Theology of Mission Paper

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Feb 20, 2024

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Old Testament and New Testament mission The Old Testament and the New Testament share a common component: the idea that people distribute the Word of God to all nations. The Old Testament embraces the spirit of God and his mission declaration. God sends messengers and prophets like Moses, Abraham, Isaiah, and numerous angels to spread His word. Furthermore, God uses several ways to spread his word among His creation. The book of Isaiah states, " Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?’ ‘Here I am,’ I said; ‘send me!” (6:8, NKJV) 1 In this passage, Isaiah was being called by God to go and speak God’s word to a people, especially to those who would not understand it and would not believe it. The spirit of God has the power to open their eyes and heart to Him. Identifying key points in the Old Testament that relays to missions may be to a certain degree problematic. The mission idea may be unclear, but God’s love and His purposes is clear that His word must go out to all who is willing, He has had selected certain individuals at different times in history for that purpose, but His goal was to influence all people through a select few. Peters’ states, “In no uncertain terms had God commanded Israel to be His royal priesthood (Ex 19:5-6), to be His servant and His witness (Is 40-53) and to show forth His praises among the nations (Is 43:21). Later Christ speaks of His people as the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Mt 5:13-15). Israel was a peculiar, singular people with a glorious calling and mission (Deu 7:6; 14:2; 26:18- 19).” 2 Due to Israel’s constant unfaithfulness God’s mission was deferred but never canceled, He does not want his creation to pass away, but to be saved by His ultimate gift. Although the people he chose to continue to be unfaithful to His mission, God continued to have faith in them. Another example from the Old Testament of mission related texts is found in Isaiah states, “and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations.” 3 (66:19, NKJV). 1 Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced are in the New King James Version. 2 George W. Peters, “ A Biblical Theology of Missions ”, (Moody Publishers, 1984), 77. 3 Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced are in the New King James Version.

This scripture relates to God affirming that missionaries will go out to the far reaches of the earth to deliver His word. When it come to the mission in the New Testament is much like the same in the Old Testament, the only different is that it straight forward. Stott states, “This New Testament perspective is essential as we read the Old Testament prophecies, for what we miss in the Old Testament is any clear explanation of just how God’s promised blessing would overflow from Abraham and his descendants to “all families of the earth.” 4 In first book in the Matthew, Jesus tells his disciples to “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (28:19- 20, NKJV). This command to the apostles was not a request, because the lord stated “GO,” which is an action word not a passive one to which a decision is to be made. This also resonant to the Old Testament when God declare that His word will go to all the nations. Another New Testament scripture that the apostle John states about God’s Mission is found in the book of Revelation, “Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people.” 5 (14:6, NKJV). Although the world is in the middle of the chaos during the final days, the lord continual to send out His messengers concerning the Good News. The four gospels of the New Testament are filled with scriptures establishes the operation of missions to the church. The word “send” is used numerous times in the Gospels. The emphasis remains the same, weather in the Old or New Testament when it comes to God’s mission project. We have seen indifference with God’s mission with the people he has chosen to lead the world, the Israelites. They failed in every aspect when it comes to delivering His word to all nations, with their reluctant heart, Gorman states, “ Jesus reference to the covenant takes us back to the covenant made between God and his people on Sinai, which established them as his people . . . Jesus’ blood seals a new covenant, and 4 John R. W. Stott, “The Living God Is a Missionary God ,” in Perspectives on the World Christian Movement : A Reader, ed. Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne, Fourth Edition. (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2009), 6. 5 Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced are in the New King James Version.

in doing so establishes a new community through Christ’s death a new people of God is created.” 6 this causes the need for a messiah in the New Testament to make disciples of all nations to spreading of God’s word. God’s Nature as It Relates to Missions The term “mission Dei” (Latin) is most often translated, “its central idea is that God is the one who initiates and sustains mission. At most, then, the church is God’s partner in what is God’s agenda—in other words, mission is God-centered rather than human-centered, but without neglecting the important role that God has assigned to the church in that process.” 7 If God is the author of mission, then the viewpoints that mission must have a deep and special meaning to God. God created everything for a purpose, which means that nothing was created without purpose. The main mission for all nations of the earth is to praise and worship God because he is the creator of all things, when we look at the Ten Commandments in the book of Exodus, the very first command God states, “You shall have no other gods before Me” 8 When we do not worship the creator of all things, then we are worshiping other idols that is not of the creator. Mission Theology as it Relates to Other Aspects of Theology Mission theology is " The theology of mission is a disciplined study which deals with questions that arise when people of faith seek to understand and fulfill God’s purposes in the world, as these are demonstrated in the ministry of Jesus Christ.” 9 Mission theology is the understanding the purpose of the church, the role of a Christians and how it all relates to God’s mission. The theology of the mission all links to the Old Testament and New Testament texts that defines how the creation of God interact with Him. Moreau states, “It alone provides the general principles on which a theology of mission must be built and the specific instructions given to the 6 Micheal J. Gorman, The Death of the Messiah and the Birth of the New Covenant: A (Not-So) New Model of the Atonement , (James Clarke Company, Limited, 2014.), 35. 7 Scott A. Scott, Gary R. Corwin, and Gary B. McGee, Introducing World Missions: A Biblical, Historical, and Practical Survey, ed. A. Scott Moreau, Second Edition., Encountering Mission (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic: A division of Baker Publishing Group, 2015), 18 8 Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced are in the New King James Version. 9 Charles Van Engen, Transforming Mission Theology , (William Carey Publishing, 2017), 17

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church by God that inform our view of mission today. 10 It is impossible for the church to accept the work of God and not be separated from mission it has been assign to accomplish. The very essence of the Church is the missionary work and take on The Great Commission that is to train and equip the disciples, who in turn can make more disciples. Therefore, directly or indirectly, the Church and God are undoubtedly intertwined when it comes to the Mission Theology. The theology of missions can be related to Christology and ecclesiology and because they are closely related this is how the body of the Church interact today. The mission that Christ has started, created the foundation of Christology in order to continual the work He started. Hirsch state: “Our Christology informs our missiology, which in turn determines our ecclesiology. If we get this the wrong way around and allow our notions of the church to qualify our sense of purpose and mission, we can never be disciples of Jesus, and we will never be an authentic missional church. Churches that have got this basic formula wrong never really engage in mission and so lose touch with Jesus. These churches spend all their time discussing (or arguing) about the forms of worship, the church furniture, and the timing of services and programs, and fail to recognize that our ecclesiology flows more naturally out of our sense of mission”. 11 The church needed a support system to help with the mission created by God. Snyder states, “all ecclesiastical institutions—whether seminaries, denominational structures, mission boards, publishing houses or what have you—are not the Church. Rather, they are supportive institutions created to serve the Church in its life and mission.” 12 Once the people of all nations have been drawn to Christ, those people will inevitably be draw to God the creator, and all who receives Him receives the gift of salvation. Two key themes or motifs of mission theolog When it comes to themes or motifs there are a number of ways to look at this when it comes to mission theology. These themes and motifs express the mission theology that provide the 10 Scott A. Scott, Gary R. Corwin, and Gary B. McGee , Introducing World Missions: A Biblical, Historical, and Practical Survey , ed. A. Scott Moreau, Second Edition., Encountering Mission (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic: A division of Baker Publishing Group, 2015), 74. 11 Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church . (Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003). 36 12 Howard A. Snyder, “The Church in God’s Plan,” in Perspectives on the World Christian Movement : A Reader, ed. Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne, Fourth Edition. (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2009), 157.

believer an understanding of God’s mission and their call to support the missions. According to Moreau those Motif are, The Kingdom of God, Jesus, The Holy Spirit, The Church, Shalom, and the return of Christ. The themes that support the Motif are the Missions, Mission, Missio Dei, and Missiology. According Moreau, “All of these rely on the core idea of mission: the sending of someone or something to do a job.” 13 One of those themes is the Missio Dei theme which is define by, “incorporate into mission theology the fact that mission is truly a God-centered enterprise in which the church is privileged to participate.” 14 This consist of everything that God does in order to establish His kingdom on earth, this also give the church a clear understanding when it comes to doing the missionary work. Throughout scriptures in the New Testament the Kingdom of God is mentioned. When the Kingdom of God is discussed in the scriptures, many thought the term was referring to the future, but according Jesus the book of Luke, “Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” (17:20-21, NKJV). 15 In other words, Jesus was stating that the kingdom already exists, and that it is within whomever believers. Jesus states in the book of John, “Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here” 16 (18:36, NKJV). Christ kingdom is unlike any on this earth and it up to anyone who believe to deliver the Good News, this is why all things are intertwined with the mission according to the plans God’s has set before the world. There would be not mission without Christ and the purpose of the mission is for mankind to have a relationship with God. Conclusion The essential of Mission Theology is to consider the people who is preforming the mission and that the mission is being fulfillment according to God plan. The directive appoints the 13 Scott A. Scott, Gary R. Corwin, and Gary B. McGee, Introducing World Missions: A Biblical, Historical, and Practical Survey , ed. A. Scott Moreau, Second Edition., Encountering Mission (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic: A division of Baker Publishing Group, 2015), 69. 14 Ibid, 71. 15 Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced are in the New King James Version. 16 Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced are in the New King James Version.

missionary, church leaders and people who are part of the body of Christ to be representatives of God and His mission. Although their roles and obligation may differ, but each role is just as important than the other to accomplish the mission. When it comes to the Great Commission that Christ has place before all believers, it is important the everyone who is within the bode is taught and trained to accomplish the task of delivering the Good new to the world, this does not just fall on the leaders, but it falls to everyone that believers. Jesus’ instruction to the disciple was to make more disciples so the word can go to all nations, this is the mission to accomplished in order to fulfill the Great Commission.

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