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"The Bible is not the basis of missions; missions is the basis of the Bible" -- Ralph Winter, missiologist
Most believers know that the Bible contains some statements about world evangelism. For missiologist Ralph Winter, saying that the Bible says something about world evangelism is putting the cart before the horse. Winter saw the Biblical call to world evangelism as far more than just one divine command among many. Instead, said Winter, world evangelism is actually the reason the Bible wound up being written. World evangelism is, Winter said, "the basis of the Bible."
Think about it: Doesn't what the Bible says about Yahweh portray Him as the God who seeks and sends? Isn't the idea of the Father sending the Son a central theme of Scripture? Doesn't the Bible describe God going to great lengths to seek lost people, all the while encouraging His people to join Him in that quest?
Hasn't the book of Jonah been called "the missionary book of the Old Testament"? Didn't Mark and John and possibly Luke write their gospels to spread the good news of the Gospel across cultural boundaries? Isn't much of the Book of Acts about the Church expanding across geographic and ethnic boundaries? Don't the Apostle Paul's letters spring from what we call his missionary journeys in which he did cross-cultural church-planting activity?
"Yes" answers to those questions confirm what Ralph Winter said about missions being the basis of the Bible. It is indeed backward to say that global missionary activity is founded on the Bible. In reality, it was missions that formed the basis of the Bible.
To be sure, scores of Bible passages do speak to the subject of world evangelism. However, the importance of world evangelism grows out of more than just the number of biblical references to it. The mandate for global missionary outreach grows out of God's passion for world evangelism. That is what drove the writing of sacred scripture in the first place!
Saying that world evangelism is the basis of the Bible will help us see global missionary activity as more than one command among many in the scriptures. We can see it, as Ralph Winter did, as the very reason for the Bible's existence. God is portrayed in the Bible as He who seeks and sends. That is why world evangelism does not appear just once in the Bible as an isolated directive. Rather, passages in almost every book of the Bible point to it.
Throughout both Old and New Testaments, there are statements about God's concern for all peoples. His desire that all come to know and worship Him is stated repeatedly. From the covenant with Abraham to be a blessing to all nations (Genesis 12:3) to the vision of every nation, tribe, people, and language worshiping before God's throne (Revelation 7:9). The Bible consistently speaks about the universal scope of God's redemptive plan.
Besides that, the New Testament describes the early Christian church as marked by missionary zeal. Apostles and disciples traveled far and wide to spread the message of Jesus Christ. The Book of Acts, in particular, provides numerous accounts of evangelistic efforts to reach various people groups around the Mediterranean basin.
-- Howard Culbertson, hculbert@snu.edu
More blogs in the "Slogans that awakened the Church" series