Missions Can Change You

Foreign missions are usually targeted at the lost of a certain country; however, ministering in a foreign country can change not only the natives’ lives, but the missionary’s as well. My family and I lived in Siberia for 5 years because my Dad taught in a seminary there. The experience for me was life-changing. Now, at first I did not like the idea of leaving my relatives, home, native country, and friends to go live in this freezing cold place called Russia for nine months out of the year. And, believe it or not, it took me 3 years to realize how much God was teaching me, and how much I would miss not returning to Russia.

One way Russia affected me was through the apartment we lived in. Our apartment was rather small; it only had 3 rooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen. Such “required” physical closeness also brought us closer together as a family. My sister and I would never have been such good friends as we are now if we had not lived in such tight quarters.

The culture of Russia really opened my eyes to see the way other people live. The Russian language was difficult at first, but we all caught on eventually to one degree or another. Not being able to say exactly what’s on your mind is always frustrating, especially in another language! But such trials produce patience.

Being able to worship with other believers half-way across the world, in a different tongue, but to the same awesome God was amazing to me. We made new friends, endured the cold freezing temperatures, and overcame the lack of space in our living quarters -- all by God’s grace. God taught me so many lessons during our time in Russia. Looking back now, I am so glad that we went and I hope that someday, if it is the Lord’s will, I might go back with my own family.

Rachel Pass

Prayer Warriors or Prayer Wimps?

I have a problem. I can’t find the word “wimp” in a dictionary or thesaurus. My dictionary is a bit old. So perhaps that is the problem. We have come to understand a wimp as someone who is weak and whiny. A wimp is the opposite of strong and resolute. It is the kind of person who gives up easily. What is a warrior? That is easier. The dictionary says “a fighting man; soldier.” Why bring all this up? When I was a young Christian I remember certain believers being referred to as “prayer warriors.” My first thought was that they spent a lot of time in prayer. But for some reason the prayer warriors were usually older women. I assumed they had more time than anyone else to pray often and for extended times. Time, observation, knowledge of the Scriptures, experience, and maturity have given me a much better grasp of the concept of a prayer warrior. Allow me.

Apparently the disciples of Jesus thought of themselves as wimps when it came to prayer. They had observed Jesus praying and asked Him to teach them to pray. The instruction that Jesus gave has provided us with a model for praying. We know it as the Lord’s Prayer. But it is more accurate to see it as a pathway of thought that is to guide the Christian in his praying. For our immediate purposes we will focus on the opening petitions. At the very outset we are to go to God as our Father with the desire that His glory be exalted. God’s reputation is to be our primary concern in all our praying. Prayer is not some placebo designed to make us feel better. Neither is it a means of fixing everything that is wrong with us and the world. God-seeking prayer is centered upon God. Our first concern in prayer should be the display of God’s holy magnificence. We must want God to be seen for all that He is in our own lives and in the lives of others. It should be emblazoned upon our minds that true prayer is primarily concerned with God’s global purposes. Do we long for the world to come to know God for all that He is? He is love, just, all-powerful, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin.

Our prayers should express the desire for people everywhere to bow in submission to God’s rule (“Thy kingdom come”). God’s universal kingdom is already a reality. So that is not what we ask for. This aspect of God’s rule has always existed (Psa. 10:16 “The Lord is King forever and ever”). It is the kingdom over which the Messiah will rule on this earth that is to be the object of our petition. It will come when Christ returns to earth (Rev. 11:15; Rev. 22:20). So we are actually praying for Christ to come the second time. Every time we worship at the communion table we are anticipating the coming kingdom (“Truly I say to you, I shall never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God,” Mk. 14:25). Tied closely with the plea for the coming of Christ’s kingdom is the petition for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. We are to want God’s moral will to be done on this earth. It is the will of God that He be worshiped by blood-bought people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation (Matt. 28:18-20; Rev. 5:9). When Christ rules on this planet evil will be routed and put to flight. Until then our own wills should be submitted to God. It is to be as Amy Carmichael wrote, “And shall I pray to change Thy will, my Father, until it accord to mine? But no, Lord, no; that shall never be. Rather I pray Thee blend my human will with Thine.” It is the will of God that His blood-bought worshipers delight in, think about, study, pursue, and obey His will (Psa. 40:8; Rom. 12:1-2).

Is this where you are in your praying? If it is God’s will that His blood-bought elect go to the ends of the earth to call His other sheep to Jesus Christ (Jn. 10:16), then we must be praying for the lost. The only way into the coming kingdom is through faith in Christ. Are you praying evangelistically? God has ordained prayer as the means of drawing His sheep to Himself (Rom. 10:1). Do you know the names of the people on your street? Are you praying for their salvation? Are you praying for the members of your family, including cousins, nieces, nephews, aunts, and uncles? And we must not forget those people who appear in the daily news who are going through great sorrows and difficulties. We must be casting the prayer-net as far as we can. Perhaps it will help to think of it this way. Let’s enter into some personal resolutions. I resolve that I will pray that the eyes of my own heart may be enlightened to see the world as ready for the harvest but waiting for harvesters (Jn. 4:35). I resolve to pray for my church family and its involvement in the Great Commission of Christ. I resolve that I will pray for the persecuted church every week, if not every day. If we commit ourselves to this kind of consistent praying we will have a fight on our hands. My physical body will resist. My schedule will conspire against me. The world will sneer at me. And we certainly won’t escape Satan’s anti-prayer fire power (Eph. 6:16). But will you stand with me and declare that by God’s grace we will be prayer warriors and not prayer wimps?

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church

Deep and Wide

A recent river ride in a canoe reminded me of the atonement of Jesus Christ. How, you might ask. The river flowed widely and beautifully through the country side. The water was clear and ran beneath trees colored with hints of fall foliage. The deep places in the river offered some of the smoother water. This view of God’s creation was a delight to the eyes. The atonement of Jesus Christ (the cross-work of Christ with a special focus upon Christ’s substitutionary death for our sins) is a river of redemptive truth that flows through the Bible. Its head waters are found in the Garden of Eden (more precisely in eternity past) and run to God’s kingdom on earth where the glorified crucified Christ will reign. Beyond this is that eternal kingdom bathed in the glory of God.

The wideness of the atoning work of Christ is seen in its universal, all-sufficient provision of redemption, propitiation, and reconciliation (2 Pet. 2:1; 1 Jn. 2:2; 2 Cor. 5:19). The message of Christianity is that the death of Christ paid sin’s ransom price, thereby satisfying God’s wrath against sin. This results in a peace treaty with God. Sinful man can have complete harmony with an infinitely holy God. Through His Son the forgiveness of sin, a satisfactory sacrifice for sin, and a reconciled relationship to Him have been provided by God. All this comes through faith alone, by grace alone, by Christ alone. The offer of this good news is also wide. The Scriptures say, “Come. And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost” (Rev. 22:17). The call to look and live is found in that grand “whosoever” of John 3:16. As all those snake-bitten Israelites were told to look upon the bronze serpent if they wanted to live. So are all sinners told to look to the saving work of Christ on the cross and find the healing of eternal life. Why has this wonderful provision been made? Because of God’s universal love (“God so loved the world.”). But all Christians are not in agreement about the universal nature of the atonement of Jesus Christ. Certain questions are raised; “Did Christ die to make all men savable or did He die to only save the elect?” “Was the death of Jesus intended to secure salvation for a limited number or was the death of Jesus intended to provide salvation for everyone?”

Among evangelical, Bible-believing Christians there are those who believe in a “limited atonement.” Actually, they would prefer to call it a “definite atonement” or “particular redemption.” Those who are so persuaded teach that Christ died only for the elect (those chosen from eternity past by God to be saved) and did not die for those who will eventually perish in hell. The “limited redemptionist” bristles at the thought that Christ’s death made salvation possible for all humans. It is asserted that Christ’s coming was to render certain the salvation of the elect of God. Their argument is based upon Scripture texts that say, regarding Christ’s death, that it was “For the transgression of my people” (Isa. 53:8), “because he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21), “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (Jn. 10:11), and “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Eph. 5:25). It is also claimed that “Christ did not ‘pay the penalty of sin’ for those who reject Him, because if He did then they would not have to pay it themselves in hell.” The river of Christ’s atoning work is viewed as not wide in its provision, but only deep in its intent, namely, to secure salvation for the elect.

Some responses to the “limited redemptionist” viewpoint are necessary. In the first place it is true that there are biblical passages that speak of Christ dying for “His people,” “His church,” and “His sheep.” All the elect rejoice in the depth of Christ’s salvation-securing, cross-work for them. But in none of these verses does it say that Christ died only for the elect. But what of the objection that if Christ died for the non-elect then they have to pay for their sins twice, once on the cross and then in hell? Did Christ pay for Pharaoh’s sin who was already in hell? If so, the argument goes, then it is a double-payment. But such logic misses a biblical truth. Pharaoh (and all those who die without salvation in Christ) is lost, not because Christ did not die for him, but because he refused God’s offer of forgiveness. No unbeliever has his sins paid for twice (once by Christ on the cross and once by himself in an eternal hell). The payment that Christ made on his behalf never actually became his. Faith is necessary for salvation. The elect are not saved apart from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. One frequently hears the particular redemptionist assert that “Jesus did not come merely to make salvation possible, but actually to save his people.” But if Christ’s death actually saved those for whom He died, then why is faith necessary? People are lost because they reject the Christ who died for them.

It is best to conclude that God unconditionally elected some to salvation which Christ secured with an all-sufficient atonement. Yes, the atonement of Christ is limited in some aspects. It does not extend to angels and it does not save all the lost. Yes, the atonement of Christ is unlimited in some aspects. It focuses upon the whole human race in it suitability. Christ died to provide a basis of salvation for all men. The “whosoevers” of the New Testament are not empty invitations. When the apostle John says that Jesus Christ “is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (1 Jn. 2:2) no amount of hermeneutical weaseling can alter the universal intent of this claim. The fact that in some instances words like “all,” “whosoever,” and “world” are limited cannot be used to limit them in passages that have to do with Christ’s work on the cross. Was John the Baptist really saying, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the elect” (Jn. 1:29)? This in no way diminishes the depth of Christ’s death to provide for and save His people. The unfathomable nature of redemption accomplished and applied for the sins of those chosen before the foundation of the world is to the praise of the glory of God’s grace. But at the same time there is a wideness in Christ’s redemptive work that means we have a gospel for all the unsaved. People are not lost because Christ did not die for them. People are lost because they reject the Christ who died for them. Anyone who is saved must believe (Jn. 3:36). We can tell the unconverted that God loves them. All men everywhere are called to repentance. Deep and wide. That is the measure of God’s love in Christ’s work on the Cross.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church