satan. Would to God we could re member when we pray, "The battle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities." A missionary's job is not to preach himself, his civilization, or his culture. He is to preach Jesus Christ. Perhaps one of the greatest dangers in all missionary enter prise, is to turn from evangelism to education; from preaching Christ to promoting civilization. Paul said we are to "preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord." The Christian is not told to minister in Japan so that he may teach the Japanese to sit on chairs rather than mats and stools. His call is to take Christ to them. The obliga tion of the Great Commission is to take the message of Jesus Christ to the peoples of the world and let them develop their own variety of Christian civilization. There are climatic conditions, geographical differences and variances in racial origins. At the same time I do not know of any missionary who is not involved up to his eyebrows in the social needs of the people among whom he works. Our church has a little share in the support of over 400 missionar ies. Some of them are educators, doctors, nurses, farmers, technic ians, and general missionaries. We believe in social work. Every evan gelical does or he is not true to the Word. Do you realize that without the conservative evangeli cal church there would probably be no ministry whatsoever among the lepers and other underprivi leged of the world? The danger, however, is to put the cart before the horse. No matter what, our first job is evangelization. Consid er these four vital words: "Not civilization, but Christ!" Page 15
and word our target is not to tear down systems, but that Satan may be fought. Not long ago I was driving north on one of our Canadian highways with a friend. He was driving and it was late at night. There was a steady stream of holiday traffic go ing both ways. The car immediate ly in front of us was being driven quite normally. Ahead of him was a small delivery truck which started careening back and forth across the road. The driver was obviously inebriated. Cars coming from the opposite direction were in great danger. It seemed that a head-on collision could not be averted. That truck had to be taken off the road. Human life was in danger. We passed the car in front of him. The truck was moving in a rather serpentine fashion along the high way. We at last managed to get by. With gradual application of brakes we were able to force the truck to a stansdtill. We might stop the truck temporarily but how to stop it permanently. We could not do it by scratching the fender, kicking in the lights, disconnecting the horn. What good would such activities do? Our job was to re move the man from the driver's seat. With a little persuasion this was accomplished successfully. The man sat by the road while we called the police to look after him and his truck. It is sad that a great deal of our Christian effort is nothing more than pounding fenders, breaking glass, and scratching paint. We have got to go after the one who is in the driver's seat. We do not send our missionaries to North Af rica to wage war against another religion. They are there to fight
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