East Meets West

This past week Teri and I have been traveling with IMB trustees to visit missionary teams at work on the field.  With the reorganization of the International Mission Board from a regional emphasis to "people group clusters",  the North Africa Middle East (NAME) target became a world wide objective. Some of the highest concentrations of this cluster are found in Europe. So on this trip the trustees who are responsible for this group `are going not only to the areas of the MIddle East that one would expect, but also to areas around Europe where the biggest concentrations of MIddle Eastern immigrants exist. 

So the first stop was Paris France.

There has been much discussion in Europe about the affects of a growing population of North Africans, East Asians and Middle Easterners that are greatly outpacing the population growth of traditional European societies. "Southern blacks would sing 'We Shall Overcome!" for civil rights, but this group sings, 'We Shall Overwhelm!' my friend John Brady,  the regional leader for NAME jokingly tells me. There are many sociologists here in Europe who believe that if the current trend plays out to it's natural conclusion, the Muslim population in Europe could be the majority within 20 years. The ferries that carry North African immigrants into European ports in southern France have been given names commemorating famous Muslims like Tariq Ibn Ziyad, the Muslim invader of Europe in the 7th century. A not so subtle reminder to all of Europe that a population bomb is on it's way.

The strategy for our missionaries is cut and dry. In muslim dominated Middle Eastern countries, it is very difficult to plant churches and to formally evangelize; but in European countries there are no laws prohibiting it. So our teams are actively targeting these clusters with the gospel knowing that many of them will be moving back into their home countries. Our prayer is that the affect of this will be the gospel spreading in reverse as immigrant families go back into their homelands.

On our first day here we heard from several team leaders who had gathered from countries throughout Europe and the Middle East to meet us. They briefed us on the dynamic situation playing out in countries like Ethiopia, Yemin, Samaria, Oman, Egypt, Israel, France and Spain. It is clear that there is a movement of the Spirit taking place all across this part of the world.

I am continually amazed at the boldness of our friends in this part of the world. They took us to the largest, most active and notorious Mosque in France. Worshippers here routinely block off the streets of Paris during their Friday prayers. Walking toward the mosque, one gets the distinct feeling of being not in Paris France, the one time seat of Medieval Christianity, but of walking down a normal street in Tunis, Amman or Damascus. Gradually the sights, sounds, smells and language changes from distinctively French to traditional Arab or North African. Increasingly we stand out as Westerners. And yet we are not in the Middle East or North Africa, instead we are within the shadow of one of the most enduring symbols of Western culture, the Eiffel Tower.

A few days ago some of our friends began a conversation with some of the members of the Mosque. The conversation got especially heated when the Imam came out and entered the dialogue. The long bearded man commanded a lot of respect in the community and his arrival drew a lot of attention. A large crowd gathered and our friends asked the Imam, an expert in the Koran, "Isn't it true the Koran teaches that Jesus was the Christ?"

"Yes, of course", was his response.

"And does it not teach that Mary conceived Him as a virgin?"

"Yes", was his response, admitting to the passage in Surah 3 and growing increasingly uncomfortable with the conversation.

"And yet you say that Jesus was not the Son of God. Then who was His Father?"

The Imam mumbled something about them not understanding the Arabic of the Koran and waved them off and left.

As they were leaving one of the men standing nearby grabbed the arm of one of our friends and said, "I know who you are."

"Who is that?" My friend asked?

"You are the Christians."

"Yes, that's right." Was the response.

"Do you know what Jesus is going to do to you when he comes back?"  He asked.

"What's that?"

"He is going to kill you."

Their brief encounter at the mosque was a reminder to them that this work here is more than just proclaiming the teachings of Jesus in the scripture. It also involves a great deal of unpacking the complex and twisted distortions that are taught about Jesus in the Koran.

So the proclamation of the gospel around the world begins with meeting people where they are. That is just as true of where they are spiritually as it is where they are physically. Our friends here are committed to engaging this largely unreached people group in both places, whatever the cost.

God in the Furnace

The book of Daniel is one of the those books in the Old Testament that is rich with dramatic images and story lines.  Some of our favorite lessons for preschoolers and grade-schoolers comes out of these visuals.  From this one book we get giant statues, fiery furnaces, hands writing on walls and lions dens.  These are images that are imprinted indelibly on the hearts and minds of any kid whose grown up going to Sunday School.

But more than just great kids stories- the book of Daniel provides post modern believers with enduring principles to live by.

For instance, this week we are focused on the story of the three sons of Israel who were thrown into the fiery furnace for not bowing to Nebuchadnezzars statue.  Here are some principles I see that are helpful to twenty first century believers:

1.  To have biblical faith means to be uncompromising in what we know to be true in a way that demonstrates love and respect.  I think a remarkable side issue to the Daniel 3 story is the quiet steadfast faith of the three sons of Israel.   They were set up, accused and brought before Nebuchadnezzar and threatened with a terrifying sentence, and yet through it all they showed poise and respect without ever backing down from their core belief.   When the Bible says to be prepared to defend your faith with gentleness and respect we should understand that those are not two disconnected ideas.  The reason a person is gentle and respectful while talking about what they believe is precisely because they are confident in that belief and can talk about it intelligently and logically.

The word "intelligence" in fact comes from two root words, "inter" which means "between" and "legere" which means "choose".    The intelligent person is one who knows both sides of an argument and makes an informed choice.  Christian discernment is the result of thinking through beliefs and giving all sides of an argument equal footing before coming to a conclusion.  The Christian operates under the assumption that all truth is God's truth and therefore seeking truth is God's work.  The three sons of Israel showed this kind of discernment when they faced the king when they gave their explanation for their position:

¹⁷ If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. ¹⁸ But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”   (Daniel 3:17-18)

Their answer shows a solid theology.  It demonstrates that they grasp both the goodness and greatness of God.  God CAN deliver them if He chooses.  But for reasons they may not yet know, God might not choose to deliver them.  But regardless of what might happen they trust the character and sovereignty of God and can therefore confidently embrace their future.

2.   A second principle here is that to have biblical faith means we know that even tragedy has a purpose.   The world we live in is sometimes very painful and often horribly unjust.  As a pastor for over 25 years I have seen and experienced great tragedy with people.  Sometimes bad things happen to very good people.  Life is often very difficult and unfair.

What are we to make of the problem of pain and suffering in our world?  There is only one answer that makes any sense to me.   I am convinced that it is only in Christianity that one finds purpose in suffering and that is because the central theme of Christianity is that the most tragic event of human history was also the greatest event of human history.

Jesus Christ was brutally and unjustly murdered as an atoning and redemptive sacrifice for our sins.  My sin was so bad God had to die but God's love was so great He was willing to die.  It is the one grand theme of scripture to which all other stories point.   In the dramatic story in Daniel 3 the sons of Israel are thrown into the furnace and yet they are not overcome.  The key to understanding the meaning of this story is that there is a fourth person in the furnace with them.  Most scholars agree that this mysterious figure is the pre-incarnate second person of the trinity- it is Jesus Christ Himself.   What an incredibly poignant foreshadowing picture this is for us.

The story points us to THE story.  It says to us that He is in every furnace and that He is walking with us through all of life injustices.  In Christianity we know that God is not just an uninterested creator- but instead He loves us with a God-like love that caused Him to get into the furnace with us.  Suffering would make no sense without this knowledge.  To paraphrase Romans 5:8:

"God demonstrated His love for us in this, while we were still sinners, God got into the furnace with us and paid the price for us."

That is the overarching principle that drives our lives and the one overwhelming truth that overcomes all other truth.

Relevant Daniel

This coming Sunday we will begin a new series for the next four weeks on the book of Daniel.  The thing that makes this book interesting to me and I think exceptionally relevant to modern Christians is that Daniel is "exilic" literature.  Meaning it was written during the time of the Israelites exile into Babylon after the destruction of Jerusalem.   Daniel and many others were forcefully relocated to a foreign land and were taught a new way of life and forced to adopt a different standard of values and livelihood.   It is an account of God's people struggling with their biblical faith in a place that was antagonistic to that faith.  It is in many ways a parallel to 21st century America.

Last week I had a conversation with one of our college students who told me the story of a professor at OU who opened class a few weeks ago with this question, "Are any of you in this classroom Christians?"

She was the only one who raised her hand.

He then looked at her and made a sarcastic remark about the narrowness of Christianity and told her she would certainly be insulted by what she saw and heard in his class.  Besides thinking what a jerk this guy was, I couldn't help but think of the irony of a professor demonstrating subtle if not coercive bigotry and narrowness to one singled out student while accosting her for having a "narrow" religion.

I know this is nothing new.  A university professor bashing Christianity and Christian conservatives is as common in our society as Oklahoma wind.  What surprised me and also amazed her was that she was the only one who raised her hand.   Do you think her account of her first day of class at OU was an anomaly?   I don't think so.  My sense is that this kind of pressure on traditional Christianity is increasing.

In a recent article in Christianity Today, Drew Dyck made the following observations about twenty somethings who are walking away from their faith:

Recent studies have brought the trend to light. Among the findings released in 2009 from the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), one stood out. The percentage of Americans claiming "no religion" almost doubled in about two decades, climbing from 8.1 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2008. The trend wasn't confined to one region. Those marking "no religion," called the "Nones," made up the only group to have grown in every state, from the secular Northeast to the conservative Bible Belt. The Nones were most numerous among the young: a whopping 22 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds claimed no religion, up from 11 percent in 1990. The study also found that 73 percent of Nones came from religious homes; 66 percent were described by the study as "de-converts." (The Leavers: Young Doubters Leave The Church, Christianity Today 11-19-2010)

This is what makes the book of Daniel as relevant to us today as it was to adherents of biblical faith in the fifth century B.C.   Although none of us will likely ever face anything like Babylonian religious cleansing, a culture that increasingly sees itself as post-Christian brings new challenges to the modern believer.   Here are some of the major themes I will hit on in the coming weeks:

1.  We need to get out of the salt shaker and into the world.  It is clear from scripture that as Christians we are to engage culture, not separate from it.  God instructed the Israelites to move into Babylon and to become a blessing to the city.  We are to redeem culture and influence it for the good- not isolate and insulate ourselves from it's influence.   Jesus said we are to be "salt and light".  Salt is a preservative and light penetrates darkness.   He prayed that His disicples would be "in the world but not of the world".  That's the principle we live by as Christians.

2.   It is important to know our faith.   When your worldview is being constantly challenged, it is extremely important to know not just WHAT you believe, but WHY you believe it.  If you only know what you believe but not why you believe it, then when your faith is challenged you will tend to feel frustrated and overwhelmed by doubt.  The Bible says we are to "always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks the reason for the hope you have, but do so with gentleness and respect."  (1 Peter 3:15).  The only way to do this is to eagerly learn and get equipped.  It's a theme we hit on constantly, it is extremely important in a world that is increasingly skeptical of biblical faith that we have a strong epistemology.

3.  Remember God has a reason even for our exile.  Never forget that God is in control.  It is apparant from the exilic literature that it was Gods' design that the people of Israel go into exile.  This can only mean that God saw an eternal purpose in their faith being severely challenged in this way.  I think there is a lot to learn from this truth.  There have been many times in my life that my faith has been challenged and I felt somewhat overwhelmed by questioning and skepticism.  But I wouldn't trade any of it for what I have learned through the process of questioning.  Good questions have always caused me to dig deeper for answers.

I remember at one season of my life I had a long conversation with my father about the struggle I was having with people who were challenging my perspective of truth.  He said to me, "Never forget Rick that all truth is God's truth.  When the dust settles on all your questioning, the truth will stand on it's own."

Those words were so helpful to me as a college student.   God knows what He's doing.   We should never forget that God has a purpose for all of our struggle.  Even when it looks as if we are facing overwhelming odds, God plus one always equals a huge majority and His truth prevails through all of life's fiery furnaces and lions dens.