again, the gospel’s effectiveness outside of us depends completely on the effect it has first, inside of us.
Undoubtedly, the gospel is the plan of salvation in Christ offered to humanity by the almighty God. The owner of the gospel is the owner of the universe, and of course, its spread and offer of salvation to men depends primarily on his grace.
At the same time, it is again our heavenly Father and Lord who gives responsibility to those rejoicing in salvation in Christ. The believer himself, in the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the Word, is the one with the obligation to consciously live alife of worship and carry this spiritual responsibility.
Of course, in the same way, anyone far from God and living according to his own fallen ego is necessarily oriented towards evil. But only with the Spirit’s preparation of the heart for Christ’s salvation, or in other words, with the Creator’s light penetrating the heart can anyone be rescued from this orientation. Here again, we see that everything progresses according to the counsel, plan, control, and supply of the almighty One.
From whose side do the obstacles come?
So if the gospel is becoming harder to understand, we should remember that problems stem both from the rebellion toward God living in all hearts, as well as from those of us who carry and convey the gospel. The latter can be even more dangerous because of the hypocrisy involved.
For this reason, especially in the reactions of Muslims and Jews to the gospel, we see this second component playing a larger role. We can say this with such confidence knowing that church history is not filled only with great examples, but that because of the existence of the fallen human element it is also filled with other examples that are quite saddening.
The gospel is plainly for man’s life, and the gospel’s communication to others is in one way, dependent on this gift being presented in its original vessel. It is to be presented by a life lived, and not lived for show, for marketing, as a profession, or for religious pride. When it is not presented through the living of a real life, those communicating the gospel unknowingly create three particular obstacles for those with whom they are sharing truth.This is the primary reason for the difficulty of the Muslim world in hearing and apprehending the gospel.
We can summarize the three obstacles as follows:
1. Theology
2. Worship
3. Missions