PRESENT-DAY TURMOIL

The continent of Africa is in deep turmoil. Revolutions, terrorism, hatred, and a rising militant nationalism are the order of the day, In fact the white man is continually being pushed out. This is often true of tho missionary as well as of business men, farmers, administrators and advisors. Fanatical religious-political groups have arisen to strike terror through the land. Country after country has gained its freedom from colonialism and often has fallen under afar worse tyranny of its own making.

Islam is making a concerted effort to win Africa and is making rapid progress. With the retreating colonial rulers, the capital that made for considerable economic progress is quickly being withdrawn. New capital is not attracted because of the widespread graft and corruption in high places and Jack of security. So the political problem is augmented by increased poverty and suffering.

COMMUNISTIC INTRIGUE

Everywhere the socialists from Russia and Red China have seized upon the situation, much of it brought about by their own intrigue, and are making every effort to turn Africa into a Communist nation. Radio Peking and Radio Moscow and other stations blare out their propaganda of hate and deceit across the continent. The process that is underway in Africa has already been consummated in other parts of the world. China, where the Gospel had seemed to take root, fell under the bloody. hand of the Communists. Beyond doubt the message of the “social gospel” helped pave the way for the entrance of Communism there. Many of the people had already been taught the ethics of socialism by liberal missionaries (and perhaps some evangelicals also).

Other Christians were inadequately prepared to cope with the power of Communism, whose precepts they so little understood. Socialism has woo its way even among Christians because they have not understood the application of the moral law to the social sphere of their lives. The teaching of the missionaries and of the church has often been too shallow and inadequate to inculcate a deep sense of the normativeness of God’s law for all our conduct.

                     

DISREGARD FOR MORAL PRINCIPLES

Probably one of the outstanding characteristics of Africa today is this growing, and sometimes almost complete, disregard for the basic principles of the moral law by individual and nation alike. It is true that some of the new nations have fairly good written constitutions, patterned often after some of those of the West, but by and large the written law, though embodying many of the principles of the moral law, is almost completely ignored.

Some have sought to solve Africa’s problem hy economic aid which ignores the heart of the problem and is utterly unable to accomplish its own avowed purpose of raising the living standard of the people. Others think the answer lies in democracy. We should have learned before this that democracy, apart from basic morality, can lead to the gravest tyranny. The problem is basically not an economic nor a political one. but a moral problem.

This is the situation that challenges the missionary of the Gospel laboring in Africa today. It presents a challenge which we who love the Reformed Faith ought to be better qualified to meet than others who bring what we must view as a diluted Gospel.

THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM IS SPIRITUAL

The root of the political and economic problem of Africa is spiritual. The reason for present trends lies in SIN. The instability of present governments, the graft and corruption, the militant nationalism, the onslaught of Communism is a result of disregard for the law of God. Even the poverty that stalks the land is brought on in large measure by lack of respect for the absolute law of God. Coveting the wealth of the foreigner in her midst, failing to understand (because the foreigner has not understood himself or. if he has, he has not taught it to the African) the source of that prosperity, Africa has coveted it and sought to use the ann of force to gain it. In the process she has destroyed the very source of economic advance, capital saved and used to increase production. In her desperation she has turned to the glowing promises which the Communists are free to make but utterly unable to fulfill. In her confusion she has turned to a variety of false religions.

THE MISSIONARY’S TASK

But what does the message of the Gospel have to do with these pressing problems of Africa? A great deal! The missionary, if he is to be true to his calling (as also the pastor at home), must bring the Gospel in the context of the life of the people. In Africa that involves a basic knowledge of the religion of the people whether that of Islam, of a formal “Christianity” that knows almost nothing of the Gospel, or that of Bahai, animistic paganism, or of Communism—the new religion that is sweeping across Africa.

The missionary is to bring a message that by the work of God’s Spirit will lead to repentance and saving faith and a consequent life of obedience to God. But repentance can not come in a vacuum. Before a Moslem can come to Christ, he must repent of his sin of worshipping Allah, who is not the triune God of creation and redemption. An adherent of the Roman Catholic faith, if he is to come to Christ, must understand that Christ, not Mary or the saints. is the way to the Father. The Communist must come in repentance of his sin of covetousness and idolatry of the state, to Christ. the sovereign Lord and Redeemer. The missionary in Africa must present the Gospel in the context of the need of the people and be must present it in a spirit of deep love and concern for those among whom he bas been called.

NEED OF THE REFORMED EMPHASIS

The Gospel message, if it is to be effective. involves a direct application to the specific needs of the people and a call to repentance from their particular sins and faith in Christ alone. It has been my experience that anything less than a frank, direct approach falls short of communication to the people. But the preaching of the Gospel must also be characterized by a faithful preaching of God’s law. This is the schoolmaster to bring men to Christ and it is the norm of conduct for the child of God.

Just here, I am convinced, the church has fallen down in its task. Lawlessness is characteristic not only of unbelievers; a lack of the knowledge of the law and its application to the whole sphere of man’s activity is all too characteristic of Christians in Africa, and America as well, for that matter. It is disregard for God’s law that is leading Africa today down the road Red China recently trod. The law of God alone can provide a solid foundation for a free and progressing society. Only through faith in Christ is the individual given adequate motives and the ability by God’s grace to make the law of God the norm of his conduct. Only as the influence of the Gospel penetrates a land can we expect a stable government, elementary honesty, and economic prosperity.

The political, economic, and moral chaos of Africa today presents a challenge to Christian missions. It presents a challenge especially to those who hold to the Reformed Faith, who believe in the sovereignty of God, the doctrine of free grace, the binding character of God’s law. For that message alone, the full message of the infallible Word of God, can, when followed, bring eternal salvation and order out of the chaos.

CRYING NEED FOR CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

Apart from divine intervention, the days of missions in much of Africa may well be numbered. While our sovereign Lord tarries, the church needs to press the call of the Gospel in Africa. One of the crying needs today in Africa is for literature, Christian literature that effectively applies the teaching of God’s Word to all the life of the individual. The Communists realize better than the church the value of literature and are flooding the continent with attractive, inexpensive literature full of the false religion of Communism. Africa today needs, I am convinced, the message that we who love the Reformed Faith claim as our spiritual heritage. It is the only adequate answer to Communism, to Islam, to a dead church, or to animistic paganism. It is the message which, when followed generally, will open the way to material progress as well, for the sovereign God does reward obedience to his law even with material blessings. Righteousness is still the only thing that truly exalts a nation.

This message is also the only hope for America, which is rapidly losing its respect for God’s law because it has already lost the faith that once made our nation great. May God grant us faithfulness in proclaiming the whole counsel of God in all the earth.