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The Gospel Without Borders: A Biblical Vision of Mission from Everywhere to Everyone · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine looking at a map of Christianity from, say, 1950.
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Think about the map you had in your middle school classroom.
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Yeah, the old canvas ones you pulled down like a window shade
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over the chalkboard. Right.
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And the center of the world on that map is basically London and
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New York. The lines radiate out from North
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America and Western Europe, pointing toward the rest of the
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globe. Everything was highly
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centralized, very neat and tidy. Yeah, the borders are drawn with
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heavy ink. The capital cities have big
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stars. Everything feels static and
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predictable. We like things categorized.
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You know, We like a clear center and a clear periphery.
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It gives a false sense of control.
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It really does. But if you look at the
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geographic and spiritual landscape today, you basically
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have to take that old map, RIP it into tiny pieces, and throw
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it in the trash. You really do.
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So welcome to Reformed thinking. Today we're taking a deep dive
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into the source material covering A radical shift in
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global missions, a shift called the Gospel, from everywhere to
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everyone. Because that old map is
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completely gone. It is and the sources we are
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looking at call for a return to a specific cross shaped
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worldview to understand what is happening.
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Because the shattering of that old map is not an administrative
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crisis. I mean, many Western
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institutions are treating it like 1, but it is actually a
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theological crossroads. Right.
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And the discussion we are having today will examine how we view
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human beings. We will look at the severe
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pitfalls of corporate strategy in church planting, and we will
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do a specific exegesis of Second Corinthians chapter 5.
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We have to look at this as an epistemological shift.
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We are not gathering sociological statistics to
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figure out our next move here, right?
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We are looking at the written word to understand what God is
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doing. Because the demographic center
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of the faith has moved decisively toward the Global
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South. Yes, we are talking about
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massive, undeniable growth in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
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The paternalistic West to the Rest unidirectional model is
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obsolete. I think of that outdated
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missiology like an old 20th century corporate headquarters.
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That is a good way to frame it. Yeah, you have the main office
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in the West and it views itself as the civilized resource
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abundance center. That headquarters sends
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directives, funding and personnel to the dependent
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branch offices out on the margins.
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Treating them like unevangelized franchises.
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Right, but the new reality described in the text is a
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decentralized living network. Every single location is both a
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sender and a receiver now. Which is how it should be.
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A believer from Lagos might plant a church in London.
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A congregation in Sao Paulo might fund and send workers to
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North Africa. The headquarters model is dead,
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so if the old map is useless, what specific lens should the
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church use to look at the world now?
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Well, the lens must be vertical, not horizontal.
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We must look through the spectacles of Holy Scripture,
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and specifically we have to look through the sovereign decree of
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God. Because this demographic shift
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is not a human accident. No, not at all.
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It is not the result of clever human marketing or shifting
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cultural trends. It is the majestic execution of
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God's sovereign decree. Let us bring in the Westminster
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Confession here. Yes, specifically Chapter 5
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concerning Providence. It states that God, the Great
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Creator of all things, doth uphold, direct, dispose and
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govern all creatures, actions and things, from the greatest
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even to the least. He does this by his most wise
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and holy Providence. Right, according to His
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infallible foreknowledge and the free and immutable counsel of
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His own will. The rise of African initiated
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churches and the massive mobilization of Latin American
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missionary agencies proves the mandate belongs to the entire
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body of Christ. Which means the West must
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abandoned its provincialism. We have to we have to learn from
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the doctrinal zeal and the physical endurance of persecuted
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believers in poorer regions. And that vertical lens changes
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everything about how we assess success or failure.
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It alters the entire metric. Because if you are stuck in a
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horizontal sociological mindset, you might look at the decline of
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institutional religion in North America.
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Read the think pieces about empty buildings and panic.
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You might assume the church is failing.
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Yeah, but the vertical lens shows you that God is actively
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scattering and gathering his elect precisely as he planned
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from eternity past. He humbles old centers and
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strengthens young churches. It is a massive display of
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Providence. And yet this requires us to
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fundamentally change how we view the people we are trying to
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reach. The sources point out that
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Western missions frequently fall into post Enlightenment
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materialism. Which is a massive roadblock.
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They bring up a really interesting story about Doctor
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Daniel Fountain to illustrate this.
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He was a medical missionary who went to Zaire, which is now the
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Democratic Republic of Congo. He discovered something pretty
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jarring about his own Western medical training.
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Can you break down his specific experience?
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Sure, Doctor Fountain's experience is the perfect case
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study in the danger of secular reductionism.
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He arrived in Africa highly trained in Western medicine.
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He was ready to cure diseases. But he hit a wall.
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He did. He quickly realized that his
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modern, secularized medical training systematically
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depersonalized his patients. Because it completely ignored
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the human spirit. Right post Enlightenment
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materialism operates within a closed system of naturalism.
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It restricts its view to what can be scientifically measured,
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observed and experimented upon in a laboratory.
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So it treats human beings as biological machines.
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That is the core issue. It views physical bodies as
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collections of spare parts to fix.
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Or if you look at the realm of psychiatry, it reduces the mind
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to psychological profiles to manipulate.
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Stripping away all cosmic meaning.
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Exactly, or rather precisely, it renders God completely
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irrelevant to human flourishing. I.
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Want to push back on this a little though, or at least play
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devil's adjective for you, the listener.
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Are modern medicine and psychology inherently bad tools
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for a missionary to use? That is a fair question to ask.
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Let's say a missionary goes to a foreign field and they encounter
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a village suffering from a cholera outbreak.
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Should they throw away their medical degree or their
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understanding of human biology because those things were
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developed in a secular context? No, absolutely not.
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Because. It feels like there's a tension
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between using effective scientific tools and adopting
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the worldview that produced them.
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The tools themselves are completely fine.
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The danger is the secular bias that strips away cosmic meaning.
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A Christian doctor absolutely should use a scalpel.
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Prescribe antibiotics and treat cholera.
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We recognize those medical advancements as part of God's
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common grace in the physical world.
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Right. The error occurs when the
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practitioner adopts the naturalistic worldview that
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insists the physical body is all there is.
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When we yield to that secular reductionism, we depersonalize
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the sick into clinical cases. It.
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Becomes a very cold, sterile transaction.
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It establishes a non reciprocal relationship.
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The highly educated Western professional acts upon a
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passive, ignorant recipient. Doctor Fountain realized that
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curing physical ailments in his African patients required
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addressing the heart. The core of meaning.
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Yes, the center of reconciliation with God.
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So it really comes down to the definition of a human being.
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Precisely true biblical anthropology, as outlined in the
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Westminster Confession chapter 4, asserts that human beings are
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an integrated unity of body and spirit.
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Created in the Imago day. Yes, the image of God.
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Because of the fall of Adam, the entire human constitution is
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corrupted by sin, but the structure of that image remains.
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So a biblical view recognizes the person sitting in the clinic
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not as a biological machine with a broken part.
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But as an eternal soul, fallen in Adam, accountable before God
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and in desperate need of reconciliation through the last
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Adam, Jesus Christ. The healing process must respect
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the absolute dignity of the image bearer.
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It has to address their alienation from their creator.
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That makes total sense, and if you view people as biological
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machines, it leads directly to treating the church's mission as
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an industrial corporate machine. Which is a huge problem.
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The sources talk extensively about the illusion of managerial
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missiology. Yes, that is the term they use.
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Modern evangelicalism often treats theology for corporate
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business management. They rely heavily on demographic
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matrices, target tracking and categorizing people into
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homogeneous units. Just to satisfy the
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administrative hunger of Western institutional boards.
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It makes me think of running a political campaign.
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Picture a campaign manager sitting in a war room looking at
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demographic data. They tweak the candidates
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messaging to appeal to specific voting blocks, they optimize the
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marketing, and they try to win votes.
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But they completely miss the fact that dead hearts cannot
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cast a vote. That is a great point.
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Only the Spirit brings the dead to life.
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That political campaign analogy hits the nail right on the head.
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Managerial missiology attempts to reduce the supernatural task
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of the Great Commission to a predictable, quantifiable human
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enterprise. Is trying to manufacture grace.
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It is. The theological root of this
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error is Arminianism and semi Pelagianism.
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These frameworks assume that human persuasion, optimized
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marketing, and contextual accommodation actually cause
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conversion. They think you can engineer a
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spiritual decision. Right.
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They operate on the premise that if you just remove the offensive
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elements of the cross, play the right music and target the right
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demographic, you will get results.
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You can just market them into the Kingdom.
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Yes, but the Reformed truth, as confessed in Westminster Chapter
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X, is that salvation is a monarchistic work of the Holy
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Spirit. Let us stop and unpack that word
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monergism, because it is the absolute pivot point here.
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It changes everything. If you believe in synergism,
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which is the idea that God and man cooperate in the initial act
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of regeneration, then managerial missiology makes perfect sense.
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Logically, yes it would. If salvation depends even a
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little bit on the unregenerate human will, then you absolutely
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should use every psychological marketing trick in the book to
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persuade that will. You should run it like a sales
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funnel. But if you believe in
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monarchistic regeneration, then all those corporate strategies
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are exposed as a severe lack of faith in sovereign grace.
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That is correct. Monarchism means God works alone
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in regeneration. The Sinner is entirely passive
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until quickened. The Holy Spirit executing the
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sovereign decree of unconditional election quickens
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the dead soul. He renews the will.
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And irresistibly draws the Sinner to Jesus Christ.
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When you grasp this, you realize you cannot manufacture church
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growth on a spreadsheet. The text matches hit and run
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evangelism aimed at securing fast decisions for funding
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reports. Which is a tragic reality.
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Picture this scenario. A missionary with a laptop
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drives a Jeep into a remote village.
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They set up a loudspeaker, give a highly emotional 15 minute
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pitch, hand out some translated tracks and ask people to raise
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their hands or sign a card. I have seen reports just like
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that. Say 50 people raise their hands.
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The missionary logs those 50 decisions into an Excel
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spreadsheet, emails it back to a donor board in Chicago to secure
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next year's funding, and drives away the next morning, never to
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return. It's heartbreaking.
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That behavior reveals A theology that thinks salvation is just a
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human choice you can tally up like sales numbers.
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It demonstrates a complete failure to trust God's
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prescribed methods. When missionaries bypass the
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arduous, unglamorous work of local church planting and
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theological discipleship to chase statistical metrics, they
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adopt the methods of the flesh. The true means are ordinary.
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They are the faithful, expository preaching of the
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Word, the right administration of the sacraments, and the
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consistency of Church discipline.
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These are the means God has ordained to gather and perfect
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His elect. We cannot treat people as
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statistical targets to be captured.
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So if corporate strategies and spreadsheets fail, missionaries
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must rely on the spiritual realities of the gospel.
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Which leads us to a massive clash of world views.
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Right, because what happens when they encounter cultures highly
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attuned to literal spiritual warfare?
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The sources point out that as the message crosses borders into
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the global S, it hits animistic societies.
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Cultures dominated by the fear of spirits, curses and ancestral
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anger. And Westerners blinded by their
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naturalism often bring an overly intellectualized message that
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feels completely useless in those contexts.
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It does not compute for the listener there.
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However, the text warns strongly against overcorrecting into
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Charismatic theology, specifically the Signs and
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Wonders movement. The collision with animism
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exposes the absolute bankruptcy of both secularized Western
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Christianity and modern charismatic errors.
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Let us unpack why Western naturalism fails first.
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Well, Western missionaries, shaped by the post enlightenment
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denial of the supernatural, struggle to answer the very real
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anxieties of tribal societies regarding demonic oppression.
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Because they do not even believe the demons are real.
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Liberal theology, which strips the Bible of its divine
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authority and presents a moralistic, secularized message,
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is worse than useless on this mission field.
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It offers a polite, ethical system to a person terrified of
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a night demon. It is like offering a Band-Aid
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to someone facing a firing squad.
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That is a very apartment description.
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So the temptation is to swing the pendulum the other way.
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The missionary thinks I need to prove my God is stronger than
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their spirits. I need to perform a physical
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exorcism or heal someone miraculously, or speak a
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prophetic word to show tangible strength.
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And the sources reject that approach entirely.
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We must operate from a strict cessationist framework.
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Explain that for the listener who might not know the term.
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The miraculous sign gifts such as tongues and Apostolic healing
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were temporary. They were given strictly to
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validate the Apostolic office and to confirm the preaching of
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the Gokpal before the New Testament Canon was complete.
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They were foundational. Right.
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The foundation of the Church was laid by the apostles and
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prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief
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cornerstone. You only lay a foundation once.
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I'm really struggling with this cessationism angle though, and I
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imagine you the listener might be too.
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You are telling me a missionary is facing off against a local
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shaman or a witch Doctor Who is seemingly placing real curses on
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people and the missionaries only tool is a sermon?
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I know it sounds counterintuitive to the modern
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ear. Doesn't that feel incredibly
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weak in that context? How does a missionary actually
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confront animistic fears of curses without using physical
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signs? It only feels weak if you
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underestimate the written word. The primary weapon for the mind
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and the conscience is the sword of the Spirit, the Holy
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Scriptures. We have to trust the text.
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We do. To claim that global missions
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cannot succeed without contemporary signs and wonders
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is to undermine the absolute sufficiency and authority of the
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Bible. You ask how a sermon breaks a
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curse. We have to look at the mechanism
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of substitutionary atonement. Walk me through that mechanism.
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Why does hearing a sermon break the psychological terror of a
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curse? Animistic cultures live in
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constant terror of appeasing angry spirits.
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The entire religious system is built on transactional fear.
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You perform a ritual or offer a sacrifice to keep the spirits
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from destroying your crops or making your children sick.
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It is an endless cycle of dread. It is when a missionary preaches
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expository truth about Christ's definitive victory on the cross,
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they introduce a completely alien concept, a God who absorbs
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the curse himself. Galatians chapter 3 says Christ
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redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for
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us. Yes, when the Word is preached,
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the Holy Spirit sovereignly applies the reality of Christ's
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finished work to the dead heart. The listener realizes they no
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longer have to appease the spirits.
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Because the Supreme Creator already appeased his own justice
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on their behalf. That is massive.
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It is the cross is where Christ disarmed the rulers and
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authorities, putting them to open shame.
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By triumphing over them. He stripped them of their
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accusing authority. And expository preaching of that
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historical fact breaks the spiritual chains of idolatry far
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better than any counterfeit miraculous display.
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The world constantly demands extraordinary physical displays
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to believe, but the true strength of God unto salvation
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is the simple, unadorned preaching of the cross.
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The efficacy of that preaching relies entirely on a specific
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historical and legal reality, which the sources highlight
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through an exegesis of the Apostle Paul's letters.
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Specifically in Second Corinthians.
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Right, the text dives deep into Second Corinthians chapter 5,
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specifically verses 14 through 21.
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Now just to set the stage for you listening, Paul wrote this
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letter to defend his ministry against the Corinthians super
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apostles. These guys valued worldly
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metrics. They loved eloquent speech,
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outward impressiveness and high social status.
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They were judging Paul because he suffered constantly, because
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he lacked rhetorical Polish, and because his ministry looked weak
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and pathetic to the Greco Roman. Eye They wanted a flashy CEO,
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not a suffering servant. It is like judging a master
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surgeon by the brand of his shoes rather than his skill in
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the operating. Room.
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That is a good analogy. The exegesis of this passage is
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the theological climax of the entire discussion in these
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sources. Paul states in verse 16 that we
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regard no one according to the flesh.
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Let us examine the original language there.
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The Greek phrase he uses is katasarka.
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We need to understand what that implies.
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In the Pauline corpus, katasarka refers to the fallen,
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unregenerate humanistic standard of judgment that is inherently
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hostile to God. It is the worldly matrix of
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evaluating worth. Yes, the standard that looks at
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wealth, ethnicity, education and social clout.
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And the cross destroys these worldly standards of evaluation.
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Before his conversion, Paul himself assessed Jesus by these
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exact unbelieving categories. He viewed Christ as a failed
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Jewish Carpenter and a cursed criminal hanging on a tree.
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But then the Damascus Rd. happened.
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Right. Once the risen Christ overturned
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his judgement on the Damascus Rd.
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Paul received a completely new epistemological framework.
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He no longer evaluated anyone based on their societal
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usefulness, their bank account or their political tribe.
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He viewed them through the reality of the new creation.
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Which brings us to verse 17. If anyone is in Christ, he is a
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new creation. The sources make a massive point
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about the specific Greek words Paul uses here.
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Let's slow down and unpack this, because the text threw a lot of
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terminology at us. What is the specific word for
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new creation and why does it matter?
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The Greek phrase is kaino katisis.
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Paul deliberately chose the word kainos for new.
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Kainos denotes newness and quality and essence.
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As opposed to what? Well, he did not use the word
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neos which simply means new in time or chronology, like a
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really minted coin that is identical to the old coins.
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Furthermore, he did not say the believer is belting, which means
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improved. So it is not like taking a
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rusted out broken down car, replacing the transmission,
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giving it a fresh coat of paint and saying it is improved.
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That would be belting. Correct, it is not an
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improvement and it is not orthoteros, which means more.
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Correct? He used the word tysis, which
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means creation, the kind of creation that brings something
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out of nothing. Like summoning a brand new car
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into existing distance out of thin air.
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Even more radical than that really, because it involves
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raising the dead. This signifies that conversion
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is not a human self improvement project.
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It is not turning over a new leaf or adopting a better moral
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philosophy. It is a radical resurrection
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from spiritual death. It is a sovereign monarchistic
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act of God that mirrors the original creation out of nothing
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in Genesis chapter 1 when God said let there be light.
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When a Sinner is united to Christ, the eschatological new
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creation has already broken into this present evil age.
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Which totally dismantles the managerial messiology we talked
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about earlier. You cannot use corporate
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marketing to cause a canikatasis.
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You cannot use a spreadsheet to track resurrections from the
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dead. That requires the voice of the
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son of Todd. Absolutely.
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This shift in perception is grounded in the reality of what
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happens at conversion, and that leads directly to the concept of
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reconciliation in verses 18 and 19.
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Paul writes. All this is from God, who
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through Christ reconciled us to Himself.
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The text highlights the Greek word for reconciliation which is
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cataloso. I know in modern English when we
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say 2 friends reconciled, it usually means they had a
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conversation, let go of their mutual resentment and decided to
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feel better about each other. It is a vague emotional
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sentiment. But that is not what Cataloso
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means here, is it? Not at all.
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Cataloso is used in classical Greek to describe the
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restoration of political peace between warring states.
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It is a legal, objective reality and not just a subjective
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feeling. Paul elevates this word.
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He elevates it to describe the objective removal of God's holy
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wrath against elect sinners. We must remember that God is the
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offended party here. Humans committed high treason
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against the Creator. Yet God takes the sovereign
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initiative to remove the legal barrier of our sin.
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And he does not do this by just sweeping the sin under the rug
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or lowering his standards. He cannot lower his standards.
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He does not negotiate with rebellion and he does not
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compromise his justice. He completely satisfies that
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justice in his son. It is fascinating that Paul did
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not use the word. He'll ask, Am I here?
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Right, which focuses purely on the sacrifice or the appeasement
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of wrath. He used Catalacho to highlight
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the resulting restored legal relationship of peace between
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the Creator and the creature. God is not reconciled to our
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sin. He reconciles sinners to Himself
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by dealing with sin in Christ. This reconciliation is anchored
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in the most concrete transaction in human history.
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This brings us to the Great Exchange, the true
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suteriological engine of global mission found in 2nd Corinthians
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521. For our sake He made him to be
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sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the
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righteousness of God. The sources call this the
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doctrine of double imputation. For you listening who might not
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be familiar with that term, let us break down the mechanism of
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double imputation. How does it actually work?
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Double imputation is the absolute bedrock of our standing
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before God. It works like a legal transfer
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in a courtroom or a massive transfer of funds in a bank
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account. First, consider Christ.
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He knew no sin. He was the spotless lamb,
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completely holy in thought, word and deed.
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Yet God made him to be sin. Now this does not mean Christ
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was infused with moral corruption or that he suddenly
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became a Sinner. No, it means our sin was legally
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credited or imputed to his account.
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The guilt and the legal liability of our rebellion were
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transferred to him. And he paid the penalty for that
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debt on the cross. Yes, this is known as His
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passive obedience. He endured the full, unmitigated
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cup of God's holy wrath, bearing the exact penalty we deserved.
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But if the transaction stopped there, we would only be neutral.
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We would be forgiven, but we would have no positive
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righteousness to stand before a holy God.
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Like a bank account that was millions of dollars in debt and
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someone paid off the debt, bringing the balance to zero.
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You are no longer in debt, but you were still broke.
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Exactly the right analogy, but the exchange goes both ways.
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The text says so that in him we might become the righteousness
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of God. The perfect lifetime obedience
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of Jesus Christ, His active fulfillment of the divine Law
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every single minute of His earthly life is legally credited
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to our account. Our bank balance does not just
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go to 0. It is filled with the infinite
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wealth of Christ's perfect righteousness.
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We stand before the holy judge, not just pardoned, but clothed
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in the flawless righteousness of the Son of God.
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Because of this highly specific, highly exclusive truth, the
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sources argue that global partnership cannot be built on
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ecumenical pluralism. We have to draw hard lines, the
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text insists. We must reject the prosperity
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gospel, which is basically a materialistic heresy that uses
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Jesus as a slot machine. And we must reject Roman
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Catholicism's denial of solafide justification by faith alone.
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True mission must terminate in the planting of local visible
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churches that hold to the uncompromised doctrines of
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grace. But I have to ask, doesn't this
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strict doctrinal stance hinder global unity?
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If we refuse to partner with groups that deviate on these
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points, aren't we fracturing the body of Christ?
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Well, might seem that way from a horizontal perspective if.
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Missionary in the global S refuses to work with a massive
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prosperity gospel network. Aren't they just isolating
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themselves? Unity built on theological
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compromise is a fragile illusion.
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True fellowship requires shared allegiance to the unsearchable
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riches of Christ. If we agree on sociology but
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disagree on the gospel, we have no basis for spiritual
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partnership. Let's bring the confession back
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in. The visible church as defined in
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Westminster Confession Chapter 25, consists of all those
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throughout the world that profess the true religion
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together with their children. To this Catholic, meaning
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universal, visible Church, Christ is given the ministry,
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oracles and ordinances of God. For the gathering and perfecting
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of the Saints. So we cannot sacrifice doctrinal
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clarity on the altar of global statistics.
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We cannot. The prosperity gospel tells
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people that God exists to give them earthly wealth and health.
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That is a Pagan lie draped in Christian terminology.
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It preys on the poorest people in the world.
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And regarding Roman Catholicism? By binding itself to the Council
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of Trent, it anathematizes the very doctrine of imputed
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righteousness we just discussed. They teach that justification is
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a process of infused grace and human cooperation.
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Not a forensic declaration based solely on Christ's imputed
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righteousness. True partnership must be
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strictly anchored in the historical confessions of the
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Reformation. If we lose the gospel, we have
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nothing left to export. So we have covered massive
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ground today. We have seen how the demographic
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shift in Christianity forces a total projection of corporate
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management and secular naturalism.
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The old map is dead. By adopting Paul's new creation,
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Eyesight, we rely solely on monarchistic grace and double
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imputation. We no longer view people
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according to the flesh as mere biological machines or
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demographic targets. We trust the ordinary means of
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grace, the preached Word, and the sacraments to accomplish
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God's sovereign decree even in the face of intense animistic
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fear. And all of this labor, all of
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this global mission, points toward a guaranteed conclusion.
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Look at the eschatological vision of Revelation Chapter 7,
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verses 9 and 10. The Apostle John sees a
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multitude from every tribe, language, people and nations
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standing before the throne and worshipping the Lamb.
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The end of history is already sovereignly guaranteed.
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God is not biting his nails wondering if His mission will
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succeed. Every sermon preached, every
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church planted, and every Sinner regenerated is a rehearsal for
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this guaranteed victory. The global church will be
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gathered precisely as God decreed from eternity past.
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Which leaves you with a heavy thought to consider.
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It does if you believe the final victory of the global church is
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already decreed by God. How does that free you from the
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anxiety of trying to produce spiritual results in your own
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daily interactions? You are free from the crushing
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weight of having to manufacture conversions.
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You can simply be faithful to the truth and trust the Spirit
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to do the resurrecting. Thank you for joining us on this
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deep dive on Reformed thinking.