One might think of the Jerusalem Council described in Acts 15 as codifying the first big transition in the church. At the council a major decision was made (or was identified that the Holy Spirit had already made it). That is that a Greek can become a Christian without also becoming (behaviorally or culturally) a …
Continue reading 100AD 1st Millennium Missions History. The Second Big Transition
I recently finished an article titled, "Apostles/Evangelists of the First Three Centuries as Exemplars for Modern Missionaries." The abstract is as follows: This paper considers the challenge of defining the term missionary in a way that is useful--- neither excessively broad nor narrow in scope. It is suggested that rather than focusing on a definition …
The following quote is in response to charges made by Celsus, a pagan philosopher, against Christianity. (By the way, Celsus's work is actually a very interesting read... strong recommendation.) This is part of the response from Origen of Alexandrai (185-253AD, more or less): But since he is manifestly guilty of falsehood in the statements which …
I have already said some things that I think do NOT define a missionary. I don't think professional status defines a missionary. I do not think working cross-culturally is a necessary condition as well. Neither do I see the popular Christian understanding of being "Called" as tied of necessity to being a missionary. I pointed …