work amongst a people who already have two translations of the Bible in their own language? Why do you not go into the tribal areas where there are thousands of men and wom en who do not have one word of the Scriptures in their own tongue?” I did not have to search far for a reasonable answer. I was fully aware that there were unreached tribes in the land of India into whose languages not a single portion of the Word of God had ever been trans- FACING FACTS Statistics show that "Chris tians" constitute the largest religious body in the world, numbering 888,803,000. This is more than double the next largest group, the Moslems, with 430,325,000. A breakdown within the "C h r i s t i a n" constitutency shows 537,533,000 Roman Catholics, 214,133,000 Prot estants, and 137,137,000 East ern Orthodox. In the United States the figures run as follows: 62,- 000,000 Protestants, 42,105,- 000 Roman Catholics, and 2,- 820,000 Orthodox. 42,250 is the grand total of all P r o t e s t a n t Missionaries (1960). 150 per cent increase from North America since 1936. 94 denominational boards had a 10-year increase (1950- 1960) of 8 per cent in mission aries and 51 per cent in mis sionary finances. 115 Faith Mission boards during the same period (the 1950's) had a 296 per cent increase in missionaries and 244 per cent in finances. $2.75 is given IN A YEAR'S TIME to missions by the aver age North American Protes tant. "More men are being born each year than born again." —Evangelical Christian lated. I was also aware of the truth that the sum of the combined popu lations of all those tribes did not be gin to approximate the number of untold millions in India into whose language the Bible had been trans lated but who had not yet heard the gospel. It is not tribes I am after; it is
people. All of the unreached tribes of the world represent less than 5 per cent of the earth’s population. On the other hand, a good 50 per cent of the world’s 3,000,000,000 peo ple have yet to hear the gospel. It is not that I am adverse to reaching tribes for Christ. I am convinced it has a place in the fulfillment of the Great Commission. I rejoice that men and women from every tribe and language shall some day bow the knee and confess that Christ is Lord to the glory of God. I rejoice in every tri umph among the tribes. But I am troubled by the fact that hundreds of young people are prepared to sin cerely and sacrificially spend their lives in the reaching of small tribes for Christ while there is an alarming dearth of those who are willing to give themselves to the reaching of huge population centers for the Lord. T ax D eductible C hristians “ Ladies and gentlemen, your gifts are tax deductible.” That’s just what the man said. Furthermore, if he hadn’t made a point of it he wouldn’t have received so many checks in the offering. He said what he said in a sincere desire to raise money for missions. In doing so, he unwittingly added a few more tax deductible Christians to the grow ing list of donors. Alexander Maclaren has said, “ The greater part of a deed is its motive, and the perfect motive is love for Jesus.” There is no realm in which motives need to be more jealously guarded than in the realm of stew ardship. One needs to beware of rendering unto the Lord the things that are His in order to escape rendering unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. Tax deduction is but the beginning of temptations to the Christian to give to the work of the Lord through mo tives that are less than perfect. Per haps we need to rethink the motiva tion back of our giving . . . Or am I confused? T he S criptural A ppeal The true missionary presentation avoids the misapplication of Scrip ture, the appeal to merely human emotions, the inference that any par ticular ministry is sufficient to the exclusion of others, and the pressure to give when it is motivated by that which is less than the best. The true missionary message, though singular in its subject, is motivated by that wider vision of becoming all things to all men in order that some may be saved. It is jealous only for the glory of the Lord.
mon people of their own country. Though I earnestly desire the con version of the foreign students on our university campuses, and though my heart was challenged by the pres entation of my missionary friend, yet I was not carried away by the ideal ism of his program. While it is true we need more missionaries to the for eign students on our campuses, it is also true we need and ever shall need more missionaries on the foreign fields of the world. At least that’s the way I feel about it . . . I may be confused. T he E xcellency of K nowledge “ The prestige of our new accredi tation will enable our graduates to hold their heads high as they minis ter for Christ on the foreign mission fields of the world. “We are living in a more highly educated world than ever before and hence the servant of the Lord needs more education.” That’s what the ad said. Nor would I for a moment put a premium on academic ignorance. However, there is apparently a difference between education and wisdom. In those days in which there was less emphasis on academic attainment we produced more young people who were wise enough to count the service of Jesus Christ as the happiest, holi est goal of life. Today with all our vaunted preparation and our hard- earned accreditation, we are produc ing fewer missionaries proportionate ly than before. And who is there to say that those we are producing are doing a better job than the faithful servant of yore whose only claim to fame was a working knowledge of the Bible and a passion to reach souls for Christ? Perhaps we have taken “ the ex cellency of knowledge” out of its con text. Perhaps we should rethink it in the light of Paul’s full statement: “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (Phil. 3:8). If “ by their fruits ye shall know them,” then as far as the producing of missionaries is concerned, some of our Christian colleges and seminaries approximate the barren fig tree. Am I confused, or has little learning lim ited my logic? T ribal T rium ph Several years ago I received a let ter from a missionary in Latin Amer ica which read, in part, as follows: “Why are you returning to India to
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AUGUST, 1962
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