World Mission: Theology, Strategy, and Current Issues

By Lexham Press

World missions needs a fully biblical ethos.

This is the contention of the editors of and contributors to World Mission, a series of essays aimed at reforming popular approaches to missions.

In the first set of essays, contributors develop a biblical theology of world missions from both the Old and New Testaments, arguing that the theology of each must stand in the foreground of missions, not recede into the background. In the second, they unfold the Great Commission in sequence, detailing how it determines the biblical strategy of all mission enterprises. Finally, they treat current issues in world missions from the perspective of the sufficiency of Scripture.

Altogether, this book aims to reform missions to be thoroughly—not just foundationally—biblical, a needed correction even among the sincerest missionaries.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lexham Press
• Release date: Jun 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9781683593041

Book preview

WORLD MISSION

Theology, Strategy, and Current Issues

EDITED BY SCOTT N. CALLAHAM AND WILL BROOKS

World Mission: Theology, Strategy, and Current Issues

Copyright 2019 Scott N. Callaham and Will Brooks

All rights reserved. You may use brief quotations from this resource in presentations, articles, and books. For all other uses, please write Lexham Press for permission. Email us at [e-mail].

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NASB) are from the New American Standard Bible ®, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (NRSV) are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Print ISBN 9781683593034

Digital ISBN 9781683593041

Lexham Editorial: Todd Hains, Claire Brubaker, Sarah Awa

Cover Design: Kristen Cork

CONTENTS

Dedication

Abbreviations

An Invitation to World Mission

I: Theology and World Mission

1.Old Testament Theology and World Mission

Scott N. Callaham

2.New Testament Theology and World Mission

Wendel Sun

3.Biblical Theology and World Mission

Wendel Sun

II: World Mission Strategy

4.Discipleship as Integral Component of World Mission Strategy

Stephen I. Wright

5.Focus on All Nations as Integral Component of World Mission Strategy

Jarvis J. Williams and Trey Moss

6.Baptism as Integral Component of World Mission Strategy

John Massey and Scott N. Callaham

7.Theological Education as Integral Component of World Mission Strategy

Sunny Tan and Will Brooks

III: Current Issues in World Mission

8.Language and World Mission

Scott N. Callaham

9.Grammatical-Historical Exegesis and World Mission

Will Brooks

10.Biblical Theology for Oral Cultures in World Mission

Jackson W.

11.Paul as Model for the Practice of World Mission

Will Brooks

Afterword

Bibliography

Subject Index

Scripture Index

DEDICATION

In chapters 11–12 of his letter, the author of Hebrews reminds us that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. These mighty men and women of faith have finished their race and are now standing along the sidelines encouraging those of us who are still running. The author mentions many of these heroes by name in Hebrews 11, but throughout church history untold numbers of others have served faithfully, built up the local church, and passed into eternity with hardly anyone even knowing their names. Those of us presently serving in local churches and on the mission fields of the world should soberly reflect that we stand on the shoulders of these servants of whom the world was not worthy (Heb 11:38).

For many of the contributors to this book, two of those unnamed heroes are Bill and Marsha Lawson. The Lawsons spent more than thirty years on the mission field teaching and training church leaders. Through decades of service, Bill taught a seemingly countless number of students how to interpret the word of God. In fact, in his most popular work, Ears to Hear, he explains that the purpose of that book—and in some sense his entire ministry—is providing some sound methodologies for biblical interpretation.¹ These methods seek to understand the meaning of the biblical author, apply that meaning to the contemporary context, and then communicate the Bible’s contextualized message to others. Bill considers biblical interpretation so crucial to the task of the local church that he published several other volumes demonstrating his method of interpretation in both Old and New Testament Scripture.²

In their zeal to reach the world for Christ, missionaries and missiologists may unfortunately cast concern for sound biblical interpretation and theology aside. Likewise, without a healthy focus on application, some discussions in biblical studies can easily scale the ivory tower of practical irrelevance. Such is the outworking of the sinful human nature. Many seem to forget that billions of people now living have yet even to hear the name of Jesus. The Lawsons did not forget. We note well that another aspect of Bill Lawson’s enduring legacy was his ability to bring together the twin disciplines of biblical studies and missiology. By teaching biblical studies on the mission field for so many years, Bill Lawson’s dedicated service testified that the urgent task of world mission calls for biblically faithful theology, and in turn biblical theology leads directly to obeying the Great Commission.

Marsha, too, gave the majority of her time to teaching at the seminary level. She founded the biblical counseling program at Malaysia Baptist Theological Seminary. Not only did she teach counseling to a large number of students, but she also personally counseled them through marital problems, depression, church conflicts, family pressures, and many other weighty life issues. She loved the people God called her to serve, and years later her former students still speak about the compassion with which she taught from the word.

Those who worked alongside Bill and Marsha and know them well would add that it is their humility and selflessness that have left the deepest and most lasting impression on us. Through all his years of ministry, Bill was never concerned with making a name for himself or moving up to some supposedly more prestigious place of ministry. He simply labored year after year, teaching the word and building up the local church in a place of spiritual darkness. And in that region of the world, wherever you find a church leader who is faithfully preaching and teaching God’s word, it is likely due to Bill’s and Marsha’s personal investment in him. It is for this reason that we dedicate this book to Bill and Marsha Lawson, in thankfulness for their legacy.

ABBREVIATIONS

AN INVITATION TO WORLD MISSION

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

John 17:17

Core convictions matter. What one really believes structures one’s entire worldview and translates into action. In contrast, what one only claims to believe are those principles that often readily slough off in the face of arduous testing in the real world. We editors and contributors to this book certainly bring our various national and ethnic backgrounds, diverse academic specialties, and distinct personalities to bear as we write on pressing issues in world mission today. Yet we share a core conviction on the authority and sufficiency of Scripture. We hold that what the Bible says about world mission matters, and moreover that it matters intensely.

More specifically, we assert that the significance of biblical teaching on world mission extends far beyond the limits we see implicitly advocated in much missiological literature. Thus contributors to this book are not content merely to describe the biblical foundation or basis for world mission. Instead, this book calls the church to return to a thoroughly biblical ethos for world mission, placing every aspect of the missional task under the authority—and thus the corrective critique—of biblical teaching.

This book issues its reforming call to the church in three stages. First we examine the biblical theology of world mission. Old and New Testament theology indeed establish a secure foundation for missional practice. However, the theology of both Testaments should stand in the foreground rather than recede to the background in all aspects of mission work. Having anchored our discussion of world mission on biblical theology, next we focus specifically on the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18–20. The individual chapters of the second section of this book thus address selected aspects of Jesus’ command in sequence, demonstrating that each is an integral and essential component of world mission strategy. Finally in the third section of this volume we treat current issues in world mission practice, always from the perspective of the authority and sufficiency of Scripture.

We ask that you, our reader, approach this study with a critical eye. We urge you to follow the example of the Bereans in Acts 17:11, who regularly checked human-transmitted teaching against the word of God. Thus if the claims we advance in this book exceed what the teaching of Scripture can support, then of course biblical teaching must remain preeminent. However, we have written this book precisely because we believe that the contemporary practice of world mission has not adequately heeded the voice of the Holy Spirit through Scripture. Thus we pray that all of us may hear his voice more clearly and in turn respond wholeheartedly in faith.

Indeed, God withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly (Ps 84:11), and the wonders of his word lay open for his people (Ps 119:18). Therefore in the following pages we warmly invite you to journey with us into the theology, strategy, and practice of world mission, keeping Scripture constantly before us as our guide.

I

THEOLOGY AND WORLD MISSION

Theology doesn’t just think. Theology walks. Theology weeps. Theology bleeds.

Russell D. Moore,

"Theology Bleeds: Why Theological Vision Matters

for the Great Commission, and Vice Versa"

A familiar trope in contemporary evangelical Christianity posits two kinds of knowledge: the kind that resides in the head, on one hand, and the kind found in the heart, on the other. According to this line of thinking, one can dispassionately acknowledge the truth of certain facts but fail to allow those facts to ignite one’s passions. Thus one conjures up an impersonal culprit to blame for lethargic lack of ardor toward Great Commission obedience: head knowledge.

This line of thinking is foreign to the Bible. Furthermore, splitting knowledge into categories in order to assuage guilty feelings is obviously rather self-serving and therefore inherently questionable. Even worse, though, the faulty head-heart distinction draws attention away from the real problem. God’s people rarely have a knowledge problem. Instead, lack of action testifies to our obedience problem.

If God’s people are to overcome the inertia of the sinful human nature and obey the Great Commission, they need to know theology. Most importantly, they need to know biblical theology, the theological thinking that arises directly from the interpretation of Scripture. Grasping biblical theology enables God’s people to recognize the drama of redemption in the Bible as their own story and begin participating in it themselves.

In this first major section of our book we first consider Old Testament theology and world mission. The near-absence of Old Testament preaching and teaching from many contemporary churches underscores the urgency of recovering the theology of the Old Testament, for this foundational stage of special revelation carries significant implications for world mission. Indeed, this first chapter closes with discussion of specific ways that the practice of world mission should change to align with the teaching of Old Testament Scripture.

The second chapter asserts that the New Testament is a collection of missional texts produced by a church on mission. Thus the New Testament is also saturated with significance for the practice of mission in the contemporary church. Jesus’ mission of rescue and restoration calls for the church’s participation in union with him. The natural result is the spread of the church across all worldly boundaries for the glorification of God.

The third chapter treats God’s display of his glory among all nations as it draws together the grand narrative of Old and New Testament Scripture. Yet this chapter on biblical theology is not a mere recapitulation of the themes developed in the first two chapters. Rather, here the reader experiences the unfolding of God’s purposes through his covenants with humanity. The finale of the book’s section on theology and world mission thus casts the vision of a renewed humanity in covenant relationship with God, worshiping him throughout all eternity in the new creation.

1

OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY AND WORLD MISSION

Scott N. Callaham

INTRODUCTION

What does Old Testament theology have to do with world mission? Anyone who considers Old Testament theology and world mission to be worthwhile enterprises should be prepared to answer this question. That said, one could possibly cast world mission in solely New Testament terms, treating Old Testament Scripture as irrelevant to mission-related theological reflection. One could also theoretically study Old Testament theology at great breadth and depth without once contemplating the issue of world mission. Both of these stances are flawed, and neither because they lack some elusive sense of balance nor simply because they fail to connect the two fields. After all, if Old Testament theology and world mission truly have little to do with each other, coercing them into contact through brute force or novel flights of ingenuity would hold meager value.

Against the backdrop of weighty issues such as this, the present study takes the first steps in shouldering the burden of this book: to call the church to return to a thoroughly biblical ethos for all aspects of world mission. This biblical ethos stems from biblical theology, such that the content, themes, and story line of the Bible determine everything else. Therefore, after setting its foundation on biblical authority, this chapter specifically asserts that if the first three-quarters of the Christian canon has something to say about world mission, then the church must listen and respond.

WORLD MISSION WITHOUT OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY: A CHALLENGE TO BIBLICAL AUTHORITY

World mission is a derivative idea, which is to say that it should derive from theological reflection on the Bible and take place in obedience to scriptural teaching. World mission shares this derivative nature with systematic theology, which also theoretically springs from but is not identical to Scripture.¹ While established systems of doctrine have matured through the centuries within venerable complexes of theological thought, in the end even the most deeply rooted theological convictions must defer to Scripture at any point of dissonance. A necessary overarching implication of the concept of biblical authority is that Scripture as the word of God holds priority over all theological systems and philosophical worldviews.² Similarly, all programs of world mission are subordinate to biblical teaching in every respect.

While a thoroughgoing presuppositional commitment to biblical authority might lead to ready acceptance of the concepts sketched out above, at the risk of repetition it is necessary to draw out at least three more specific implications of a robust view of biblical authority for world mission. For the purposes of the present study, the first implication of biblical authority is that the context-laden meaning of Scripture must exercise a controlling influence over theology. Therefore, at least in theory, present-day theologians reject the prooftexting practices of the past in favor of contextual biblical interpretation.³ Rightly handling the word of truth (2 Tim 2:15) unleashes the voice of the Bible to speak afresh into the theology and practice of the church. Thus in the specific case of world mission, assuming a certain theory or shape for world mission and then seeking scriptural teaching to shore it up is fundamentally at odds with the concept of biblical authority.⁴ Sound biblical teaching must instead give birth to theology of mission.

A second implication of biblical authority is that God and his word stand at the center of the Christian life. Now if God and his word occupy the center, there is no room for anything else there. In fact, this center overflows into the whole of life. Faithfully following Jesus through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in obedience to the teachings of God’s word—for his glory alone—is the hallmark of being a Christian. Discrete elements of this full-orbed image of discipleship do not by themselves embody the whole; or to restate in another way, one’s degree of involvement in certain Christian activities is not a measure of faithfulness.⁵ Thus, for example, personal participation in missions is neither the purpose nor the essence of being a Christian. Additionally, in terms of preparation for Christian ministry, mission can never be the integrating center of theological education.⁶ On the broader scale of the Christian community, vibrant mission efforts do not necessarily imply healthy churches. Despite noble intentions, proposals such as these are critically imbalanced, for they unduly maximize the missional aspect of following Jesus at the expense of others. Instead the proper focal point of a Christian’s whole-life devotion must be God himself; otherwise one risks stealing the glory that belongs to God alone.

A third implication of biblical authority is acceptance of the entire canon of Scripture as authoritative. While rehearsing the critical questions surrounding the definition of the Christian canon is well beyond the scope of this chapter, it is necessary to raise the issue of canon in order to underscore that the canonicity of the Old Testament is a settled matter.⁷ If the Old Testament is inspired Scripture, then it cannot be Scripture in any kind of honorary sense, perhaps tolerated as a rather bulky historical prelude to Christian Scripture: in this case meaning the New Testament. Furthermore, if the Old Testament is inspired Scripture then there can also be no question of pitting the New Testament (or even portions of the New Testament) against it in an unreflective manner, as if the way of Jesus constitutes a repudiation of all that came before.⁸ Instead, merely observing the New Testament’s host of direct quotations of, allusions to, and verbal parallels with the Old Testament should refute crudely supersessionist thinking about God’s interactions with humanity leading up to the time of Jesus.⁹ Yet the Old Testament not only serves New Testament authors as an authoritative literary reference but also preemptively lays out the guiding principles of New Testament faith and thus is nothing less than, as C. H. Dodd puts it, the substructure of all Christian theology.¹⁰ Indeed, recognition of the Old Testament as canon requires that the entirety of the Old Testament be relevant to theological thinking. There can be no separating out of some parts as more authoritative than others.¹¹ In the words of Bruce Waltke, Every sentence of the Bible is fraught with theology, worthy of reflection.¹²

To review, submission to biblical authority requires first listening to the voice of God through Scripture and then forming theology. In the process of constructing theology, interpreters must resist the urge to seize on and maximize certain theological themes (such as world mission) in a way that Scripture itself does not. Finally, respect for biblical authority requires that the Old Testament feature prominently in discussion of issues across the theological spectrum, including world mission. Taken together, these principles require a different approach to world mission from the panoply of alternatives commonly seen in contemporary missions practice. Simply put, it is time to return the word of God—including the Old Testament—to its rightful place at the center.

WORLD MISSION WITHIN OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY

In order to commence this recentering project, the present study turns its attention primarily toward Old Testament theologies. Therefore works specifically written to advance biblical foundations for mission or a missional understanding of the grand narrative of the Bible only appear in a minor, supporting role rather than a leading role. One expects these specialized works to discourse on missional undertones within broader theological themes in the Old Testament and thus exemplify a bottom-up approach to an Old Testament theology of mission. The bottom-up method is valuable for its concentration on mission, though in the background must always loom the potentially unfair suspicion of imbalanced issue advocacy.

In marked contrast, the Old Testament theology field as a whole is virtually invulnerable to the charge that it maintains an outsized interest in world mission. Accordingly, at first one might not expect a top-down approach, starting with Old Testament theologies, to deliver substantive theological reflection to missiologists. After all, mining the entire Old Testament in order to refine its theology requires treatment of a vast array of themes. Yet the following sections demonstrate the potential enrichment of missional theory and practice that await those who are willing to allow this first and largest part of the Christian Bible to shape their theology.

In order to provide a brief orientation to Old Testament theologies as a literary genre, the present study first raises awareness of the diversity manifested among such works. Then the following section reviews themes that spring from Old Testament theologies’ varying yet quite complementary treatments of the fate of gentile nations before Israel’s God. Last, a concluding section offers specific suggestions on how the contemporary practice of world mission should change in light of these elements of Old Testament theology.

DIVERSITY AMONG OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGIES

Old Testament theology is a distinct field of study; therefore it is reasonable to open a book spanning the theology of the Old Testament with certain preconceived notions regarding what should appear within. However, alongside this expectation of fundamental commonality should stand concomitant awareness of broad diversity among these works.

Old Testament theologies differ widely from one another for a host of interrelated reasons. For example, confessional commitments cannot help but manifest themselves in an author’s writings. Thus in theory one might expect adherence to Christianity (whether Catholicism, Orthodoxy, or Protestantism), Judaism, some other religion, or perhaps no religion in particular to influence the development of an author’s Old Testament theology. However, in reality Protestant theological thinking has birthed, defined, and dominated the field, thus making Old Testament theology more or less a subcategory of Protestant theology.¹³ Accordingly, the diversity of Old Testament theology is at least partly due to its relative freedom from ecclesiastical control. Thus individual authors’ own intellectual landscapes largely channel their streams of theological reflection.

Old Testament theologies can express widely disparate viewpoints on certain subjects, for example on the fate of gentile nations: a key component of any conceptualization of world mission. On one hand, in the first Old Testament theology ever written, Georg Bauer expresses confidence that unaided human reason eventually leads to recognition of a single, most perfect primeval being, the Creator and Conserver of the Universe.¹⁴ On the other hand, Bauer asserts that according to Jewish belief, such nascent leanings toward monotheism would cast no light on pagan nations. The nations would instead be condemned by the Jews on a solemn day of judgment, and be cast down to the lake of fire of Gehenna for everlasting punishment.¹⁵ Consistent with this nationalistically charged depiction of Jewish eschatology, there was no place for a theology of mission in Bauer’s representation of ancient Judaism. Incidentally, limiting the task of Old Testament theology to tracing the historical development of ancient Jewish religion—like Bauer and many who have followed him—is a decision that carries significant ideological consequences. One such outcome is that assertions of contemporary theological significance for the Old Testament seem rather out of place, an alien imposition on a historical survey.¹⁶ Even the assumed connection between Old and New Testament studies weakens if one views the Old Testament as a desiccated historical artifact rather than something yet living and active (see Heb 4:12) clothed in writing.¹⁷

There is perhaps no starker contrast with Bauer than Robin Routledge’s treatment of the destiny of gentiles: [God] will bring all nations to share in the relationship and blessings at first enjoyed by Israel. As we have seen, this was God’s intention from the start, and is to be achieved through the witness of a restored and renewed Israel.¹⁸ In view of the extremes of Bauer on one hand and Routledge on the other, a reader of Old Testament theologies may well wonder how can one rely on a field so densely sown with disagreement on theoretical approach, format, and results to articulate a cohesive theology of mission. After all, the concept that gentiles could indeed share in the blessings of God and even become part of the people of God struck the early church as lacking theological precedent.¹⁹ However, it is precisely the existence of such rich diversity that makes any emergent consistency in thought all the more compelling. That is to say, if writers from many different backgrounds strike similar chords when discussing the Old Testament’s perspective on the nations, the resulting resonances are all the more sonorous and arresting. Discerning the underlying harmony of Old Testament theologies’ outlook on the nations is the promise of the following section.

THE NATIONS IN OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGIES

Many Old Testament theologies explicitly address the fate of gentiles. From time to time sojourners live in the Israelites’ midst, and individual gentiles such as Rahab and Ruth enter into the covenant people, but neither the Old Testament itself nor its many written theologies imply that their example of assimilation was normative for all foreign peoples.²⁰ By definition gentiles are not the people of Israel, thus prompting the question of how the God of Israel deals with them.

Interestingly, a cohesive pattern emerges as one considers how Old Testament theologies in aggregate treat this gentile question. Old Testament theologies commonly examine the fate of the nations in light of God’s work in creation, election, judgment, and new creation. Thus the present study now surveys treatment of these concepts among Old Testament theologies.

Creation

Theological thinking about the gentiles begins with creation. Of course, this must be true in a logical sense, in that creation has to do with the origin of all created things and thus serves as a plausible starting point for all theology.²¹ Furthermore, the creation of human beings came before the commissioning of Israel as a special people of God; thus creation naturally carries significance beyond Israel. Literally from the beginning, Yahweh could not be a mere patron god of a single ethnic group, utterly unconcerned with (and likewise of no concern to) all others. As Paul later argued, Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also (Rom 3:29).

Yet the significance of the creation narrative for gentiles extends beyond the single fact of creation itself, but also to the specific teaching about the creation of humanity in God’s image. It far exceeds the scope of this chapter to plumb the depths of the theological significance of creation in God’s image by tracing the reverberations of this teaching throughout Scripture.²² However, two complementary implications of creation in God’s image stand above others in significance for defining what it means to be human and thus grasping the place of gentiles in Old Testament theology. One can phrase the first implication as a denial: creation in God’s image means that ethnicity is not a fundamental element of human identity. After all, it is humans whom God creates in his image, not Israel. Thus all teaching of the Old Testament on the gentiles after the creation narrative rests on the idea that humans—including gentiles—uniquely reflect God as his image bearers. All humans inherently bear glory and honor and also exercise power under God’s authority. One’s ethnicity neither adds to nor subtracts from the overriding significance of creation in God’s image. Thus while Jonah may have held completely understandable grievances against Assyrians in general or even Ninevites in particular, refusal of God’s command to preach to them constituted lack of compassion for people who bore the same divine image as he. The final verse of the book of Jonah dramatizes God’s concern and extends it even to animals under the Ninevites’ care: And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle? ( Jonah 4:11).

While creation in God’s image denies ethnicity pride of place as a definitive marker of humanness, the second implication of creation in God’s image is contrastingly an affirmation. Genesis 1:27 reads: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. The only explicit terms Scripture uses to explain creation in the image of God are male and female. The author of Genesis clearly understands that the concepts of maleness and femaleness specifically and sexual reproduction generally came into creation before humans did, for this is how animals will be fruitful and multiply (Gen 1:22). Thus humans will be fruitful and multiply by sexual reproduction as well. However, though animals are indeed living beings (nephesh chayyah), they lack God’s image: a concept explained in the concrete categories of male and female. Thus a defining attribute of human identity, intertwined in the most intimate way with God’s own identity, is to be male or female. Creation in God’s image is a central cross-cultural truth claim of Old Testament theology.

Alongside all of its universal application to all cultures in all times in history, Old Testament creation theology presents itself fully garbed in specificity. That is to say that it was specifically the God of Israel who crafted the universe and all life within it.²³ The content and structure of the creation story he supplied to his one special people seem to rebut any speculation that it simply recapitulates those of neighboring ancient peoples or even stakes out a similar underlying agenda.²⁴ Thus the meaning of creation for all peoples could only come into focus through the lens of Hebrew Scripture, and reciprocally, the Hebrews could only grasp their place before God in light of his creation of all humanity. Since Gerhard von Rad believed that in the nations God realized one of the purposes of his creation, he wrote that the main question Genesis 1–11 raises for the reader is that of the further relationship of God to the nations.²⁵

Von Rad’s statement is in fact stronger than it may appear if read by itself, in that von Rad’s earlier scholarship asserts that creation played a role in Old Testament theology subordinate to that of God’s saving acts. It is possible to interpret von Rad’s primary sources in Psalms and Isaiah differently than he and on that basis alone assert a more prominent role for creation in Old Testament theology. However, von Rad’s own discernment of the Hebrew writers’ theological agenda is nonetheless striking. Von Rad posits that the typical function of creation theology in the Old Testament was to elicit a faith response.²⁶ To focus on a specific example, the creation theology of Psalm 136:5–9 leads intentionally—rather than abruptly transitions, as von Rad suggests—into the recital of God’s iconic acts of deliverance of Israel. Then when ancient liturgy recounted God’s triumph over specific gentile peoples (Egyptians in 136:15, Amorites in 136:19, and inhabitants of Bashan in 136:20), Hebrew worshipers meditated on God’s steadfast love in special covenant relationship with Israel and simultaneously pondered his mysterious purposes in creating those opposing nations.

Election

Consideration of the special covenant relationship highlights a second crucial theological theme: election. According to Horst Dietrich Preuß, election supplies the fundamental structure of Old Testament faith. The election of Israel was God’s means of communing with his creation through his people’s obedient response to him.²⁷ As central as the theme of election may be to Old Testament theology, at first glance God’s election of Israel may seem the least likely doctrine to point toward the redemption of nonelected nations.²⁸ A decontextualized reading of parts of Malachi 1:2–3 appears to confirm this intuition and ring harshly in modern ears: I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated.

Perhaps the first step in coming to grips with the significance of the election of Israel should actually be a conceptual step backward to reevaluate why the concept of election of anyone is offensive to modern readers of Scripture. In other words, one may question the fairness of God’s election of Israel but not another people specifically, or even merely God’s election of some but not others generally. The pivotal consideration is thus fairness. As Barton Payne notes, however, fairness constitutes an altogether inappropriate frame for discussion of election.²⁹ That is to say, critiquing God’s fairness in election implies that God owes election to all, because God has no reason to deny anyone access to him.

The presumption of moral standing to criticize God’s fairness in election is breathtaking and supplies further evidence that sin numbs the conscience of the sinner. Despite any minor protestations to the contrary, in practice humans seldom grasp the gravity of sin. Possessing a sinful nature is not an abstract problem lacking real-world consequence; a sinful nature means that one naturally commits sin. Sin constitutes offense against God regardless of any knowledge of God on the part of the sinner. Thus Amos’ announcement of judgment against Israel’s neighbors in Amos 1:3–2:5—far from the ears of Israel’s neighbors—was not merely a rhetorical device to draw a crowd before Amos lowered the boom of judgment on Israel. Lacking any explicit relationship with Israel’s God, even the nations’ crimes against each other made them worthy of judgment (e.g., see Amos 2:1).

Following the necessary step backward to rethink human sinfulness above, now it is possible to step forward with the realization that absolutely no one deserves election. Election is purely an act of grace, of receiving a standing with God that can only come by sheer mercy. Thus Old Testament theologies highlight the entirely gratuitous nature of Abraham’s election. Old Testament theologies also typically note that God’s blessing on Abraham will result in further blessing for all the families of the earth.³⁰ Word choice and literary context suggest that these families or clans are those listed in the Table of Nations of Genesis 10, underscoring a revolution in the prevailing state of relations between humanity and God before Abraham’s election.³¹ Though previously God’s election of a single person (Noah) limited God’s blessing to him and his family alone, now God’s election of a single person (Abraham) will become a means of blessing extended to all people.³²

Edmond Jacob asserts a specifically missional implication of Abrahamic blessing: The election of Israel was to lead of necessity to a missionary duty. Jacob’s treatment of Israel’s missionary responsibility depicts transformative engagement with gentile peoples, particularly those who conquered and enslaved them. He goes as far as to state that Moses was a missionary to the Egyptians by demonstrating to them the weakness of their gods. Once a people comes to understand that their gods stand under Yahweh’s judgment, their gods’ power over them dissipates, and people of that society will be ready for the worship of Yahweh.³³ One of Jacob’s passing comments on the mission of God’s elect people seems uncharacteristically pointed for academic writing and even jarringly prophetic, as if sealed in a time capsule to await recovery in the contemporary postmodern era: Tolerance never leads to mission.³⁴ While some gentile religions could easily accommodate the notion of one supreme god among many others, a loosely defined polytheism with an ever-expanding pantheon of gods was utterly incompatible with Isaiah’s and Micah’s vision of the nations streaming to Zion to worship Yahweh alongside Israel.

While treating the concept of election, Old Testament theologians emphasize the role of elected Israel as mediator.³⁵ The elected people’s mediation prepares for God’s eschatological reign over a restored cosmos that includes both Israel and gentiles.³⁶ Mediation of course implies a middle position, in that Israel would stand before God in covenant relationship, and Israel would also in turn represent God to the nations.³⁷ Israel’s position as mediator is never in doubt in the Old Testament, which is to say that it would only be possible to speak of salvation for the nations as an extension of the salvation God works for Israel. It is clear that Israel is YHWH’s witness to the world, but the outworking of that witness remains somewhat undeveloped in the Old Testament. Due to biblical anticipation of severe judgment of the nations, on one hand, and intimations of salvation for them, on the other, Preuß finds it impossible to place the destiny of the nations under any single rubric, stating that The Old Testament continues to be of two minds in its expressions, hopes, and expectations for the gentiles.³⁸

Judgment

The theme of judgment awaiting the nations is indeed significant in the Old Testament and is prominent enough to merit mention as the third major theme among Old Testament theologies regarding the fate of gentiles. As with the doctrine of the election of Israel, the juxtaposition of judgment and missional theology might at first glance seem nothing less than a forced union of thesis and antithesis. Indeed, one may wonder how the judgment of the nations could somehow lead to their redemption in the purposes of God.

Egypt is a paradigmatic example of a nation that experiences God’s judgment. Yet depiction of Egypt prior to the exodus event is relatively benign. Joseph’s slavery there is not due to any systematic program of oppression against Israelites. Furthermore, the Old Testament harbors no particular animus against the pharaoh of Joseph’s era and in fact portrays him as facilitating refuge for Jacob and his family.

However, as John McKenzie notes, Exodus departs sharply from the prior neutral or even relatively affirming characterization of Egypt. The Israelites’ adopted home transforms from haven into hell. Receiving the command to release his Israelite slave force for the first time, Pharaoh questions not the existence of Israel’s God, but why he should concern himself with this God at all: Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD (Exod 5:2). From that moment forward, the great crime of Egypt for which they will face judgment is refusal to acknowledge and obey God.³⁹

Intriguingly, in Exodus 7:4–5 God announces the aftermath of coming great acts of judgment: The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, as if directly to address Pharaoh’s claim of no such knowledge. Another explanation of judgment follows in Exodus 9:14: so that [Pharaoh] may know that there is none like me in all the earth. Pharaoh’s rule itself realizes a similar divine goal, as narrated in Exodus 9:16: But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. Discerning the common thread of these stated reasons for judgment requires no refined skills of literary interpretation; they all have to do with communicating knowledge of God to Egyptians. Centuries later, when Israel experiences its second exodus and return from Assyrian and Babylonian captivity, Isaiah asserts that the national mission of Israel is to proclaim a similar programmatic message to the nations: Yahweh alone is God.⁴⁰

Most prophetic books prominently feature an entire literary subgenre dedicated to judgment: the oracles against the nations.⁴¹ Occasionally in commentaries one encounters a more graphic title for this literary form: hymn of hate.⁴² Yet once again the Old Testament presents a more nuanced picture

Reviews for World Mission

[Alissa Toh · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Good exegesis of the OT for the great commission and God mission to the world.