Deus Misereatur

Fill the Earth by Matthew Newkirk My rating: 5 of 5 stars Why in the world do Christians and churches support and get involved in missions? There are a handful of answers to that question, mostly revolving around saving humans or hastening the return of Jesus. But a few thinkers have pointed out that there are God-centered reasons for proclaiming the Gospel. Those God-centered motives include drawing peoples of every tribe and tongue into the worship of God; and proclaiming the reign of God over the cosmos. Matthew Newkirk, author, President of Christ Bible Seminary in Nagoya, Japan, and professor of Old Testament, has compiled a well-reasoned dossier on how the entire Bible “provides compelling rationale for the work of missions” (2) in his newly published 348-page softback, “Fill the Earth: The Creation Mandate and the Church’s call to Mission”. In this detailed manuscript the author hammers home the theocentric purpose of missions. As he states early on, “ God’s mission in the w...

Praying for Your Missionary: How Prayers from Home Can Reach the Nations Eddie Byun IVP Academic IVPress.com December 2018 ISBN: 978-0-8308-4556-9; $16.00 5 Stars of 5 Stars I’ve seen it happen too many times: someone is sent out to another place to take the Gospel of Jesus to people in other locations, and after a flurry of emails and letters, they slowly become fairly forgotten. Or an indigenous evangelist and church-birther will visit an American church and rouse liberality and liveliness. But once they’re out of sight, they quickly go out of mind. Eddie Byun, missions and teaching pastor of Venture Christian Church in Los Gatos, California, and author of Justice Awakening and Praying for Your Pastor , has delivered a great tool for Christians and churches in his brand-spanking-new 192 page paperback, “Praying for Your Missionary: How Prayers from Home Can Reach the Nations”. This little volume is user-friendly, prayer-friendly, missionary-friendly, an...

Delivered from the Elements of the World: Atonement, Justification, Mission Peter J. Leithart IVP Academic (InterVarsity Press) PO Box 1400 Downers Grove, IL 60515 ISBN: 978-0-8308-5126-3; $30.00; March 2016 Reviewed by Rev. Dr. Michael Philliber for Deus Misereatur Imaginative and Ingenious; 5 Stars out of 5 My family and I have changed the rules of the game. After playing UNO for years the standard way, we spiced it up with a few extra twists and turns. Now you can stack the “Draw Four” cards, player by player, until there are no more to be played, thus potentially leaving the last participant who doesn’t have any “Draw Four” cards under a substantial pile. And there are other adventurous variations we’ve added, all of which leave the game structurally the same while internally distinctive.  This is the kind of thing Peter J. Leithart, president of Theopolis Institute, adjunct senior fellow of theology at New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho, column...

Cornelius Plantinga, in his book, “ Beyond Doubt ”, writes, “Before anything else, the Christian church worships. That is the church’s main business” (276). John Piper asserts the same point in “ Let the Nations Be Glad ”, “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. ( . . . ) Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man” (11). And along with Missions not being the ultimate goal of the church, I would add that the same goes for evangelism.  By declaring God’s character, adoring his majesty, dwelling on and cherishing his merciful kindnesses, we are being more truly what we were originally created - and re-created – to do: Worship God! Plantinga observes further: “Answering this call to worship is a counter-cultural, almost subversive act because much contemporary culture thinks it is humiliating to surrender to God” (277). Contemplate the enormity of this. By worshiping God we are (1) becoming more aligned with who we are supposed to be; an...