I\u2019m always amused at the preconceived ideas people have about taking the gospel or planting churches among the unreached peoples of the world.\u00a0 Many good evangelical churches have the idea that you just move into a location and \u2018do church.\u2019\u00a0 That is, do what you do here on the home-front \u2026with no consideration of the heart language of the people or their culture.\u00a0 \u201cAfter all, we\u2019re using an interpreter,\u201d they say.<\/p>\n
While God\u2019s Word is relevant for all people in all places at all times, one must be very careful not to assume such unreached people have an understanding of who God is, or for that matter, any knowledge of the Bible.\u00a0 \u2026And if they do, it is most likely understood from their cultural grid, not the historical, spiritual foundation from which it is expressed.<\/p>\n
During international travels to\u00a0a largely unreached region of the world I came to grips with the thought \u201cOh, here are civilized people living in rural out-of-the-way places.\u00a0 Yes, they have roads, however, treacherous \u2026and modern conveniences such as electricity, TV, cell phone services, and internet.\u00a0 Surely they must have an awareness of Creator God, especially those living in the regions where magnificient scenery screams it took a creator to make this.\u201d<\/p>\n
But look closely into the mindset and world view of these people and you see a dark, animistic side of people prided by their heritage and steeped in the darkness of ancestral worship.\u00a0 Those are the things that shape their views about life and death, with no understanding of the simplicity of the gospel or the fact that there is a gospel or a Jesus who paid their ransom for sin.\u00a0 Yes there is a small fraction of a percentage of the people who know<\/em> Jesus, but the majority of these people\u00a0do not know such things.<\/p>\n That said, it is easy for carriers of the gospel, namely Western Christians, to locate among such ones and jump straight to the gospel story without first laying down solid foundations for the gospel.\u00a0 God\u2019s Word says \u201cFaith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word.\u201d\u00a0 Just as a house is built from the ground up after careful preparation in laying a solid foundation, even so we must give precise care to laying solid biblical foundations in our teaching.<\/p>\n The gospel, in its simplest form, is encased in three truths\u2019 — that Jesus was crucified; that he was\u00a0buried; and that he was raised to life on the third day.\u00a0 But the greater understanding of these truths\u00a0comes from grasping the nature and character of God from which all truth springs forth.\u00a0 Grasp\u00a0that<\/em> and you have the blessed ability to see the thread of significance to the substitutionary principles\u00a0woven throughout the story of God –principles necessary in appropriating the truth of the gospel.<\/p>\n I\u2019m often asked the question \u201cWhy does it take New Tribes so long to plant churches?\u201d to which I\u00a0gladly reply, \u201cLet me show you.\u201d\u00a0 This is in part why I love traveling around the homeland unpacking\u00a0the eternal truths of God\u2019s Word\u2026 truths that are essential for faith and salvation.\u00a0 I find that a lot of\u00a0people have foundational truths in place; they just don\u2019t take the time to \u2018connect the dots\u2019 in their\u00a0understanding and application thereof.<\/p>\n Let me give you an example.\u00a0 We probably all know John 3:16\u2026 \u201cFor God so loved\u00a0the world that he gave\u00a0his one and only Son,\u00a0that whoever believes\u00a0in him shall not perish but have eternal life.\u201d\u00a0 If I were to ask you \u201cWho is this speaking of?\u201d you would say \u201cJesus!\u201d\u00a0 \u2026But where in that verse does it say \u2018Jesus?\u2019\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Case in point: you had to read the preceding chapters of John in order to grasp that the book is talking about Jesus.\u00a0 \u2013See, you have more foundational understanding of truth than you let on to know.\u00a0 For some reason we just don\u2019t string it together in a manner that brings light for it to make sense to us.\u00a0 Perhaps we assume too much.<\/p>\n Its imperative that we\u00a0grasp a deeper understanding of God’s Word in order to take the truths we\u00a0know so well, and bring them to unsaved friends in a meaningful way. \u00a0God\u2019s Word is absolute and not really that hard to understand. He wants us to know what it takes to get His truth to all the world, AND He wants us to do it.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0–Because Jesus said \u2018Go!\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m always amused at the preconceived ideas people have about taking the gospel or planting churches among the unreached peoples of the world.\u00a0 Many good evangelical churches have the idea that you just move into a location and \u2018do church.\u2019\u00a0 That is, do what you do here on the home-front \u2026with no consideration of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":276,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[448,637],"class_list":{"0":"post-119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-ethnos360","8":"tag-new-tribes-mission","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/276"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}