The Great Commission

George Rebane

Christians are taught that one of their most important tasks in life is to win people over to Christ and the Gospel; it is called the Great Commission.  The preferred method to accomplish this has been for Christians to proselytize their religion as far and wide as possible.  Islam is among the few religions that also exhort their adherents to extend their belief system.  When expanding territorial hegemony is an added objective, this makes a lot of sense.  Today, most religions are satisfied to perpetuate their beliefs within the cultures and communities in which they arose.

After services today we picked up our church’s monthly bulletin and read about several of the missionary efforts that our church supports around the world.  I have had mixed feelings about sending Christian missionaries to distant lands, especially lands that are poor and hostile to Christianity, and hostile to western civilization in general.  In the bulletin we read about a couple from our church that is preparing to depart for Morocco this summer.  They will preach the Gospel to the Muslims, and attempt to win hearts and minds for Christ.

In preparation for their mission they are practicing (I don’t know another word for it) on local Sacramento area Muslims.  Our church membership is being asked to support their Moroccan sojourn through our wallets and prayers.  It will cost a lot more to save a soul in Morocco than in nearby Sacramento.

Being of the utilitarian bent, Jo Ann and I started reviewing again the plusses and minuses of such an undertaking as we munched on our after-church breakfast at Ihop.  What kind of utility is served by such an enterprise in Morocco?  It seems clear to us that the applicable utility in executing Great Commission programs is to maximize the expected number of people who will ‘die in Christ’ for the effort/resources expended.  For the non-Christian, ‘die in Christ’ means going to their reward while in their heart holding Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Well, if that’s the bang per buck you are trying to achieve, then a number of notions about Morocco and Islam immediately pop to the surface.  Islam is still a particularly violent religion – as once was Christianity – that does not tolerate apostasy.  Most interpretations of the Koran teach that the punishment for apostasy is death, and the execution of that sentence is the responsibility of every devout Muslim.  In the stronger sense, even incipient apostasy is punishable by death if that will prevent consummation.

It is also true today that Christianity in Islamic countries is the object of the most violent hatred imaginable.  The number of Christians brutally murdered every week for their beliefs at the hands of Muslims would astonish and anger even the western secular humanists whose media organs maintain a politically correct silence about such news.

So here we are as we consider sending another Christian couple overseas.  They will at best live in a hostile sea.  They will be looked at as another example of Christian imperialism which has a long and sordid history among African and Near Eastern Muslims.  If this couple is successful in converting a Muslim, they will put that person’s life into an existential danger.  If they demonstrate the ability to successfully convert an ongoing stream of Muslims, they not only endanger the newly-minted Christians but also their own lives, for Islam will not tolerate such success within its lands.  They will simply be murdered by the nearest clutch of jihadist followers of Allah.

And in the final analysis, nothing they will do there will be sustainable.  When they go, the mission will be no more.  And in the interval, the whole affair will have cost much to support and will have provided the radical Muslims another propaganda example of ‘evil Christianity encroaching’.

Given this analysis, there is an obvious Plan B.  Stay here and convince California Muslims to follow Christ.  The effort will enjoy a lawful environment wherein Islamic harassment and murder is not tolerated, the prospective converts already live in surroundings that daily demonstrate the blessings of western civilization nurtured in Christianity (no matter the assault under which it currently is in America), and the whole affair will be more cost effective.

Plan B also provides a kind of divine counter to the considerable efforts that Islam has under way in America.  Such efforts attract to Allah new believers from our disaffected and disadvantaged young, especially those who see meaning in their lives through violence.  Perhaps if Muslims started losing more from their own …, you get the idea.

The careful reader will have kept in mind the assumed utility defined at the outset.  If one can stick the argument that Christ favors souls in certain countries, of certain ethnicities or races over other such souls, then, perhaps, going to places like Morocco would make sense.  However a careful perusal of Scripture does not support such a differential value placed on souls that depends on their mailing address.  The last I looked, Christ does not cherry pick, but wants to save souls wholesale – the more, the merrier.  Thoughts?

Comments

[Dan]

I read your column above and think that the couple you refer to should spend their time, effort, and the congregation's money on converting a few souls in Sacramento (or Roseville, etc). It's not just about cost-savings. It's more about what we can do here, in the USA, to stop islamic radicalization of otherwise disaffected Muslims. That's not the only reason (and you touched on it), but I have strong feelings about starting at home where success is more likely than in a hostile country. We don't need to see more headlines that shout out: "Two Americans Killed Abroad---". Anonymous.

[George Rebane]

[The following comment was emailed to me by 'Duckie Narveson', who was having trouble getting TypePad to accept it. So here it is as submitted. gjr]

Religion, Christianity or other, is a way to bring groups of people together and control the populace to the benefit of those with the ‘Plan’. Religious tax (tithe) supports these various beliefs. The promise of life hereafter binds the flocks together. The Bible and other religious books laid down the laws to be obeyed and attempted to explain the ‘unknown’ in simple terms the uneducated could understand.

It worked when population was small. Then divinity spread itself to Kings and other heads-of-state. They loved the POWER and developed more laws to suit themselves. When religious law didn't suit them they changed the fundamentals of the current religion to accommodate their needs, all the while behaving (acting ) as if they were religious servants.

Some religions remained conservative and resisted change from within by physically punishing (killing/ostracizing) those who would stray from the fundamentals; their leaders selected from the fundamental religion. Other religions bent with the times and evolved into secular political groups. Apparently, most democratic society law is based on the Ten Commandments of Moses. Now politics, in some structured form and blindly supported by the populace, controls by creating laws (allegedly ethical and not self-serving) as well as through taxation (tithing by faith to once again to support the structure).

It’s not that ‘there-is-no-god’ but that the ‘superior’ force is currently out of human control (beyond our comprehension). Once we actually do understand physical (mother-nature) and human nature we may be able to learn how govern ourselves more effectively and less destructively. Apparently, at this time, the whole world has their collective heads stuck in the sand (corrupt) and are unable to rise above past (repeated) mistakes to create better order. Perhaps it will take an Armageddon to rearrange individual self-reliance to be able to create a more constructive group order. We can call it ‘religotics’ or ‘polygion’!

[Russ]

Some advice for those preparing text in a word processor and then pasting the text into the comment box. Typepad only accepts plain ASCII, if you have embedded formating symbols hidden in the text Typepad will reject it. If you have ASCII text, and the comment box will not accept it, look for a space as the first character in the first line of text. Typepad does not like that space as the first character. The other issue, is there seems to be a time out function on the comment box. If Typepad will not accept the text, remove the text and then hit the page refresh button, and it should accept the text. As a last resort, navigate away from RR and then return to the right page and enter the text in the comment box. All of these tips have worked for me one time or another.

[George Rebane]

Good advice Russ. All of that has worked for me. I like to compose in Word, but always put the finished text through NetPad (Windows' vanilla text editor)and paste it from there to TypePad and other blogs' comment boxes.

[Victoria Silvers]

Hi,

This is Victoria Silvers, Asst. Editor for Christian.com which is a social network made specifically for Christians, by Christians, to directly fulfill Christian's needs. We embarked on this endeavor to offer the ENTIRE christian community an outlet to join together as one (no matter denomination) and better spread the good word of Christianity. Christian.com has many great features aside from the obvious like christian TV, prayer request or even find a church/receive advice. We have emailed you because we have interest in collaborating with you and your blog to help us spread the good word. I look forward to an email regarding the matter, Thanks!

God Bless,

Victoria Silvers
[email protected]