It Works Because It's Biblical | thebereancall.org

TBC Staff

1 John:2:27 says we don't need anyone to teach us, yet the same Scriptures tells us that God gave teachers and prophets to the church to bring us to maturity. Paul tells us not to become the servants of men (1Cor 7:23), yet Hebrews tells us to remember, follow and obey those that have the rule over us. Are we to take one of these verses as an excuse to throw out the other? Of course not! It seems like those that want to give us a new and better method [to being a missionary] than Paul's “outdated” one are taking the same approach as the man who wrote the mocking book, The Year of Living Biblically, in which he claimed that to live Biblically he needed to dress like someone from the time of Jesus. We follow the commands of the New Testament and take into account the principles and examples of the Scripture as we address issues not directly faced by the writers of Scripture. Paul did not face Islam, but he did face angry worshipers of Diana and of Jupiter. And he actually did face some racial prejudice because of his Jewish ethnicity, so we can learn from his attitudes and reactions.

Winds of doctrine disguised as "new methods" come and go. It was the Four Spiritual Laws and decisionism not too long back. Before that it was mass evangelism through large campaigns in auditoriums. Now it is cultural relativism and muslim christians (and hindu christians and buddhist christians...). While we need to speak up vociferously against these compromises to Biblical inerrancy, we can also remember that, by and large, the people coming up with these "new approaches" are scholars in Christian ivory towers, whose philosophy of mission will change again in 5 to 7 years….

The majority of missionaries continue to plod along in incarnational ministry, learning the language, immersing themselves in the culture and showing and telling others of Christ.

It works. And it is not Western. It is Biblical.

--Steve Montgomery (long term missionary to Mexico).