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MBS Texte 173 MARTIN 10. Jahrgang EXTE MARTIN MBS T 173 BUCER 2013 SEMINAR Thomas K. Johnson The First Step in Missions Training: How our Neigh- bors are Wrestling with God’s General Revelation (Part 1) BUCER IN S T E M R A I N M A R 2 1 : E P 4 H TheologicalTheologische Accents Akzente TableInhaltsverzeichnis of Contents The Human Condition ........................................................................ 8 The Content of General Revelation .................................................... 10 The Normal Human Response to God’s General Revelation .............. 11 Internal Contradictions Resulting from Simultaneously Accepting and Rejecting God’s General Revelation............................ 13 Religious Reversals ............................................................................. 16 Missions Training .............................................................................. 17 Annotation ......................................................................................... 18 The Author ......................................................................................... 21 Study Centers ..................................................................................... 22 Imprint .............................................................................................. 23 1. Aufl. 2013 2 The First Step in Missions Training … (Part 1) The First Step in Missions Training: How our Neighbors are Wrestling with God’s General Revelation (Part 1)1 Thomas K. Johnson If you very seriously want to fulfill What is truly astonishing is Paul’s your calling as a missionary, to bring first theme when he wrote a manual the biblical message to a needy world, on missionary training. In a very broad what is the very first thing you should sense, the book of Romans was writ- learn? Is it the language of the people ten by Paul as a missionary training you want to reach? Is it how to adjust to manual, one of the earlier text books in different cultures, where people really history, designed to equip the church think differently and do things differ- for its history changing task of bringing ently? Is it the history of the people you the gospel to the nations. He wrote it as want to reach? an organic part of his missionary work, If you read the life of the apostle Paul, to explain his mission efforts to the you might think the most important church in Rome, to gain support from thing for a missionary to learn is how the church, and especially to train the to swim very well, in case a few of the entire church in Rome to become a mis- ships on which you are riding sink. (See sionary church. Of course, Christians 2 Corinthians 11:25.) Or maybe, fol- have used the book of Romans for other lowing Paul, you will want to learn how purposes, perhaps as a source book for to walk distances that seem long to us. Christian doctrine or as a summary of (The distance mentioned in Acts 20:13 theology, and there is nothing particu- was 32 to 40 km, i. e., 20 to 25 miles.) larly wrong with these uses of the book. Or maybe you should learn how to sing However, the arguments are convinc- very joyfully, in case you are beaten ing that Paul wrote his great epistle to and thrown into prison for preaching the Romans to be a missions training the gospel. (See Acts 16:16–39.) I have manual, to help the church in Rome wondered if singing while being beaten become a missionary church. You see was standard operating procedure for this from the way the book starts, fin- Paul. ishes, and is organized around the topic THEOLOGISCHE AKZENTE 3 Thomas K. Johnson of the spread of the gospel to the entire flict with God is the central theme of world. The overwhelming theologi- human existence. Understanding this cal, philosophical, and ethical content conflict, this wrestling match of the of the book does not stand alone; it is ages between God and humanity, is set within the framework of world mis- the first step toward serious mission- sion and is properly called a “Charter of ary courage and power. Understanding World Missions.”2 If this claim is true, this conflict also provides crucial intel- then the book of Romans should again lectual tools needed by all Christians become central for missionary training. as missionaries.5 The human race is lost We want all our missionaries (which and is continually suppressing their means all Christians!) to be able to say, God-given knowledge of God. Never- with Paul, “I am not ashamed of the theless, even when people suppress their gospel,” and to really know what they naturally given knowledge of God, the mean with these words, why they are created order of the universe continu- convinced this is true, how this relates ally impinges on human life and con- to human experience, and what kind of sciousness, so that human life is a con- life flows from this message.3 tinual wrestling match with God and What is truly astonishing is that the his created order, regardless of the belief very first theme of the apostle, after or unbelief of a person or culture his missionary framework (Romans A word of self-disclosure is in order. 1:1–15) and gospel summary (Romans As a young man, I studied religions 1:16–17), is not the gospel. Paul’s first and philosophies in a secular univer- theme is the divine-human conflict sity with a view to bring the gospel into which forms the background for all the secular universities. Soon I came to of human experience prior to faith in the very painful conclusion that some the gospel. This conflict has to do with of the evangelical apologetics I had God’s general revelation, the human learned did not stand up in light of the suppression of that revelation, God’s various cross currents which dominated wrath, and his common grace. Paul the university, ideas which advanced regarded understanding these truths students might call critical philosophy, about God and humanity as the first post-modernism, or deconstruction- step to prepare the Christians in Rome ism.6 If my previously learned weak to become effective missionaries who apologetics was all I had intellectually, were proud of the gospel in relation to then I had to become ashamed of the their multi-religious and multi-cultural gospel, the exact opposite of what Paul society; this understanding is also stra- experienced. This realization forced me tegically important for our time. Paul to ask how Paul could be so pointedly understood that the entire human race unashamed, really proud of the gospel, is wrestling with God prior to the time even though he was obviously aware of when anyone hears the gospel.4 Con- the various lines of secular and religious 4 MBS TEXTE 173 The First Step in Missions Training … (Part 1) thought in his day, some of which were wisely and boldly. This is a theory of naively religious, while others were knowledge, a philosophy of culture, a philosophically critical and skeptical. system of social criticism, an evaluative Learning from Romans 1 and 2 became philosophy of religion, a complex philo- a matter of personal spiritual survival as sophical anthropology, and a founda- well as a matter of regaining thought- tion for social ethics, all as a framework ful missionary zeal.7 But this experience for world missions. Paul’s complete was not only for me, since the philoso- worldview was unlike most philosophi- phies and theories I encountered in the cal theories we encounter, but this total university represented similar ideas in worldview gave him both courage and many cultures. My experience may be guidance to lead the nations to faith similar to that of many other Chris- in Jesus. Paul’s God was continually tians. Understanding Paul’s teaching speaking through creation in a man- on God’s speech through creation, with ner that no one can avoid and which is the complex human response, offers the foundation for all of human con- answers that can change us all from sciousness, life, and experience, even if being ashamed of the gospel to becom- people often want to avoid God’s pres- ing confident in the gospel.8 ence and speech. It seems like people To repeat: Paul’s pride in the gospel, cannot acknowledge it. For Paul, God’s his intellectual courage in the gospel, self-revelation through creation, even and his missionary audacity were based when denied and suppressed, is fun- on his understanding of the human damental for all that makes us human, condition before God. This is a condi- including our internal contradictions, tion of repressing God’s general rev- and especially our irrepressible reli- elation, even though the entire human gious drives and hard-to-deny ethical situation, including all of human expe- knowledge. Because Paul understood rience, is made possible by a continual the complex, continuous, and universal dialogue and conflict with God’s word divine-human encounter, he was proud in creation. God’s general revelation of the gospel, confident in the truth and forms the hidden theological assump- importance of the gospel, while living tion for all of life for all people regard- in a world of many religions, cultures, less of culture or religion, an assump- and philosophies. Paul’s missionary tion that is both used and denied at the intellectual courage was a gift of God same time by unbelievers as part of their which came by means of understand- conflict with God. Thoughtful mission- ing God’s general revelation and the aries (which we all should become) will self-contradictory response of people in make this otherwise hidden assumption conflict with God. explicit in their own understanding of It is my impression that even we life and the gospel; then we can use this Christians, not only atheists and adher- understanding to present the gospel ents of other religions, sometimes THEOLOGISCHE AKZENTE 5 Thomas K. Johnson neglect or ignore God’s general word in throughout human history) in his cre- creation, the word which eternally and ation, even before people hear the gos- continually precedes his special Word pel, has become part of my worship to in Christ and in Holy Scripture; this my heavenly Father, into which I invite weakness left me ill-equipped for our you to join me.
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