Difficulties in the Way of Evangelizing the World

Difficulties external to the Church on the mission field.

There are difficulties incident to the number and distribution of the unevangelized population of the earth. Approximately one thousand millions of people are in non-Christian lands. It is estimated that fully three-fourths of them have not had, and to-day do not have, an opportunity to learn of Jesus Christ. Thus the problem relates to at least one-half of the human race. It involves a number of people equivalent to the population of 175 Londons, or of 227 New Yorks. The difficulty is even greater than this comparison would indicate; for, while there are dense masses of people in the cities of Asia and other unevangelized continents, the great majority of the population is scattered throughout countless villages. In India, for example, nine-tenths of the population are living in over 700,000 villages. According to some estimates there are a million villages in China.

The numbers to be evangelized are not only vast and widely distributed, but there are still a few lands such as Tibet, Afghanistan and parts of Arabia where the missionary cannot work. Even in some countries where the missionary is allowed, there are people who are practically inaccessible. This is true of a constantly decreasing yet still large number of women in the zenanas of India, in the harems of Turkey and Persia and in other lands where women are kept secluded.

The chief political difficulty is the opposition of governments to the propagation of the Gospel. This is the case principally in countries where there is a close connection between the rulers and the religious or ecclesiastical leaders. In the Russian Empire it is not possible to teach freely evangelical truth. The Turkish government by various restrictions renders it exceedingly hard to carry on aggressive work among Moslems. It is difficult to preach in some places in the native states of India owing to the nature of the treaties. These examples suggest a very real obstacle to the work of evangelization.

Another serious hindrance to the work of the missionaries is the selfish and unjust treatment of non-Christian nations and races by nominally Christian powers. To this day the influence of the opium wars constitutes a barrier to missionary progress in China. The forcing of treaty rights from China, the extension of protectorates over parts of Africa, and the political efforts of the Roman Catholics in different parts of the world, have greatly increased the difficulty of evangelizing the inhabitants of all these regions. Such actions have aroused antipathy against all foreigners and created suspicion in the minds of the people, often leading them to regard the missionaries as political agents of the lands from which they come. Another difficulty, in a sense political, is the national feeling found in Japan, which regards the acceptance of Christianity as disloyalty to the Emperor. In India also there is a false patriotism which identifies love of country with firm adherence to the ancestral faith.

Missionaries agree that one of the most grievous obstacles to the spread of the Christian faith is the example set before the heathen by godless tradesmen, sailors, soldiers, travelers and other foreigners who frequent their cities. Bad as has been the influence of the traffic in opium, liquor and human labor carried on by foreigners, the effect of their unscrupulous and dissolute lives is even worse. With these men living lives of greed and vice before the heathen, in utter defiance of every principle and teaching of the Christian religion, and far outnumbering the missionaries, is it strange that it is hard to persuade men of the reality and power of the Gospel which the missionary presents?

The social difficulties in the path of the missionary are intricate and obstinate. Race pride and prejudice meet him in every land, making it hard to win the confidence of the people and to secure a hearing for the message. The degraded and depressed condition of woman throughout the heathen world constitutes a great social problem. The fact that well-nigh one-half of the unevangelized are women, and therefore hedged in by various customs and laws which make and keep them ignorant, superstitious and servile, adds immensely to the task involved in the evangelization of the world.

The tyranny of custom and opinion holds most of the heathen as in a vise. Their customs have become to them second nature, and their traditions have gathered weight through long centuries. It requires a tremendous wrench for them to break loose, to join themselves to Christ and to comply with His requirements. In every pagan land and among the Jews, to become a Christian results, as a rule, in social ostracism. Among Moslems, to take such a step even endangers one's life. The restraints of family and village organizations in China and in parts of Japan are very binding.

In India all these social difficulties are summed up and exemplified in the one word, caste. It includes those customs, habits and ceremonies which are so bound up in the lives of the people as to present an almost complete barrier to independent action. It meets the Christian worker everywhere and baffles him again and again. To 'become a Christian necessitates breaking caste. This involves giving up one's occupation or means of livelihood. It also severs his family and other social relationships and disinherits him. It really means to give up his little world. The system of caste has such power of persecution that it is exceedingly difficult to break from it. All this has a vital bearing on evangelization; because to evangelize India, as well as other countries, within this generation will require a largely increased number of native Christians.

Not least among the hindrances to evangelization are those of an intellectual character. The fact that multitudes of the unevangelized cannot read is a serious drawback to the missionary enterprise. It is estimated that sixty per cent. of the people of Brazil are illiterate. In India only six women in every thousand can read; and in China the proportion is still smaller. Missionaries have commented on the intellectual dullness of many savage tribes. We hear much of the slowness of the masses of China to receive new ideas. Their minds seem to run in certain grooves from which it is difficult to turn them. The intellectual difficulty with the Hindus is due largely to the fact that their minds are occupied with pantheistic ideas which make it hard for them to grasp even the rudiments of the Christian religion. The message of Christ, therefore, must win its way in minds already preoccupied with superstitions, traditions and false ideas. The intellectual pride and conceit of the scholastic classes of China, India and other lands is, as everywhere, a high barrier to the apprehension of Christian truth.

Linguistic difficulties are closely associated with intellectual difficulties. Although the Gospel portions of the Scriptures have been translated into the chief languages and dialects of the world, there are yet many in connection with which this work must still be done. It is a gigantic task to furnish in their own tongues to all races of mankind the revelation of God through the Scriptures, but it is indispensable to the enterprise of evangelization. There are also many languages still to be reduced to writing. In most languages of the non-Christian world there is the further difficulty that they have no words to express adequately the meaning of fundamental Christian ideas, for the simple reason that these ideas are unknown to heathendom.

Greatest among the external difficulties are those of a religious and moral character. The fact that there are hundreds of millions of adherents of Confucianism, Hinduism, Mohammedanism, Buddhism and other non-Christian religions, not to mention those of the corrupt forms of Christianity, suggests the vast extent of the religious problem. It is an intensive problem as well. These religions have existed many centuries, and in some cases for millenniums. They have become deeply rooted in the lives of nations and peoples.

Although breaches are being made in the walls of the non-Christian religions, they still manifest great power of resistance. The increasing success of Christianity in all parts of the world has seemed to arouse them to renewed activity and vigor. This intensifies the conflict involved in the evangelization of the world in this generation.

At the same time, the educated classes throughout Asia are fast losing faith in their old religions as the result of the study of Western science and philosophy. By having their confidence shaken in their former faiths they have come to distrust all religion. It is not easy to secure from them a careful consideration of the claims of Christ. Infidel and rationalistic literature is widely circulated and read in India and Japan, and this helps to prejudice further the minds of men concerning Christianity.

The coarse animalism of degraded tribe's and races affords a soil most inhospitable to the Word of God. The masses of the heathen are indifferent to spiritual things. They need Christ; they are perishing for lack of knowledge; but they are not thirsting to know Him. They are so engrossed with material things that it is hard to get them to heed the Gospel call.

A fundamental lack throughout the non-Christian and Moslem world is the want of a sense of sin. They have no true conception of it. The prevailing belief that they are in the hands of fate tends to deaden the feeling of personal responsibility. Their moral sense is dull. The conscience does not respond to ordinary appeals. How great the task to get such people to feel any concern about their sins, without which they will not recognize their need of Christ the Saviour! Equally serious is the prevailing lack among them of the conception of a personal, holy God and a sense of their responsibility to Him. Often it will require long teaching before they can be led to grasp such conceptions.

The supreme obstacle to the understanding of the Gospel is the fact of sin. Sin underlies all else that opposes. It has benumbed the spiritual sensibilities of the heathen, seared their consciences, hardened their hearts, and made their ears dull of hearing. God only can awaken them. None awake without His call.

Difficulties within the Church on the mission field.

(1) Of the native Christians. On nearly every mission field the poverty of the native Christians is a real obstacle to the work of evangelization. It prompts them to covetousness, and sometimes leads them to enter Christian service from purely mercenary motives. On the other hand it prevents the more rapid enlargement of the native evangelizing agencies.

While the life of the native Church compares very favorably with that of the Church in Christian lands, nevertheless its lack of spirituality is, as in Christian lands, a serious drawback to aggressive, evangelistic activity. This condition is due to the worldliness and religious indifference which characterize the minds of many of the members. In some fields so many have come into the Church from political or commercial reasons, without a genuine change of heart, that the spiritual standard is very low. Few among the native Christians know by experience what it is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. There is often, therefore, a want of readiness for service, and a weakness in testimony.

The native Church in most countries is wanting in independence and in power of initiative. In other fields, as in parts of Christendom, there is little zeal for the conversion of others. If the Gospel is to be preached to all men in our day, the spirit of missions must come upon the native Christians.

It is difficult to get a sufficient number of earnest and deeply spiritual native leaders. This is the case on every mission field, and is due on the one hand to the counter attractions of commercial pursuits and government service, and on the other to lack of spirituality. There is no greater need than that of self - denying, courageous, steadfast native leaders in each heathen land — men of such real personality and depth of religions experience as to be able to arouse and to mold the native Church and to lead its members in the work of aggressive evangelism.

(2) Of the missionaries. The missionaries have some special personal difficulties. In several countries they must face physical peril which comes from dangerous and deadly climates and from unhealthful sanitary conditions. In some fields, especially in tropical Africa, the rate of mortality among the foreign workers is very high.

The missionary under certain conditions finds it hard also to come into close touch with the life of the native Christians. There is more or less of a gulf between the Occidental and the Oriental, even though both be Christians. The difference in clothing, food, houses, social customs, education, language and methods of thought all make the chasm more difficult to bridge. Both missionaries and native Christians frequently have to fight against mutual distrust and suspicion, and also against temptations to exclusiveness and a sense of superiority. Wherever such barriers are allowed to stand, they not only interfere with helpful social intercourse, but also prevent unity in Christian service.

Attention has already been directed to the external aspect of the linguistic difficulty. It has also a personal aspect. The efficiency of the missionary, taking spiritual qualifications for granted, will be in direct proportion to his knowledge of the language of the people among whom he labors and his ability to use it. The pathway both to mind and heart of the people is through their mother tongue. It is not easy to master any language; it is a tremendous task to get a thorough hold on such languages as the Arabic, Chinese and Japanese. What an undertaking, then, to translate the Gospel into the hundreds of languages and dialects which do not to-day give expression to the glorious message. Professor Warneck has expressed the fear also that some of the translations already made are at the best but provisional, because the translators lacked the necessary scientific qualifications. To do such work in a manner faithful to the meaning which the missionary wishes to convey, and at the same time faithful to the idioms of the new language, is difficult indeed. It is hard to translate Christian ideas into the languages of the heathen so as to convey our exact meaning, because the words we are obliged to use often have idolatrous or heathen associations or applications. The missionary by oral instruction must patiently explain the Gospel until new ideas are associated with the words. Until this is done, even though the heathen be able to read the Scriptures, they will be unable to grasp the real meaning.

Missionaries the world over unite in saying that their chief battle ground is in their own hearts, and that their greatest difficulty is that of preserving a triumphant and an ever-expanding spiritual life. While this is true also of Christian workers on the home fields, the conflict is possibly harder on the mission field than at home. The reasons are that heathenism exerts such a chilling and depressing influence on the spiritual life, and that the missionary is so largely cut off from intimate association with deeply spiritual people, from conventions and conferences, and from other uplifting and inspiring influences which characterize a society dominated by Christian ideas and ideals.

Difficulties within the Church in Christian lands.

Misconceptions and scepticism among Christians at home regarding the necessity and obligation to evangelize the world constitute a primary difficulty in the way of its accomplishment. The number of those who believe that the world ought to be evangelized is as yet comparatively small. Until a sufficient number of Christians believe that it is the duty of the members of the Church to evangelize the world it will not be done. Many fail to regard Christ's command as imperative, and look on the promotion of the enterprise of evangelization as optional so far as they are concerned. The vast majority of the membership of the Church have yet to learn that the taking of a knowledge of Christ to the whole world without needless delay is a most pressing duty.

Underlying this lack of appreciation of the urgency of the work is a far too prevalent scepticism as to the real necessity of preaching Christ to all men. Very many Christians entertain the belief that Christianity is not the absolute religion; that other religions have saving power; that the nations can get along without Christ. This fundamental failure to realize that without Christ these multitudes are without hope necessarily weakens the sense of personal responsibility and cuts the nerve of missions.

The want of unity among different branches of the Church at home, as a result of denominational pride, jealousy and misunderstandings, is a serious hindrance to the work on the mission field. It results in overlapping, friction and waste of force. At times it has prevented the missionaries from making an equitable division of the unoccupied regions, and therefore has delayed the world-wide proclamation of the Gospel.

The invasion of the Church by the world is a menace to the extension of Christ's Kingdom. In all ages conformity to the world by Christians has resulted in a lack of spiritual life and a consequent lack of spiritual vision and enterprise. A secularized or self-centered Church can never evangelize the world.

The fundamental difficulty on the home field is the lack of missionary pastors. If the leader of a congregation is ignorant or indifferent or sceptical concerning the need and obligation of the Church to evangelize the world it will be strange if the same may not be said of the large majority of the members. A task so vast can be achieved only by a Church filled with the spirit of missions. Therefore, if we are to have congregations abounding in faith, self-sacrifice, prayer and aggressive zeal, we must have pastors who have caught the vision of a world evangelized, and whose plans, utterances, prayers and activities are under the commanding influence of that vision.

Some considerations suggested by the difficulties in the way of the evangelization of the world.

It should be observed that by no means all of the difficulties given in the foregoing outline apply to any one mission field, still less to the unevangelized world as a whole. Certain lands, races and religions present a stronger combination of obstacles than others. Here and there are citadels of mighty strength which will yield only to siege work. On the other hand there are doors of access to every race and religion and to nearly every nation, so that it is possible to press forward on every hand the work of evangelization.

These difficulties, however, cannot be ignored. They must be reckoned with. There is nothing to be gained by deceiving ourselves as to their existence, number and greatness. They should be looked at with clear eye, and their strength should be sanely estimated. The maxim of Moltke, "Erst wag's dann wag's" — First deliberate, then dare — suggests the duty of every Christian with reference to the vast and arduous undertaking of world-wide evangelization within the generation.

Not one of these difficulties is insuperable. Obstacles similar, or others equally great, already have been overcome. Think of the difficulties which have been removed within the past half century! God has opened up within fifty years the most populous regions of the globe, including some which in the last generation were inaccessible. Railway lines have been extended all over Southern Asia. Steamboats are now found on lakes and rivers in Central Africa, and railways are penetrating that continent from every direction. China has at last opened widely to the railway and to steam navigation. Even the exclusive Province of Hunan, where settled mission work was impossible five years ago, is now the scene of the fruitful evangelistic labors of several missionary societies.

The political changes which have taken place within the memory of men now living have been equally remarkable. Nearly the whole Roman Catholic world has been opened to Protestant workers within fifty years. It is only forty years since Japan began to admit foreign missionaries, and now there are no restrictions to the preaching of the Gospel throughout the entire Empire. A little over a generation ago all China was closed to outsiders save five port cities. Now evangelists can proclaim Christ in every corner of the land. Within a generation Africa has been parceled out among the nations of Western Europe. Aggressive missionary operations are now carried on in all the great divisions of that continent. It is a remarkable fact that Russia, while not allowing Protestants to carry on an active preaching propaganda, affords to the British and Foreign Bible Society every facility for the circulation of the New Testament. The printed Gospel is finding its way even into Afghanistan and Tibet. Thus within the half century over 700,000,000 people have been made accessible to the missionary. In the light of these developments shall we designate any fields as inaccessible? "Has God ever declared them so? Has the Christian Church faithfully tried and found them so? Are we in this age of the world justified in acknowledging that it is beyond the power and resource of our Christianity to reach them?"

Hundreds of women missionaries are now at work among the women of India, the Turkish Empire and other lands, although two generations ago this was regarded as impossible.

Henry Martyn when in India wrote, "How shall it ever be possible to convince a Hindu or Brahmin of anything? . . . Truly, if ever I see a Hindu a real believer in Jesus, I shall see something more nearly approaching the resurrection of a dead body than anything I have yet seen." To-day there are in the Indian Church hundreds of high-caste Hindu converts. That work for Moslems is hopeless, as some church leaders insisted less than a generation ago, is abundantly disproved by the recent history of missions in Sumatra, the Punjab, Persia, Arabia and Northern Africa. All people are capable of receiving the Gospel. Some would argue that this is not true, — that there are those whose minds and hearts are so darkened, hardened and debased that they are incapable of understanding its message to them and not susceptible to its blessed and mighty influence. But the history of missions in every land totally refutes this idea. Is it not a fact of large meaning and encouragement that in all parts of the world missions have won remarkable triumphs among the most benighted and degraded? The duty of the Church then, as Duff urged, is to "go with the blessed Gospel, and proclaim it to all people who can be induced to listen to it; and where God has His elect, there the soul will be reached." From the days of the Apostles the uplifted Christ and the energizing Holy Spirit have proved their ability so to transform men that "where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly."

The greatest hindrances to the evangelization of the world are those within the Church. Dr. Griffith John, who has been at work in China for forty-five years, says: "I do not consider the difficulties external to the Church of vital importance. The difficulties within the Church at home are the ones that trouble me." Dr. Chauncy Goodrich, who has labored in China for thirty-five years, writes: "I count the difficulties of the Chinese language and Chinese customs, of race prejudice and dense ignorance, of political exclusion and bigoted pride, all as nothing before a Church filled with the Spirit of the Great Commission." These opinions seem to reflect the thought of the ablest missionaries in all parts of the world. It is a significant fact, and should do much to banish scepticism from the minds of Christians on the home fields.

There is a tendency among many Christians unduly to magnify difficulties, and to minimize the Providential opportunities, the promises of God and the resources of witnesses and ambassadors for Jesus Christ. 'Like the ten spies we look at God through the human difficulties and the human magnitude of the work, instead of looking at the difficulties through God and counting on His supernatural and divine power always commensurate with the responsibility He gives us."

Difficulties are not without their advantages. They are not to unnerve us. They are not to be regarded simply as subjects for discussion nor as grounds for scepticism and pessimism. They are not to cause inaction, but rather to intensify activity. They were made to be overcome. They are to call forth the best that is in Christians. Above all, they are to create profound distrust in human plans and energy and to drive us to God. "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me? Until we find some difficulty which is too hard for Almighty God we have no right to be discouraged. We must always take into account God Himself and the omnipotent, irresistible forces which He has placed at our disposal." The things which are impossible with men are possible with God."