Someone Told Someone
Think about how you heard about Jesus. Maybe it was a parent, a friend at work, or a preacher on the radio. Someone told you, and someone told that person. Follow that line back through people no one remembers, and you come at last to a mountain in Galilee, where eleven disciples listened to the risen Christ (Matthew 28:16–20).
The Gospel has never drifted across a border by itself. Somebody prayed. Somebody gave. Somebody went. This study tells how it reached the world. It should make you thankful, make you honest, and raise a question about your own place in the story.
“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”ACTS 1:8 · KJV
It is easy to picture missionaries as a higher class of Christian. They were not. They were shoemakers, carpenters, mill girls, and slaves. Many were brave, and many were wrong. So we will not tell this as a parade of heroes. The story has one Hero, and the last scene is already written.
“After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”REVELATION 7:9–10 · KJV
That crowd will not be singing about missionaries. They will sing Salvation to our God (Revelation 7:10). As you read, ask two things: what did Christ do through these people, and what part has He given you?
Loading the rest of this article
For Deeper Study
- From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian MissionsAmazon Ruth A. TuckerThe most readable survey, told through lives, by an evangelical historian who is not a Baptist.
- Whose Religion Is Christianity? The Gospel beyond the WestAmazon Lamin SannehWhy the Gospel flourished in local languages, by a Gambian-born Yale professor raised Muslim, later a Roman Catholic. Read it for the history.
- God in the Rainforest: A Tale of Martyrdom and Redemption in Amazonian EcuadorAmazon Kathryn T. LongA careful history by an evangelical historian, including what went wrong.
- Through Gates of SplendorAmazon Elisabeth ElliotThe classic account of 1956, by Jim Elliot's widow, an evangelical. Read it with Long's book beside it.
- Lottie Moon: A Southern Baptist Missionary to China in History and LegendAmazon Regina D. SullivanA historian separates the record from the story. The author has left the Southern Baptist Convention and writes as a critical scholar.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
As an Amazon Associate, Theologica earns from qualifying purchases.
The Gospel Comes to Hawaiʻi
The Gospel's road to Hawaiʻi began with a Hawaiian, and it came through missionaries, chiefs, Hawaiian scholars, and Hawaiian pastors, by way of real good and real wrong, to islands that Christ loves and that every generation must reach again.
Open Doctrine