THE SCOPE OF MISSIONS
Ed ited b y Oran f f . Smith Chairman, Dept, of Missions, Biola Bible College
The Great Retreat
B y Don Hillis a well prepared combat division . . . but they don’t stick. Th,e cause of this tragic situation must of necessity be found in the training camp. These young people have apparently been having far too much dress parade and far too little
T he general who is content to study only conquests of military history will be found wanting in the day of battle. He makes himself wiser than his enemy if he studies well the great retreats. The Captain of our salvation has long since warned us to take careful inventory of our forces and of our equipment before going into battle. The National Christian Council of India estimates that 65 percent of all the missionaries who have come to India since the end of World War II have left their fields of service without any intention of ever re turning. Like all of the retreats of history and of the Sacred Page this makes tragic reading. The great forced withdrawal from China was sad. This is worse in that it con tains within it the symptoms of ut ter defeat. No army can long sus tain such a casualty list. Imme diate investigation of this startling reversal is in order. The causes that have through the ages led to defeat are vividly and tragically revealed to us in the pages of the Word of God. Why d id . 30,000 of Gideon’s vol unteers forsake him? What lay back of the rout of Israel at Ai? Why did believers by the scores for sake that Captain of all captains in the hour of battle? What is it that has caused almost two out of every three soldiers of the cross to forsake the firing line in India? The external causes for this con dition are legion. There are enough physical, mental and social taxations brought to bear upon the missionary In India to drive a herd of swine into the deep or to send 30,000 of Gideon’s army scurrying to cover. These external causes account for some of the defeats; however spiritual casualty is the basic reason. Never in the long and thrilling history of spiritual warfare ,in India have we been favored with better educated missionaries. Their material equipment is par excellence. The last decade has brought to In dia healthy, ambitious, personable and zealous young soldiers of the cross. They have the appearance of
man who has proven his ability as an edifier of the saints and a win ner of souls. The lack of spiritual stamina which is evidenced by so many of the soldiers of the cross today in dicates that there is a very serious dietary weakness in his training. An honest diagnosis clearly reveals that spiritual vitality cannot be gained tfrom the present day vitamin- pill prayer meeting which is noth ing more than a bit of snappy chorus-singing coated with a few sentence prayers. Many of these choruses are well adapted to the lightness of the times in which we live. They receive that boy, that’s a catchy chorus reception. They con tain enough lilt to send one waltzing down a sunny lane but they will not sustain him for five minutes in the heat of battle. It takes blood, sweat and tears to write, “A Mighty Fortress is our God.” May God for bid that the day should come when all such writers and all such singers would disappear from the camp of the Lord of Hosts. Another dietary weakness is seen in the meatball and gravy meals with which he satisfies himself. He has been living on soft foods for so long that he has ruined his molars and is no longer able to chew the strong meat of the Word. His Bible teacher or pastor is well-nigh forced to serve him ground meat with spicy gravy over it. He has not learned to dig out the strong meat of the Word for himself. Woe be unto him if he completes his training with out having learned this important aspect of spiritual self-preservation. He will do well, yes very well in deed to put himself in a position in which he will have to dig out the strong meat for a year or so before he heads for the mission field. He can do this by teaching Bible classes or pastoring a church. That comfortable davenport type of Bible reading without pencil, notebook, concordance or a good commentary fails to constitute the thing that spells success. The beautyrest Chris- CON TINUED ► 27
DON HILLIS Catchy choruses and meatballs.
combat service. It has become alarm ingly easy to climb on the band wagon of a hand-raising, flag-waving foreign missionary program. Polished brass, well-shined shoes, and the shoulder stars of higher education have become preferable to the battle- scarred shield of faith, helmet of salvation and breastplate of right eousness. They have been taught how to polish the Sword of the Spirit . . . not how to use it. If every missionary candidate would deliberately garb himself in the whole armour of God and find his way onto the streets and through the stores, missions, homes and of fices of America’s lost he would do much to assure himself of future victory on the mission field. He can not learn too well the urgent need of struggling for the souls here in America who are mired down in the foxholes of their own sin. Lack of serious and proven combat while in the training camp may someday write Ichabod over his term on the firing line. The man who is needed on the mission field today is the
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