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Why Biblical Doctrine Is Not Optional for Missionaries · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking. It is good to have you here with
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  us for another deep dive into some of the texts that shape how
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  we understand God and his world. Today we are opening a file that
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  I think can be a bit surprising for a lot of people.
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  When we think about the Christian life and specifically
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  missions, the work of spreading the faith, we tend to have a
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  very specific set of images in our heads.
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  That's right, we often default to the visuals, don't we?
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  We do. We picture, you know, the pith
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  helmet, the machete hacking through the jungle, the really
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  brave adventurer crossing an ocean to learn a difficult
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  language. It's a very romantic image.
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  It is. It's the hero narrative.
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  It is the hero narrative and I think for many of us, when we
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  hear the word missionary, we think of action, we think of
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  doing, we think of movement. And look, there's certainly
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  bravery involved. We never want to minimize the
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  sacrifice that real people make to go to in very hard places,
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  but the source material we're looking at today really
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  challenges the assumption that bravery and enthusiasm are
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  enough, right? In fact, it argues that if you
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  have bravery without a very specific kind of knowledge, you
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  might actually be doing more harm than good.
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  That is a heavy concept to start with.
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  So we are looking at a chapter from the book Biblical Missions
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  Principles, Priorities and Practices by Mark Tatlock and
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  Chris Burnett. The section we're analyzing is
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  called Non Optional Pre Field Training Biblical Doctrine.
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  And that word non optional is doing a lot of work there.
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  It really is. The authors are pretty much
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  drawing a line in the sand. The entire premise is based on a
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  verse from Romans, Romans 10.2. In that passage, the Apostle
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  Paul is writing about his fellow Israelites, and he says
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  something fascinating about them.
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  He says they have a zeal for God, but not according to
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  knowledge. Zeal without knowledge.
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  That is the core tension we are exploring today, isn't it?
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  It is the authors apply that critique directly to the modern
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  missionary movement. They observe that many people go
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  out to the field with what they call burning enthusiasm.
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  They have the passion. They have what they call copious
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  resources. All the funding, the planes, the
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  tech. All of it, but they lack the
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  theological framework to back it.
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  Up. So you have all the heat, but
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  you don't really have the light. That's a great way to put it.
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  And the argument here is that the heart must be fueled by the
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  mind. This is a very reformed
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  perspective. You know, we're often accused of
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  being overly intellectual, of caring more about books than
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  people. The Frozen Chosen.
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  The frozen chosen right. But the authors here are arguing
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  that you cannot truly love people if you do not know the
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  truth about the God you're introducing them to.
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  So the mission for this deep dive is to see how systematic
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  theology, which let's be honest, sounds dry and academic to a lot
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  of people, is actually the Survival kit for the missionary.
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  We're going to walk through the major categories of doctrine and
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  see how they function as safety rails.
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  And this applies to everyone, not just those crossing an
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  ocean. I mean, if you're sharing your
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  face with your neighbor, you're doing missions, you need these
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  rails just as much. Let's start at the very
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  beginning. Then the authors open with a
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  section called Prolegomena. Now, I always feel a little
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  smarter just saying that word, but for the sake of clarity,
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  let's break that down. What are we actually talking
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  about? Prolegomena.
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  It literally means things said beforehand.
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  These are the first things. Before we can have a
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  conversation about who God is or who Jesus is, or how salvation
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  works, we have to establish how we know anything at all.
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  So it deals with epistemology, the study of knowledge.
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  It does, and this might seem like a philosophical detour, but
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  the authors argue it is absolutely critical for cross
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  cultural work. Why is that?
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  It's critical because different cultures have different
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  epistemologies. In the West, you know, we might
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  rely heavily on logic or scientific observation, but in
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  an animistic tribal context, truth might be determined by a
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  dream or a feeling or what the ancestors said.
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  So if you don't have a fixed standard for truth, you're just
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  going to get lost in the cultural weeds You're.
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  Lost from the get go. And that's why the authors draw
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  a very sharp distinction here between General Revelation and
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  Sparrow Revelation. OK, let's define those.
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  General revelation is it's what? We see in creation the heavens
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  declare the glory of God. You could look at a mountain
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  range or the complexity of the human eye and know that there is
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  a Creator. It's accessible to everyone,
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  everywhere. But the text argues that for the
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  missionary general, revelation is not enough.
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  It's insufficient for salvation. A sunset can tell you God is
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  powerful, but it can't tell you that God is Trinity.
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  It cannot tell you that Jesus died for your sins.
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  For that, we need special revelation.
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  We need God to speak specific words to us.
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  Yes, and that is Scripture, the authors argue.
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  We must rely on the Bible over our own reasoning, and certainly
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  over the traditions of the culture we're trying to reach.
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  They bring up two technical terms here that I want to spend
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  a moment on, hermeneutics and exegesis.
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  Usually we think of these as tools for the pastor in his
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  study. Why is the guy in the remote
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  village concerned with hermeneutics?
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  Because a missionary is not an inventor of truth, he's a
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  translator of truth. Hermeneutics is.
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  It's the science of interpretation.
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  It's the set of rules we use to understand what a text means,
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  and exegesis is the act of pulling that meaning out of the
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  text. As opposed to reading our own
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  ideas into it as a Jesus. Correct.
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  The danger in missions is massive here.
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  If you don't have a solid grasp of hermeneutics, you will
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  inevitably project your own culture onto the Bible.
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  You'll take 21st century Western ideas about fairness or gender
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  or success. And you'll find a verse that
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  vaguely sounds like your opinion.
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  And you will teach that as Christianity.
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  And so you think you're planting a church, but what you're
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  actually doing is just exporting your own cultural bias.
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  That's the tragedy. It is.
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  That's why the authors say the missionary must approach the
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  text with the fear of the Lord. It is an act of submission.
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  You have to submit your good ideas to the text.
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  You have to let the Bible say what it says, even if it's
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  uncomfortable and even if it's going to be unpopular in the
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  culture you were entering. And that leads us right into the
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  next category, which is bibliology, the doctrine of the
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  Bible itself. If we are submitting to this
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  book, we need to know what this book is.
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  The authors take a very high view of Scripture.
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  They use terms like infallible, inerrant and sufficient.
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  And these are not just, you know, theological passwords.
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  They're the ground we stand on. They connect this directly to
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  the Great Commission in Matthew 28.
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  I found that connection really interesting.
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  It's a vital connection. I mean, think about it.
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  Jesus says all authority in heaven and on earth has been
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  given to me. And then he says, I am with you
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  always. The authors argue that if you
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  don't believe the Bible is inerrant, if you think it's full
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  of mistakes or myths, you can't actually trust those promises.
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  So if I'm picking and choosing which parts of the Bible I think
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  are true, I have no basis to claim the authority of Jesus for
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  the mission. You are soaring off the branch
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  you were sitting on. If the Bible is just a
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  collection of human religious thoughts, why should a Muslim or
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  Hindu trade their book for yours?
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  It's just your opinion versus theirs, right?
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  But if it is the authoritative word of God, then you have a
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  weapon. The authors reference 6
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  Corinthians 10.5 which talks about destroying arguments and
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  every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.
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  You cannot destroy a stronghold with a book you only half
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  believe. In there's another point they
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  make here about translation. They say the Bible is fixed
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  forever in heaven, but it is also translatable.
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  This seems pretty unique to Christianity.
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  It is very unique in Islam. For instance, the Quran is only
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  truly the Quran. In the original Arabic, any
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  translation is considered an interpretation, not the holy
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  book itself. Oh, interesting.
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  But Christians believe that God's word can be poured into
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  any language, Swahili, Mandarin, English, Quechua, and it remains
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  the word of God. That's a liberating concept.
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  It means you don't have to force people to learn a holy language
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  to access God. You can bring God to them in the
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  language they speak to their children.
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  It dignifies every culture. It says that God can speak your
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  language. But, and this is a massive
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  caution in the text, there is a danger called syncretism.
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  This stood out to me as one of the biggest challenges on the
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  field. Let's define syncretism for the
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  listener. Syncretism is the blending of
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  different religious beliefs into a new system in missions.
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  It happens when you try to make the gospel easier to swallow by
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  mixing it with the local religion.
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  So you're trying to accommodate. You are, and the author's warned
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  against accommodating offensive concepts just to fit spiritual
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  felt needs. Can you give us a concrete
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  example of what that looks like? Sure.
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  Imagine you were in a culture that practices ancestor worship.
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  It's the glue that holds the family and the society together.
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  To tell them that their ancestors are gone and cannot
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  help them is highly offensive. It would get you kicked out of
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  the village. It might.
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  So the temptation is to say, well, you can keep honoring your
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  ancestors, we'll just call it veneration instead of worship,
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  and we'll say Jesus is the chief ancestor.
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  That softens the blow. It makes the message more
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  acceptable. It makes it acceptable, but
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  makes it false. The authors call this
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  synchronistic and harmful. They argue that any truth
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  arising from the local culture must be tested against the
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  Bible. If it contradicts Scripture, it
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  has to go. No exceptions.
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  So the goal is not to be popular, the goal is to be
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  faithful. We want to be winsome.
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  Certainly we don't want to be jerks, But we cannot edit the
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  message to make friends. The authors say that if we
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  compromise biblical truth to fit the culture, we are actually
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  hurting the people we are trying to save.
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  You're offering them a placebo instead of the cure.
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  That's it. This brings us to the doctrine
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  of God Himself, theology proper, and specifically the Trinity.
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  Yes, the Trinity. This is the defining doctrine of
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  the Christian God. It is, and yet it is often the
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  hardest one to explain, especially in a mission context.
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  If you're talking to a Muslim, the Trinity is offensive.
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  It's blasphemous. If you're talking to a
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  polytheist, they might misunderstand it as just three
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  gods among many. The authors acknowledge that
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  people are often hostile to this idea.
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  They do. They know that many contexts
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  hold to a strict monotheism that rejects the Co essential
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  equality of the Father, Son and Spirit.
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  But the authors are adamant if you do not teach the Trinity,
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  you are not teaching Christianity, you are teaching a
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  different religion. They use incredibly strong
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  language here. I have it written down.
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  They say that withholding full teaching on the Trinity to avoid
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  misunderstanding is not winsome, but wicked.
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  Wicked that stops you in your tracks doesn't.
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  It it does, why would they use a word like that?
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  Because it's deceptive. If you present a God who is not
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  triune, you are presenting an idol.
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  You are introducing them to a God who does not exist.
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  It's like introducing someone to your friend Steve, but
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  describing a person who looks nothing like Steve and acts
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  nothing like Steve. You aren't actually introducing
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  them to Steve. Precisely.
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  The authors argue that true evangelism requires demolishing
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  these speculative strongholds. We have to confront the false
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  view of God, whether that's Allah or Vishnu or just a vague
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  secular force, and introduce the true God who is Father, Son and
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  Holy Spirit. This is why we baptize in the
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  name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
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  We don't just baptize in the name of God.
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  The specific identity of God matters.
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  It is the Trinity that accomplishes salvation.
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  The Father sends, the Son accomplishes, The Spirit
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  applies. If you lose the Trinity, the
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  whole engine of salvation falls apart.
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  Speaking of the Son, let's move to Christology, the doctrine of
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  Christ. The authors make a really
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  helpful distinction here between two of his titles, Son of Man
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  and Son of God. This is a crucial distinction.
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  Son of Man was Jesus favorite title for himself.
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  It emphasizes his humanity, his role as the representative of
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  the human race. And often people today love this
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  version of Jesus. Oh yeah, the secular world loves
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  the Son of Man. He's a moral teacher.
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  He's the champion of the poor. He's the guy who said love your
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  neighbor. He is the ideal human, the
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  humanitarian bar excellence, and he is those things.
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  But the authors remind us that we cannot stop there.
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  He is also the pre existent Son of God.
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  He is Co eternal with the Father.
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  Yes, He's not just a man we should try to copy.
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  He is the Lord we must obey. And this brings us back to the
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  offense of the gospel. The message isn't just Jesus
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  helps you be a better person. The message is Jesus is the King
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  and you are currently in rebellion against him.
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  That is the hard pill to swallow.
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  It requires total submission. They quote John 14.6 where Jesus
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  says I am the way and the truth and the life.
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  No one comes to the Father except through me in a
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  pluralistic world that is fighting words.
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  It's exclusive. It is radically exclusive.
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  In many cultures, people are happy to add Jesus to their
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  collection. If you have a shrine with five
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  gods and the missionary offers Jesus, the local person might
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  say, great, I'll put him right here next to the others.
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  Now I have more spiritual coverage.
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  But Christology demands that he clears the shelf.
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  He will not share his glory. The authors point out that the
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  name Jesus literally means Yahweh faves.
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  This is a claim to deity. He is not just a messenger from
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  God. He is the God of the Old
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  Testament, acting in history to save His people.
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  The authors also bring up the severity of God here.
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  That's a phrase from Romans 11. We do not hear that much in
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  modern preaching. We.
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  Prefer to talk about the kindness of God, and God is
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  kind. But Romans 11 says note then the
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  kindness and the severity of God.
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  The missionary has to hold both. If you only preach kindness, you
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  get sentimentalism. If you only preach severity, you
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  get legalism. But the gospel.
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  The Gospel is the answer to the severity of God against sin
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  provided by the kindness of God in Christ.
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  You need both for it to make sense.
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  Let's shift gears a bit to the third part of our deep dive, the
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  spiritual context. This covers pneumatology, the
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  Holy Spirit, and angelology. Let's start with the Spirit.
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  This is vital for a reformed understanding of missions.
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  If we get the Holy Spirit wrong, we get conversion wrong.
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  The text emphasizes that the Spirit regenerates dead souls.
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  We're going to unpack that dead concept more when we get to
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  salvation. But practically, what does this
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  mean for the missionary standing in a village square preaching
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  the gospel? It means the missionary is not
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  the one doing the converting. You can have the best arguments,
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  the most touching stories, the most charismatic delivery, but
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  you cannot make a dead spiritual heartbeat.
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  Only the Spirit can do that. That sounds like it could be
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  discouraging, but I suspect you're going to tell me it is
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  actually encouraging. It is incredibly freeing, yeah.
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  If the salvation of that person depended on my eloquence, I
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  would never sleep. I would be crushed by the
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  pressure. But if salvation belongs to the
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  Lord, if the Spirit is the one who gives life, then my job is
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  to be faithful to the message and trust God with the results.
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  The authors also list the many titles of the Spirit.
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  Spirit of holiness, glory, wisdom, truth.
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  It's a reminder that the missionary is not alone out
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  there. The Spirit is the primary agent
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  of mission. We are just the instruments.
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  He's the one working to glorify the sun in the hearts of the
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  people. Now I want to spend some time on
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  this section regarding angelology, angels, demons and
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  Satan. I found this to be one of the
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  most practical and grounded parts of the text.
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  It is because in the West we often live as functional
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  naturalists. We don't really worry about
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  demons. We worry about interest rates
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  and cholesterol, right? But in many parts of the world,
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  the spiritual realm is the primary reality.
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  Animism is the dominant worldview in many mission
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  fields. Can you explain what that looks
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  like on the ground? Animism is the belief that the
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  physical world is inhabited by spirits.
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  Rocks, trees, rivers, they all have spirits, and these spirits
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  are often capricious or malicious.
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  You have to appease them. So it's a worldview based on
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  fear. Constant fear.
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  If your child gets sick, it's because the spirit is angry.
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  If your crops fail, it's a curse from a rival shaman.
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  Life is a constant negotiation of fear.
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  So the authors acknowledge this reality.
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  They don't tell the missionary to walk in and say don't be
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  silly, Demons aren't real. No, that would be unbiblical.
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  The Bible clearly teaches the existence of powers, authorities
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  and rulers of this Dark World. Satan is described as the God of
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  this age who blinds the minds of unbelievers.
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  If you deny that, you are not dealing with reality.
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  However, and this is the key analysis, they warn against
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  overemphasizing demons. This is a very necessary
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  correction. In some mythological circles
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  there is a fascination with spiritual warfare that goes too
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  far. It starts to look like a dualism
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  where God and Satan are equal opposites fighting for control.
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  Like a boxing match where they're in the same weight
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  class. Right, but the authors remind us
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  that Satan is a created being. He is not God's opposite.
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  He is God's creature. He is not omnipresent.
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  He cannot be everywhere at once. He is not all knowing.
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  He is not sovereign. He is on a leash.
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  So we shouldn't be looking for a demon under every Bush.
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  We should be aware, but not obsessed, and this leads to
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  their critique of the power encounter.
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  I've heard this term. It usually refers to a dramatic
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  showdown, right? Like Elijah calling down fire on
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  Mount Carmel. Yes, there's a view that says to
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  win animists, you have to perform a greater miracle than
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  their shaman. You have to have a magic show to
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  prove your God is stronger. If the witch doctor can curse a
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  distinct tree, you need to be able to do something even more
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  impressive. But the authors reject that
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  approach. They do.
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  They argue that the true power encounter is the preaching of
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  the word. That seems less exciting than
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  calling down fire. It might seem less cinematic,
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  but it is more powerful. Why?
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  Because the Spirit uses the Word to initiate faith.
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  When you tell a person who has lived their whole life in fear
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  of spirits that Jesus has already defeated them at the
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  cross, that is the power encounter.
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  You are dismantling a worldview of fear and replacing it with a
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  worldview of grace. You are telling them the war is
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  over, the victory is already won.
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  That is it. You don't need pyrotechnics, you
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  need the truth. The truth sets them free.
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  Let's move to part 4, the human condition.
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  This covers anthropology and hem archaeology.
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  Anthropology is the doctrine of man.
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  Where do they start? They start with the Imago day,
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  the image of God. This has massive ethical
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  implications on the field. It dictates everything about how
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  a missionary treats people. Every single human being, from
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  conception to natural death, bears the stamp of the Creator.
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  That means the unborn, the disabled, the elderly, the
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  outcast, they all have infinite dignity.
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  In many cultures that is a revolutionary idea.
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  If the culture says the weak should be discarded, the
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  missionary steps in and says no. This person bears the image of
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  the king. It changes how we view
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  stewardship, too. It extends to how we treat
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  animals in the environment. But then the authors drop a
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  hammer on the modern concept of culture.
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  This is a point where Reformed thinking really clashes with
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  secular anthropology. The secular view is usually that
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  culture is neutral, or even that culture is inherently good and
• 18:52
  should be preserved at all costs.
• 18:54
  The Star Trek Prime Directive idea do not interfere, but the
• 18:59
  reformed view says culture is not neutral.
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  Why? Because culture is simply the
• 19:04
  collective output of human beings, and if human beings are
• 19:06
  falling, then their cultures will be falling one too.
• 19:09
  So all cultures reflect the universal effects of sin.
• 19:12
  Correct. That include western culture.
• 19:14
  By the way, it includes American culture.
• 19:16
  Every culture has idols. Every culture has systemic sins.
• 19:19
  So the missionary does not go in to idolize the culture.
• 19:22
  We respect the people, but we do not idolize the culture.
• 19:26
  We call people to be conformed to the image of Christ, not just
• 19:29
  their social norms. If a cultural practice is
• 19:32
  sinful, like polygamy or ritual prostitution or the oppression
• 19:35
  of widows, the gospel confronts it.
• 19:38
  We don't just say, well, that's their way.
• 19:39
  We say God has a better way. This leads us directly to him.
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  Archaeology, the doctrine of sin.
• 19:46
  The authors use the term total depravity A.
• 19:48
  Classic reformed term, and often a misunderstood one.
• 19:52
  It does not mean everyone is as bad as they possibly could be.
• 19:56
  Does it mean we're all acting like monsters all the time?
• 19:58
  It means the contamination is total.
• 20:00
  It extends to every part of us, our mind, our will, our
• 20:03
  emotions, our body. The authors describe
• 20:06
  unregenerate man as totally contaminated, hostile toward
• 20:09
  God, and dead. Dead is the operative word and
• 20:13
  it leads to a specific vocabulary check that I found
• 20:15
  really fascinating. They explicitly reject the term
• 20:18
  pre Christian. I found this very sharp.
• 20:20
  We hear pre Christian a lot these days.
• 20:22
  Oh, he's just a pre Christian. It sounds optimistic.
• 20:24
  It sounds nice. It sounds like they're in the
• 20:26
  waiting room just waiting for their number to be called.
• 20:30
  It implies that becoming a Christian is just the next
• 20:32
  natural step in their development.
• 20:34
  But the authors argue it's it's deceptive.
• 20:37
  It implies that conversion is inevitable or that the person is
• 20:40
  currently in a neutral state. They say the correct biblical
• 20:43
  term is Pagan. That sounds harsh.
• 20:46
  To modern ears, Pagan feels like an insult.
• 20:50
  It does feel abrasive, but we have to look at the definition.
• 20:53
  A Pagan is someone who worships the creation rather than the
• 20:56
  creator. That is the biblical diagnosis
• 20:58
  of every person outside of Christ.
• 21:01
  If we use euphemisms like pre Christian, we lull ourselves
• 21:04
  into a false sense of security. We might start thinking their
• 21:08
  idolatry isn't that serious. It lowers the urgency.
• 21:10
  If they're pre Christian, they're on the conveyor belt to
• 21:13
  heaven. If they're Pagan and dead and
• 21:15
  sin, they are in desperate trouble.
• 21:17
  They need a resurrection, not a renovation.
• 21:20
  Believers are called Children of Light to expose the darkness.
• 21:24
  You can't expose the darkness if you're busy pretending it's just
• 21:26
  a dimmer shade of light. This flows naturally into Part
• 21:28
  5, The Mechanics of grace soteriology.
• 21:33
  If people are dead and Pagan, how on earth does God save them?
• 21:37
  Here we get to the heart of the Reformed faith, the sovereignty
• 21:40
  of God in salvation. The text states that salvation
• 21:43
  is by the sovereign will and activity of God alone.
• 21:46
  Alone, that is the solace. Teos, God the Father set his
• 21:51
  love on the Sinner from eternity past.
• 21:54
  This is the doctrine of election.
• 21:55
  It wasn't a reaction to you doing something good.
• 21:57
  It wasn't because God looked down the corridor of time and
• 21:59
  saw you would be a nice person. It was His initiative purely out
• 22:03
  of His grace. And they described the process,
• 22:05
  the ordo salutis, or order of salvation.
• 22:07
  This is where the dead concept comes back into play, isn't it?
• 22:10
  Yes. They hold to monarchism.
• 22:12
  That's a Greek compound word, mono meaning 1, Oregon meaning
• 22:16
  work, one working. God is the one working, and they
• 22:20
  argue that regeneration happens before faith.
• 22:22
  I want to pause there because I think most people have that
• 22:24
  order flip in their heads. The standard evangelical way of
• 22:26
  thinking is I believe I choose Jesus, and then because I made
• 22:29
  that choice, God makes me born again.
• 22:31
  That is the synergistic you. We work together.
• 22:34
  But the Reformed view which these authors are presenting
• 22:37
  says you are dead. A dead man cannot believe.
• 22:41
  A dead man cannot choose O logically, the spirit must first
• 22:46
  make you alive. That is regeneration.
• 22:49
  Then, with your new heart and open eyes, you instantaneously
• 22:53
  repent and trust. So faith itself is a gift.
• 22:56
  It is a gift of God's grace. You don't conjure it up.
• 22:59
  This is incredibly comforting for a missionary.
• 23:01
  Why is it comforting? It seems like it takes control
• 23:04
  out of our. Hands.
• 23:04
  That is exactly why it's comforting.
• 23:06
  If the salvation of a hostile Pagan depended on my ability to
• 23:09
  out argue them, or on their ability to suddenly become wise,
• 23:13
  I would despair. But if God is the one who wakes
• 23:16
  the dead, then I can preach with hope to anyone.
• 23:18
  I can go to the hardest, most resistant tribe on earth and
• 23:21
  know that if God has people there, they will come.
• 23:23
  It takes the pressure off the messenger.
• 23:25
  You are responsible for faithfulness.
• 23:27
  God is responsible for the harvest.
• 23:28
  Precisely, and the authors also use legal language here
• 23:31
  justification. The courtroom imagery.
• 23:33
  The Sinner is a criminal in God's court.
• 23:36
  They are guilty. The evidence is overwhelming,
• 23:39
  but in justification the judge declares them acquitted not
• 23:43
  because they are innocent, they are not, but they are acquitted
• 23:46
  based on Christ's righteousness being credited to their account.
• 23:50
  It's the great exchange. He takes our rap sheet.
• 23:52
  We take his resume. That's a great way to put it.
• 23:54
  And then adoption, We go from the courtroom to the living
• 23:57
  room. We become children of God.
• 23:59
  But they add a warning here that brings us back to the tone of
• 24:02
  the message. Missionaries must not soften
• 24:05
  God's wrath. This is crucial.
• 24:07
  Without wrath, there is no good news of rescue.
• 24:11
  Rescue from what? If God isn't angry at sin, then
• 24:14
  the cross is just a dramatic gesture.
• 24:16
  It's unnecessary violence. But if God is just and his wrath
• 24:20
  against evil is real, then the cross is the only hope.
• 24:24
  You have to preach the bad news to make the good news make
• 24:26
  sense. We are coming into the
• 24:28
  homestretch here. Part 6 covers the community and
• 24:30
  the future, ecclesiology and eschatology.
• 24:33
  Let's start with ecclesiology, the doctrine of the Church.
• 24:35
  They make a distinction between the universal church and the
• 24:38
  local church. The universal church is all
• 24:40
  believers everywhere throughout time, but the authors argue that
• 24:43
  the goal of missions is not just to make universal believers who
• 24:47
  float around on their own. No.
• 24:48
  The goal is to plant local congregations, real people
• 24:52
  meeting in real places with real structure.
• 24:55
  They talk about leadership. It is reserved for spiritually
• 24:58
  mature men, elders or shepherds, and I noticed they emphasize the
• 25:02
  plural plurality of elders. That is a safeguard.
• 25:07
  The one man show is dangerous anywhere, but it is especially
• 25:11
  dangerous in a mission context. If the missionary becomes the
• 25:14
  big man or the chief, it creates dependency.
• 25:17
  It can lead to a cult of personality.
• 25:20
  The biblical pattern is a group of qualified men guarding the
• 25:23
  flock together. They also mentioned the
• 25:24
  ordinances, baptism, and the Lord's Supper.
• 25:27
  Full immersion, baptism and the Lord's Supper.
• 25:29
  These are not optional suggestions.
• 25:31
  They are commands. They are the visible markers of
• 25:34
  the covenant community. They are how the Church
• 25:36
  identifies itself. And then there's this tension
• 25:38
  again between cultural expression and purity, right?
• 25:42
  Disciples express faith in culturally distinct ways.
• 25:46
  A church in Nairobi should not look exactly like a church in
• 25:49
  Nashville. The music might be different,
• 25:51
  the dress might be different, the architecture will be
• 25:53
  different. But they must purge sinful
• 25:56
  customs. So you can keep the drums, but
• 25:58
  you have to lose the demon summoning rhythms.
• 26:01
  Exactly. You have to purify the culture
• 26:03
  from within. You cannot keep your ancestor
• 26:06
  worship and just add Jesus to it.
• 26:07
  The Church must be distinct from the world around it.
• 26:10
  Finally, esthetology, the doctrine of last things.
• 26:13
  Now, Full disclosure, the authors present a very specific
• 26:16
  timeline here. They do.
• 26:17
  They present a dispensational premillennial framework.
• 26:20
  Let's just run through that timeline quickly so the
• 26:22
  listeners know what we're talking about The.
• 26:23
  Outline and rapture of the Church, then a seven-year
• 26:27
  tribulation period, then the physical return of Christ to
• 26:30
  Jerusalem, a literal millennial reign of 1000 years on earth,
• 26:34
  then the final judgement and the new Earth.
• 26:37
  Now I know we have listeners who might hold to amillennialism or
• 26:40
  post millennialism, and that's fine, but what is the function
• 26:44
  of this doctrine for the authors?
• 26:46
  Why do they include it in a book on missions?
• 26:48
  That is the key question. It's not there for speculation
• 26:51
  or for making charts. It is there to instill Christian
• 26:55
  virtue. It creates urgency.
• 26:57
  It creates urgency and clarity. If you believe the King is
• 27:00
  returning soon to judge the living and the dead, you
• 27:03
  prioritize the gospel. The authors make a very strong
• 27:07
  point here. The Church's job is not total
• 27:09
  societal transformation or achieving economic prosperity
• 27:12
  right now. That is a countercultural
• 27:15
  statement. Even inside the church, we hear
• 27:17
  a lot about transforming culture or redeeming the city.
• 27:20
  We do and we should care about our cities.
• 27:22
  We should be good citizens. But the authors argue that
• 27:25
  global peace and true justice only come when the King returns.
• 27:29
  Until then, we are on a rescue mission.
• 27:32
  So we focus on the gospel and endurance.
• 27:34
  It keeps the main thing, the main thing.
• 27:36
  It prevents mission drift. If you think your job is to fix
• 27:39
  the economy or solve the water crisis, you might spend 40 years
• 27:43
  doing that and never tell anyone how to be saved from the wrath
• 27:46
  to come. If you know Jesus is coming to
• 27:49
  fix the world, you focus on getting people ready to meet
• 27:52
  Him. So we have walked through the
• 27:54
  whole systematic theology stack from how we know truth to who
• 27:58
  God is, who we are, how we are saved, and where we are all
• 28:01
  going. It's a comprehensive framework.
• 28:03
  It all holds together. And the argument stands.
• 28:06
  This isn't just academic, this is the toolkit.
• 28:08
  It is the Survival kit, it's the map and the compass for the
• 28:11
  journey. The authors conclude by saying
• 28:13
  that the goal of understanding biblical doctrine is to
• 28:16
  understand all that God has revealed and obey it.
• 28:20
  And they have some tough words for the missionary who neglects
• 28:22
  this. They say that person has an
• 28:24
  immature mindset and a disobedient spirit.
• 28:27
  That puts it plainly, If you are lazy with your theology, you are
• 28:31
  being disobedient to the God you claim to serve.
• 28:33
  It's about love at the end of the day.
• 28:35
  If you love God, you want to know him truly.
• 28:37
  You don't want a caricature of him.
• 28:39
  And if you love your neighbor, you want to tell them the truth.
• 28:41
  You don't want to sell them a watered down fabrication that
• 28:43
  cannot save them. There is a quote they use near
• 28:46
  the end from Deuteronomy 29.29. The secret things belong to
• 28:51
  Yahweh, but the things revealed belong to us.
• 28:55
  That's a beautiful balance. There are things we don't know.
• 28:59
  We don't know when exactly Jesus will return.
• 29:01
  We don't know why God chooses this person and not that person.
• 29:03
  Those are the secret things. But the things revealed the
• 29:07
  Bible belong to us and we are responsible for them.
• 29:10
  So here is the question for you listening right now, whether
• 29:13
  you're a missionary, a pastor, or to someone trying to be a
• 29:16
  faithful Christian at your workplace.
• 29:19
  If theology is the bridge to practice, how strong is your
• 29:22
  bridge? That is the question.
• 29:24
  Are you operating on zeal alone? Are you running on the fumes of
• 29:27
  emotion? Or do you have the structural
• 29:29
  integrity of biblical doctrine holding you up?
• 29:32
  Because when the storms come, and they will come, zeal might
• 29:35
  flicker out, but the truth of God stands forever.
• 29:38
  Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into Reformed
• 29:41
  thinking. We hope this challenges you to
• 29:43
  crack open your Bible, maybe pick up a systematic theology
• 29:46
  book and dig a little deeper. Knowledge fuels worship.
• 29:50
  Never forget that. See you next time.