Editorial Comment Cent History
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ing for Islam a significantly magnifi- Editorial Comment cent history. When the Muslims took over Egypt Ralph D. Winter they ended a war between two kinds of Christians and declared toleration of to the supreme being religion. of the Bible. Today 60 When the Muslims took over Jeru- Whether it is about million Christians still salem they ruled the city with equa- nimity, assigning equal space inside Islam or secularized have the word Allah in their Bibles for the the walled city for Jews, Christians and public school books, One we, in English, call themselves. This lasted for 1300 years. God. Today, 30 million But, suddenly when Gutenberg getting the right things unleashed the Bible to run strong in the to the right people is Christians in Indonesia attract Muslims to a societal bloodstream of these northern very crucial. better understanding of savages (but not within Islam), what the Allah in their Chris- happened? tian Bibles and New One result was the sudden bloom- Testaments and Gospel portions. Where ing of science, from astronomy to biol- Best Mission Book Yet did Mohammed get the word “Allah”? ogy. Another was the industrial rev- olution building on the mass market n the bulletin you hold in your From the Christians of his day! newly created by Wesley’s evange- hands we present one of the chap- lism—namely, the unprecedented bond ters of perhaps the best book Christian Jihads? of trust between newly-honest people Iintroducing missions in the past However, a flood of letters pro and from city to city, without which mass few years. Every serious believer con came to us in response to Don production would have been useless. should own and digest this small, keen McCurry’s article on Christian Milita- Also, there were advances in medi- book written by Stan Guthrie, who rism. He is one of today’s most widely cine, humanitarian breakthroughs, hos- recently joined the editorial staff of respected experts on Islam, with many pitals, general education, and finally Christianity Today. Take a taste in this years of residence in an Islamic country. high technology. All this fairly burst issue of Mission Frontiers! See pages He was not asked to tell all the immense on the scene and massively boosted the 6-8. amount he knows about Islam, just to West into a world prominence which is Here also you will find a crucial give us insight into the tendency to now the envy of much of the rest of the analysis of the remaining task of mis- jihad in Christian history (jihad being whole earth. sions, prepared by two of the editors an Arabic word for crusade). Other nationalities are just as of history’s most detailed compilation It is SO HARD for Christians to smart—Chinese, Hindus, Africans— of measurements of the expansion of avoid comparing the best of Christian but in all cases are struggling to leave the Christian cause. Maybe you did not history with the worst of Muslim behind huge burdens of the past from notice it, but two huge (and expensive) history! which Biblical perspective alone can Oxford Press volumes have appeared For example, dare I point out that rescue them. under the title World Christian Ency- John Calvin, early in his career, acted But when (in our stridently secu- clopedia, 2nd Edition. However, the almost like a Taliban leader in Geneva larized society) will people understand massive interpretation of those two (and got thrown out), even urging the the truth behind the Western global appears in an equally large (and even execution of a scoffer who dared to explosion? They won’t. Not as long as more impressive) tome called World question the doctrine of the Trinity? 90% of Evangelical young people feed Christian Trends. merely and mainly on secular text- The condensed summary and books in both public and even Chris- analysis on pages 16-23 will give a Why All the Earnest tian schools and Christian colleges. key-hole view into these remarkable Confusion? treasures. The biggest single problem for us today as we look askance at Islam is What Can We Do? When God is Allah! the fact that Christianity before 1500 Here in Pasadena we have been In view of the massive amount of was to some great extent an under- busy. We have spent ten years redis- confusion in America these days about ground or forest-savage religion while covering the Biblical backbone of the Muslims, we present David Johnston’s Islam had inherited and long promoted Western phenomenon, rewriting it all powerfully sane summary of a key the intellectual and technological into a massive new curriculum that can issue—the use of Allah for the God of prowess of the Roman Empire, build- function as an M.A degree, but also as the Bible. See pages 12-13. Fact is, millions of Christians were praying to It is SO HARD for Christians to avoid comparing Allah long before a pagan Teutonic word G O D was chosen (by near- the best of Christian history with the worst of savages in Northern Europe) to refer Muslim history! 4 January–February 2002 Mission Frontiers USCWM•1605 E. Elizabeth St.•Pasadena, CA 91104•626-797-1111 If Sunday Schools begin to track with what their students are taught each week in public schools, this can work a remarkable change of attitude toward school work and more important, an exciting Christian perspective on otherwise secular events. the 3rd and 4th years of college, and religion, those specifications do not get Palestine in school today.” She was now even as a first year of college. D. L. Moody into the story. That is, unimpressed. He said it again and You may already know about this. students get the bare theology of the again. When she refused to be sur- faith but are offered no hint of the prised, he stopped, stunned, and said, Okay, Buckle Your Seat Belts amazing power and historical impact “You mean there really is a Palestine?” However, a new twist on this con- of Christianity as a movement. How His obvious perspective is that what he stitutes the most daring vision in all can young people become missionaries was learning at church was fairy tales. our 25-year history, and involves a optimistic about major changes due to Why in Sunday School are kids completely new strategy. Having spent the Gospel they take to foreign coun- only exposed to the Bible? What about ten years packaging all this as an tries if they are ignorant of its impact the 2000 years of the Bible’s incredible amazing integrated whole for off-cam- on their own country? impact on world history? If all they pus student use, we want now to We can go on forever adding learn at school is what Christians are repackage it once more for use in “band-aids” of information six months supposed to believe—the virgin birth, Sunday Schools to allow them to track before or after kids hit something at the resurrection, etc.—and they study week-by-week with what their kids are school. Nothing can take the place of physics without knowing that Kepler, learning in secular schools during the adding fact and insight the same week Newton, Faraday, James Clerk Max- whole week. the issue surfaces in their classroom. well, Lord Kelvin etc. were devout To do that, the hundreds of key believers—and that this gave these insights which we already have gar- Thirty Hours vs. Thirty Minutes pioneer scientists an all-important nered must now be reorganized into If this catches on, churches can faith that nature is orderly and that booklets which will systematically put up signs, “Drop your children off laws of nature are discoverable—their and precisely supplement, chapter-by- at our Sunday School and we’ll help faith in the Bible is stunted. chapter, the chapters in the main sec- them get ‘A’s at school.” What if our kids don’t know that ular textbooks which Sunday School Otherwise what kids learn in 30 in the 1740s a great revival swept the kids are studying during the week. hours a week at school easily over- Atlantic seaboard, producing an inter- Why do this? First, because shadows the 30 minutes in Sunday colonial church government and laying churches in America must realize that School. The best example I know the groundwork for the American Rev- after billions of investment in Christian of for the greater reality of what is olution and the Constitutional Con- schools and Christian colleges, 90% learned in those 30 hours at school vention? Well, their confidence in the of Evangelical young people still are is a true story about a little boy who power of the Gospel to change society immersed for all their school years in came running home from school and is impoverished. secular schools. And the churches of told his mother—with astonishment in And they may give it up for that this country must not go on ignoring his voice—“Mommy, I saw a map of very reason. what they are learning! The future of missions depends on a revolution e want to salute Rick Wood, our former Managing in this context. Editor, for the exciting new task to which he has been assigned. We seem often to be giving away some of our Who Was D. L. Moody? best people to other ministries which particularly need At one outstanding Christian Wour people. This time it is a major research function for school the history teacher was asked Luis Bush, who was the man in God’s hands in the development of the how he went about adding information amazing global “AD2000 Movement.” about D.