Bible - CH 39
CHAPTER 39
TO EARTH’S REMOTEST PEOPLE
Protestant Missions
In an English village, late in the eighteenth century, stood a humble workshop. Over its door a sign announced, “Secondhand shoes bought and sold.” Inside, the shoemaker, William Carey, repaired a neighbor’s boot or, when time allowed, continued his study of Latin and Greek. Over the workbench was a crude map of the world. On it Carey had penned bits of information from the voyages of Captain James Cook or some other world traveler. A friend, Thomas Scott, called the workshop Carey’s College.
Carey’s workbench and map are fit symbols of the awakening interest in distant peoples during the Age of Progress and in the means of getting the gospel to them. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Protestant Christianity scarcely existed outside of Europe and America. Asia was almost untouched by the gospel, except for small traces in India and in the East Indies, where the Dutch had taken over from the Portuguese. Africa was the “dark continent” except for the ancient Copts in Egypt and Ethiopia. After eighteen centuries Christianity was far from being a world religion.
It is a different story today. Christianity is a global presence.
The great era of Christian expansion was the nineteenth century. “Never had any other set of ideas, religious or secular, been propagated over so wide an area by so many professional agents maintained by the unconstrained donations of so many millions of individuals.” That is the informed judgment of Kenneth Scott Latourette, the foremost historian of Christianity’s expansion. For sheer magnitude the Christian mission in the nineteenth century is without parallel in human history.
How do we explain this sudden explosion of Protestant energy aimed at winning the world for Christ?
THE PIONEER IN MODERN MISSIONS
During the first century of Protestant history, the Roman Catholic countries Spain and Portugal dominated the commercial and imperial expansion of European peoples. The great missionary names were Xavier, Las Casas, and Ricci. Only after the English defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588) and the emergence of the British and Dutch as colonial powers did new continents and peoples open to Protestant missionaries.
The first Protestants to attempt to reach distant peoples with the gospel were the Pietists. Moravian concern, however, was focused on individuals in some European colony perishing without the knowledge of Christ. The Christian groups created by Pietists were tiny islands in the surrounding sea of “heathens” and unawakened Christians.
William Carey introduced Protestants to missions on a grander scale. He thought in terms of the evangelization of whole countries and of what happens when whole populations become Christian. He held that the foreign missionary can never make more than a small contribution to the work that has to be done, and that therefore the development of the local ministry is the first and greatest of all missionary considerations. Above all he saw that Christianity must be firmly rooted in the culture and traditions of the land in which it is planted. For all these reasons and more Carey gained the title Father of Modern Missions.
The English cobbler was a most unlikely candidate for greatness. He was married to a poor uneducated woman, and what Carey earned as a shoemaker was often too little to provide enough to eat. Yet Carey’s greatness was within, not in his circumstances. He had a ravenous hunger for knowledge and would go without food to buy a book. Columbus and Captain James Cook were his great heroes.
In 1779, through a fellow shoemaker, he was converted to faith in Christ, and in 1783 he was baptized as a believer. After gaining some preaching experience he became pastor of the Moulton Baptist Chapel, supporting his family by teaching and shoemaking.
In Baptist circles he met fellow pastor Andrew Fuller. Fuller, a strong Calvinist, broke with some of his fellow Calvinists who pictured vigorous evangelism and appeals to conversion as inconsistent with God’s election of only certain individuals to salvation. Fuller held to both his belief in a Calvinist version of election and the mandate to follow Jesus and the apostles in the practice of evangelism.
“We have sunk into such a compromising way of dealing with the unconverted,” Fuller complained, “as to have well nigh lost the spirit of the primitive preachers, and hence it is that sinners of every description can sit so quietly as they do, year after year, in our places of worship.” 80
From Fuller’s teaching, Carey drew the inescapable inference that if it is the duty of all to repent and believe the gospel — as Fuller argued — it is also the duty of those entrusted with the gospel to carry it to the whole world.
In 1792 Carey published An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen . It created an epoch. In it Carey took up the five objections that people raised against missions to heathen lands: their distance, their barbarism, the danger that would be incurred, the difficulties of support, and the unintelligible languages. One by one he answered these. The same obstacles had not prevented the merchants from going to distant shores. “It only requires,” he wrote, “that we should have as much love to the souls of our fellow creatures, and fellow sinners, as they have for the profits arising from a few otter skins, and all these difficulties could be easily surmounted.” He ended his appeal with practical proposals for the preaching of the gospel throughout the world.
By encouraging each other, Carey and Fuller succeeded in breaking free from the restrictive theology of their time. They went back to the New Testament, especially to Jesus’ injunction to preach the gospel to all the world and to the apostle Paul’s declaration of God’s intention “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10 – 11). Such texts were read with a sense of immediacy, as if Jesus were speaking to them and not merely the disciples long ago.
As a result, in October 1792 Carey, Fuller, and eleven Baptist colleagues formed the Baptist Missionary Society, and within a year Carey and his family were on their way to India. His wife, Dorothy, had planned to stay behind, but Carey finally convinced her to join him. In India Dorothy soon experienced episodes of what we would now call mental illness or psychosis, and she eventually lived out her life confined to her room while Carey did his work in the next room.
The British East India Company, which had been the virtual ruler of India since 1763, was exercising its full power at that time. It was not enthusiastic about missions. Its interest was in profits. Most of its representatives, enjoying to the full their sense of racial superiority, considered “the sending out of missionaries into our Eastern possessions to be the maddest, most extravagant, most costly, most indefensible project which has ever been suggested by a moonstruck fanatic. Such a scheme is pernicious, imprudent, useless, harmful, dangerous, profitless, fantastic.” 81
The company refused Carey permission to live in Calcutta, so he settled instead in Serampore, under the Danish flag. He secured employment as foreman of an indigo factory in Bengal. Since the position demanded only three months of the year, he found plenty of time for intensive study of the regional languages. In 1799 two fellow Baptists, Joshua Marshman and William Ward, joined Carey at Serampore. For the next quarter century, the three men worked together to organize a growing network of mission stations in and beyond Bengal.
ButtonText_image (Printed in 1801, this is the title page for a New Testament in the Bengali language, translated by William Carey.) Printed in 1801, this is the title page for a New Testament in the Bengali language, translated by William Carey.
Carey and his companions plunged courageously into all the intricacies of Hindu thought. They did not regard these studies as in any way a distraction from their missionary work. On the contrary, they regarded a full understanding of Hindu thought as an essential part of their equipment, not only because the preacher of the gospel cannot be clearly understood if he speaks merely out of the self - confidence of his knowledge but also because they understood that it was not only the souls and bodies of the people of India that needed to be redeemed; the thought world of a non - Christian nation is also one of those realms that is to be won to Christ. By 1824 Carey had supervised six complete and twenty - four partial translations of the Bible, and published several grammars, dictionaries, and translations of Eastern books. 82
THE CONTAGION OF MISSIONARY SERVICE
The example of the Serampore trio proved contagious. The beginning of the nineteenth century found a new and pervasive determination in Protestantism to carry the gospel to all nations. The earlier prevailing attitude of the major churches had considered missions an unnecessary and hopeless undertaking. Now voices were raised on all sides proclaiming the duty of all Christians to share in the conversion of the peoples of the whole world. The gospel was not the private possession of European peoples.
The list of missionary pioneers runs into the hundreds: Henry Martyn in India, Robert Morrison in China, John Williams in the South Seas, Adoniram Judson in Burma, Alexander Duff in India, Allen Gardiner on Tierra del Fuego, Robert Moffat in South Africa, and many more. Scores of other missionaries and their wives are long forgotten because they died in a matter of months in some malaria - infested tropical climate or at the hands of some savage tribe.
In large part this new passion to preach the gospel to the heathen sprang from those portions of Protestantism deeply influenced by the eighteenth - century evangelical revivals in England and America. For the first three decades of the new missionary era, the endeavor was almost exclusively evangelical.
This is hardly surprising. The Evangelical Awakening revolutionized preaching and its objectives. Traditional churchmen usually limited the minister’s task to nurturing the seed of faith planted at baptism in virtually all members of the parish. Such ministers could not imagine preaching the gospel in a tribal society. At the same time, those Christians who held a rigid doctrine of predestination never seemed to concern themselves with the elect in India or China. Evangelicals, however, like Carey, saw preaching as calling sinners to God through faith in Christ. They felt a personal responsibility to do this and saw no difference in principle between “baptized heathen” in Britain and non - Christian peoples overseas.
Only in the 1820s and 1830s did interest in overseas missions become a general feature of British church life. This was in part because of the success of evangelicals in influencing English and Scottish society. Many of their values were adopted outside their circle. In particular the idea of Britain as a Christian nation, with Christian responsibilities overseas, took root.
The vision of this missionary task is expressed in thousands of sermons and hundreds of hymns of that time. Reginald Heber, who gave his life for India serving as bishop of Calcutta, provides an example in his widely sung “From Greenland’s Icy Mountain”:
Can we, whose souls are lighted
With wisdom from on high;
Can we to men benighted
The lamp of life deny?
Salvation, O salvation!
The joyful sound proclaim,
Till earth’s remotest nation
Has learned Messiah’s name.
Two emphases led to this new Protestant world vision. One, as Carey and Fuller illustrate, was evangelistic. The Bible teaches that men and women are lost without faith in Christ, and the Lord commands believers in every age to make salvation known in all the world.
The other was prophetic. Many Christians in the nineteenth century followed Jonathan Edwards in the belief that the knowledge of the Lord would fill the earth as the waters cover the sea, and this spread of the gospel was preparation for the coming reign of Christ upon the earth. This belief in a future reign of Christ was called millennialism.
The Protestant mission to all the world was no empty dream. The dedication of the missionary movement blended with the optimism of the Age of Progress to make the goal seem quite possible. Thus the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, for example, took as its watchword “the evangelization of the world in this generation.”
The vision was constantly renewed by some fresh account from Africa or the South Pacific. None of these proved more inspiring than the reports of the spiritual darkness of Africa or the horrors of the Arab slave trade sent home by David Livingstone (1813 – 73).
The great explorer came from a hardy clan of Scotsmen. When he was nineteen he determined to devote his life to the “alleviation of human misery.” He studied as a doctor to prepare himself for the work of a missionary, and attracted by the fame of Robert Moffat in South Africa, he went to Africa to help in the work.
LIVINGSTONE IN AFRICA
Arriving in 1841, Livingstone served for ten years in the ordinary routine of missionary work. But he was not a man to stay long in any one place. The mind and impulse of the explorer were in him, and he was always drawn on, in his own words, by “the smoke of a thousand villages” that had never seen a missionary.
The first great journey that made him famous led him through the jungles to the west coast in Angola, and then — because he would not desert the African carriers who had accompanied him — right across the continent to Quilimane on the east coast. On this journey he showed all the qualities of a great explorer. His manner with the Africans was so patient that he never had to use violence. And his scientific and geographical observations were minutely accurate. This one trip opened the heart of Africa to the modern age.
But Livingstone was at all times more than a traveler. His cause was the gospel. His journal abounds in passages of almost mystical devotion. Shortly before setting out on his great journey, he wrote, “I place no value on anything I have or may possess, except in relation to the kingdom of Christ.”
What moved him more than anything else was what he called “this open sore of the world” — the devastating slave trade of central Africa. Speaking to the students at Cambridge in 1857, he said, “I go back to Africa to try to make an open path for commerce and Christianity: do your best to carry out the work which I have begun, I leave it to you.”
Commerce and Christianity? Was Livingstone simply a forerunner of those colonialist exploiters who made life in so many parts of Africa a nightmare? No, far from it. Livingstone realized that the slave trade could not continue apart from Africans’ own participation in it. When slave raiding was the way to wealth, the temptation was always present to raid weaker neighboring tribes, which made life perilous for all but the most powerful. Only if the Africans could be persuaded to support themselves in other ways, to engage in legitimate commerce, exchanging the products of their own fields and forests for those desirable things the whites could supply, would the evil and destructive commerce of slavery be brought to an end. That, at any rate, was Livingstone’s conviction, a central part of his dream for Africa.
How was this missionary vision turned to action? What were the channels for this burst of spiritual energy? The traditional denominations used one of three forms of church government: episcopal, presbyterian, or congregational. The supporters of each claimed to be following the Bible, and all the main arguments on each side were well known. Ever since the Reformation, people had suffered — some even shed blood — for each form of government.
But as the need to spread the gospel worldwide began to dawn on British and American Christians, it became clear that none of the traditional forms of church government would enable the church to embark on a world mission. Supporters of global evangelism were driven to find another form of cooperation: the voluntary society.
PROFILES of Faith
Mary Slessor (1848 – 1915) was born in Dundee, Scotland, to an abusive father and factory - working mother. At age eleven Mary worked twelve - hour shifts in a textile mill. Later she taught Bible classes for slum children. In 1876 the Scottish Missionary Society sent her to Calabar (Nigeria), where she served other missionaries for twelve years, adopting the language and customs. At age forty she moved upriver where she lived among the Okyong and, later, the Ibo people, large numbers of whom became followers of Christ. She worked creatively to end witchcraft and human sacrifice and raised fifty cast - off children by herself. She established a hospital and homes for abandoned children and battered women. She halted an intertribal war. As the only white person some tribes trusted, she became the first female vice - consul of the British Empire.
PROFILES of Faith
Amy Carmichael (1867 – 1951) had a vivid experience of being called to missions — she heard an audible voice saying, “Go ye” — after hearing Hudson Taylor speak at the 1887 Keswick Convention. She first went to Japan and Sri Lanka, ultimately settling in India, where she established an orphanage for girls who had been abandoned into cultic prostitution at Hindu temples. She served fifty - five years in India — without taking furlough! Carmichael took in perhaps as many as one thousand unwanted and abandoned children. In part because of Carmichael’s advocacy, India eventually outlawed temple prostitution. She honored the local culture by wearing a sari — uncommon among missionaries in that era. But she experienced almost constant persecution at the hands of the Indian state for her disregard of the caste system.
Third, a wide variety of humanitarian ministries accompanied the widespread preaching of the gospel. Mission agencies established schools, hospitals, and centers for training nurses and doctors. They reduced many languages and dialects to writing and translated not only the Bible but other Western writings into these languages. They introduced public health measures and better agricultural techniques. In some cases these activities were closely related to the goal of conversion, but many sprang simply out of the recognition of social and physical needs that no Christian could in good conscience ignore.
In many respects, then, the missionary movement restored the gospel to its central place in Christianity. And in this important sense the movement recovered an element in the concept of the holy catholic church that the splintering of the Reformation had obscured. A catholicity or universality that inspired Carey’s workshop map reached out to embrace new peoples in many new lands.
CHAPTER 39
TO EARTH’S REMOTEST PEOPLE
Protestant Missions
In an English village, late in the eighteenth century, shoemaker William Carey worked in a humble workshop with a sign saying, "Secondhand shoes bought and sold."
Carey studied Latin and Greek during downtime and kept a crude map of the world above his workbench, marking information from travelers like Captain James Cook, indicating an awakening interest in distant peoples during the Age of Progress.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Protestant Christianity was limited to Europe and America, with Asia and Africa largely untouched by the gospel.
The nineteenth century marked an era of significant Christian expansion, described by historian Kenneth Scott Latourette as unparalleled in human history due to the extensive propagation of religious ideas.
THE PIONEER IN MODERN MISSIONS
Initially, Roman Catholic countries like Spain and Portugal led missionary efforts, with figures like Xavier and Las Casas.
The English defeat of the Spanish Armada and the rise of British and Dutch colonial powers opened new opportunities for Protestant missionaries.
The first Protestant missionaries were the Pietists, focusing on individuals needing Christ.
William Carey advocated for a broader approach, emphasizing the need for the evangelization of entire countries and local ministry development.
Carey, recognized as the Father of Modern Missions, was driven by a desire for knowledge and a commitment to spreading Christianity in a culturally rooted way.
After his conversion in 1779 and baptism in 1783, Carey became a pastor and collaborated with Andrew Fuller, who emphasized the call for evangelism despite a Calvinist belief in predestination.
In 1792, Carey published "An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen," addressing objections to missions and advocating for the gospel's spread.
Carey and Fuller established the Baptist Missionary Society in 1792, with Carey and his family eventually embarking on a missionary journey to India.
THE CONTAGION OF MISSIONARY SERVICE
The Serampore trio inspired a new determination among Protestants to preach the gospel worldwide, shifting from the previous view that missions were unnecessary.
A surge in missionary activity was partly due to the influence of eighteenth-century evangelical revivals. Pioneers include Henry Martyn in India and Adoniram Judson in Burma.
Evangelicals viewed preaching as a call for sinners to God, feeling a personal responsibility to evangelize all people.
The 1820s and 1830s saw missionaries gaining widespread support in British church life, driven by a vision of Britain as a Christian nation with global responsibilities.
LIVINGSTONE IN AFRICA
David Livingstone arrived in Africa in 1841, feeling compelled to alleviate human misery and combat the slave trade.
He undertook expeditions to map Africa and advocate for commerce alongside Christianity, believing that legitimate trade could eliminate slavery.
Livingstone's missionary vision was rooted in a commitment to improve Africans' lives and promote Christianity.
PROFILES of Faith
Mary Slessor (1848 – 1915): Worked to improve conditions in Nigeria, combat witchcraft, and establish institutions for care; trusted by local tribes, she was appointed vice-consul.
Amy Carmichael (1867 – 1951): Established an orphanage in India for girls rescued from cultic prostitution; dedicated her life to missions without returning home, challenging social norms and gaining numerous converts.
MOVEMENT AND HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS
The missionary movement also led to the establishment of schools, hospitals, and social services, with many missionaries engaging in humanitarian projects as intrinsic to their calling.
This movement re-centered the gospel in Christianity, extending outreach to embrace new peoples around the world.
CHAPTER 39
TO EARTH’S REMOTEST PEOPLE
Protestant Missions
William Carey: A humble shoemaker in an 18th-century English village, known for his passion for education and missionary work.
Signage: "Secondhand shoes bought and sold" over his workshop.
Education: Studied Latin and Greek in his spare time, reflecting an intellectual curiosity.
World Map: Had a crude map above his workbench, marking insights from explorers like Captain James Cook, symbolizing the growing interest in global missions.
Protestant Christianity (early 19th century): Primarily confined to Europe and America; Asia and Africa were largely untouched by the Christian gospel.
Era of Expansion (19th century): Marked as a time of extraordinary growth for Christianity; Kenneth Scott Latourette, a notable historian, described this movement as unprecedented in spreading religious ideas across far regions.
THE PIONEER IN MODERN MISSIONS
Historical Context: Initially, Roman Catholic nations like Spain and Portugal dominated mission efforts, with key figures such as Xavier and Las Casas.
Impact of the Spanish Armada's Defeat (1588): Led to the emergence of British and Dutch colonial powers, facilitating opportunities for Protestant missionaries.
Early Protestant Missionaries: Mainly represented by the Pietists, who focused on individual conversions.
William Carey’s Missionary Approach:
Advocated for broader missions targeting whole nations rather than just individuals.
Emphasized local ministry support as critical for long-term growth and integration of Christianity into cultures.
Gained recognition as the Father of Modern Missions for his innovative vision and dedication to missionary work.
Career Development:
Converted to Christianity in 1779 and baptized by 1783.
Became pastor of Moulton Baptist Chapel while supporting his family through teaching and shoemaking.
Collaboration with Andrew Fuller: Fuller, a Calvinist, maintained beliefs in predestination while advocating for active evangelism. He argued for a balance between election doctrine and outreach efforts.
Key Statement: Fuller lamented how the church had lost the spirit of evangelism, highlighting a desperate need for active outreach to the unconverted.
Influential Publication (1792): Carey's work, "An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen," challenged objections to missions, discussing:
The perceived distance and barbarism of heathen lands.
Risks associated with missionary work, capacity for support, and the challenge of language barriers.
Argued that merchants overcame these challenges for profit; similarly, Christians should overcome them for spiritual outcomes.
Formation of the Baptist Missionary Society (1792): Carey and Fuller, along with 11 colleagues, founded this society aimed at global evangelization. Carey and his family set sail for India shortly afterward.
THE CONTAGION OF MISSIONARY SERVICE
Inspirational Influence: The Serampore Trio (Carey, Marshman, and Ward) spurred a newfound Protestant commitment to worldwide gospel dissemination.
Shift in Perspective: The prevailing view of missions as unnecessary shifted to recognizing them as critical and urgent.
Missionary Pioneers: Included figures like Henry Martyn (India), Robert Morrison (China), John Williams (South Seas), Adoniram Judson (Burma), and Alexander Duff (India). Many died soon after arriving due to tropical diseases or conflicts.
Evangelical Influence: The Evangelical Awakening infused the missionary impulse with a sense of personal responsibility for evangelism, considering all people, regardless of location, as equally deserving of the gospel.
Prosperity of Missions: By the 1820s and 1830s, missions gained traction within British church life as the conviction grew that Britain had responsibilities as a Christian nation.
LIVINGSTONE IN AFRICA
David Livingstone (1813-1873): A central figure in the missionary endeavor in Africa.
Mission Goals: Sought to alleviate human suffering and end the slave trade through commerce and Christianity.
Exploration: His expeditions significantly expanded European understanding of Africa, emphasizing peaceful relations and accurate scientific observations.
Legacy: Stressed that sustainable commerce could help eliminate slavery and improve the lives of the African people.
Livingstone's Convictions: Prioritized both spiritual transformation and practical improvements for African communities, believing in a dual approach of trade and evangelism to foster self-sufficiency and combat exploitation.
PROFILES of Faith
Mary Slessor (1848-1915):
Hailing from Scotland, she overcame a troubled childhood to become a missionary in Nigeria.
Key Contributions:
Worked against witchcraft and established care institutions.
Became the first female vice-consul of the British Empire due to trust gained from local tribes.
Fostered peace and improved conditions through her local engagement and care initiatives.
Amy Carmichael (1867-1951):
Believed that she received a divine call to missions which led her to Japan and ultimately to India.
Established an orphanage for girls saved from cultic prostitution, dedicating her life to the cause without returning home for 55 years.
MOVEMENT AND HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS
Impact of the Missionary Movement: Missionaries engaged deeply in humanitarian efforts, establishing schools, hospitals, and centers for training professionals.
Grew the understanding of languages and cultures:
Reduced many languages to writing and translated the Bible and other texts.
Introduced public health measures and improved agricultural techniques as essential humanitarian responses.
Conclusion: The missionary movement not only revitalized the centrality of the gospel in Christianity but also nurtured the concept of the holy catholic church, reaching out to embrace diverse cultures and communities.
Chronological Order of People and Events in Protestant Missions
William Carey (1779): Converted to Christianity and began his missionary journey.
William Carey (1783): Baptized as a believer and became pastor of Moulton Baptist Chapel.
William Carey (1792): Published "An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen," addressing objections to missions.
Formation of the Baptist Missionary Society (1792): Carey and Fuller, along with 11 colleagues, founded this society aiming for global evangelization.
David Livingstone (1841): Arrived in Africa to alleviate human misery and combat the slave trade, marking the beginning of his significant missionary work.
Mary Slessor (1876): Sent to Calabar (Nigeria) by the Scottish Missionary Society.
Amy Carmichael (1887): Heard a divine call to missions after hearing Hudson Taylor speak and later became active in India.
The nineteenth century marked a significant era of expansion for Protestant Christianity, transforming it into a global faith. This expansion is characterized by:
Increased Outreach: Protestant missionaries, inspired by figures like William Carey, aimed to evangelize entire countries rather than just individual souls, thereby increasing the outreach and impact of Christianity across continents, particularly in Asia and Africa.
Formation of New Mission Societies: The establishment of organizations such as the Baptist Missionary Society in 1792 represented a structured effort towards global evangelization.
Engagement with Local Cultures: Missionaries emphasized the importance of integrating Christianity within local cultures, which helped in making the gospel more relatable and effective in diverse settings.
Response to Social Issues: Missionaries often engaged in humanitarian efforts, establishing schools, hospitals, and advocating for social reforms, which highlighted Christianity's relevance to contemporary social issues.
Reinvigorated Evangelicalism: Influences from evangelical revivals transformed attitudes towards mission work, fostering a widespread belief that it was the duty of all Christians to participate in spreading the gospel globally.