Caelum Infinitum

While Veritas Unum has remained dormant for the past seven months, its author has not... March 1, 2009, witnessed the launch of Recover Church, the fruition of a seed that Christ planted in my heart in 1996, then likewise planted within the heart of a colleague in 2007 (whom God used to make Recover a reality). Reflecting the church template as found in the book of Acts, we and those supporting vessels around us purpose to encourage all to "recover identity, to recover relationships, and to recover life..." as we strive to be imitators of Christ Himself (1 Peter 2:21).
...Also, on September 6, 2009, I entered into the marriage covenant with my betrothed, a seriously devoted disciple of Christ and an illustrious helpmeet... indeed, the Lord God knew I would need assistance in furthering His Truth in this post-modern God-forsaking world! Moreover, the activity of transitioning into new ministry and living locations has assured the presence of frustrations that naturally adhere to such circumstances!
...But therein, a season of establishing foundations and building upon such has arisen in my life and in the lives of many to whom I am connected. Both my wife and myself have received explicit revelation concerning the Lord God's will for us, separately and together. However, despite much clarity there remains a dimness when attempting to see beyond what He has revealed. Thus, past lessons learned and now applied are that faith and trust are requisite when discerning the direction and purpose Jesus Christ has provided. A sense of adventure, and quite possibly zealousness, would be lost if every facet of one's future were known to the individual, thereby negating "steps of faith" as well as the need for continual discernment and fellowship with our Creator Who holds the future we so longingly wish to know and direct for ourselves.
...Often we receive glimpses, hints, or even outright evidence concerning God's direction and will for our lives. Confidence flourishes in that we have "heard from God" and "have a newfound sense of purpose." And while such divine revelation sets us straight and assists us in actually finding the right and true path Christ would have us follow, it is after those first several steps upon the True Path when many cease to uphold continual discernment and fellowship with Jesus Christ. Rather, human reason outpaces faith... and this breeds doubt, confusion, and emptiness. Assuming to know the mind of God based upon a few hints or evidences given to us is akin to assuming that we are in fact godlike. It is when one assumes overt control over one's life that God illuminates the reality of one's bearing to be the polar opposite of His own. Ultimately, the cost of true discipleship will result in more "unknowns" than most are willing to accept. Jesus states this plainly to Nicodemus when He says, "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8).
...So how does one combat the doubts, confusion, and emptiness that such "unknowns" may tempt one to fall into or that may be used as snares by the enemy? The answer is found in Matthew 16:21-23:
..."Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.
...Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, 'Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!' But He turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.'"
...Peter meant well when he privately admonished Jesus that He would not suffer the ill things of which He spoke. And it must have startled Peter, and even hurt deeply, when his Teacher turned on him and identified him with the archenemy! Yet Jesus made His point sharply clear when He accused the enemy of clouding Peter's mind from that which is of God and bending it instead upon the temporal things of men, for Peter did not seem to recall the good news of Christ being "raised the third day" immediately following that which He was to suffer.
...The hard lesson here is to recall that we do not have the mind of God, though we have access to it. The harder lesson is to recall the Good News when we are ignorant of the endgame, ever being mindful of the things of God and not the things of men. In this the enemy is kept at bay and we are free to do and work further into His will and enjoy the meantime as we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18).
...How much of God we receive is determined by how much of ourselves we give to God... and He has already given all of Himself through His Son's Atonement upon the Cross, making it possible to enter into Caelum Infinitum, i.e. "boundless/limitless heaven." Philippians 4:8 instructs and insists that with such grace and mercy offered freely, let us think always on these things...

Missiology and The West

Missiology? This term has been around for some time, though it is not altogether common. I do find that half the fun of theological studies is the discovery of new terms and then trying to pronounce them... While the textual appearance of the word at hand is slightly more odd than its phonetic utterance, the meaning is not odd at all: Missiology is simply the study of Christian missions.
...On October 31, 1517 an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the door of Wittenberg Church in Germany, protesting against church offenses. This act birthed what became known as the Protestant Reformation, eventually affecting all of Western civilization. The next four hundred years solidified the concept of the Protestant Church being synonymous with the West, i.e. Europe, Britain, and North America. Interestingly, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East were rarely even a focus of Protestantism or "Western theology" in that until approximately AD 1800, 98 percent of the world's Protestants lived in the West. This is attested to by the famous shoe maker later extolled as the father of the missionary movement, William Carey. The seeming monopoly on theological advancement occurring in the Western world led Carey to India in 1793 to preach the Word of Truth. The next one hundred years witnessed a grand increase in foreign missions, though by 1900 the West still held nearly 90 percent of the world's Protestants.
...At present, the West may still hold a majority of the world's Protestants, but it does not hold a majority of the world's Christians. The dominant regions of Christian growth are now found throughout what is often considered the "mission field," such being Latin America, Africa, Eurasia, and the Middle East (Status of Global Mission, 2009, 20th-21st Centuries). In the context of global Christianity, the term "World A" represents the unevangelized world, being those who have never heard of Christ, Christianity, or the Gospel message. The Scandal of World A is that "more than 70% of Christian effort and ministry is directed at people who already profess to be Christians, while less than 5% of our total missionary activity is focused on those who have never once had a chance to hear about the good news of the Gospel." The connection between the known "mission field" and "World A" is that the former encompasses the latter, therein proving a significant lack of focus in confirmation of the previous quote.
...In response to this "scandal" I purpose to promote a much greater awareness of our Christian brethren in the non-Western world, for they are of serious import to Christendom in that they are the majority of Christians in the world today. As with a previous article I posted, In the Shadow of Death, I seek to edify those members of the Church where persecution is heavy, martyrdom is commonplace, and miracles abound, affirming that the book of Acts is literally the context of the day. The past several centuries have seen great advances in theology on a plethora of levels. However, Western theological analysis of the world at large has not kept pace with the Spirit (John 3:8), trending more toward intellectual vanity and a focus on God as a subject to be studied rather than Someone to be experienced. Moreover, the West views itself as the ecclesiastical exemplar for the world, all the while suffering more denominational infighting and schism than during the era of protest against Roman Catholic heresies ignited by the Reformation!
...We in the West often believe that our understanding of systematic theology and church history is entirely and readily applicable, and thus normative, to people from all cultures. The folly of this thinking results in frequent relational rifts between Western evangelicals and non-Western believers. Imagine a well-intentioned theologian from the West steeped in academia and ecclesia though lacking in non-Western perspective/experience suddenly engaging in conversation with a devout Christian from Eritrea, Iran, or India. Initial differences and misunderstanding would likely arise from mere terminology. Further rifting would develop as Western orthodoxy was met with the apparent unorthodox template of outright miracles, makeshift, underground, and temporary churches, "unschooled" Christian leadership, minimal Christian resources (even Bibles), and highly frequent violence and brutality.
...So what exactly is normative Christianity? Certainly it is not found in the affluent West where the prevailing aspirations trend toward political correctness and entertainment. What constitutes normative Christianity is that which parallels the circumstance of the first century Church and reflects the faith of the apostles. This is widely observed/experienced in the aforementioned regions predominantly classified as the mission field.
...The Western church has long focused on itself, leaving missionaries and outreach organizations to "indoctrinate" the non-Western world, as if such were merely a project for those willing to take part. Yet the past decade has witnessed vast shifts in global Christianity that the West would do well to analyze and absorb into its own theological perspective, particularly through reflecting on what the non-Western church is writing about and doing. This would equip us for more effective outreach due to more outward thinking in light of what Almighty God is doing in the world, not the Western church.
...Western Christians in general are not familiar with the cross-cultural nature of Christian theology, not yet comprehending that Western theological perspectives are no longer mainstream. Thus the clear and immediate need is for the West to elevate missiology into a priority whilst allowing for development of new theological formulae. Case in point: the more refined and analytical minds of recent generations are desirous toward the application of theology in context of actual life-circumstances rather than being content to remain cloistered behind the walls of universities acclimated to the confines of academia alone. Likewise, missionaries and Christians in World A regions are experiencing an insatiable hunger for systematic theology and a deeper understanding of church history due to ever increasing complexity in light of exponential growth in both the volume of new believers and a desire for spiritual depth in the same.
...As religious divides (and conflict) become increasingly volatile, especially in the non-Western world, the need for decisive Christian apologetics cannot be overestimated. Christianity may very well be the fastest growing faith system in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East (Islam holds this statistic at the global level), but this is not a result of being sanitized so as to be inoffensive to any and all opposing religions and cults. Expanding knowledge planet-wide has set the stage for a war of worldviews to be waged upon the battlefield of hearts and minds, and as Christians engage in cross-cultural encounters the necessity of sound theology and apologetics in the arsenal of faith is self-evident. Christian "missions" recurrently generate the demand for immediate and unspoiled theological ventures, lending severe gravity to the warning found in Colossians 2:8, "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ." This is profound counsel for the Christian who interacts regularly with Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, tribal shamans, or the like.
...I strongly sense that a new era of theological understanding and advancement has dawned. Perhaps a "second Reformation" is in order to salvage the best of Western theology, then graft such into the ideals of true missiology, resulting in a far more exhaustive perception of Jesus Christ's Work in the world. Though for such a grafting to take place a definitive reconciliation must be effected between the differing dispositions of theologians and missionaries.
...How can this be accomplished? Consider the efficiency of missionary theologians, such being individuals well-versed in Scripture, commanding extensive knowledge of church and world history, and also extensively learned in the anthropological and sociological arenas. Consider the apostle Paul, at once the Church's greatest missionary and its greatest theologian.
...Personas of this caliber would benefit Christendom immensely today, but do any exist? Indeed they must, though more are required, in both the non-Western and Western worlds. For I am convinced that, in an appropriately ironic twist, the West has become the "mission field" for the non-Western church.

In the Shadow of Death

AD 2007, Nigeria: Christianah Oluwasesin, a known disciple of Christ, was soon to leave the government high school in the city of Gombe, and be reunited with her husband, Femi. However, her students first had to complete an exam which would test their knowledge of Islam. She collected backpacks and books to thus prevent cheating, piling them at the front of the class. One student began to cry, announcing that there was a Quran in her bag that was now "desecrated" due to contact with a Christian. The class employed corporate anger and threatened the teacher. A faculty member secured Christianah in one of the school's private restrooms as the angry class dispersed and spread news of the "outrage."
...Radical Muslims living nearby were attracted to the incident and upon discovering Christianah's refuge they forcefully overcame her, dragged her out of the school, clubbed her to death, then burned her body... (Voice of the Martyrs, Jan. 2009, p7)
...AD 304, Roman province of Mauritania: Timothy, a church deacon, and his wife Maura had only been married a few weeks when persecution swiftly struck. The provincial governor, Arrianus, arrested them for the "crime" of preserving and teaching the Holy Scriptures and ordered them to relinquish any written Scriptures they possessed so they could be burned. Timothy refused and proclaimed that had he any children he would sooner turn them over to the governor as a sacrifice, but never the Word of God.
...Furious, Arrianus had Timothy's eyes burned out with a hot iron. Welcoming the torment, thus further infuriating Arrianus, Timothy was then hung by his feet with a weight tied around his neck and a gag jammed into his mouth. Maura was forced to witness her husband's torture, under threat of suffering the same if Timothy did not recant his faith or give up the Holy Scriptures. She begged him to recant lest she suffer. When the gag was removed from his mouth so he could reply, rather than relent in agreement with his wife, he charged her with misplaced love and declared his determination to die for his faith in Jesus Christ. Mustering newfound resolution, Maura resolved to emulate her husband's courage and either follow or accompany him to a glorious death. Unable to break either soul with the severest torments, Arrianus had Timothy and Maura crucified... (Foxe's Book of Martyrs, 2001, p35-36)
..."Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles... And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved" (Matt. 10:16-22).
...Jesus' words may at times frighten the timid disciple, with good reason, for true disciples of Christ will surely encounter persecution of some kind at some point in their life sojourn. Understanding that Jesus came to earth to bring "not peace, but a sword" (Matt. 10:34), is the first step toward "losing one's life for the sake of Christ, in order to find one's life" (10:39). And Jesus Himself reveals to us explicitly how such a path is to be trod: "...he who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me" (10:38). Only the true disciple can comprehend this paradigm in that Christ is the only One Who reveals to His own what their crosses indeed are. In the cases above, the "crosses" were ultimately martyrdom, in perfect imitation of Christ, the Ultimate Martyr, Who set before us the prized way to "live life and die death" in full expectation of the Resurrection (Hebrews 5:1-2).
...The first century Church suffered false accusation, inquisition, war, unrelenting torment, and gratuitous death. The Roman Empire did much to induce tremendous violence and then promote spiritual haughtiness through its initially anti-Christian governmental behemoth, then later through its subtly beguiling marriage of church and state.
...Nothing has changed. Persecution, specifically martyrdom, in our modern era alone has surpassed in magnitude the entire span of Roman dominance. North and Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Eurasia, Belarus, Indonesia, Cuba, Chiapas (Mexico), and Columbia (South America) are categorized as Restricted or Hostile Nations. Restricted nations consist of countries where Christian resources (Bibles, etc) are prohibited and where government-sanctioned practices and/or anti-Christian laws promote the harassment, robbery, imprisonment, or killing of Christians. Hostile nations/areas consist of the circumstance wherein governments attempt to provide security/protection for Christians but routinely fail.
...Though just as the first century Church experienced exponential growth under extreme duress, so too does the twenty-first century Church. Moreover, in stark comparison to the Western Church of today, where affluence and floundering faith are the norm, the "persecuted Church" residing in the aforementioned regions presently displays explosive growth despite being "underground" or in predominantly Islamic territories. Where persecution is minimal, discipleship demands a ferocious adherence to single-minded obedience to Jesus Christ, a concept magnificently detailed in the third chapter of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book, The Cost of Discipleship.
...When one is not challenged from without toward spiritual growth, one must challenge oneself from within, and this contradicts the tendencies of the flesh which trend toward idleness, apathy, and selfishness... all enemies of self-discipline. Yet in the shadow of death one is driven toward Him Who holds Life, and the darker the shadow the more urgently one desires to remain in His grasp, even to the point of forsaking one's life for His sake. And those who find themselves in such a blessed circumstance assuredly count it a privilege to take up their cross that so resembles that which Christ Himself bore.
...Persecution, of all stripes, allows the Passion of the Christ to become the Passion of the Church, since we must be "crucified with Christ" (Galatians 2:20). The Western Church would do well to be ever mindful of its "soft" persecution in comparison to other members of the Church Body worldwide, for if we do not feel the pain of those who suffer for His name's sake, then we have become dead. The clearer our vision of God, the clearer our vision of life shall be, including discerning the moment we may have to lay down that life.
...Well acquainted with both persecution and sacrifice and their nuanced contexts, whereas deliverance could be "from death" or "from earthly life," David penned a volume of psalms vividly expressing instances of fear, but also of grand contentment designed to encourage the child of the Most High God that He is our Shepherd and we shall not want for anything if He is indeed our Treasure above all else...
..."Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; they are mighty who would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully... Draw near to my soul and redeem it, deliver me because of my enemies. Let Your Salvation, O God, set me up on high. I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bull... Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me..."
(Psalm 69:4, 18, 29-31; 23:4)