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Sovereign Wind, Unbroken Word: A Confessional Critique of the New Global Mission · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. You are joining us for a deep
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dive that operates as a shortcut to being well informed on a
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subject that is frankly reshaping the entire global
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religious landscape as we speak. Yeah, it really is changing
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everything right under our feet. It is.
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And you know, if you have ever looked at a blueprint for a
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building, you know there's a certain comfort in the precision
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of it all. Oh sure, a stress test shows a
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specific fracture in a steel beam and the engineer just
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points at the schematic and says there is the problem.
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It is clean. It is binary.
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Broken or not broken? Right, you can see the math
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right there on the page. You fix the beam, the building
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stands. Yeah.
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But then you step into the world of global missiology and
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theological demographics, and suddenly that blueprint reader
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is totally broken. Yeah, we're looking at a
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diagnostic landscape that is honestly incredibly murky.
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Murky is the perfect word for it, yeah.
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So today our mission is unpacking a pair of intense
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theological essays offering a severe critique of what is often
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called the new global mission. The sources we have in front of
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us tackle the massive demographic shift of
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Christianity. We are talking about the center
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of gravity moving rapidly away from the West and just exploding
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across the global South. Yeah, shifting to places like
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Africa, Latin America, parts of Asia.
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But these essays do not just report the numbers.
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They analyze this massive shift through a strict historical
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confessional lens. And that specific lens is what
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makes these documents so fascinating to look at.
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Absolutely. Right now there is a massive
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celebration going on in a lot of academic and missiological
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circles. People are throwing parades
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essentially to celebrate the explosive numerical growth of
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independent and charismatic churches across the global S,
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But the authors of our sources are stepping into that parade
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and raising a massive red flag. A huge red flag.
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The hook here is that these essays argue this phenomenal
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growth is a miles wide but only an inch deep situation.
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Yeah, that is the exact phrase. They are making the case that
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this rapid expansion is leaving millions of people totally
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vulnerable to predatory heresies.
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OK, let's untack this. Where do we even begin to set
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the stage for a demographic earthquake of this magnitude?
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Well. We need to start by looking at
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the collapse of an old paradigm. For centuries, the standard
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model of Christian mission was essentially unidirectional.
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Right, the old way of doing things.
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Yeah, it was characterized by a very specific phrase, the West
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to the rest. The West to the rest Wow.
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You had these established, institutionally heavy
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theological centers in Europe and North America.
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They were the ones raising the funds, training the personnel,
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printing the literature and sending it all out to the
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margins of the globe, right? But as we sit here in the 21st
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century, that model has completely disintegrated.
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It's entirely gone. We are now living in a
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polycentric reality. I think the phrase the authors
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use is that the gospel is moving from everywhere to everyone.
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Precisely. You have missionaries from
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Nigeria planting churches in the middle of London.
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Which is wild to think about. It is.
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You have evangelists from Brazil reaching secular neighborhoods
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in Portugal. Samuel Escobar, who is discussed
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heavily in our sources, documented this demographic
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explosion thoroughly in his work on the new global mission.
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Right, Escobar is a big name here.
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He is, and he looks at this shift, specifically the rise of
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Pentecostal and indigenous independent sectors in the
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Global South, and he sees it as a magnificent raw work of the
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Holy Spirit. He attributes this growth to a
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spontaneous indigenous energy. Right Escobar and those who
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share his view look at the Global South and say, look at
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the spontaneity, look at the freedom.
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Yeah, they love the lack of structure.
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They argue that these newer movements have successfully
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bypassed the cold, intellectualized, rigid
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institutionalism of Western Christendom.
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They look at the uninhibited emotional indigenous gatherings
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and view them as a return to the pristine 1st century Apostolic
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Church. It's right like they bypassed
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all the bureaucracy. From their perspective, the
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divine initiative has simply bypassed the old stuffy Western
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gatekeepers Which. Brings us to the severe
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theological warning in our source material.
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The authors of these confessional essays say, hold on
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a minute. We are commanded to test the
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spirits. They're not throwing the parade.
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Not at all. They are not looking at the raw
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numbers with the same uncritical enthusiasm.
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They rely on historical data, specifically pointing to David
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Barrett's 1988 statistics, to paint a much more sobering
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picture of this demographic earthquake. 1988 OK.
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Barrett estimated there were 332 million affiliated charismatics
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globally at that time, but the numbers alone do not tell the
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story. The most revealing parts of that
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data are the socioeconomic markers attached to those
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millions of people. Those socioeconomic markers are
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staggering when you actually stop and look at them.
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The data shows that 71% of that massive group were nonwhite, 66%
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resided in the Third world, and a massive 87% lived in severe
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economic poverty. 87%, that is huge.
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And on top of that, the vast majority of these adherents were
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urban settlers. That detail about urban settlers
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is the absolute key to understanding the vulnerability
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the authors are talking about. The text introduces a concept
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called urban anime. Anime ANOM i.e. right?
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Yes. This is a sociological term
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describing a state of psychological uprooting and
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severe normlessness. To grasp this, you have to
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imagine the sheer scale of rapid urbanization happening in the
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Global South. Just massive cities popping.
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Up. Yeah, you have millions of
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people leaving agrarian, rural, traditional village structures.
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They are packing up and flooding into the massive, sprawling
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slums of megacities. If you are listening to this,
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try to put yourself in that scenario for a second.
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Think about what it feels like to move to a new city where you
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do not know a single soul. It is terrifying.
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Now multiply that feeling of isolation by 1000 and strip away
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your economic safety net. You lose your traditional
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support networks. You lose your ancestral roots.
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You lose everything familiar. The established agricultural
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rhythms of your life, planting, harvesting, the seasons are
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gone. You are suddenly thrust into a
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concrete jungle, living in extreme poverty, surrounded by
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strangers. That creates an intense
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psychological vacuum. People living in a state of
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anime are desperately seeking immediate community.
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Of course they are. They need immediate answers to
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the crushing pressures of daily survival.
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They are looking for emotional security in a highly go secure
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environment. In that state of heightened
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vulnerability, careful intellectual discernment often
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takes a backseat. Right.
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You're not worried about high level theology when you're
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starving. Exactly.
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The promise of immediate miraculous relief or a cathartic
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ecstatic experience becomes incredibly alluring.
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So you have this massive population, they are
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economically impoverished and they are psychologically
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uprooted. And the sympathetic
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missiologist, the one throwing the parade, say we'll look at
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their methods, the oral liturgies, the uninhibited
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emotionalism, the focus on subjective dreams and narrative
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theology. These are perfectly adapted to
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the culture of poverty. It resonates with them where
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they are. But our sources argue that this
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supposed perfect adaptation is actually masking an acute
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crisis. They argue that relying on a
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narrative theology is a massive mistake.
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Let's define narrative theology real quick.
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Narrative theology in this context means prioritizing
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subjective personal testimonies, dreams, and visions over
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systematic, objective, doctrinal instruction.
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The authors argue that if you give a marginalized population
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nothing but emotional stories and subjective experiences, you
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leave them completely defenseless.
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Like 0 immune system. Right.
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They become prime targets for the Word of Faith and prosperity
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gospel movements. It makes complete sense.
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When a religious movement avoids written, systematic and
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confessional structures, it rapidly degenerates into
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subjective mysticism, and false teachers know spot on how to
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exploit that vacuum. They do.
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They manipulate the desperate economic desires of the
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impoverished. They walk into these massive,
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sprawling urban slums and promise physical health,
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guaranteed financial wealth, and miraculous escapes from poverty
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in exchange for financial seed faith.
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Which is just awful. The essays point out that this
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is not historic Christianity at all.
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It is predatory superstition dressed up in Christian
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terminology. The late John Stott diagnosed
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this issue brilliantly, noting that the explosive numerical
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growth we see is often growth without any real depth.
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It makes me think of a construction analogy.
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Imagine a real estate developer wants to build a massive
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towering skyscraper, and they decide to build it right in the
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middle of a swamp. OK, terrible idea, but go on.
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But instead of taking the time and the money to drive steel
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pilings all the way down through the muck and into the solid
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bedrock, they just pour a quick, shallow concrete pad on top of
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the mud. Why?
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Because it is faster, it is cheaper, it gets immediate
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results. Right, you see progress right
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away. On the surface, the building
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goes up incredibly fast. It looks huge, it looks
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impressive. Everyone is standing around
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cheering at how quickly it was built.
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But structurally, because it has no bedrock beneath it, it is
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highly susceptible to total collapse the moment of severe
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storm hits. That analogy hits the nail on
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the head. In the context of these essays,
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the storm is specifically identified as false doctrine.
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The authors are watching things like the prosperity gospel sweep
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through these fragile, emotionally driven structures
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and tear them down. Just leveling them.
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Yeah, without the bedrock of systematic confessional
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theology, the sheer massive size of the movement is actually a
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liability. It means more people are getting
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hurt when the structure fails. And what I find so interesting
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is how the authors propose fixing this.
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They argue the antidote is not a patronizing celebration of their
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emotionalism. The fix is the rigorous patient
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implementation of systematic catechizing and confessional
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literacy. Not to the basics.
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Right. They are calling for the
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planting of local churches anchored in objective exposition
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rather than subjective experience.
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Which naturally leads us to ask a major question.
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If these pragmatic, emotionally driven methods are creating such
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massive structural vulnerabilities, what is the
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actual engine of true biblical missions?
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How is this global expansion supposed to work mechanically?
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That links directly to the theological mechanism of
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salvation itself. The texts pivot here to evaluate
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the underlying theological roots of modern missions.
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The authors argue that the authentic global mission of the
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Church must be driven by absolute monarchism.
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OK, let's define monarchism for anyone who might not be familiar
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with the term. It sounds like heavy academic
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jargon, but it is incredibly practical when you break it
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down. It really is.
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Monarchism is the doctrine that salvation is a unilateral
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sovereign work of the Triune God alone.
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Motto meaning one Ergon meaning work, one worker, right?
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One worker. It is not a cooperative venture.
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The opposite of monarchism is synergism, which is often
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associated with Armenianism. In a synergistic framework,
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salvation is viewed as a joint effort.
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Like God does his part and I do mine.
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Yeah, it is a collaboration between a striving, willing
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human being and a waiting assistant divine helper.
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But in a monogistic framework, human hearts are described as
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spiritually dead. A dead heart cannot revive
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itself. A dead person cannot cooperate
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in their own resurrection. Precisely, therefore, God must
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act decisively and unilaterally to resurrect the spiritually
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dead soul. The text actually quotes the
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Westminster Confession of Faiths.
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To nail this down, they point specifically to Chapter 10,
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paragraph one, which covers effectual calling.
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It is very specific language. The language there is incredibly
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precise. It says God acts by His word and
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Spirit to take away the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh.
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He enlightens the mind and draws the elect to Christ.
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It is a total spiritual heart transplant performed entirely by
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the Great Physician, not a self improvement program initiated by
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the patient. And understanding that
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distinction is vital for missiology.
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How you view salvation completely dictates how you do
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missions. The essays offer a stinging
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critique of the modern Western church for adopting an
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anthropocentric or human centered attitude.
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A human centered attitude. They cite Bishop John V Taylor,
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who identified this bedeviling mindset.
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He called it the belief that it all depends on me.
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It all depends on me. That is a crushing psychological
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burden for a missionary to carry.
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It is crushing and it alters the methodology completely.
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The problem is when mission boards and agencies adopt A
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functional Arminianism, when they truly believe that human
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choice and human persuasion are the ultimate decisive factors,
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and whether someone is saved or lost, they become inherently
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pragmatic. Right, because if I believe it
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all depends on me convincing someone to make a choice, I am
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going to use every single marketing trick in the book.
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You have to. If the eternal destiny of the
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person sitting across from me relies on my ability to close
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the sale, I will replace the objective preaching of the cross
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with market research. I will look at corporate
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franchise models to see what gets the most foot traffic.
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You start running it like a business.
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I will figure out how to make the message more seeker
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sensitive. I will inevitably compromise the
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hard offensive truths of the gospel to maximize the human
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performance metrics. You end up treating the pulpit
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like a sales pitch. That is the core concern of our
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authors. They argue that this functional
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Arminianism leads straight to missiological pragmatism.
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The relevance of cultural adaptation becomes prioritized
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over the unadulterated truth. You do whatever works.
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Yeah, if a fog machine, a laser light show and a watered down
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sermon get more people to raise their hands, the pragmatic
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messiologist says do it. The results justify the means.
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But if you strip away the pragmatism and rely entirely on
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God's unilateral action? If you truly lean into
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monarchism, you run into a classic philosophical objection.
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I will play devil's advocate here because this is the
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question everyone asks when they encounter this doctrine.
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If God unilaterally decides who is saved and the outcome is
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already guaranteed by a divine decree from eternity past,
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doesn't that completely kill the motivation for human beings to
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go out and preach? The why bother argument.
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Yeah, exactly. If God has his elect and he is
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going to save them anyway, why should a missionary pack up
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their family, risk their life in a hostile jungle or a dangerous
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urban center, and preach the gospel?
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If we connect this to the bigger picture, the authors provide an
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incredibly robust response to that specific objection.
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They introduce a dispensational framework of redemptive history
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to answer it. They clarify that the goal of
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the current Church Age is not the political Christianization
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of the entire cosmos. We are not taking over the world
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politically. Right now, no.
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The Church is not currently tasked with building a utopian
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social justice project. We are not establishing A
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literal geopolitical earthly Kingdom right now.
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The distinct, specific goal of this current age is the
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gathering of a Gentile bride, the Church.
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And because this gathering is backed by a divine decree, the
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success of the mission is absolutely guaranteed.
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So the argument is that the guarantee does not kill the
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motivation, it actually fuels it.
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Absolutely. Think about the weary
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missionary. Imagine they're facing an
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incredibly hostile culture, they have been laboring for years,
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and they see absolutely no visible fruit.
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Which happens a lot. It does.
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If the success of their mission relied entirely on their own
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human ingenuity, or their own persuasiveness, or their ability
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to market the Church, they would despair.
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They would pack up and quit. But the divine decree provides
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supreme comfort to that exhausted worker.
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Because they know it is not up to their sales skills.
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Right, they know the outcome is certain.
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God has a people in that city and he will save them.
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However, the decree does not negate the method.
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That is the crucial balance. God ordained the end, but He
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also ordained the means. Yes, God ordained the salvation
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of the elect, but He also explicitly ordained the means to
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achieve that end, and the ordained method is the objective
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preaching of the Word. Just the word.
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The Holy Spirit quickens the dead soul exclusively by and
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with the written word. The human instrument is
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subordinate in the process, but entirely necessary as the
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designated herald. You cannot have the result
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without the preaching. So if the designated, biblically
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authorized method is the objective, systematic preaching
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of the word, why are so many modern movements, especially
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those celebrated in the global S, relying on spectacular signs,
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wonders, and ecstatic experiences?
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Where does the demand for the miraculous fit into this picture
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of global expansion? That leads us directly into a
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massive theological debate over the cessationist mandate to
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understand the current landscape.
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The texts trace the origins of classic Pentecostalism back to
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the early 20th century. Right, setting the historical
16:54
context. We are talking about figures
16:56
like Charles Parham in Topeka, KS around 19 O1 and William
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Seymour at the famous Azusa St. Revival in Los Angeles in 19 O
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6. The core theological assertion
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that emerged from those events is a doctrine called
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continuationism. And continuationism is the claim
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that the Apostolic signs have continued or been restored to
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the modern Church. We are talking about things like
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speaking in tongues, glossolalia, physical healings
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on demand, and direct prophetic revelations.
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Correct. The continuationist argues these
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supernatural signs are a necessary enablement for taking
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the gospel to the globe today. Yes, the continuationist argues
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that the church today should look experientially identical to
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the church we read about in the book of Acts.
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If Peter healed the sick with his shadow, the modern
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missionary should expect the same.
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Which is a very common view globally right now.
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It is, however, the essays we are examining present an
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uncompromising cessationist view which is heavily rooted in
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historic Reformed theology. They argue that the miraculous
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sign gifts were temporally bound to the bedrock office of the
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apostles. Once the New Testament Canon was
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completed, those specific revelatory and authenticating
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gifts cease to function. The exegesis they used to back
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this up is fascinating. They go to Ephesians chapter 2,
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verse 20. Paul's writing to the church at
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Ephesus, and he says the church is built on the foundation of
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the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the
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cornerstone. Right, looking at the
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architectural language. The logic the authors pull from
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this is so practical. Think about how you build a
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house. A builder lays a base layer, a
18:32
foundation, once at the beginning of a construction
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project. They do not continually lay a
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foundation while they are framing the second floor,
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putting shingles on the. Roof.
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That would be absurd. It would.
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Therefore, the revelatory sign gifts, which existed
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specifically to authenticate those original messengers before
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the Bible is finished, ceased when the foundation was
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complete. And they back this biblical
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exegesis up with confessional support.
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The text reference the Westminster Confession of Faith,
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chapter 1, paragraph one. That paragraph ends with a very
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specific definitive clause stating that God's former ways
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of revealing His will have now ceased.
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Done Finish. The Canon is closed, the
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foundation is laid. And this ties into a beautiful
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theological concept regarding the actual nature and role of
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the Holy Spirit. The essays cite the messiologist
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Harry Boer, who noted the self effacing or reticent nature of
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the Holy Spirit. A very helpful term, self
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effacing. They quote John chapter 16 verse
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14 where Jesus is teaching his disciples about the Spirit who
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is to come. Jesus says he will glorify me
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for you, will take what is mine and declare it to you.
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That verse is essentially the Holy Spirit's job description.
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His role is not to draw attention to himself.
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He does not promote cliotic spectacles, physical jerking,
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uncontrolled babbling, or unverified public healings.
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Right. His primary role in the economy
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of salvation is to spotlight the person, the office and the
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finished historical work of the crucified Christ.
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I love the theater analogy for this.
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Think of a dark theater during a dramatic play.
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The Holy Spirit is like the master stagehand operating the
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spotlight up in the rafters. OK, I like.
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This when you were sitting in the audience.
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You're not supposed to turn around in your seat, look up at
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the rafters, and stare blindly into the glaring beam of the
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spotlight itself. If you do that, you will just
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blind yourself and miss the entire show.
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Yeah, you missed the point entirely.
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You are supposed to look at the actor.
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The spotlight is illuminating on the stage.
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In this theological framework, the actor on the stage is Jesus.
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The Spirit is directing all your attention to the objective truth
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of Christ. That is a brilliant way to
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conceptualize it. The authors argue that the
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chaotic, emotionally charged spectacles we often see
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celebrated in modern charismatic messiology are not the authentic
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marks of the Holy Spirit's presence.
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Even though people call them that.
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Right. Based on the Spirit's self
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effacing nature, they suggest these phenomena are either
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psychological fabrications, cultural adaptations of Pagan
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mysticism, or perhaps something even darker.
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True missionary enablement is not found in a chaotic
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spectacle. It is found in the faithful,
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uncompromised proclamation of the written Word, which the
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Spirit quietly and effectively uses to bring life to the dead
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soul. But that theater analogy begs a
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massive question. If the Holy Spirit is just the
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stagehand and we aren't supposed to be looking for these chaotic,
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blinding spectacles, what are we looking?
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For what is the actual strategy? Yeah, when Jesus actually gave
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his followers the blueprint for global missions, what did he
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tell them to do? Where is the authorized mandate?
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To find that mandate, our sources provide a rigorous
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grammatical historical exegesis of Acts chapter 1, verses 6
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through 8. This passage is the absolute
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cornerstone of biblical messiology, but to understand it
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properly we have to graph the intense historical and
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psychological context of that moment.
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All right, let's set the scene. We are in a unique 40 day
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transition period. The resurrection of Christ has
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happened, but his ascension into heaven has not occurred yet.
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He is still with them physically.
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The disciples are gathered around the Risen Lord in
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Jerusalem. Now remember their political
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state. They are living under the
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crushing, brutal weight of the Roman Empire.
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They are facing severe religious hostility from the Jewish
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authorities who just colluded to have the rabbi executed.
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They are not in a position of cultural strength.
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Not at all. They are oppressed, they are
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marginalized and they want political liberation.
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So they asked Jesus a highly nationalistic, politically
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charged question in verse 6. They asked, Lord, will you at
22:34
this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?
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They are looking for a geopolitical revolution.
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They wanted Romans gone. They want the Davidic throne
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restored immediately so they can throw off the Roman yoke and
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rule the nations. They are completely obsessed
22:46
with the political timeline. And Jesus responds by totally
22:50
correcting their unauthorized curiosity.
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In verse 7. He tells them it is not for them
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to know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his
22:59
own authority. He shuts it down.
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He essentially tells them that the sovereign calendar of
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redemptive history is way above their pay grade.
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They're distracted by political speculation, and he reorients
23:12
them towards spiritual obedience.
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He redirects their attention to the global program of the Church
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Age, which must precede any final consummation of the
23:21
Kingdom. And that brings us to the
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massive shift in verse 8. The Greek phrasing here is
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incredibly precise, and our sources break it down
23:27
beautifully. Jesus starts with a sharp
23:29
contrast, but you he pivots them away from political schedules
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and points them to spiritual duties.
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But you I like that. He says but you will receive
23:38
dynamis. The sources point out that this
23:41
word dynamis denotes a supernatural capability.
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It is distinct from another Greek word, exusia, which means
23:47
delegated legal authority. That distinction is huge.
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The disciples already had the legal authority, the exusia from
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the Great Commission in Matthew 28.
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Jesus had already told them, All authority in heaven and on earth
24:00
has been given to me. Go therefore, and make
24:03
disciples. The authority was already there.
24:05
What they lacked in Acts Capture One was the objective
24:08
supernatural capability, the dynamics to execute that
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mission, and Jesus promises that capability will arrive when the
24:16
Holy Spirit comes upon them at Pentecost.
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Furthermore, the purpose of this capability is highly specific.
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Jesus says And you will be my witnesses.
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The Greek word there is martyrs, from which we get the English
24:27
word martyr right? The text stresses that a witness
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in a 1st century legal context is someone who bears objective
24:34
historical testimony to facts they've personally seen.
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Specifically, they are testifying to the bodily
24:39
resurrection and saving Lordship of Jesus Christ.
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They are a witness in a courtroom.
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Yes. They are not called to share
24:46
subjective emotional stories. They are not called to offer
24:50
generic moral uplift. There is certainly not called to
24:53
share personal mystical experiences.
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They are called to give a legal authoritative declaration of
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historical reality. Here's where it gets really
25:00
interesting, because Jesus then lays out the geographic
25:03
progression for this testimony. He says they will be witnesses
25:08
in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of
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the earth. The disciples were begging for a
25:13
political timeline, and Jesus handed them a geographical map
25:16
instead. A road map basically.
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And if you understand the culture of the 1st century, the
25:21
psychology of this map is brilliant breakdown that
25:24
progression for us. What does that map represent to
25:28
a 1st century Jewish disciple? It is incredibly confronting.
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Look at the locations. Jerusalem is the guilty city.
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It is the center of religious power, yes, but it is also the
25:37
very place where Christ was just unjustly crucified.
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Right, Ground Zero. Judea is the broader covenant
25:43
land, their home turf. But then he says Samaria.
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Samaria is highly hostile, despised territory.
25:50
The Jews and the Samaritans hated each other.
25:53
There were centuries of intense ethnic and religious animosity
25:56
there. You do not just casually walk
25:58
into Samaria. No, you avoided at all costs.
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And finally, the end of the earth represents the entire
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Gentile world, the Pagan nations, which actually fulfills
26:08
the ancient covenant promise found in Isaiah chapter 49 verse
26:11
6, where God says He will make His servant a light for the
26:14
nations. What's fascinating here is that
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this single verse acts as the literal table of contents for
26:20
the entire book of Acts. If you read Acts, chapters one
26:23
through 7 cover the Witness in Jerusalem.
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Chapters 8 through 12 cover the expansion into Judea and
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Samaria. And chapters 13 through 28 track
26:31
the massive missionary journeys to the end of the earth,
26:34
culminating in the Apostle Paul reaching Rome.
26:37
But beyond just providing A literary structure, the
26:39
theological weight of this map is immense.
26:42
It redefines everything. True global expansion is a
26:46
barrier crossing obedience. It forces the original Jewish
26:50
believers to completely shatter their ethnic prejudices.
26:53
Right, they had to drop all that baggage.
26:55
It forces them to view outsiders, even their violently
26:58
despised Samaritan neighbors, as equal Co heirs of the grace of
27:01
life. It humbles ethnic pride
27:04
entirely, but it does so without erasing the necessity of
27:07
doctrinal clarity. The Gospel must sovereignly
27:10
breakthrough every geographic, linguistic, and cultural barrier
27:13
on Earth, but it is the exact same objective truth being
27:17
proclaimed in every single location.
27:20
That is the key. They do not invent a new message
27:22
for Samaria. They do not soften the demands
27:24
of the gospel for the Romans. They bring the historical
27:27
witness of the resurrected Christ to every culture.
27:30
The mission refuses to stop until all peoples hear this
27:33
specific unadulterated testimony.
27:35
Which brings up a critical tension that the essays address
27:38
in their final section, as this objective message crosses all
27:41
these cultural barriers, especially moving into the
27:44
incredibly diverse context of the global S today.
27:47
How much should the Church adapt to local customs?
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How far do you go? Right.
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How do you maintain that strict dogmatic core when you are
27:55
translating the faith into vastly different cultural
27:58
contexts? This is the massive debate over
28:00
indigenous ecclesiology. The sources examine the
28:04
principles laid out by famous messiologists like Roland Allen
28:07
and Melvin Hodges. These men advocated for the
28:10
rapid establishment of indigenous local churches.
28:13
And they had a very specific formula for that.
28:15
They did. They believe these churches must
28:17
operate on three core principles.
28:19
They must be self supporting financially, self governing in
28:22
their leadership and self propagating in their evangelism
28:25
from their very inception. And historically speaking,
28:28
developing those 3 principles was a completely necessary
28:31
correction. For a long time, the old Western
28:33
model operated on a heavy paternalism.
28:36
Western boards created massive financial dependencies.
28:39
Sending a check every month. Yeah, and they forced rigid
28:41
Western cultural habits like architectural styles or hymnal
28:44
tunes onto national churches, confusing Western culture with
28:48
biblical fidelity. Breaking those financial
28:50
dependencies was crucial. So on the surface, historic
28:53
Reformed missiology completely agrees with breaking those
28:57
financial dependencies. The indigenous church should
28:59
govern itself, but the severe critique from our sources comes
29:03
in when looking at how Melvin Hodges, who was in Assemblies of
29:06
God Missionary, actually applied those principles on the ground.
29:10
The sources argue that Hodges essentially Pentecostalized
29:13
these indigenous principles. He assumed that for a local
29:16
church to experience what he called spontaneous expansion, it
29:20
had to adopt subjective experientialism.
29:23
Interesting. He believed that the pragmatic
29:25
methods of Pentecostalism, the focus on immediate supernatural
29:28
experience over lengthy doctrinal training, were the
29:31
necessary engine for a church to propagate itself rapidly.
29:34
And this led to a mythological philosophy of extreme
29:37
contextualization. If you've ever studied cultural
29:40
anthropology, you know how tricky this gets.
29:43
The danger of extreme contextualization is that a
29:45
local church adapts so heavily to Pagan, mystical or tribal
29:49
cultural norms to feel authentic that the objective, dogmatic
29:53
core of Christianity is entirely lost in the translation.
29:56
The authors argue forcefully against this assumption.
29:59
They argue that a truly indigenous church in a place
30:02
like Nigeria, Chile or El Salvador does not need
30:06
charismatic spontaneity to survive and thrive.
30:09
What it actually needs, what it desperately requires for its
30:12
long term health, are historic, dogmatic truths.
30:17
They're heavy theological anchors.
30:18
Exactly. These truths protect the local
30:21
congregation from being absorbed by local cultural idolatries,
30:25
and they shield it from global heresies.
30:27
Like the prosperity gospel, they argue, the indigenous church, no
30:31
matter where it is located geographically, must be
30:33
structurally anchored in the historic, objective standards of
30:36
the Reformation. The sources also take direct at
30:39
the ecumenical paradigm promoted by people like Leslie Nubigen.
30:43
Nubigen suggested that all these different traditions emerging on
30:46
the mission field, Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal, should
30:49
find structural fellowship together under a vague, unified
30:52
banner of the Holy Spirit. He wanted a very big tent.
30:54
He basically wanted everyone to just get along and minimize the
30:57
doctrinal differences to the sake of a unified Global
30:59
Witness. The essays categorized this
31:02
approach as nothing short of spiritual treason.
31:05
They reference the Westminster Confession of Faith,
31:07
specifically Chapter 25, paragraph four.
31:10
That paragraph discusses the purity of the visible church.
31:13
The authors argue from this confessional standard that true
31:16
unity is not found in ecumenical syncretism.
31:19
You cannot achieve A biblically authorized unity by simply
31:22
downplaying massive fundamental theological deviations.
31:26
So what does this all mean? The sources state you cannot
31:29
legitimately link arms with institutions that deny
31:32
justification by faith alone or the substitutionary atonement.
31:36
Nor can you treat continuationist, emotionally
31:38
driven movements as theological equals on the mission field.
31:41
True unity is exclusively found in the objective, doctrinal
31:45
unity of the truth. If you do not agree on the core
31:47
tenets of how a person is saved, you are not engaged in the same
31:50
mission. When you synthesize the author's
31:52
arguments, they are pointing out a massive irony in the current
31:55
mythological landscape. They argue that treating
31:58
believers in the Global South as if they only need emotional,
32:01
narrative driven theology because they are impoverished or
32:04
less educated is actually a very subtle, highly insidious form of
32:09
modern paternalism. It is a Western assumption that
32:12
these populations cannot handle deep systematic, objective
32:16
truth. That is such a vital point.
32:18
The greatest respect you can show an indigenous church,
32:21
regardless of their socioeconomic status or their
32:24
geographic location, is handing them the most robust,
32:27
systematically precise, historically grounded theology
32:31
available. The demographic shift of
32:32
Christianity to the global S is a magnificent reality.
32:36
The Spirit of God is undeniably gathering the elect from every
32:38
corner of the globe, just as the divine decree promised.
32:41
But this massive shift must be anchored in objective Scripture,
32:45
not subjective mysticism. The true global mission is
32:48
monarchistic. It is entirely dependent on the
32:51
sovereign decree of the Father, the finished historical work of
32:54
the Son, and the Word illuminating capability of the
32:56
Holy Spirit. The Church does not need to
32:59
invent new pragmatic strategies to reach the slums of
33:02
megacities. It needs to return to
33:04
uncompromised expository proclamation.
33:08
As we wrap up this deep dive into the confessional critique
33:10
of the new global mission, we see a clear, undeniable call to
33:14
strip away the human engineer dependencies.
33:17
The authors are calling the Church to stop trusting in
33:19
market research, to abandon corporate growth strategies, and
33:23
to return to the bold, objective declaration of historical
33:26
reality. The expansion of the Gospel is
33:29
not a fragile human experiment relying on our cleverness.
33:32
It is the unstoppable decree of the Exalted King.
33:35
Which leaves us with a final, highly provocative thought based
33:38
on the strict theological framework we've been
33:40
investigating today. If the truest historical sign of
33:43
the Holy Spirit's presence is a quiet, orderly magnification of
33:46
the objective written word, we have to ask ourselves a
33:49
difficult question. Are we currently living in an
33:51
era that mistakenly equates loud, chaotic, human engineered
33:56
enthusiasm with genuine spiritual vitality?
33:59
If we were to completely strip away the loud music, the stage
34:03
lights, the atmospheric fog and the emotional manipulation from
34:06
our modern religious gatherings, how much of what remains is
34:09
actually the genuine self effacing work of the Spirit
34:12
spotlight in Christ? That is a question that requires
34:15
serious, sober self reflection from all of us.
34:18
When you step back and look at the diagnostic landscape of
34:20
global mythology, you realize you cannot just pour a shallow
34:23
concrete pad on the mud and hope the building stands against the
34:27
storm. The murky waters of demographic
34:29
shifts and cultural adaptation require us to drive our pilings
34:33
all the way down to the bedrock of systematic, confessional
34:36
truth. Thank you for joining us on this
34:38
deep dive on reformed thinking. Keep testing the spirits, keep
34:41
seeking the truth, and we will catch you next time.