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Why Scripture Alone Governs the Missionary Task · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome back to the Deep Dive, which is brought to you by
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Reformed Thinking. We take your sources, your
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articles, research, and notes, and we pull out the most
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essential insights to give you that shortcut to being well
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informed. Today we are jumping straight
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into a pretty weighty discussion.
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We're looking at the principles and, well, the practices of
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global missions, but it's all centered on one really key
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question. What is the true source of the
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authority that drives the whole thing?
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Right. And the sources you sent us are
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arguing for, you know, the biblical necessity of missions,
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but they're really zeroing in on the authority and the
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sufficiency of the Bible, of Scripture itself.
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So the goal is to get past just saying, oh, the Bible is good.
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Yeah, exactly. It's to get to why it has to be
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seen as the absolute required tool for making disciples across
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cultures. And our mission for this deep
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dive, then, is to really unpack the logic behind proclaiming
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God's Word as the only authoritative and sufficient
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means. It is because if you lose
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confidence in the book, you pretty much lose the mission.
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So we have to look at the practical challenges too,
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especially that that constant pressure toward what's called
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cultural accommodation, which can really water down the
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message. To get us started, the sources
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bring up this just a fantastic account from the Gospels.
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It's the Roman centurion. You see it in Matthew 8 and Luke
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7. And this man, this officer, a
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Gentile, a man with real power, he gives us the perfect picture
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of what faith looks like when it's confronted by Christ's
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total rule. What's so striking about him is
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his almost military grade grasp of authority.
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He's a centurion. He commands 100 men.
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He gives orders, They're followed, no questions asked.
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But he knows exactly where his own authority comes from.
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It's delegated. It's given to him from a higher
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command. He himself is a man under
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authority. And that's the key.
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So when his servant is paralyzed and in agony, he doesn't do what
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most people would do. He doesn't assume Jesus needs
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to, you know, physically come to his house and do some kind of
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ritual. No, he doesn't demand a visible
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sign. Instead he just says, Lord, I am
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not fit for you to come under my roof, but just say the word and
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my servant will be healed. That is just kid.
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It's not just him being polite. Not at all.
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It's this deep recognition that Jesus's word, just his spoken
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word, carries its own sovereign authority over creation, over
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life and death. Self.
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Jesus doesn't have to lift a finger, He just has to speak.
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And Jesus calls this such great faith, and I think the sources
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are saying that's the kind of settled confidence in the power
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of the spoken word that has to define anyone proclaiming the
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gospel today. That's it.
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We trust in Christ's Word alone to do the work, not in our own
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actions or cleverness. OK, so that leads us directly
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into the starting point for all missions, the Great Commission
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in Matthew 28. Yep.
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If you want to understand the missionary task, you have to
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start where Jesus starts, and that's with the statement that
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makes everything else possible. Which is preceded by that
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declaration of his reign. It is, he says.
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All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
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That's the core belief. That's what holds up the whole
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thing. Jesus.
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Jesus doesn't just have authority.
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The Father has given him total, unqualified authority over
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everything. Spiritual life, spiritual death,
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all of it. So the command to go and make
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disciples of all nations, it's not a suggestion.
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No, it's a command, and it's backed by the sovereign ruler of
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the universe. When those first disciples go
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out, they are not acting on their own, they're envoys of the
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King. And Matthew's Gospel, as the
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sources point out, doesn't just drop this in at the end.
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This idea of his authority is set up for the very first verse.
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It is Matthew 1.1. Jesus is tied right back to two
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massive Old Testament figures, Abraham and David.
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And the connection to Abraham is all about the scope of the
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mission for sure. Abraham was promised that
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through his offspring all the nations of the the earth would
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be blessed. So this shows that mishits was
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never like a Plan B, it was God's intention from the very
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beginning of the covenant. The reach was always meant to be
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global. And then David?
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Then you have David. He was promised a king, an heir
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who would rule over a God established eternal Kingdom.
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Jesus is that king. He's exercising that global
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sovereignty right now, and he's establishing his Kingdom on
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Earth through his word. The source has really pushed
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this idea of the universal scope of his control, Matthew says.
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His dominion is in heaven and on earth.
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That's that's everything. It is.
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It's not just a spiritual claim. It's a claim over every
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government, every plot of land, every philosophical system,
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every single human heart. And it's because his control is
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so total, so unlimited, that his followers are then empowered to
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go to the farthest corners of the earth.
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Exactly. The mission started with the
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Jewish people, the lost sheep of the House of Israel, but the
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plan was always for it to expand and cover the whole globe.
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Christ's absolute rule is the very thing that authorizes the
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missionaries work. So if Jesus has all the
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authority, what does that mean for the disciple?
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This brings us to a really crucial idea in the sources, the
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derived authority of the messenger.
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Right. A missionary doesn't have any
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authority in and of himself. The authority they exercise is
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derived. It comes from somewhere else.
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Specifically, it comes from Christ, and it's channeled
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through His specific commands in Scripture.
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OK, let's slow down that term. Derived authority sounds a bit
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academic. What does it actually mean for
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someone on the ground in a village sharing the gospel?
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What are the limits? It means their authority is
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strictly delimited, it has clear boundaries, and those boundaries
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are set right in the Great Commission, teaching them to
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observe all that I commanded you.
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So the missionary is completely bound by what Christ commanded
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completely. And that's really the point of
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friction and missions today, isn't it?
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If they step outside of all the Christ commanded.
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If they start adding their own opinions or maybe new moral
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rules or some extra biblical rituals.
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Derived authority is gone. It just collapses.
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The message can't be reduced to just, you know, personal
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stories. And it can include the
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missionary's own cultural preferences or new theological
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ideas. So if a missionary claims
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Christ's authority, but they're only teaching half his commands,
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or they're adding things to them.
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They're in danger of acting like the Pharisees, who, you know,
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nullified God's word with their own traditions.
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Paul was so focused on this. I'm thinking of 2nd Corinthians
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4.5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as
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Lord. And ourselves as your
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bondservants, for Jesus sake. Yes, the preacher's whole job is
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to tie the message so tightly to the Word of Christ that only the
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Lord is seen. The messenger has to become
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invisible in a way so that only the message remains.
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So when the missionary proclaims Christ's commands accurately and
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faithfully. That message carries the very
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same spiritual authority, as if Jesus himself were standing
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there speaking. They were speaking on behalf of
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Christ. They're delivering a divine
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message. That was given incredible
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confidence. You're not relying on your own
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personality or how persuasive you are.
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Not at all. You're resting on the fact that
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when you use scripture to call people to submit to Christ, you
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are wielding divine authority. And that authority is what
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confronts sin, calls for repentance and offers
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forgiveness. But it also warns of judgement.
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Right, and that Direct Line between Christ's total authority
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and the missionaries faithful proclamation, that is the source
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of its power. It's what separates it from
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every other human idea or religion.
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OK, let's take that concept of derive the limited authority and
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look at where the the real world pressures start to pull it off
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course. The sources frame this as a
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spectrum attention and how people approach disciple making.
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On one end you have what's called biblical proclamation.
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This is the approach that insists on preaching and
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teaching Scripture in a way that affirms its authority and
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sufficiency in every single missionary activity.
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No compromise. And the goal there is just
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clarity. It's making the biblical content
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so understandable that the hearers can actually adopt A new
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worldview, one that's defined by Scripture, not by their home
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culture. So that would mean your
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priorities are things like Bible translation, biblical preaching,
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theological training. Yes, all of it.
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You have to address every theological concept because it's
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all part of all that Christ commanded.
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You can't just skip the parts that might be offensive or hard
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to understand. And then on the other end of the
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spectrum, you have cultural accommodation, and this is where
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the trouble starts. It is this is the approach that
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tries to modify the biblical authors intended meaning, or
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maybe delay teaching certain doctrines, all because of a
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perceived need to make the Bible culturally relevant.
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Now, to be fair, the sources make a really vital distinction
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here. We need to be clear about what
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this negative form of accommodation is not.
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That's a great point. Otherwise, we sound like we're
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critiquing things that are actually necessary for
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communication. Right.
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So first, it is not linked linguistic accommodation.
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No, that's essential. You have to articulate biblical
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truth using the target cultures grammar, their idioms, their
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terminology. A missionary has to learn the
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language and find the best words possible to express concepts
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like forgiveness or sin or sacrifice.
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Give us a practical example of that.
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Well, say you're trying to translate the idea of Jesus as
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the Good Shepherd into a culture that has never even seen sheep.
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You have to find a local equivalent for a caring guardian
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of of animals. Maybe it's the one who tends the
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camels or the water Buffalo. That's linguistic accommodation.
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You're using a local term to get across the original fixed
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meaning. OK.
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And it's also not about superficial cultural adaptation
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by the missionary. Right.
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Think about Hudson Taylor in China.
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He knew that being a very obvious European was a barrier
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to the gospel. So he shaved his head, grew the
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traditional pigtail, wore Chinese clothes.
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He did. It was a huge personal
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sacrifice, but he did it to limit the distraction of his
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foreignness. He wasn't changing the content
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of his message, he was just making himself more
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approachable. So if those things are OK, if
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they're just good contextualization, where does
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accommodation cross the line and become a problem?
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The sources define the dangerous strategies as those that look to
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the hearer's own culture and religious beliefs as the
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starting point for deciding what the message should be.
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So the culture starts dictating the theology instead of the
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other way around. Precisely.
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You're no longer asking what did God say?
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You're asking what will this culture accept?
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And that leads to this dangerous process of picking and choosing,
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deciding which doctrines to communicate, which ones to
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adapt, where ones to maybe delay or even just leave out
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altogether. You see this a lot in a
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theological method, right? Where people question if
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interpretation based on, you know, historical grammatical
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principles which they'll label Western hermeneutics is even
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valid for non western world views.
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Yeah, they'll claim that non western audiences need a totally
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different way of looking at the Bible.
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But that raises a huge question. If the Bible's meaning depends
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on the cultural lens of the person reading it, does it have
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any fixed objective meaning at all?
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That's the problem. The moment you suggest the
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message has to be filtered through the target cultures
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traditions to be true, you've denied the universal sufficiency
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of God's word. And this gets right to the heart
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of it. It's a crisis of confidence.
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It is, the sources suggest, that deep down, not all missionaries
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are fully convinced that the Word of God, when it's
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proclaimed accurately, is the Holy Spirit's sufficient tool
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for real gospel change. They believe Scripture has a
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role to play. But they're looking for
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something extra, a cultural bridge, a philosophical hook, an
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emotional trigger, something to help the Word along.
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Because they don't fully trust that God's Spirit works
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primarily through God's Word, they're searching for relevance
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when the Bible itself claims to have inherent authority.
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Which brings us right to the doctrine of sufficiency.
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If you question the words effectiveness, you are
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questioning its sufficiency. You are.
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The Westminster Confession is so clear on this.
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The whole Council of God is either expressly set down in
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Scripture or can be deduced from it, and nothing is to be added,
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whether by new revelations or by human traditions.
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So sufficiency is the claim that the Bible gives us complete,
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adequate information about God, His will and salvation, so that
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we can obey Him with our whole heart.
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God has revealed everything that is necessary for us to know
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about Him, about the path to salvation, and about His will
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for us. There is nothing left to be
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revealed that is essential for life and godliness.
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And that leads right to the prohibition against adding to or
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taking away from the 66 books of the Canon.
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All of God's intended spiritual revelation has been delivered.
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It's fixed, it's final, it's written.
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And the strength of that doctrine gives so much
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confidence to the missionary. The sources point to three
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theological claims that really support the doctrine of
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sufficiency, showing why we can assert the whole Bible without
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needing these cultural compromises.
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The first is divine inspiration. Scripture is sufficient because
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it is the actual God. Breathe.
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Revelation of the one true God. Right, God supernaturally guided
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human authors, Peter, Paul, Moses to record his thoughts and
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words, all under the superintendents of the Holy
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Spirit. Which means the Bible is not
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just a book of human wisdom. No, it's the very voice of
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God-given so so that finite people like us could actually
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understand the plan of our perfect, infinite Creator.
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That's what makes the text unique and gives it its absolute
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authority. The second claim follows from
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that perfect truth. Because the words are from God,
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they represent theological truth without any error.
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They come from the mind of God. And that is so critical for
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missions. If the Bible has errors, even
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small ones, then the missionary has to become the judge of which
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parts are trustworthy and which aren't.
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And then the missionary becomes the final authority, which
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undermines the whole mission. It does, but if every word is
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true, then the missionary can stand on the whole text with
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total conviction. And the third claim is that the
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content is eternal and animated. Psalm 119 says your word is
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fixed forever in heaven. The content is fixed and it's
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made alive by the Holy Spirit. The spiritual life in the Word
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doesn't fade and its truth doesn't change with the times.
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It's the imperishable seed of the new birth.
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What Scripture meant in its original context is what it was
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always meant to mean. OK, so let's bring this back to
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the mission field. What are the undeniable
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consequences of really believing in sufficiency?
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If a missionary truly believes the Bible is enough, how does
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that change their practice? Well first it means a missionary
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has no excuse not to preach and teach the entire Bible.
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If God has given us everything we need to know reality from his
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point of view, then the missionaries task is actually
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simplified. Just deliver the message as it's
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written. And 2nd, and this must be a huge
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relief, the hearer's obedience doesn't depend on their
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subjective feelings or whether the message lines up with their
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local traditions. Right.
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The pressure is off the missionary to try and make it
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relevant. The spiritual effectiveness is
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tied to the means that God chose.
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Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
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So the responsibility for conversion is on the Holy
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Spirit, and the responsibility for belief is on the center.
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Yes, the message either converts or it condemns, but its effect
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doesn't rest on the missionary sales pitch.
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So what's the inevitable result if sufficiency is ignored?
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If a missionary relies on cultural appeals or emotional
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manipulation instead of faithful preaching.
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That leads to the warning in the sources.
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If evangelistic work isn't rooted in this complete trust
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that Scripture is God's unique means of changing people, then
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the search for cultural relevance will be totally
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ineffective for salvation. If the missionary tries to find
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common ground by accommodating sin or avoiding the hard
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doctrines like substitutionary atonement.
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They're delivering A compromised message, and that message just
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becomes a kind of moralism. It's a system for how to live a
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better life or be a good neighbor.
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It doesn't have the engine of divine authority, it has no
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ability to deal with deep seated sin, no confidence to call for
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real repentance, and no demand for holiness.
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It's just another religion, it's not Christianity.
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We've laid out the divine foundation for missions.
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Now let's shift to where this principle often breaks down in
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the real world. The sources say the most common
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problem isn't a direct theological attack, but a
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practical neglect of the Bible's authority, often showing up as
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authority being placed in a man. This is a massive structural
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problem. You see it especially in
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traditional non western cultures, tribal systems or
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places with a strong patriarchal mindset.
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Authority in those settings tends to rest with the elder,
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the chief, the one who has the final say.
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And when the gospel comes into that culture, that mindset just
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gets transferred over to the church.
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The pastor or the charismatic leader becomes the final
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spiritual authority. And the danger there is just
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enormous. Because that man is fallible.
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He might be misinterpreting scripture because he's poorly
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trained, or even worse, he could be twisting it for his own
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personal gain. And if that local leader is seen
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as the final spiritual authority, the congregation is
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basically held captive to whatever he teaches.
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There's no accountability to the fixed Word of God.
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The source is called this theological injustice.
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The flock can be fleeced by false teachers who use their
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platform for money or power. So what's the solution?
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How do you break that cycle and fix that injustice?
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It has to be systemic. It has to focus on a rigorous,
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practical training. The focus in missions training
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needs to be on deep practical hermeneutics, the science of
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rightly interpreting Scripture. So teaching local pastors how to
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get their sermon outlines from the biblical text itself from
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the author's original meaning without adding their own ideas.
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Exactly. But it's more than just training
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the pastor. The pastor has to then model
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total submission to the Word. He has to openly say that he is
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accountable to God for teaching his Word accurately, and then he
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has to equip his congregation. Give them the skills and the
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permission to study the Bible for themselves and to hold their
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leaders accountable. Right.
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The goal is to see congregations mature into what we'd call
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Barians, like in the book of Acts, who checked even the
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Apostle Paul's teaching against the Scriptures every day.
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That's what breaks the hold of the authoritative man.
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The people stop asking what does the pastor say?
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And they start asking, what does the Bible say?
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And for those pastors who are sincere but they've been poorly
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trained and they discover they've been teaching things
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that are wrong, the sources are pretty sensitive here.
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The response shouldn't be to just dismiss them.
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It should be conviction. Sorrow for their failure,
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confession to their congregation asking for forgiveness, and
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then, and this is key, joyfully sharing the new things they are
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learning from the written word. That public act of submitting to
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the Bible re establishes Scripture as the real authority
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in that church. The sources bring up a second
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authority issue, and this one tends to come from the West.
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It's authority issues with the Western missionary.
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This is a subtle one, but it's a big problem.
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It comes from, you know, American cultural disregard for
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authority combined with a high value on independence and being
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an entrepreneur. That cultural baggage can be
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really destructive to long term ministry.
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It can. It leads some Western
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missionaries to act like spiritual entrepreneurs.
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They see themselves as the CEO of their own little ministry,
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and they resist placing themselves under any God or
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ordained authority structure. And this individualism can show
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up in a few ways. They might undervalue or not
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work respectfully with local church leaders, which just
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creates division. Or, just as bad, they fail to
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submit to their sending church back home.
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They become lone Rangers. They see the sending church as
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just a source of funds, not a spiritual authority they need to
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report to or receive correction from.
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But the standard is the same no matter the culture.
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God has said at the church. And he calls all Christians,
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missionaries included, to submit to the authority of the church
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leaders he's put in place. And those leaders, in turn, must
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lead under Christ's authority, as it's revealed in His Word.
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A ministry that operates inside that biblical structure is the
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kind of ministry that God sustains.
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OK, to really see how these principles clash with reality,
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let's look at this detailed case study from the sources focusing
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on the massive mission field of Africa.
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The cultural authority structures there create some
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very unique challenges for the written word.
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They do. In many African contexts,
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authority is understood to be in individuals, elders, chiefs,
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even departed ancestors, not in an objective fixed document like
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a law, code or the Bible. This is because historically
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these are oral traditions, not literary ones.
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And that's a huge disconnect. The source of the Gospels
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authority is the biblical document, a literary tradition,
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and missionaries can fail to bridge that gap.
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They jump to talking about Christ without first
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establishing the source and the fixed nature of the message
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about Him. Let's breakdown 4 specific
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influences the sources highlight that challenge the Bible
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supremacy in Africa. The 1st is the influence of
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African Traditional Religion, or ATR.
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And syncretism here is just incredibly common.
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In some places, Christ is just sort of absorbed into the
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existing system as a white man's ancestor, a powerful but dead
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mediator among many others. The problem comes from the
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traditional worldview about life in ATR.
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You might worship Christ as the one who gets you to heaven, the
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afterlife, but you still venerate your ancestors as the
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mediators who help you in the present life.
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Getting a job, staying healthy, protection from spirit.
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And for the lost Sinner, the present life is what matters
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most. Getting by now is the main
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concern. So the ancestors will always
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have more practical day-to-day authority than Christ does.
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The sources give a really sharp example.
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A woman from the Zion Christian Church in South Africa.
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When she was told about Christ's exclusivity, that he is the only
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mediator, she just rejected it. Her prophet had taught her she
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could worship both ancestors and Christ.
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She saw it as just a difference in rituals, not a theological
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contradiction. So the non negotiable claim of
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the written words that there is only one mediator, Christ Jesus
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was just dismissed. The prophets culturally
21:49
friendly, message one out. Then you have the second factor,
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the influence of Roman Catholicism.
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Catholicism is deeply rooted in many parts of Africa and it
21:57
appeals very strongly to oral traditions.
22:00
How so? Well it doesn't challenge the
22:01
existing anti literary culture. Someone could be a Catholic
22:04
their entire life and die without ever having read the
22:06
scriptures for themselves, and in an oral culture where
22:09
information is passed down by ritual and by word of mouth,
22:12
that's seen as perfectly normal. And the hierarchy of Catholicism
22:16
must resonate with those traditional authority
22:18
structures. It does perfectly.
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The Pope's supposed infallible authority, when he speaks ex
22:24
cathedra, lines up perfectly with a cultural blueprint where
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authority is tied to a single supreme human leader.
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The sources mentioned an example of the Pope speaking about civil
22:36
rights in the Congo. Right, and he was accepted as
22:39
the authority on the subject simply because of his position,
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even if his statements didn't have solid scriptural support.
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The power was in the man and his title, not in a fixed text.
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And then there's the veneration of Mary.
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Which is a huge factor. She appeals to many Africans
22:54
because she functions like a compassionate ancestor figure,
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someone you pray through to get to Christ.
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It creates a kind of spiritual buffer against the direct
23:02
evangelism of Christ as the only sufficient living mediator.
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Let's move to the third factor, which might be the fastest
23:09
growing challenge today, the influence of the prosperity
23:12
gospel. And these false teachers are
23:14
brilliant at exploiting the oral authority centered context.
23:18
The source of authority is entirely in the big charismatic
23:21
personality on the stage. And that's why they're always
23:24
promoting themselves. Constantly.
23:25
They'll start as a pastor, then they become a self declared
23:28
prophet, then they'll ascend to apostle status.
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The higher the title, the more authority they claim, and the
23:34
more seriously people feel they have to listen.
23:36
It's basically a modern substitute for the traditional
23:38
spiritist. That's a great way to put it.
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In urban areas, going to a traditional spiritist is
23:43
sometimes looked down on, associated with witchcraft.
23:46
The prosperity preacher offers what looks like a righteous
23:49
alternative. But they promised the exact same
23:52
thing. The exact same things, a
23:54
prosperous life, riches, protection, control over your
23:58
circumstances, but they wrap it all in Christian language, often
24:02
guaranteeing wealth and health that the Bible never guarantees.
24:06
And the real danger is that the listeners don't go check the
24:08
scriptures because the leader himself, the successful rich man
24:12
of God, is the authority. His lifestyle is the proof of
24:15
his doctrine. Yeah, if he promises wealth and
24:18
he looks wealthy, his word is seen as sufficient no matter
24:21
what the Bible actually says. Finally, the 4th factor, the
24:25
influence of the African theological scholar.
24:28
Modernity is bringing a rise in literacy, but this is now being
24:32
shaped by indigenous African theologians who are becoming
24:36
major authority figures themselves.
24:38
Right. And with their growing
24:39
influence, a central agenda in many academic institutions has
24:43
become decolonization. They want to overhaul the
24:47
curriculum to remove Western influence and find purely
24:50
indigenous solutions to African problems.
24:52
And in theology, that means promoting an African
24:55
hermeneutic. Interpreting the Bible through a
24:57
specifically African cultural lens, which is ironically the
25:01
same thing they accuse the West of doing.
25:04
The danger is that this can lead to creating subjective rules for
25:07
interpretation that are based on traditional religions and
25:09
cultures. So they might elevate
25:11
traditional folk religion to the same interpretive level as the
25:14
Bible itself. Right, they'll say it's
25:17
spiritual and intellectual liberation.
25:19
But if you have to prioritize your cultural context over the
25:22
grammatical historical context of the Bible, then the Bible is
25:25
no longer the objective sufficient word of God.
25:27
It becomes subject to whatever the current cultural mood is.
25:30
So the conclusion for the African context is pretty
25:32
sobering. It's a mission field where false
25:34
teachers are very good at manipulating these authority
25:37
structures, while true gospel preachers often fail to
25:40
understand them. And that leads to a lot of
25:42
syncretism. The real battle is over the
25:46
Bible itself and its accurate interpretation.
25:49
If you introduce Christ without first establishing the authority
25:52
of the fixed written word, He just ends up on the shelf as one
25:56
powerful spirit among many. Called on for certain blessings,
26:00
but not worshipped as the exclusive, all sufficient Savior
26:03
and Lord. Exactly.
26:04
The authority of the written word is the necessary
26:07
prerequisite for anyone to understand Christ's exclusive
26:10
authority. And that brings us right back to
26:12
where we started, the authority and sufficiency of the means of
26:15
missions. Everything depends on our
26:17
confidence that the Bible is what it claims to.
26:19
Sum it all up. The Bible describes itself as
26:21
the sufficient authoritative means that the Holy Spirit uses
26:25
to save sinners. So accurate interpretation and
26:28
proclamation of Scripture, not cultural savvy or philosophical
26:31
arguments, has to be the starting place for all missions.
26:34
So when missionaries interpret the Bible according to the
26:37
normal rules of grammar and syntax, looking for the original
26:40
authors meaning, and then they teach that accurately.
26:42
They are wielding the greatest tool there is to confront all
26:45
rival theologies and any attempt to adapt the message that
26:49
changes that original fixed intent just compromises the
26:53
whole thing. The moment you decide some part
26:56
of what Christ commanded is too hard or too offensive for a
26:58
certain culture, you've compromised the authority of the
27:01
King who gave the command. Right.
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And when the full, uncompromised Word is preached, the audience
27:07
gets access to all the spiritual knowledge they need to be
27:10
conformed to the image of Christ.
27:12
They have to become doers of the Word and hold to that standard
27:15
of sound words. The content has to be accurate.
27:18
If the missionary doesn't have that complete trust that
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Scripture is God's absolute sufficient means of conversion.
27:25
The mission just becomes cultural activity and moralism.
27:28
It doesn't have the spiritual ability to really deal with sin
27:31
or call people to genuine holiness.
27:33
The Word itself has to be the center.
27:35
So the defining mark of a faithful ambassador for Christ
27:38
is that they are always seeking to preach God's Word at every
27:41
opportunity, even when it's not popular.
27:44
It is, and the source of rest and comfort for anyone who
27:47
proclaims His Word is knowing that Christ Himself authorizes
27:51
the message, and He promises His personal sovereign presence with
27:55
them, even to the end of the age.
27:57
We do the planting and watering. But the Word directed by the
28:00
Spirit is what brings the growth.
28:03
That's a great way to wrap up the necessity of trusting the
28:06
revealed text. Before we finish, here's a final
28:09
thought from the sources for you to consider.
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The sources suggest that a sinner's genuine recognition of
28:14
biblical authority is a spiritual event that happens
28:16
right at regeneration. So with that in mind, how might
28:20
a stronger focus on establishing the doctrine of Scripture before
28:23
delivering the gospel message change how we approach highly
28:26
resistant cultures? If the Spirit is already
28:29
preparing the heart to recognize divine speech, should we spend
28:33
more time arguing for the fixed nature of that speech itself?
28:36
That is certainly something to think about as you process
28:38
today's deep dive into the absolute authority and
28:42
sufficiency of the written word in global missions.
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Thank you for sharing these sources with us and for letting
28:47
us walk you through this essential.
28:48
Topic. We'll see you next time.