“To make the word of God fully known”: The Bible in Mission and in the World
The Bible was written to inform humankind that we were created in God’s image to have relationship with him, that the relationship was broken by sin, and that God intervened to make it possible for the relationship to be restored. The major storyline thus speaks of creation, blessing, sin, restoration, and new creation. Throughout this grand tapestry, crimson threads underscore God’s warnings of judgment and wrath for individuals, nations, and the universe and highlight the need for repentance. The people of God, despite their frequent failures, stand out as those charged to tell the world about the God who makes atonement for sin and invites them to share in his promised blessing as part of his chosen people. The Bible is thus a book about mission, given to a people entrusted with a mission, by a God who designs the mission and ensures its success. That God’s word is essential for mission and the church motivates this issue of Mission Round Table.
Browse individual articles in this issue:
Mother Tongue Translation versus Lingua Franca: Some Thoughts on a Missiological Mainstay – A Response
In order to help readers better interact with the article "Mother Tongue Translation versus Lingua Franca: Some Thoughts on a Missiological Mainstay," we are including a conversation between a few experienced missionaries about some of the points made. We hope that other readers will continue this conversation with their friends or coworkers. Walter McConnell Grace [...]
Mother Tongue Translation versus Lingua Franca: Some Thoughts on a Missiological Mainstay
Synopsis: Bible translation has been an integral part of Protestant mission worldwide since the beginning of the nineteenth century and has become, for the most part, an accepted maxim of good missionary practice. However, my own experience as an OMF church planter among the Manobo people in Mindanao, coupled with my own more recent research, [...]
Death, Dialogue, and Dynamics of Communication
Synopsis: In a remote country town, Mongolian Pastor Batsukh and I entered the ger of a Christian couple who had lost their son to suicide. Later, my wife and I traveled and visited them, ministering as best we could given the tragedy. My aim in this paper is to relate a conversation a Mongolian pastor [...]
Reflections on the Use of “Jehovah jireh”
Synopsis: The expression “Jehovah jireh”—often accompanied by the translation “The Lord provides”—is important not only in evangelical Christianity in general but specifically within CIM/OMF. The Hebrew words “Jehovah jireh” have been popular within CIM/OMF since the early days of the Fellowship and are still used today to express trust in God providing for daily needs. [...]
Hudson Taylor and the Bible
Synopsis: Taylor inspired many people to work in China. He was not only responsible for widening the impact of the gospel in China, but he also had a crucial role in challenging the moribund spirituality of Victorian Christianity and showing how the life of faith essentially issued in a passion for mission, especially mission to [...]
A Royal Priesthood and Holy Nation
Synopsis: Recent studies have emphasised that mission is a theme that runs through and unites the whole Bible. This theme comes into particular prominence in the NT, as the gospel of Jesus Christ goes out to all nations; but, if we understand the issue rightly, we can see that it also underlies a lot of [...]
Contextualization in the Old Testament
Synopsis: In 1902, Friedrich Delitzsch's lectures on “Babel und Bibel” ignited a furor for the claim that the OT had plagiarized the intellectual and literary forms of ancient Babylon. Following a century of upheaval, mainstream OT scholarship has arrived at a more balanced understanding of the OT as a contextual and contextualizing document that employs [...]
