Mission and the Reformation

1
Mission and the Reformation
2
The Reformers the Commissions

• Is the Great Commission directly applicable
  today?
• No
• Addressed only to the 11
• The commission is linked with unique apostolic
  authority
• pa?ta ta e??? is a reference to Gentiles not
  modern nation states.
• The apostles fulfilled it, in their day the
  commission was carried out.
• Plus, if it is God that effectually brings people
  to himself, missionary outreach is really not
  necessary, or worse, presumes a doctrinal
  position contrary to scripture.

3
The Reformers the Commissions

• Is the Great Commission directly applicable
  today?
• Yes
• Authority command to be taken seriously and
  obeyed.
• Luke 2436 Acts 18 not just the extension of
  apostolic authority but the message of Christ
• Acts 18 points to the extremes of the earth.
  The apostles never got there.

4
Context

• Survival persecution, doctrinal development,
  war
• The Thirty years war
• Crumbling Roman Empire, political tensions
  between Spain/Habsburgs of the Empire and France
  over interest in ruling the German states
• Religious tension Peace of Augsburg (1555) was
  unraveling throughout the second half of the 16th
  c since converted bishops had not given up their
  bishoprics Calvinism was spreading in Germany.
• What happens when lands once claimed as Catholic
  becomes protestant? Catholics seek to reclaim
  previously held regions.

5
Context

• Peace of Westphalia 1648
• Divided the nations of Europe into 5 Christian
  churches Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist,
  Anglican, Orthodox
• The effective end of the rule of the Pope in
  Western European states rule. The birth of the
  modern sovereign nation-state.

6
Division

• Instead of standing together and waiting for
  better times to clear their theological
  differences, Protestants everywhere wasted their
  strength, with honorable but blind and reckless
  zeal, in endless divisions and controversiesstric
  t Lutherans against Philippists, Lutherans
  against Reformed, Calvinist predestinarians
  against Armenians, Anglicans against Puritans and
  Independents. (Neill 188)
• Three great enemies of the church.
  

The Turks, the papacy, and Calvinism
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Context

• Out of touch with the wider world
• Germans stayed at home and were not establishing
  lanes of trade and influence in the new worlds.
• Structure of the church
• The ruler over church and state of his dominion,
  not outside of it.
• Geographically bounded until Dutch and English
  sea ventures
• No structured body of laborers, as with the RC
  orders
• Robert Bellarmine Roman Catholic thinker
  outlined 18 marks of the true church and
  missionary activity is one. Because the
  Protestants have no mission outreach they are not
  the true church. (Read Neill 189)
• Dead orthodoxy of Protestant scholasticism.

8
Protestant Mission Thinking

• The Great Commission had been fulfilled by the
  apostles.
• All initiative in salvation lay with God alone.
• Profound pessimism neutralized any thought of an
  attempt at change in the worldthis included
  missionary effort.
• Mission could only be undertaken where Lutheran
  authorities ruled, and any missionary calling
  rested with the state not the church.

9
Protestant Mission Thinking

• God had revealed himself to all people through
  nature and the preaching of the apostles. If
  people remain pagan it was because of their own
  heedlessness and ingratitude.
• Everyone should mind his own door, and
  everything will be fine. (Ursinus mid 17th c)

10
Countering Voices

• The Anabaptists
• Sought to restore the vitality of the early
  church.
• Balthasar Hubmaier d. 1527
• Linked for a time with Zwingli in Zurich
• Fought for believers baptism, Zwingli persuaded
  but changed his mind
• Took pastorate in Waldshut, Austria
• Married
• Fled persecution for his views
• Came to Zurich for refuge with Zwingli but found
  none and was tortured.
• Allowed to leave. Went to Lichtenstein Converted
  up to 12,000
• Seized and taken to Vienna burned in 1527, wife
  drowned 3 days later.

11
Countering Voices

• Philip Nicolai (1556-1608)
• Orthodox Lutheran
• Grappled with the issue of mission within
  Lutheran orthodoxy
• Great commission no longer binding, but did not
  believe the churchs missionary calling was
  thereby disposed of.
• Held to the uniqueness of the apostles missio
• Church had a secondary task of propagatio.

12
Countering Voices

• Adrian Saravia (1531-1613)
• The church is responsible to carry out the Great
  commission.
• The apostles could not have reached the end of
  the earth.
• This argument is picked up by William Carey two
  centuries later at the beginning of the modern
  missionary movement.