THE IMPORTANCE OF CHRISTOCENTRIC

A solid Missionary Theology in mission work is like a rudder of a vessel as well as a baffle of architecture. One may simply loses his direction in mission field in the same time loses his ground of authenticity without a firm theology. is Christocentric. Christ, together with The Father and The , is the center of faith and worship, as well as in Christian mission. Contemporary Missiology is still dealing with an old discussion about revelation and redemption of world religions, especially the singularity of Christianity as the only true religion of the world. As Dr. Ronald Nash, a professor of philosophy at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary said, when asking: “Is the ONLY savior?”, the contemporary answers that we can found are: ‘He is NOT!’, ‘Yes, BUT…’ and ‘YES, He is.’ 1. These three simple answers reflect the view of Pluralism, Inclusivism and Exclusivism in Christian Missiology. In this article, we will explain about what Pluralism and Inclusivism are and their theology, in terms of their view of revelation and redemption, followed by Reformed perspective on Christ. The consequent section of the article is to see how Reformed Missiology about Christ brings impact to Christian mission in the context of Malaysia.

PLURALISM AND ITS THEOLOGY Pluralism theologians hold an optimistic view on revelation and redemption. They believe that all religions are as effective and truthful as Christianity is in providing liberation, freedom and redemption. Some of these theologians include John Hick, Ernst Troeltsch, William Hocking, Paul Knitter, William Cantwell Smith, Langdon Gilkey and etc. According to them, Christianity is neither the sole true religion, nor the most distinctive one, nor the ultimate form of other religions, but just one of the true religions that we can found in this planet.

Pluralism rested their theology of revelation on religious experience. With the influences from liberalism and Neo-Orthodoxy, they started to develop a universal acceptance of ways to gain salvation. John Hick, for example, in his hypothesis claimed on two hypotheses to support his own stand. Firstly, he assumes that God or The Ultimate is infinite and beyond our grasp. He said:

If we could fully define God, describing His inner being and his outer limits, this would not be God. The God whom our minds can penetrate and whom our thoughts can circumnavigate is merely a finite and partial image of God.

Secondly, he found out that the prayers of different traditions are overlap and confluence.

…many different accounts of the divine reality may be true, though all expressed in imperfect human analogies, but… none is "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." May it not be that the different conceptions God, as Jahweh, Allah, Krishna, Paramatma, Holy , and so on; and likewise the different concepts of the hidden structure of reality, as the eternal emanation of Brahman, or as an immense cosmic process culminating in Nirvana, are all

1 Nash, Ronald H., Is Jesus the Only Savior?, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994.

images of the divine, and yet none by itself fully and exhaustively corresponding to the infinite nature of the ultimate reality. 2

Christ, in the view of Pluralism, is simply a myth. There is no real existence of incarnated flesh of Jesus in human history. As a result, there is none who ever been save by Jesus, the experience that Christian have in forgiveness of sin and union with Christ, is simply a result of what they believe on what they believe. Christianity is no longer Christ-oriented but Salvation-oriented. Salvation is merely a response of a person from ‘Self-Centered’ to ‘God-Centered’. Christ, by no mean crucial in this context.

INCLUSIVISM AND ITS THEOLOGY Inclusivism, on the one hand, affirmed that Christ is the ultimate savior that God has revealed to human being. It is, however, believe that God does also reveal Himself about His redemption grace in other religions. They teach on particularity axiom, which refers to Christ as the unique and ultimate savior of all, together with universality axiom, which means the salvation of God is for all and exists also in other religions. The theology of Inclusivism stands in between Pluralism and Exclusivism, yet shows much differ from both. Firstly, Inclusivist insists that salvation is for all. God is acting in human history to reveal His saving plan progressively to the entire cosmos. Secondly, Inclusivism proposed that there is a different in between believer and Christian. According to them, all Christians are believers, but not all believers consider Christians. Whoever believes in God will receive the salvation from God. It is, however, not every believer receives the redemptive grace of God through the knowledge on Christ. Karl Rahner suggested that,

We might therefore put it as follows: the ‘Anonymous Christian’ in our sense of the term is the pagan after the beginning of the Christian mission, who lives in the state of Christ’s grace through faith, hope and love, yet who has no explicit knowledge of the fact that his life is oriented in grace-given salvation to Jesus Christ. 3

As a result, redemption may be accomplished without through Jesus Christ. Unlike Pluralism, they do not see other religions in the same level as Christianity. However, they suggested that God still can make use of these religions in order to bestow His redemptive grace. In brief, Christ according to Inclusivist, is not mandatory in salvation. Compared with Traditional Reformed teaching, there exist variations on the doctrine of common grace, the doctrine of general revelation.

REFORMED POSITION (EXCLUSIVISM) AND ITS THEOLOGY Traditional Reformed position (Exclusivism) insists that salvation only found through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the only authoritative revelation of the one true God, and He is present in a saving way only among believers and their spiritual seed. 4 It is my thesis to show that this is the only truth in Missionary Theology about redemption-grace that is faithful to the will of God according to the Scripture. As the word of God in Acts 4:12 said,

2 Hick John, God and the Universe of Faith, London, Colin, 1973. 3 Karl Rahner, Theological Investigations Vol 14 translated by David Bourke (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1976), p 283. 4 Nathan Brummel, Christ Among other Gods, Lecture Notes on Reformed Missiology, CRTS, 2011.

‘Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.’

There is no other way for a person to receive the redemptive-grace from God but through His begotten son, Jesus Christ. The Apostle John also supports this position which we can see in his writings (John 3:16-18, 36; 14:6; 1 John 5:11-12 etc). Paul, in his epistles especially the Romans, insisted that there is no way a person comes to know God and gladly receive the redemptive-grace other than the special revelation and faith in Christ. We will consider in detail about the teaching of Paul in the section about the limitation of general revelation in the matter of salvation.

As for now, we shall begin to see the universality of Christ in creation, providence and judgment. One is difficult to see the necessity of faith in Jesus Christ in salvation without realizing that the second- person of the Trinity God is also the creator, the provider and the one who is to judge the world. If Christ is not the creator and the ruler of the universe, one may not be convince that he needs Christ. However, if Christ is really the one as who He is, then one is ought to consider seriously about his status before the ultimate ruler. There are no better verses to see Jesus Christ in this perspective as in Hebrew 1:1-4, see also 5.

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

Jesus is pre-eminent over the creation as the God of creations. All creations existed through Christ. Besides, through Christ’s providence, all creatures were sustains before Him. Not only so, Christ has claimed every inches of His creation under His authority for judgment. The Westminster Confession of Faith supported this position as in Chapter 4:1 indicated that Christ, together with The Father and The Holy Spirit, for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, in the beginning, to create, or make of nothing, the world, and all things therein whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days; and all very good. This is the same Christ who took the human flesh, a fully God and a fully man, crucified on the cross ONLY for the elected people, resurrected as the first fruit of the CHOSEN ONE, ascended and sitting on the right hand of The Father to intercede for WHO HE DIED FOR.

One may oppose, just as a lot of Universalists do, that God in the Bible does promises about His redemptive plan to Adam, the representative of mankind in Genesis 3, and Noah, the root after the flood in Genesis 9. This argument by itself is absolutely correct. It is, however, in no sense to prove that one can obtain redemptive-grace without faith in Christ, who is the long waiting Messiah of Abrahamic Covenant. In fact, Paul in Romans 1:18-28, proves that the key issue for man to sins against God is not because of the lack of knowledge about God’s existence but the rejection of His ruling power over them. Paul shows us that through the general revelation of God in Creation (v20) and in man’s conscious heart (v21), God reveal Himself to mankind. However, due to sinful desire, men refuse to glorify Him as God and to thank Him. That is the reason why Reformed Missiology sees no possibility that worldly religion

5 1 Cor 8:6; Col 1:16-17; John 1:1-3 & etc.

can point a way out for men to reach God because all men are in . Unless one being regenerate through Holy Spirit with Christ imputed righteousness, he is impossible to get rid away from the wrath of God and obtaining an immortal life. This doesn’t mean that the general revelation is unnecessary. As what quoted by John Frame about Van Til,

General revelation is necessary, because “for the supernatural to appear as supernatural the natural had to appear as really natural. … There had to be regularity if there was to be a genuine exception.” 6

As the opposite, general revelation, regardless through creation, heart conscious, culture, human history, serves as a crucial contact point for mission. Unfortunately, due to human sin and the constant rejection to God, their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. This is the limitation of general revelation in the matter of revealing God’s redemptive-grace to mankind.

What was the ultimate cause that led to Christ’s coming to earth and dying for our sins? Was there any other way for God to save human beings than by sending his Son to die in our place? What is the relationship of Christ’s atonement with the kingdom of God? These are the questions that need to be answer and the only source for the answer is through the inspired gospel of God. Christ’s coming to earth and dying for our sins, because of His own character of love and justice. John 3:16 gave the balance of this two characters of God reveal in the gospel,

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

It is out of love that God as a cause of the atonement, but God’s justice required that God find a way that the penalty due to us for our sins would be paid. Paul explains that this was why God sent Christ to be a ‘propitiation’ 7 to show God’s righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 8. Regarding the second question, one has to first realized that God, by Himself, do not owe us salvation. It is merely out of love that He decided to save some of His elected. On the other hand, all human being, regardless from what religions and cultural background, were put under the hand of wrath of the angry God. As a result, Christ atonement is no longer a choice for a person to commit but the only possible way to escape from the ultimate judgment of God. Romanticism and Existentialism in the air we breathe today is hindering us away from the reality of judgment from God and consequently see Christ’s atonement as reletive neccesity. In the view of the kingdom of God, Jesus granted the great commission to His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations in Mathew 28:16-20. This came along with the power of His ressurection from death as Jesus Himself proclaimed that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him (v18)! Jesus’s atonement and ressurection serve as a basis for a man to enter the kingdom of God. The apostle John, quoted Jesus several times in his writting that “...no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” (John 3:3, see also 3:5, 18:36). We, as Kingdom’s

6 John Frame, Cornelius Van Til: An Analysis of His Thought , Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1995, pp. 118. 7 That is, a sacrifice that bears God’s wrath so that God becomes ‘propitious’ or favorably disposed toward us. ref John Frame, Page 568. 8 Romans 3:25.

people, long to see the kingdom of God fully reveal. This is the reason we ought to response to the great commissen as the Heavenly King came once, as the Son of God to called on His people into His kingdom, is to come again in full glory, that every knee shall bow,and every mouth shall confess that He is Lord!

WHY EXCLUSIVISM CAN MAKES IMPACT IN CHRISTIAN MISSION OF MALAYSIA This is the reason to GO!

There are a lot of people in doubt about the ‘rigid’ teaching about the salvation will be a great obstacles in mission as compared to Pluralism and Inclusivism. It is, however, in my point of view that is the only reason what makes Christian mission logical and mandatory in Malaysia. Since Malaysia is a multi-racial country, where every race having our own culture and religion, especially for Islam as our national religion, it has create a very unique religious context compare with other parts of the world. As Malaysians, we have the ‘privilege’ to witness a lot of religious and cultural practices from various religions such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Sikhism and etc. One may wonder this country need another choice of religion to consider. In fact, it is exactly because of Christ as the sole mediator in between God and men that we see the reason Christian Mission is largely in need in this country. It is this Exclusivism view on salvation that churches and missionary board in Malaysia remain their passion on their missionary work.

This is the reason to HOPE!

Mission work is not merely about a slogan or a short-term effort. Doing mission work in Malaysia is as hard as moving a mountain from one place to another. Missionaries in Malaysia shall realize that this country is surrounded by various religions and races where compromisation is the key to maintain the harmony of the country. Christian who are faithful to the teaching of God, who insists that Exclusiveness of redemption-grace in Christ alone is facing a lot of challenges and disappointment in their mission works. Christian churches attempting to knock the door of Muslims in Malaysia who are restricted by government law constantly dealing with discouragement and cost, may ponder a lot about the meaning of their work in hand again and again. However, considering Christ, the one who has died and resurrected and claimed the authority of heaven and earth, is the one who grant the great commission to the Church, not only as a verbal command, but with promises to be with the Church until the end of the world, brings precious comfort and encouragement to the missionaries in Malaysia. Though with their eyes they see impossibilities in the land of Malaysia, yet the sovereign promise of Christ has produces a constant hope to move on! There are still remnants of God which God intents to call them into His kingdom through Christ that sustain the hope of mission work in Malaysia.

This is the reason to REJOICE! One cannot remains in a Christian mission without knowing the goal of his mission. Jesus, who owns the lordship of Christian mission, promised us a must-to-reveal kingdom of God that we can rejoice in its appearance after a long sowing and harvesting period. Though Christians are minority in Malaysia, but deep inside every missionary’s heart, they know that ‘This is Their Father’s World’. God, in His own time, progresses step by step towards His full revelation of His eternal kingdom. As Jesus granted the great commission to the disciples, He did not spoke in an uncertain way about the kingdom to come. One cannot have greater goal to achieve than to see the glory of God manifest through His son in the end of human history. Mission work in Malaysia is not a second choice of church ministry, a less

meaningful work in a Christian life, but the ultimate goal for children of the majesty kingdom of God! This ultimate goal can only be achieve through proclaiming the truth of Gospel about Christ. It is wrong to think that universalist and pluralist can achieve this goal easier and more efficient than exclusivist when one spend a little effort to study about the kingdom theology and the necessity of Christ atonement and resurrection of Christian doctrine.

CONCLUSION As a conclusion, one must sees the distinctive of Christ in His atonement and resurrection in missionary theology to avoid the chaos of Pluralism and Inclusivism. Christ, in Himself is not one of the way to obtain salvation as Pluralist suggested and also not merely an ultimate form of truth that all the worldly religions ahead to for salvation as Inclusivist claimed. Christ, who is the Son of God, the creator, the provider and the ruler of the world, had incarnated into human flesh, persecuted and crucified on the cross as atonement for His kingdom people, resurrected and claimed the authority of heaven and earth under His belt, who grant the greatest commission to His church to go and make disciples of Him. Christ, is the foundation, the comforter and reliance, and the sovereign judge in missionary theology.

Book References  Editor: Gerhard Kittel, WM. B, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament,Volume II, Eerdmans Publishing Company,1964  Wayne Grudem, , Inter-Varsity Press, 1994.  Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics Volume 3, Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, Michigan,2006.  Wolfhart Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, William B Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1991.  George W. Peters, A of Missions, Moody Press, Chicago, 1972.  J.I. Packer, Concise Theology, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, Wheaton Illinois, 1993.  Gerald H. Anderson, The Theology of the Chritian Mission, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. New York, Toronto, London, 1961.  Donald Senior, C.P. Carroll Stuhlmueller, C.P., The Biblical Foundations for Mission, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 1984.  James Montgomery Boice, Gospel of Grace?, Crossway Books, Wheaton, Illinois, 2001.  Greg L. Bahnsen, VanTil’s Apologetics, P & R Publishing, 1998.  Jonathan Chao, Ecumenical Creeds and Reformed Confessions and Catechisms,Reformed Translation Fellowship (Taiwan), 2002.  John Mark Terry, Ebbie Smith, Justice Anderson, Missiology-An introduction to the Foundations, History, and Strategies of World Missions, Chinesse Baptist Press (International) Limited, 2010.  Nathan Brummel, Christ among other gods, Lecture Note ,Chapter 16 , 2011.