The Reformation and Missions: Its Impact on Modern Missions

The Reformation and Missions: Its Impact on Modern Missions

Though the impact of the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation broke out in Europe, it soon spread all over the world and changed the future course of Christianity. Howbeit, it took the Protestant churches almost two centuries to begin any significant missionary enterprise because at the outset the reformers were primarily engaged in the intense battle to defend the essentials of Christianity against the doctrinal errors of the Roman Catholic Church. Once the fundamental theological convictions were established, the pure gospel of Christ could be disseminated throughout the uttermost parts of the world (cf. Matthew 28:18-20). Undeniably, the reformers laid the doctrinal foundation for later missions. In considering the lives of Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli and the other reformers, one cannot help but come away with a deep sense of admiration for the missionary and evangelistic heart of this movement.

The reformation and missions in retrospect

The reformers have often been portrayed as being indifferent to world missions. This is duein part firstly to the fact that there is the common caricature that the doctrine of election made missions appear irrelevant if God had already chosen those whom He would save. William Carey was once retorted by an older minister, “Young man, sit down! You’re an enthusiast. When God pleases to convert the heathen, he will do it without your aid or mine.” Nonetheless, Williams’ zeal for missions was not demoralized by those despairing words; he soon embarked on his missionary endeavours in India and was later known as the “father of modern missions.”

Secondly, there is the misconception that the early Protestants taught that the Great Commission had been fulfilled in the time of the Apostles. But nothing could be further from the truth, as the most prominent names of the modern missionary movement were Calvinists such as John Eliot, David Brainerd, Isaac McCoy, William Carey, David Livingstone and many others who had their roots in the Puritan tradition. There were also evangelists like George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards and Charles Spurgeon who credited their missionary efforts based on their theological convictions that it was God alone who saves sinner whenever and wherever He will.

It is vital to note that the early Protestant churches did not have the organizational missionary structure to spread the gospel, unlike the Roman Catholics whose Jesuits mission order had reached almost all the countries by the fifteenth century. Colonialism had effectively expanded the geographical reach of the Roman Catholic Church. Despite facing insurmountable difficulties, the reformers were relentless in their missionary efforts.

John Calvin himself, was perhaps the most missionary-minded of all the reformers. He sent dozens of evangelists to his homeland France and also commissioned four French Huguenots to evangelize to the Indians of Brazil. The first Lutheran to attempt missionary work was an Austrian named Baron Justinian von Weltz, who issued a clarion call to the church in 1664 to assume her missionary responsibilities.

The initial sixteenth century reformation was followed by the emergence of the Puritans, the Quakers and the beginning of Pietism in the seventeenth century. The four movements became the launching pad for the Protestant churches’ world mission movement.

The first Puritans formed the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629 and in their concerted missionary efforts to the Indians of New England; they were extremely devoted to convert as many souls as possible.

Philip Spencer (1635-1705), commonly known as the father of Pietism, started the Pietist movement as a revolt against the dead orthodoxy and formalism of the State Churches of Protestant Europe. The Pietistic theology could be summed up in the statement, “There can be no missionary vision without evangelistic zeal; there can be no evangelistic zeal without personal piety; there can be no personal piety without a genuine conversion experience.” Philip established the Halle University which became the first Protestant mission, the Danish Halle Mission.

The Moravian movement was started by John Huss in early fifteenth century. Later, Nickolaus von Zinzendorf became the leader of the growing Moravian church and he challenged the believers to answer the missionary call. In the wake of his plea, the Moravians sent out over two thousand missionaries in a period of 150 years. All the missionaries were self-supporting and some even sold themselves into slavery in the West Indies to proclaim the gospel to those who had not heard.

The great preachers of the Evangelical Awakening were John Wesley and George Whitefield in England and Jonathan Edwards in America. It was an evangelical and revitalization movement that resulted from powerful preaching which gave the listeners a sense of deep personal conviction of their need for salvation through Jesus Christ.

The Protestant Reformation began when many dedicated Christian scholars studied the Bible and realized that the Roman Catholic Church was teaching false doctrines. These scholars were faced with a difficulty: no common person could understand the Latin Bibles which the church read publicly. The priests taught what they wanted the people to believe, changing doctrines to support their practices and omitting truths that were vital to the gospel. By God’s providence, the reformers translated the Bible into the vernacular for the common people. The subsequent missionaries adopted this practice and went through great length to learn the indigenous languages as well as the biblical original languages in order to translate the Holy Scriptures into the vernacular; for example, Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg translated the Bible into the Tamil language (1706), and Adoniram Judson made the first complete translation of the Bible from the original languages into Burmese (1834). With the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440, the Bibles and other Christian literature could be mass-produced and distributed throughout the world. Needless to say, the gospel tract was an invaluable gem in the cause of mission outreach.

The early missionaries planted churches in nearly every country in the world. Wherever they went they opened hospitals and schools, but their prime purpose was the founding of churches. To this end they devoted all their resources and energy. At least in the beginning, their schools were supplementary enterprises designed to contribute to the building of strong churches with an educated ministry. Everywhere the gospel was preached; the Bible was translated, Christian literature was disseminated, catechists were instructed in the faith, converts were baptized, pastors and evangelists were trained, churches were organized and the sacrament were administered. The Sunday school movement was made popular by Robert Raikes in 1780 to evangelize and train the little children in the Christian faith.

It was not without challenges though. Despite the scarcity of resources, the early missionaries had to face incredible problems pertaining to food, health, climate, language, culture, and also the opposition and persecution, to say the least. Yet they were willing to be separated from the own children and the comfort of their homes, and even dreadful epidemic could not deter them because they were motivated by an endearing love for the lost souls, So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us (1 Thessalonians 2:8). The missionaries had to preach boldly and courageously against idolatry which could be tremendously offensive to the indigenous people, oftentimes even at the expense of losing their own lives.

The reformation and missions in prospect

Today, we are living in a fast-moving age. The world has seen more changes politically, socially, economically, and most vitally religiously in the last fifty years than in the previous five centuries. No one can predict with any degree of certainty how church mission is going to change into, nonetheless the biblical mandate remains unchanged. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen (Matthew 28:19-20).

Teach – We are to teach all nations and that is to declare the full gospel about sin and the Saviour, repentance and faith, the grace of God, the atonement of Christ and His finished work. The reformers fought and defended valiantly all these fundamental doctrines and today, these precious truths had been handled down to us that we should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints (Jude 3b). If the church be not mission-minded, how can the nations be taught?

Baptizing – Through the power of the Word and work of the Holy Spirit, the people are converted from sin to Christ and thereafter follow Him. The next command is baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. This is to call sinners to outwardly profess their faith in Christ. After they were baptized, they would be ushered into the local church as a member to be taught to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. This is a continuous, life-long process of teaching and grounding the believers in the fundamental truths of the Bible, like the early missionaries who were committed to a lifetime of service in a particular place.

There is also a growing emphasis on social work as a primary part of the mission mandate. Social services on the part of the missionaries are not new, the past reformers have always operated schools, hospitals and other humanitarian institutions, but they had been regarded as auxiliary ministries and not the integral part of the gospel mandate. Evangelism is fundamentally the proclamation of the Good News. But today evangelicals are adopting a holistic approach to missions, and tragically, missions have been redefined as evangelism plus social work.

In the past, the missionaries were better trained and many of whom were ordained ministers. Today, church leaders are more interested in quantity than quality. Many modern mission boards would gladly accept candidates having only minimum requirement of biblical studies, with little or no training in church history, cross-cultural communications and theology of missions. We need sound biblical bible colleges to train and equip the missionaries. The late Rev Timothy Tow said, “Without the Bible College, the church is dead.” If the church be dead, where cometh missions?

Modern worldwide radio and internet broadcasts can bring the gospel message to places where missionaries cannot step foot into. Illiterate persons who cannot benefit from Christian literature, can hear and understand the gospel coming to them in both audible and visible form. But on the contrary, these advanced technologies have turned into dangerous platforms for the enemies to propagate the false gospel.

The early missionaries had to endure treacherous journeys that took months if not years to reach their destinations. With the invention of modern aviation, a person could travel around the globe in a matter of hours, yet the irony is that biblical missions have been on the decrease. The church and missions are both intertwined, and as long as the church exists in this world, missions will always be a vital part of her ministry. The true believer must have this evangelistic burden in his or her heart to share the gospel with the unreached.

Indeed, the Protestant Reformation Movement has contributed vitally in the Christian mission, souls were saved and the lives of many were impacted. Maym the Lord cause us to learn from the reformers to take heed of His missionary call, as Jesus said,…..as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you (John 20:21).

With love in Christ,

Pastor Paul Cheng