Why Say No To The Alpha Course

One of the most popular evangelistic tools employed by Christian leaders across the globe is the Alpha Course, a product of a highly Charismatic Anglican church. Alpha Course claims to be an evangelistic Bible study series aimed at teaching the essentials of the Christian faith. Though its intention is good, there are major theological and doctrinal flaws in its teachings. It is hoped that all thoughtful Christians, even those who are Charismatics, who love the gospel would find the below reasons compelling enough to say no to Alpha Course.

Firstly, whatever little gospel it preaches, it preaches a very faulty one. This should make even those churches which are Charismatic to stop using Alpha. The gospel which Alpha preaches is one that says “God loves each one of us so much and longs to be in relationship with us as a human father longs to be in relationship with each of his children.” Coupled with it, guests are told, man leads a meaningless and irrelevant life simply because he has no relationship with God. Now there are elements of truth in these, however what is astounding is not what Alpha is saying here, but what Alpha is not saying here. Through out the course material, there is no mention of God’s wrath hanging over unrepentant mankind. There is no mention of how we as sinners have incurred His wrath and how we need to seek peace with Him. Thus the problem to which the gospel is the answer in Alpha’s understanding is not God’s wrath against sinners. It is rather, poor human beings leading a meaningless life, when they can have fullness, significance and relevance if they have a relationship with God. This is a very faulty understanding of the character of God, the gospel and even man. God is not just love, He is also Holy. The gospel is not just satisfying to our hunger for meaning in life, but one which propitiates the wrath of God against us. Man is not just empty, but is in his very nature sinful and thus the object of God’s wrath. These fundamental truths of Christianity are never once taught by Alpha. Thus the gospel it preaches is a very faulty one. Alpha does not seems to be convinced that it is in light of God’s matchless holiness and furious wrath, that His free grace towards sinners in Christ is most loving, most satisfying and most meaningful. Indeed when God’s holiness is removed from our proclamation, we remove His love too.

Secondly, since God’s holy wrath is never taught as mankind’s biggest problem, Alpha teaches a Cross which lacks the full glory it deserves. The lack of teaching on penal substitution results in Alpha getting in a muddle at this stage. For it wants to teach that Christ died as substitute, and indeed does teach this, and yet because it is not taught that Jesus died as penal substitute, bearing upon himself the wrath of God, we are left without any understanding of why Jesus had to die at all. Thus the cross of Christ ends up being little more than a visual aid that proves that God is self-sacrificial and loving. As Hand says, 'Christ's work on the cross is demoted to being a rescue act to save us from our problems rather than fulfilling the righteous demands of the holy law and appeasing the wrath of God'. The death of Jesus is presented as an act of love but without any connection with the reality of God's holy anger. We are left thinking that Christ sacrificed Himself to rescue us from the consequences of sin because that was required by some impersonal and rather arbitrary justice system. [1]

Thirdly, for those who have no idea, from where Alpha is coming, its history need to be told. Alpha Course began in UK, when a member of Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), Charles Marnham, set up an informal home group to present answers to basic gospel questions. Nicky Gumbel, HTB curate, transformed the course into what we see today. Holy Trinity Brompton is an exteremely Charismatic Anglican church, well known for importing the weird manifestations of the Toronto Blessings to the UK. For those who blindly give a green signal to the Alpha Course, not knowing from which camp it is coming, you need to watch the below clip, taken at the Toronto Blessing.

In the Alpha Course, substantial amount of time is spend on HTB's experiences of the Toronto Blessing and associated ministries, novel exegeses of various Biblical passages common amongst pro-Toronto preachers, calls for unity despite truth and an over-emphasis on the Holy Spirit, all of which are less than helpful, to say the least, to potential Christians. [2]  Eleanor Mumford of the South-West London Vineyard church brought the Toronto Blessing from the Toronto Airport Vineyard church in Canada to HTB through Nicky Gumbel in May 1994. In video 3 and talk 9, Gumbel says, "Ellie Mumford told us a little bit of what she had seen in Toronto... .it was obvious that Ellie was just dying to pray for all of us.. then she said 'Now we'll invite the Holy Spirit to come.' and the moment she said that one of the people there was thrown, literally, across the room and was lying on the floor, just howling and laughing....making the most incredible noise....I experienced the power of the Spirit in a way I hadn't experienced for years, like massive electricity going through my body... One of the guys was  prophesying. He was just lying there prophesying. . ." [3]  Alpha participants are told all of this as the normative in Christianity, with no caution or warning to test the spirits and be discerning. Alpha, though claiming to be evangelistic spends less time on the gospel and more on such freaky manifestations of the Third Wave. The overtly Charismatic agenda of Alpha can be seen by comparing the amount of pages it has dedicated for each doctrine. It has one small paragraph on “Baptism”, two pages on "Holy Communion," eight pages on "speaking in tongues" and sixteen pages on "healing," [4]

Fourthly, after the initial two evangelistic session, Alpha considers most of its guests as Christians and changes the tone to that of discipleship. They are told to seek the Holy Spirit, speak in tongues, seek assurance etc without any careful examination of whether or not they are regenerate. The supposedly successful evangelistic tool produces testimonies like the ones below.  The lack of focus on Jesus is seen very clearly in the testimonies people give, testimonies. which Alpha quotes with approval in its literature. The first of five main Alpha testimonies in Telling Others is particularly revealing. It reads:"The one thing that stuck in my mind was how the work of the Holy Spirit was described as of paramount importance. I knew in my heart I had to have this power in my life at any cost so I found out where the church was, enrolled on the course and focused on the weekend. I felt like a dying man waiting for a life-saving operation. Never mind the weeks o f pre-med, I just had to get into the operating theatre ... I looked at the order of play, saw that the third session (which I had identified as the main one) was at 4.3O pm and simply hung on like a marathon runner weaving his way up the final straight with nothing but the finishing tape as the focus of his attention. I'll never forget that session. I felt as though I was being torn in two. Halfway through I just couldn't stand it any more. The prize was so near but we were getting there so slowly! I literally wanted to scream out, 'Do it now! Do it know! I couldn't hold out any longer. I'm not exaggerating when I say I was in agony. Then God came and then came the relief'. Having no idea who this person is, we have to say that this is deeply troubling. They regard the talks on 'Who is Jesus?' and 'Why did Jesus die?' as 'pre-med'. The focus of their attention is specifically identified as being not the Lord Jesus, not the Cross, not even the Holy Spirit, but the third session, 'How can I be filled with the Spirit?' Sadly such a testimony is repeated again and again. This is hardly surprising given that guests are taught, 'Physical heat sometimes accompanies the filling of the Spirit and people experience it in their hands or some other part of their bodies. One person described a feeling of 'glowing all over'. Another said she experienced 'liquid heat'. Still another described 'burning in my arms when I was not hot'. Still another said, 'I didn't want to come to the weekend and I did. But I would call myself a Christian now. I would say that I felt the Holy Spirit. I was feeling I was loved. It was really a tremendous overwhelming feeling of love'.  [5]

Thus Alpha teaches a God who has no wrath, a Jesus who simply dies to communicate how loved we are and a Spirit who gives a feeling of being loved. Whereas the Bible teaches God who is not just love, but Holy and Just, Whose righteous wrath against us was borne by the Son, Jesus to redeem us and the Spirit who comes to glorify the Son. How different a gospel and Christianity the Alpha breeds. The doctrine of freewill has lead many a ministers to seek man-made methods and manipulations in evangelism rather than simply trusting the efficacious working of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the undiluted Word. Alpha is just another man-made alternative to the true Spirit-breathed evangelistic proclamation.

Listen to pastor Chris Hand of Crich Baptist Church, UK, for a more in-depth analysis of the Alpha Course. His address is very gracious, straight forward and illuminating.

The Alpha Course - A Critique (1)  Listen | Download

The Alpha Course - A Critique (2)  Listen | Download

Footnotes  

----------------

[1]  BEC, The 'Alpha' and the 'Christianity Explored' Course, "Foundations", Issue no. 47 Autumn 2001 pp.36-44

[2] Tricia Tillin, Looking at - THE ALPHA COURSE,  Banner Ministries

[3] Ibid

[4] Questions of Life, pp. 155-163; pp. 199-215.

[5] BEC, The 'Alpha' and the 'Christianity Explored' Course, "Foundations", Issue no. 47 Autumn 2001 pp.36-44 

Election and Evangelism

It is often argued by some that a firm belief in the sovereignty of God in the election of His people would dampen one’s zeal for evangelism and missions. The question is often framed as, ‘if God has predestined, then why should we do any evangelism?’

Here is Mark Kielar of Cross Tv answering this question.

A Reformed Missiology

In 1987 John Piper preached at a missions conference on the importance of having a biblical foundation for missions. Piper’s presentation can be divided into three broad sections. In the first section, he argues from present day realities, the biblical mandate and historical facts, how missions need to have a strong doctrinal basis for its healthy progress. In his second section, Piper moves onto expounding a theology for missions from the gospel of John. After having developed a picture of missions from the Word, he comes to his final section of application. 

  

He began his sermon by considering the present status of missions across the globe. He lamented over three observations : i) the greatness of the unfinished task,  ii) the superficiality of the faith of professing Christians and iii) absence of strong leaders who can feed and fire the churches.  To all of these three problems, Piper suggests one crucial answer which is, The doctrinal basis of faith and missions is too narrow.

Piper says, The depth and breadth of doctrinal understanding thought to be important for Christians and missionaries has been too shallow and too narrow. This low standard of biblical understanding is then passed on to the younger churches. The result is that the initial enthusiasm has no deep roots, and leadership in biblical study is not prized, and nominalism sets in.  The erroneous notion prevails that a broad and deep understanding of biblical doctrine is for the advanced saints or, perhaps, just for scholars, but not for simple missionaries and certainly not for their converts. But this is not true. Paul says in Ephesians 4:13-14 that the only way ordinary people will cease to be children tossed to and fro by winds of false teaching and by the cunning of men is if they come to full manhood in knowledge—the knowledge of the Son of God. This is not the goal of an elite, educated few! It is the biblical mandate for every believer! You!

He then goes onto list 11 values of biblical truth as follows :

Biblical truth frees from Satan (John 8:32; 2 Timothy 2:24-26).

Biblical truth mediates grace and peace (2 Peter 1:2).

Biblical truth sanctifies (John 17:17; 2 Peter 1:3, 5, 12; 2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Biblical truth serves love (Philippians 1:9).

Biblical truth protects from error (Ephesians 4:11-15; 2 Peter 3:17-18).

Biblical truth saves (1 Timothy 4:16; Acts 20:26-27; 2 Thessalonians 2:10).

Biblical truth is the ideal of heaven (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Biblical truth will be resisted by some (2 Timothy 4:1-5).

Biblical truth is the duty of elders (Titus 1:9).

Biblical truth is approved by God (2 Timothy 2:15).

Biblical truth should continually increase (2 Peter 3:18; Colossians 1:10; Hebrews 5:12).

Piper then argues from history how the state of affairs were different in the bygone age, especially during the beginning days of the modern missionary movement. He illustrates this using William Carey’s experience in India and then notes,  So the modern missionary movement got its start in an atmosphere of strong doctrinal commitments. They were the commitments of the great American pastor and theologian, Jonathan Edwards. Edwards wrote the Life of David Brainerd, the young New England missionary—a biography that deeply influenced Carey….The keynote of Edwards' and Carey's theology was the centrality of God and the glory of his sovereign grace. The origin of Baptist missions sprang up among pastors in England who were decidedly doctrinal in their life and preaching. Andrew Fuller, Samuel Pearce, John Sutcliffe and William Carey were all of this sort. Their majestic view of God moved them to lay claim to the nations on his behalf and the modern missionary movement was born. Later on such names as David Livingstone, Adoniram Judson, Alexander Duff, John Paton, etc. were driven by the same vision. They were what some people call Calvinists though none of them cared for labels. They loved the historic doctrines of Biblical Christianity, and if Calvin taught them so be it.

In the next section of his sermon, he focuses on the gospel of John and develops a doctrinal basis for doing missions by knowing the God of John’s gospel, Whose sovereignty, Piper argues,  is the glorious and gracious foundation for missions.  His key text is John 10:16 and Piper argues that to understand this missionary promise of Christ we have to take notice of at least six things in the context of John 10.

The six observations are  :

1) Jesus calls himself a shepherd.

2) This leads to the second observation, namely, that in John 10 some sheep are Christ’s and some are not.

3) A third observation: The reason some sheep belonged to Jesus so that he could call them his own is that God the Father had given them to the Son.

4) A fourth observation follows: Since Jesus knows those who are his, he can call them by name; and because they are already his, they follow.

5) But that is not all that Jesus does for his sheep. Verse 11: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

6) And on the basis of this sacrifice Jesus gives eternal life to his sheep and it can never be taken away.

Piper summarizes his observations as follows : The picture we have in John 10 is of a great shepherd who sovereignly saves his sheep. The Father gives them to him. He dies for them. He calls them by name. He gives them eternal life. And he keeps them safe forever. What a great salvation we have! What a great Savior!

Piper then moves on from exposition to application and begins with a word of warning that this teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ does not leave any room for complacency.  He condemns the Hyper-Calvinistic error and warns that the doctrine of election and predestination in John’s gospel cannot be twisted into an in-house, elitist doctrine for the private comfort of the chosen few, with no burden to reach the nations of the world.

After his warning, Piper offers four things in John 10:16 that should fill us to overflowing with confidence in our missions dreaming and planning and labor.  These are his concluding applications from the key text.

They are  :

1) Christ has people besides those already converted—other people besides us…“I have other sheep that are not of this fold.” It is a promise full of hope for those who dream about new fields of missionary labor.

2) The verse implies that the “other sheep” that Christ has are scattered outside the present fold… So we may be sure on the authority of God’s Word that among all the peoples of the world we will find people who belong to God's flock. That is a great encouragement to get on with the task of frontier missions and to reach the hidden peoples.

3) The third encouragement in John 10:16 is that the Lord has committed himself to bring his lost sheep home. He promises to do it….So we can take heart: all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to the Son of God and he declares, “I must bring in my other sheep.” He will do it.

4) Which implies the final word of hope from the text: If he brings them, they will come! “I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice.” None of Christ’s sheep finally reject his word. What else can keep you going in a hard and unresponsive place of ministry except the confidence that God reigns and that those whom the Father has chosen will heed the voice of the Son?

Piper ends his presentation with a prayer for Christians to take this Reformed missiology seriously and launch out into frontier missions for the glory of God. Piper prays for God to, deepen and broaden the biblical foundation of your vision for the world. May he open our eyes not only to the fields that are white to harvest, but also to the majesty and splendor and glory of his sovereign grace. And may we be carried over all the obstacles and discouragements by the great confidence that the Lord himself will gather the ransomed from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

Amen.

A Theology for Missions  Read

Footnotes  

----------------

[1] All quotations taken from John Piper,  A Theology for Missions, Conference on Missions Education, September 19, 1987

Dying Hard For Christ

More and more I am persuaded from Scripture and from the history of missions that God's design for the evangelization of the world and the consummation of his purposes includes the suffering of his ministers and missionaries. To put it more plainly and specifically, God designs that the suffering of his ministers and missionaries is one essential means in the joyful triumphant spread of the gospel among all the peoples of the world. [1]

With these words, John Piper begins his bio-sermon on Adoniram Judson, Jr. (9 August 1788 – 12 April 1850), the first significant missionary[2] to Burma. At the age of 25, Adoniram Judson became the first Protestant missionary sent from North America[3] to preach in Burma. In his sermon, Piper explores the sufferings and success in the life of Judson to show the cost he had to pay in bringing Christ to Burma.

Piper argues in his sermon, how this Calvinistic Baptist missionary’s death to his earthly life lead to much fruit.  Piper notes, Our Lord Jesus said to us in very solemn words, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24). Then he adds this: "Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" (John 12:25). In other words, a fruitful life and an eternal life come from this: dying like a seed and hating your life in this world. What overwhelms me, as I ponder this and trace the life of Adoniram Judson, America's first foreign missionary, is how strategic it was that he died so many times and in so many ways.

Today the Myanmar Baptist Convention has 3,700 congregations with 617,781 members and 1,900,000 affiliates, which Piper calls is  the fruit of this dead seed.

The outline of the sermon is as follows :

1.  God's purpose to spread the gospel to all peoples.
2.  God's plan to make suffering a crucial means to accomplish this purpose.
3.  The position we are now in with regard to world evangelization.
4.  The pain of Adoniram Judson as an illustration of the truth.
5.  A plea to you to be a part of what Judson and Christ died for. 

In the first three sections, Piper lays down key principles to understand the design of God for missions. In his fourth section, he moves onto biography and uses the life and ministry of Judson as an illustration of all these principles. The final section is a plea on the basis of these biblical principles, seen in Judson’s life.  The biography section is the lengthiest one and the most moving. If you are unfamiliar with the pain of Adoniram Judson, then you will be shocked to see how a man suffered so much in his earthly life. Here is an overview of his pain, from Piper’s sermon :

• They (Adoniram and Ann Judson) were married a year and a half later on February 5, 1812, and sailed for India 12 days later with two other couples and two single men divided among two ships in case one went down. After a time in India they chose to risk Rangoon and arrived there July 13, 1813. There began a life-long battle in the 108-degree heat with cholera, malaria, dysentery, and unknown miseries that would take two of Judson's wives and seven of his 13 children, and colleague after colleague in death. 

• Eight years into their mission Ann was so ill that the only hope was a trip home. She sailed on August 21, 1821. She returned on December 5, 1823, two years and four months later. And when she arrived he had not heard from her for 10 months. If you are married and you love your wife, this is the way you die day after day for a greater good and a greater joy. 

• In 1823 Adoniram and Ann moved from Rangoon to Ava, the capital, about 300 miles inland and further up the Irrawaddy River. It was risky to be that near the despotic emperor. In May of the next year the British fleet arrived in Rangoon and bombarded the harbor. All westerners were immediately viewed as spies, and Adoniram was dragged from his home and on June 8, 1824 and put in prison. His feet were fettered and at night a long horizontal bamboo pole was lowered and passed between the fettered legs and hoisted up till only the shoulder and heads of the prisoners rested on the ground. Ann was pregnant, but walked the two miles daily to the palace to plead that Judson was not a spy and that they should have mercy. 

• The daughter, Maria, had been born..  and Ann was almost as sick and thin as Adoniram, but still pursued him with her baby to take care of him as she could. Her milk dried up, and the jailer had mercy on them and actually let Judson take the baby each evening into the village and beg for women to nurse his baby. 

• On November 4, 1825 Judson was suddenly released. The government needed him as a translator in negotiations with Britain. The long ordeal was over - 17 months in prison and on the brink of death, with his wife sacrificing herself and her baby to care for him as she could. Ann's health was broken. Eleven months later she died (October 24, 1826). And six months later their daughter died (April 24, 1827). 

• In July, three months after the death of his little girl, he got word that his father had died eight months earlier. 

• The psychological effects of theses losses were devastating. Self-doubt overtook his mind, and he wondered if he had become a missionary for ambition and fame, not humility and self-denying love…. He wrote in one letter home to Ann's relatives: "My tears flow at the same time over the forsaken grave of my dear love and over the loathsome sepulcher of my own heart." 

• He married Sarah Boardman, a missionary widow, on April 10, 1834, eight years after Ann died. They had eight children. Five survived childhood. She was a gifted partner and knew the language better than any but himself. But 11 years later she was so sick that they both set sail for America with the three oldest children. They left the three youngest behind, one of whom died before Judson returned. Judson had not been to America now for 33 years and was only returning for the sake of his wife. As they rounded the tip of Africa in September, 1845, Sarah died. The ship dropped anchor at St. Helena Island long enough to dig a grave and bury a wife and mother and then sail on.   

•  ...The old sicknesses attacked Adoniram one last time. The only hope was to send the desperately ill Judson on a voyage. On April 3, 1850 they carried Adoniram onto the Aristide Marie bound for the Isle of France with one friend, Thomas Ranney, to care for him. In his misery he would be roused from time to time by terrible pain ending in vomiting. One of his last sentences was: "How few there are who . . . who die so hard!"  At 15 minutes after 4 on Friday afternoon April 12, 1850 Adoniram Judson died at sea, away from all his family and Burmese Church. 

 When he died, the ship that was carrying him had a pagan crew. No prayers were therefore offered for him, but they just dislodged the coffin to the port and moved on. It would take four more months for the news of his death to reach his family. Judson’s life was thus all about ‘falling into the ground and dying like a seed’ for the sake of Christ.

To our question on enduring such excruciating sufferings, Piper gives the answer by showing the Calvinistic roots of Judson and his family. Piper notes, Judson was a Calvinist, but did not wear his Calvinism on his sleeve… Adoniram inherited a deep belief in the sovereignty of God. The great importance this has for my purpose here is to stress that this deep confidence in God's overarching providence through all calamity and misery sustained him to the end. He said, "If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated sufferings." … When her second child died, Ann Judson wrote, "Our hearts were bound up with this child; we felt he was our earthly all, our only source of innocent recreation in this heathen land. But God saw it was necessary to remind us of our error, and to strip us of our only little all. O, may it not be vain that he has done it. May we so improve it that he will stay his hand and say 'It is enough.'" In other words, what sustained this man and his three wives was a rock-solid confidence that God is sovereign and God is good. And all things come from his hand for the good - the incredibly painful good - of his children.

 

A robust faith in the sovereignty of God was thus the source of sustaining grace in the life of Judson. In other words, for Adoniram Judson, Calvinism, contrary to all misrepresentation, was not a hindrance to missions but the source of hope for perseverance in missions. It is hoped that this will challenge pastors to see how a radical belief in the absolute sovereignty of God over all things including the salvation of sinners and the suffering of his ministers, is a fuel for missions and not something which kills it. The whole modern missionary movement was lead by men for whom the Reformed doctrines were central and nourishing to their preaching and missionary efforts.

How Few There Are Who Die So Hard!  Listen | Download

Footnotes  

----------------

[1] All quotations of Piper from : John Piper, How Few There Are Who Die So Hard!, 2003 Bethlehem Conference for Pastors

[2] Adoniram Judson is sometimes mistakenly referred to as the first missionary to Burma, but he was actually preceded by James Chater and Richard Mardon who arrived in 1807. They were followed by Felix Carey. However, since those who came earlier did not remain very long, Judson is remembered as the first significant missionary there, as well as one of the group of the very first missionaries from America to travel overseas.

[3] Robert Torbet, Venture of Faith: The Story of the American Baptist Missionary Society

The Sovereignty of God in Missions

One of the characteristic feature of popular missionary movements today, is sadly, a great lack of proper appreciation of the gospel message. Most missions make appeal to Christians to join their cause, by showing how much earthly need - spiritual or physical, there is among the people groups they are serving. Rarely does a missionary organization appeal to the glory of the gospel message and inform the hearers the radical and joyful implications of it - to take it to the ends of the earth. In reality, if someone gets gripped by the message of the gospel, he needs little prodding to be zealous for the Great Commission. 

It is in this matter that Reformed Christians have a distinct approach to missions. Reformed Christians work out their zeal purely by working hard on their theology. For if one properly understands and appreciates the theology of the Bible, then not only would one know that he ought to be taking part in the missionary work of the church, but also would have the proper, biblical, needed and liberating motivation for doing it.  A lot of cheap zeal without knowledge that is so rampant in popular missionary movements can thus be avoided by us.

Dr. Michael Horton, the J. Gresham Machen professor of apologetics and systematic theology at Westminster Seminary California, has written a very excellent article, explaining the rationale for the imperative of the Great Commission to "Go into all the world". Horton seeks to show how the purposes of God are based on the promises of God, by focusing on the triumphant indicative given by Jesus Christ, before He commanded His disciples to go, namely, “All authority in Heaven and Earth has been given to Me”.

Horton begins his article by noting how raw zeal can trump the content of what we have been given to communicate [1] and let the message be subordinate to the mission and the evangel to evangelism. He notices the danger of taking sides on this issue of zeal and knowledge, by noting that if "zeal without knowledge" is deadly (Rom. 10:2-3), then knowledge without zeal is dead. He warns us that the Great Commission doesn't give any quarter to either of these extremes.

In the next two sections, Horton beautifully explains the relationship between the purpose of God and the promise of God, grounding the imperative to “Go” on the triumphant indicative of Jesus' sovereign authority.  He shows how the whole Bible points to God's missionary purpose and how the church's role in missions is purely a derivative of the former. He then goes through the book of John to show how the Father, the Son and the Spirit are equally involved in the historic unfolding of the eternal covenant of redemption. Horton summarizes from the passages in John as follows, The Father chose a people in Christ from the mass of fallen humanity, giving them to Christ as their Mediator, with the Spirit as the one who will give them faith and keep them in that faith to the end. Not one of those whom the Father gave to the Son will be lost.  Horton then appeals to the unity of the Bible and uses this understanding of the covenant of redemption from John to understand what Jesus meant in the Great Commission. Horton argues that the entire covenant of redemption finds it efficacy in the sovereignty of God. It is precisely because Jesus alone has the authority to save and to condemn that there is a Great Commission.

Horton then moves onto discussing the new birth and shows how new birth is only possible for fallen sinners, due to the authority that Christ has to give eternal life to all those whom the Father has chosen. Horton notes, All authority in heaven and on earth is in Christ's hands. If it were in the hands of a despot, we would never be free. If it were in our hands, we would never be saved. Because Christ has the power of life and death, however, there is not only the possibility but the assurance that there will be a church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

After having thus established the truth that the rationale for the Great Commission is the sovereignty of God in Christ, Horton draws some massive implications for those who are involved in missionary work. For that he picks Apostle Paul as his example and observes, After explaining that God "saved us...not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began" (2 Tim. 1:9), Paul—on the verge of his execution in Rome—assured Timothy, "Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory" (2 Tim. 2:10). The greatest missionary in the history of the church was driven by the gospel indicatives. Because God chose sinners from a mass of spiritual death, Christ saved them, and the Spirit gave them faith through the preaching of the gospel, Paul could go on, enduring persecution and knowing that God's purposes would be realized. Not Caesar, nor the Jewish leaders, nor the sinners to whom he preached, nor Paul himself held the personal power to save or to condemn.

Horton then exhorts us to believe in the infallible surety of the success of God’s mission of gathering His elect in Christ Jesus, through our preaching of His gospel.  He says, Because Christ accomplished his mission, ours is guaranteed success—defined by God's purposes, not ours. It is this confidence that motivates a missionary in Saudi Arabia to labor for years before witnessing a single conversion… The Father's decision is irrevocable. Christ's mission is accomplished already, and the Spirit will be just as successful in his labors. Therefore, the Great Commission cannot fail.

Even though all true Christians who embrace this truth of the sovereignty of God over all things including missions can be joyfully optimistic, we should be aware of the fact that there will be oppositions to face and persecutions to endure.  Here again Horton comes with a comforting word from the same truth of Christ’s victorious work. He says, Caesars may still rule and demand the proper temporal allegiance of their subjects (Rom. 13:1-7), but they rule at the pleasure of the Sovereign of the universe. Disease may stalk and death may claim our bodies, but it no longer has the last word: "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" (1 Cor. 15:55). Our fate does not lie in the impersonal forces of nature. We are not at the mercy of insurance companies and health-care providers. Jesus Christ—not the invisible hand of the market—is Lord of all powers and principalities.... Are you rattled by the magnitude of opposition to the gospel, increasingly even in the nations once nominally committed to a vaguely Christian culture? Does the Great Commission seem threatened by the gathering forces of secularism, militant Islam, consumerism, violence, and moral relativism? These are among the "principalities and powers" that Christ has vanquished objectively, although their effects have not yet been finally and forever eliminated.Oscar Cullman compared Christ's resurrection and return in glory to "D-Day" and "V-Day" during World War II. There was first of all the landing assault that broke the back of the Nazi forces, but insurgent battles raged until victory in Europe was fully realized. Even now, Christ has crushed the head of the serpent and is setting prisoners free. All authority in heaven and on earth is given to him. Are you distressed by your lack of understanding, zeal, or faithfulness in your own discipleship, much less in your appreciation for the Great Commission? Christ is Lord! He has forgiven you all of your sins and has given you a new heart. In spite of every setback, you are assured that your Shepherd-King has already won the war!

Horton concludes his article with an appeal to pause, ponder and wonder at the glorious, triumphant indicative of the gospel before there can be any mission or evangelism. All Christians would do well in taking heed to Horton’s words of wisdom.

The Great Announcement Read

Footnotes

----------------

All quotations taken from :

[1] "The Great Announcement" , Modern Reformation, Jan./Feb, Vol. 20, No. 1 2011, Pages 12-19

Carey’s Calvinism

Pioneer Baptist missionary, William Carey (17 August 1761 – 9 June 1834) is well known as the father of modern missions.[1]  As a missionary in the Danish colony, Serampore, India, he translated the Bible into Bengali, Sanskrit, and numerous other languages and dialects.

Though almost all churches in India and abroad, make appeals to follow Carey’s example in missionary labor, very few are interested in knowing the theological convictions of Carey behind his missionary zeal.  Charles Spurgeon, preaching on August 19 1861 said, Carey was the living model of Edwards’ theology, or rather of pure Christianity. His was not a theology which left out the backbone and strength of religion—not a theology, on the other hand, all bones and skeleton, a lifeless thing without a soul: his theology was full-orbed-Calvinism, high as you please, but practical godliness so low that many called it legal.[2]

Here is an excerpt from an article by Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher which investigates the reformed convictions of William Carey.  Dr. Schirrmacher laments over the fact that though much has been written about Carey and his colleagues, their mission field in Serampore, and their achievements in printing, in Bible translation, in teaching and in many other areas, little attention has been paid in his numerous biographies to his theology. [3]  He reasons, This failure is probably due to the fact that Carey's theology differs from that of the presently predominant, Post-Classical mission societies, which happily claim him as their father.[4]

Schirrmacher writes,

Carey's Calvinism

Carey was a Protestant by conviction, as the anti-Catholic and anti-Papist tenor of his history of the church clearly demonstrates. The turning point, he believed, was reached by the Reformers. He names especially Luther, Calvin, Melanchton, Bucer and Peter Martyr. He held the true Protestant dogma for essential to missions and to the missionary, for missionaries must, among other things, be "of undoubted orthodoxy in their sentiments."

Carey's theology is not only unusual for modern tastes in its Postmillennialism, but also in its Calvinist soteriology, for many now believe that the doctrine of presdestination extinguishes missionary effort rather than intensifying it. Carey, like most other Protestant missionaries and missionary leaders of his day, agreed with the Calvinist view.

Up into our century, the English Baptists were divided into two groups, the Arminian 'General Baptists' and the Calvinist 'Particular Baptists', to which John Bunyan and C. H. Spurgeon belonged. The designations indicate the extent of Jesus' atoning death: 'General Baptists' believe that Jesus died for all, 'Particular Baptists' believe that He died only for the Elect. Carey's Calvinist viewpoint is clearly demonstrated in various parts of his book.

Carey was not influenced by the Methodism of his day, as one might expect, but as a Calvinist, his significance lies in his reconciliation between the theology of the Reformation, particularly Reformed theology, and the Church's responsibility for missions. Frank Deauville Walker writes,

"He could not harmonize the views of the hyper-Calvinists with the duty of calling men to Christ. On the other hand, the opposite doctrine of Arminianism held by the Methodists seemed to him to strike at the roots of belief in the grace of God."

Hyper-Calvinism is the opinion that the Calvinist doctrine of Predestination refutes missions, because God would save those He wished without human aid, so that the Great Commission is already fulfilled. Although not typical of Calvinism, this viewpoint was popular, particularly among the Particular Baptists Carey knew.

Carey's significance lies therefore in his harmonization of the Calvinist doctrine of soteriology with Calvin and with the Reformed Protestants of the first and second generation. His precursor, according to Walker, was his friend, Andrew Fuller, who had been a Hyper-Calvinist, but had reconsidered his position and, in his printed sermon, "The Nature of Importance of Walking by Faith" of 1784 and in his book, The Gospel Worthy of All Acception, derived the responsibility for missions from the doctrine of predestination itself. Robert Hall's pamphlet, "Help to Zion's Travellers" of 1781, which deeply influenced Carey, also marks the transition from Hyper-Calvinism to missionary Calvinism. In short, "Anglican and Baptist pastors such as Thomas Scott, Andrew Fuller, Robert Hall,Sr. and John Sutcliffe ... " aided Carey in overcoming Hyper-Calvinism without surrendering the Calvinist view of salvation. A . Christopher Smith adds, "A neo-Puritan theology much indebted to Jonathan Edwards thus was mediated to Carey without his having to pore over theological tomes."

This demonstrates that not only Carey advocated Calvinist soteriology (and Reformed Postmillennialism), but that the leaders of his British mission society, Andrew Fuller, John Ryland and Thomas Scott, did as well. Scott wrote "The History of the Synode of Dort" and a history of the origin of the five points of Calvinism. Carey used these works in India and thanks Scott for them expressly.

The same is true of Carey's colleagues in India, according to their 'Form of Agreement' of 1805, which gave them a common basis: "we are sure that only those who are ordained to eternal life will believe, and that God alone can add to the church such as shall be saved."

  

Calvinism in Carey’s "An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens "

Carey derives the very possibility and the responsibility for missions from the doctrine of providence itself, while Hypercalvinism derived from the doctrine of predestination its belief that the heathen were lost unless God brought them the Gospel without human assistance. 'Providence' in Calvinist theology describes God's sovereignty. Carey uses this term six times in the "Enquiry" and often in other writings as well. As a Calvinist Baptist, he believed in Providence unreservedly and continually based his belief in the necessity of missions on this idea.

"It has been said that we ought not to force our way, but to wait for the openings, and leadings of Providence; but it might with equal propriety be answered in this case, neither ought we to neglect embracing those openings in providence which daily present themselves to us. What openings of providence do we wait for? ... Where a command exists nothing can be necessary to render it binding but a removal of those obstacles which render obedience impossible, and these are removed already. Natural impossibility can never be pleaded so long as facts exist to prove the contrary."

Even later, Carey never changed his view. James Beck adds,

"Carey never strayed far from his Calvinistic roots when reflecting on his God of providence. God was a God of order and control."

As we have already seen, Carey distinguishes in the "Enquiry" between God's sovereign will, Providence, and his moral will, duty. Not only here does he prove himself to be a pupil of Calvinist ethics. His arguments distinguish, for example between the moral and the ceremonial Law, and discusses the question, what factors revoke a Biblical commandment, with reasoning typical of Reformed ethics. In the churches he served prior to his departure for India, he exercised a strict church discipline typical of Calvinism, and followed Puritan ethics in many minor decisions, such as journeys on Sundays. [5]

Footnotes

----------------

[1] Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity Vol. 2, pg. 306

[2] “C.H. Spurgeon’s tribute to William Carey”, Supplement to the Baptist Times, (16 April, 1992), pg.1

[3] Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher , William Carey, Postmillennialism and the Theology of World Missions

[4] Ibid

[5] Ibid