"You brought us Jesus Christ and His salvation, but you did not
teach us to live as Christians."
This is the stinging reproach of Africans on Westerners, and especially
on the missionaries.
More that any other continent, Africa is plagued by tribal wars, civil
wars and epidemics. Some countries report that almost half the population
is already contaminated by HIV. A complete generation of young people is
threatened with extinction because of AIDS; the obvious culprit is
the lifetyle.
It's not the education system, not a lack of medicines or money that is
the cause, but simply a radically wrong lifestyle. And this is in a
continent which, for the last fifty years, mission experts declared would
be the most 'Christian continent by the turn of the century.
WHAT IS HAPPENING?
A tremendous spiritual battle is taking place on a global scale. The last
century was witness to three world-shattering attempts to come to grip
with a host of seemingly insurmountable problems.
The first solution which was tried out was the "One Class Supremacy" or
Communism. However, Communism and the accompanying atheism did not bring
salvation to mankind. On the contrary, unprecedented persecution on a
worldwide scale made half of the countries of the world shake to their
foundations.
Historians may never be able to establish how many Christians were killed
for their faith in those seventy years. Only half way through that period
of seventy years did missions emerge, including Open Doors.
The second human attempt to solve the universal problems is the "One Race
supremacy". This truly demonic ideology found enough willing followers
and a sufficient lack of resistance in the mainly "Christian Countries"
cruelly to attempt the "Final solution."
In a brutal way, the most vulnerable people in Europe, the Jews, was
attacked. We call it the Holocaust, and we all stand guilty, and in need
of forgiveness. The indirect result is the crisis in the Middle East,
where tension is mounting, and the contours of the coming confrontation
are already looming: Islam versus the rest of the world. Neither race nor
class, and barely even religion,play a role here.
The third conflict is what I call the "One God Supremacy" Now we must be
careful not to dismiss this as a glib theological question. There is much
more at stake. And I see us making no progress, nor gain any insight, nor
accept responsibility as long as we do not recognize the real challenge.
WHO IS GOD?
Indeed very few Christians, including the Evangelicals, are able to put
their faith into words and to tell the enquiring (in the best case), or
the critical (in most cases) or the hostile world Who God is. On Fridays
in Muslim countries we hear the call from the minaret, 'Allahu Akbar'.
The correct translation of this phrase is "Allah is greater". Greater
than what? Greater than whom?
I was once in the Lebanon standing next to a half-destroyed church and
looked up to the spire. Yes, the cross was still in its place, but above
it flew the green Hezbollah flag with the words, 'Allah is greater'. This
is what it is all about. Intense emotions flooded my heart and I prayed,
'Oh my God, when will the cross be erected above every mosque in the
world? 'But no, the cross is giving way to the crescent.
But this is not the whole story, not yet. No, the Muslims who are gaining
so much ground in Africa have not rejected Jesus. They have not yet seen
Him. Perhaps Africa would appear an easy prey for the Muslims, weak and
exhausted as it is by wars and epidemics.
This will only become known when Africans are able to say along with
Paul, and have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but
Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the
son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.' (Galatians 2:20)
This means that they (and we too, of course!) must show the living God by
their lifestyle, by their obedience to the Word of God and by their love
for people (yes, even for their enemies!). Unless and until this takes
place, we have nothing to say.
