March 01, 1989 by Ralph D. Winter

The Bible does not lead us to assume that all poverty, debauchery, corruption will be conquered before Jesus returns.

The Bible does tell us that all peoples will be represented in the final, triumphant company of believers, and that “God will wipe every tear from their eyes…no more death or mourning or crying or pain.”

That wonderful hymn, “America, The Beautiful” foresaw “alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears.” (The writer of the hymn had just passed through the Chicago exposition where all the buildings were gleaming white…)

But this is a little different from the Biblical view which simply makes clear that the expanding domain of God’s Kingdom will “break into” (Gen 28:14) every people group and that some from every group will ultimately be represented in that final moment of history (note that in the best Greek text Rev 21:3 says “He will live with them…and they will be His peoples…”

But In Any Case!

It does not matter what your interpretation of the Bible happens to be as far as the reality of the statistics on this page!

The dramatic decrease in the number of people who do not claim to be Christians in comparison to the number of earnest believers, the dramatic increase in the number of congregations of the faithful in proportion to the number of nations/peoples yet to be reached…these numbers are hard to assail.

Once you recognize the first four columns of pretty irrefutable figures in the table on the next page, the following, shaded columns are straightforward arithmetic!

The decline of the burden and the increase of the vital resources of the Christian movment worldwide constiute the most hopeful picture you could possibly imagine. We are literally running out of people to be evangelized! That is a general statement.

What about the Chinese?

China today is riddled with Christians. Peasants in every part of China are embracing the Christian faith. Chinese intellectuals in Singapore are embracing the Christian faith. I heard yesterday that the government of China is asking minorities what their religion was before Communism tried to stamp it out. The people said, “we are Christians,” and so the government is helping them build a Bible College to encourage their people.

What about the Tribals?

This the largest, most difficult single category of missions today, simply due to the extreme complexity of hundreds of smaller languages and dialects. But it is one of the most responsive spheres of labor, too. And, the world’s largest, most sophisticated mission agency, Wycliffe Bible Translators is focusing on this specific challenge —nowadays many other missions are sending out tribal workers through Wycliffe.

What about the Hindus?

The horrifying atrocities (the burning of young brides, the systematic abortion of baby girls…) live in uneasy alliance with certain high standards of purity which Christianity at its best also stresses. We understand from people within the situation that perhaps 25% of all Hindus would accept Christ if this could happen without the breakup of their families.

What about the Muslims?

This enormous, long considered “impenetrable” sphere of world population is electrifyingly more open than ever before. More Muslims have become Christians in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Iran, East Africa, in the last 10 years than in the last ten centuries.

Actually, many Muslims were Christians before Islam offered them what appeared to be a superior version of Christianity. (And for many of them Islam actually was superior in some ways to the very inferior version of Christianity they had!)

It is entirely possible that literally millions could turn to a new understanding of the Jesus they already extol. Over 10,000 Muslims in Kenya have recently embraced the Bible as their sacred book. God may not expect us to try to convert these humble seekers into recognized versions of Western Christianity. Our duty is to deliver to them the Word of God, and let the Holy Spirit lead them into all truth.

What about the Japanese?

At no time in Japan’s long history has its people faced so unprecedented a crisis of national confusion. The Christian faith is the only religion that has grown against the very teeth of secular challenge and opposition. Today 35% of the Japanese, according to a Japanese government census, would choose Christianity if they were to accept a religion.

Who Else Is There?

We are not even asked to win every last soul on earth. Ours is not a task of “conquering” but of lovingly, faithfully “confronting.” The Bible, which defends no particular modern civilization, is the phenomenal tool in our hands, for us and for all humankind!

World Evangelization—AD 2000 and Beyond

1. The World is Blind, Deaf, and Dumb to What God Is Doing!
a. There are 16,000 new Christians in Africa every day! —Africa was 4% Christian in 1900, is over 40% Christian today

b. In Latin America the evangelical movement is growing 3 times as fast as the population

c. In the Soviet Union, after 70 years of oppression, the Christian movement is 36% of pop. —that is more than 100 million!—over 5 times the size of the Communist Party

d. Many are aware of the miracle of growth of the Christian movement in China (23,000 new Christians per day!)

e. In Indonesia the percentage of Christians is so high the government will not print it

f. In India 25% of the people would like to be Christians if they could stay within their families

g. Among over 800 million Muslims, Jesus is actually more highly revered than Mohammed, and thousands of Muslims are turning to the Bible in East Africa…

2. We are Nearing the End of History

a. The Completion of the Task and the Return of Christ are linked—Matt 24:14

b. The Gospel is making tremendous progress —In AD100 there were 181 million people in the world, to be won by 500,000 believers (that is 360 to one!) —By 1900 there were 1 billion who did not claim to be Christians, to be evangelized by 40 million Bible-believing Christians—(that’s only 27 to one!) —Today there are 3.4 billion non-Christians, to be evangelized by 500 million Bible- believing Christians—(That’s only 7 to one! See Chart on previous page for details)

c. Looking at the world in terms of peoples is very helpful —Many missiologists, consider the type of group significant to mission strategy to be what a Lausanne-sponsored, widely representative meeting in 1982 concluded: “For evangelistic purposes a people group is the largest group within which the Gospel can spread as a church-planting movement without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance.” —Both David Barrett and I feel that we need to think in terms of about 12,000 such groups still remaining unreached, unpenetrated, without as yet an internal, indigenous, evangelizing church movement, that is, still objects of mission strategy. (Prior to the merging of many groups due to evangelization there were around 60,000 such groups.) —Since there are about 5 million Bible-believing congregations, this means there are about 416 congregations in the world for each of the 12,000 groups yet to be reached. —Furthermore, work has already begun or is about to begin in about 8,000 groups!

3. Unprecedented forces are attempting together to complete this task by AD 2000
a. Mission structures are becoming more prominent than ever —In the United States, 350 new mission agencies have been established since 1950 —Even more significant is the fact that the same number in the same period have come into being in the so-called Third World. —Note the new Third World Missions Advance group now, on the world level —In 1986 the Congreso de Missiones Ibero-Americano (COMIBAM), held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, drew the largest delegations from every country of Latin America that had ever attended any previous meeting. (3,500 attended, 500 from Asia and Africa)

b. Young people in the USA, in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia, are more interested in missions today than at any time since the days of the Student Volunteer Movement. The largest meetings of young people interested in missions ever held are appearing in Europe, in Latin America, even in local regions in the United States (1500 at a midwest meeting).

c. Unprecedented collaboration is taking place —There is now a global association of Centers for World Mission (15 Centers) —There is now an AD 2000 Global Service Office, linking evangelicals and charismatics who gathered in Singapore in January of 1989

Reaching Unreached Peoples

1. The Difference Between Missions and Evangelism
a. Missionary work is a special kind of Evangelism—all missions is evangelism, but not all evangelism is true, pioneer missionary work —92% of today’s missionaries do not work in a true mission field—yet are in a superb position to inspire national churches to reach out to Unreached Peoples!

b. Evangelism means winning individuals to Christ—whoever they are —This could be where the church already is or where the church is not

c. Missions reaches into groups not yet having an adequate internal witness —Such a witness requires an indigenous church movement

2. The Difference Between People (individuals) and Peoples (groups)
a. Genesis, Chapter 11 lists peoples (groups)

b. Psalms refers to peoples —See Ps 67 (the most missionary of all Psalms) —See Ps 87:6, the reference to “A Register of the Peoples” (Likely the same as “The Lamb’s Book of Life,” Rev 20:12, 21:27) (That is, individuals are listed in this Book according to their group, nation)

c. Isaiah 49:6 says Israel is expected to be “A Light to the Gentiles (nations, peoples)”

d. The Great Commission in Matthew 28:19 refers to discipling peoples, not individuals

e. In the End Times God is still thinking in terms of different peoples —(Rev 21:3 says peoples, not people, in the Greek, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them; they will be His peoples”

f. The Bible NEVER refers to what we today call “countries” —Countries erect political barriers —Missions deals with linguistic and cultural barriers

g. It is important to note what size of groups we are talking about —Notice that it is possible to speak of “the Chinese people” as a whole —But the Bible refers to still smaller groups even smaller than “Mandarin” or “Cantonese” or “Swatow” —12 tribes entered the promised land, but there were 60 “mishpahah” “Mishpahah” is the word found in Genesis 12:3 e.g. “all peoples on earth will be blessed by you,” Gen 12:3 —In the world today there are only about 300 huge families of human beings, 3000 major groups, about 24,000 smaller groups (12,000 yet unreached) —There once were about 60,000 groups of the kind that missions must penetrate All but about 12,000 have been reached! In about half of these, work has already begun or is already planned! Tribal groups are the largest and toughest part–about 3,000 to be reached

h. Reaching all 12,000 unreached groups is possible by the year 2000—if we hurry!

3. The Difference Between Reaching People (individuals) and Reaching Peoples (groups)
a. Reaching a person means winning that person to Christ.

b. This is why missions is much, much more complicated than ordinary evangelism —perhaps half of all missionaries fall short due to the lack of adequate training —take, for example, "Ancestor Cult” in Chinese society—how to Christianize?

c. Reaching a people is the goal, and it means —penetrating for the first time into a previously unreached group —learning not just the language, but understanding the culture —establishing “a people movement to Christ” that is wholly indigenous (so that people have a fair chance to know Christ)