April Fools
Conceited prejudice is not evangelism.
April, 2019
I recently had a frustrating exchange with someone who insisted that certain groups of people—entire nations—were to be ignored for evangelism. In fact, his question was specifically to ask which nations were cursed by God and therefore he would not "have to spend time evangelizing." At first, I presumed something was missing in the question. But when I responded, this person we even further in naming certain cultures as those who had "rejected" God and therefore were not ones to be attempting to reach with the gospel. Among his examples were India and Israel; he implied that not having a ready-made list of such cultures implied a lack of knowledge.
That led to an extended attempt at correcting a mistaken approach. During that conversation, the following was pointed out:
•The gospel message is for all nations (Matt 28:18-20) and thus all persons (Rom 10:9-13)! Which "nations" are under God's curse is for Him to know and to judge, but as far as Christians are concerned, there is no such thing as a person who should be ignored when it comes to evangelizing.
•Jonah didn't think the Ninevites needed to be evangelized (Jonah 1:1–3). God taught Jonah, by graphic means, that it was none of his business to make such a judgment. His responsibility was to obey God's call to preach (Jonah 4:11).
•God may give a nation, or a culture, over to sin, but He still seeks to save the individuals who want to be redeemed. His kingdom is not "of this world" (John 18:36,) which is why we don't differentiate souls on the basis of where they live or who their parents are (Galatians 3:28).
•Rahab was part of a society marked for extermination by God and yet spared on account of her faith (Joshua 6:25). Nations may reject God, as a culture, but individuals will still respond. That same idea applies to the nations called to repentance in Revelation—like Nineveh, there are those living in those nations who can be saved, if someone will evangelize them.
•Christ corrected Peter, telling him not to call "common" what God had called "clean" (Acts 10:15). That was in a moment explicitly about God telling His church that certain people were not off-limits (Acts 10:28–29).
•In that same event, it was noted that "God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him" (Acts 10:34–35). And that Peter then continued to describe multi-nation evangelism.
•1 Samuel 16:7 is where God reminds us that He knows the heart of people, and we do not.
•Revelation—as shown in this month's spotlight verse—describes a throng of saved believers "from every nation, from all tribes and people and languages" (Revelation 7:9). No Bible translation renders this as "from every nation we figured was worth the time and effort."
•In Acts 1:6–8, Jesus not only reminds the apostles that "it is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority," but that He also commanded believers to "be my witnesses…to the end of the earth."
•A "nation" may reject God, but the Bible says God still honors those who are a faithful "remnant" in that society (Malachi 3:16–18).
•Most famously, and clearly, Matthew 28:19 is where God explicitly says to "make disciples of all nations." Not, "make disciples of whichever nations you conceitedly decide are worth your time."
•Missionaries have labored for years in some places with little to show for it, only to see major breakthroughs later. That includes places like India, nations of the Middle East, and in Africa. Cultures which shallow, vapid attitudes discard as "cursed" (John 7:49) now boast born-again believers, specifically because those who were obedient to God didn't take on such a condescending stance.
•Contrary to writing off nations as a whole, "many" Jews reject Jesus, but all need to hear the gospel. "Many" in India are Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, or Jain, but all need to hear the gospel. That can't happen unless someone goes and brings them the message of truth (Romans 10:14–17). It is not any Christian's job, or ability, to write off an entire culture, wholesale, as one they don't "have to spend time evangelizing to."
•Individuals might not be worth the time and effort. That's the context of Jesus' remark about pearls and swine (Matthew 7:6). As the absurdly plain evidence already given shows, there is no sense in which that means certain nations, races, groups, or cultures are to be ignored. That's a distinction so critical that it cannot be overstated.
•The Bible is crystal-clear that all people in all places ought to be evangelized. Rejection of that idea isn't simple error or pride. It's willful disobedience. Writing off people groups as "not worth the time" insults the Jewish, Indian, and other believers who have been saved by the evangelism of others. It insults the efforts of those who struggled and died to bring them the truth. And it insults the God who loves all men, seeks their salvation, and has clearly told us to tell that good news to "all" people in "all" places.
As one can imagine, this exchange was more tense than I'd prefer, But the point was to encourage a more Christ-like and biblical attitude towards evangelism (Proverbs 27:5; Galatians 2:11). A self-labelled believer does more damage than good for the sake of the gospel when they feel entitled to write entire cultures off as unworthy of time and effort. Those who can accept such a truth are better equipped to reach all people—even the ones who seem hopeless—with saving faith.
Those who can't—as I politely but firmly told this person (James 3:1; John 9:41)—would do better to simply sulk in distant silence (Jonah 4:1–5), rather than poisoning the efforts of those who truly seek to see all men saved (1 Timothy 2:4).
People often respond to overwhelming biblical evidence against their preferences by appealing to Matthew 7:1–5. They do the same thing with generic sins and other attitudes: "don't judge me!" But when you claim to know something, you take on added scrutiny (James 3:1). Second, "don't judge" in no sense means "ignore or accept false beliefs or false doctrines." The call to stand up for truth (Titus 2:15; 1 Timothy 6:3–4; 2 Timothy 3:16;), including rebuke and correction, is part of using "right judgment" (John 7:24; James 5:19–20).
Unfortunately, that was exactly how this situation played out. Which, in this case, means Titus 3:9–11 and, yes, Matthew 7:6 begin to apply. In the end, I had to walk away from the exchange with one last appeal: If you want to spiritually discard certain people, for whatever reason, that's between you and God. But you can't say no one ever called you out for it.
God doesn't always give us immediate clarity on "why" certain things happen. But in this case, He tempered frustration with an immediate opportunity. Mere moments after wrapping up that argument, an entirely different person asked how to respond to the claim that only certain "tribes" could be saved. Lo and behold, I happened to have that information neatly packaged and ready to share. What one person refused to hear, another was eager to learn.
This reminded me of the lessons of Proverbs 26:4 and 26:5. Sometimes, you answer the "fool" so he won't be "wise in his own eyes." Sometimes, you leave the "fool" alone so you don't waste precious time (2 Timothy 2:23). Even when it turns out you had to do both, those efforts are never really in vain. And there’s a whole world of people—a literal world—who need to be reached.
-- Editor
