Ajith Fernando, longtime Youth for Christ leader in Sri Lanka, has penned a must-read article for Christianity Today this month. The title is “Getting Back on Course.” Fernando commends evangelicals for broadening their missiological agenda and embracing social justice issues, but he warns conservatives not to become crypto-liberals by deemphasizing personal evangelism. And to be clear, when Fernando talks about evangelism, he does not mean modeling Christ for the watching world, as important as that is. Godly living, though crucial, is not enough.
Fernando argues we need to recapture our zeal for pressing the claims of Christ on lost people, in hopes that they will repent of their sins and trust Christ as their Lord and Savior. Furthermore, we should do this out of our love for non-Christians and our desire to see them trust Christ and escape the eternal punishment that is Hell. Simply put, if we are not preaching Christ crucified we are not doing biblically balanced mission work. We cannot divorce social justice from the proclamation of the gospel. You can read an online version of Fernando’s article here.
What struck me about this article is how starkly different it is from another recent article, penned by a respected Baptist historian and educator:
I hope Baptists will remain a missionary people who believe it their duty to tell the people of the world of the love of God as manifested in Jesus of Nazareth. I hope that we can find new motives for missions, since hell has just about burned out for many. I hope that we will conceptualize anew what it means to be “lost.” The “lost” are not those who do not believe doctrinal formulations but those who have no idea what a gracious God can do with their lives, those who need to be “saved” from wasted, useless, and meaningless living (Gehenna!), from self-condemnation and shame, and those who yearn for the Transcendent Presence in life.
You can read the whole thing here.
One author argues that lost people are in imminent spiritual danger lest they cast themselves upon the mercies of Christ. The other argues that we need to rethink the orthodox Protestant/evangelical understanding of what it means to be “lost” and ”saved.” Ladies and gentlemen, these two men represent two different views of mission. One is biblical. The other is just tragic.
In this case, I hope Southern Baptists will heed the advice of our non-Baptist brother, because to listen to our Baptist friend will surely take us in a direction that neither honors Christ nor “rescues the perishing.” And at that point, no matter how many good deeds we may perform under the rubric of “mission,” we will not be doing biblical justice, loving true mercy, or walking humbly with our God.
Posted in Missions
