World Conversion

That grand old Christian statesman, George Lansbury, once visited Lenin at Moscow in the course of an endeavour to promote friendly relations between European powers. In his book, "My 'Quest for Peace", he told how the Russian leader listened sympathetically while he spoke of Jesus Christ and His saving power, how that no nation that rejected God could hope to be truly prosperous in the long run, and then said quietly "Lansbury, go back to England and convert your own people to Christianity ‑ then come and talk to me again!' Lansbury never returned to Russia.

In January 1953 five African chiefs from Nyassaland came to England to voice their people's protest against forcible inclusion in the new political amalgamation of East African territories. Said their spokesman "the British won Nyassaland at the first, not by military weapons, but by the Bible. Now the British have abandoned the Bible ‑ but you will not hold Nyassaland with guns and bayonets". That is a damning indictment of the change that had occurred in Britain in little more than a century. Once missionaries were penetrating almost every part of the world with the Bible in their hands and the love of God in their hearts. They braved innumerable dangers; the perils of Nature, the ferocity of men, but they kept at their task, and they planted the seed of the Gospel in many places where it sprouted and blossomed and brought forth its fruitage of light.

Each successive generation of the Twentieth Century included a smaller percentage of convinced Christians than its predecessor. The religious background to daily life which three hundred years ago was normal does not exist today. Christianity is fast becoming the faith and guiding principle of a very small number of people, and they increasingly found among elderly folk.

Is world conversion an ideal that will eventually be attained, despite present apathy and disinterest in the Christian faith, or is it an impossible dream, a hope that will never be fulfilled? Will present materialism and reliance upon human philosophy and scientific achievement continue until the life and death of Jesus Christ and the deeds of His apostles become dim legends as shadowy as the English stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table?

Such a tragic end to the great thing that had its beginning in the Roman province of Judea two thousand years ago is out of the question. World conversion will come; this earth with its teeming millions will be the Kingdom of God and of His Christ. Those who have spent time and effort and life itself in bringing men and women to Christ, whether in far-off lands or right here in our own country, will share in that triumph and find that none of their efforts have been in vain. The world will be converted; but it may not come in the way we think.

The inspiration and incentive for all Christian missionary work springs in the first place from the words of Jesus, spoken after His resurrection, when He was about to leave His disciples. "Go into all the world—and preach the gospel to the whole creation." (Mark 16. 15). "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all that I hare commanded you ... and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." (Matt.28.19, Acts 1.8). A very comprehensive mandate! There is a saying "The sky's the limit". That is how it must have seemed to those men, simple, untravelled Galilean peasants and fishermen, given a commission which took in its scope the whole of the earth.

Although there is no doubt about the universal nature of this commission to evangelize the world, Jesus did not promise that His followers would effect the general conversion of the world before His return. In fact He indicated just the opposite. He said on one occasion "When the Son of Man comes will he find faith on earth?" (Matt.18.8). Judging by the catalogue of disasters and wickedness, of apostasies and the waxing cold of love, in some of His fore views of the events of this Age, as narrated for example in Matt. 24, it is obvious that He did not expect so to do. The Age which opened at Pentecost will see at its close, not a world fully converted, living at peace and in the glorious liberty of the children of God, but a world facing catastrophe and held in more vigorous bondage to sin and the effects of sin than ever before. The Lord Jesus Christ returns to earth as He promised, not because His Church will have saved the world without Him, but because His own personal presence is necessary for the world's salvation.

That is the secret behind this apparent failure of Christian missionary effort today. It was not expected that Christians should convert the world in this Age, before the return of our Lord. It was intended that they should prepare the way for His return and preach the Gospel "in all the world for a witness". The present is a time during which disciples of Christ are being trained and disciplined for a much more extensive missionary work that is to come in the age to come. James the Just, first Elder of the Church at Jerusalem, thus summed up the matter at the Council whose discussion is recorded in Acts 15 "God first visited the nations to take out of them a people for his name after this (quoting the prophet Amos) 'I will return, and I will rebuild the dwelling of David which has fallen (the habitation of Israel) that the rest of men may seek the Lord, and, all the nations …'". There is a three-fold Plan outlined here. Firstly, God will make a selection, from among all nations, of those who are specially called by His name - devoted Christians of all nations and generations, in all the years that pass between Jesus' First and Second Advents. Secondly, the restoration of the national polity of Israel, in preparation for the new centre of world administration under Divine control. Thirdly, a time when all men everywhere will be called to turn and seek the Lord. That latter is obviously the time of world conversion for which we look.

In harmony with this, we find that for the first two centuries of Church history there was no expectation that Christians must convert the world and present the finished work as it were to God at the end. Rather there was a fervent and fixed belief in the early dissolution of the institutions and powers of this world in face of the coming and appearing of the Lord Himself in power and glory ‑ the Second Advent. Hence their universal belief in the Millennium, the Age of Christ's reign upon earth, when wars would be made to cease and evil eliminated from the hearts of men, until death itself had vanished (Rev.21.3-4). That was the hope and conviction of the Early Church.

During the second and third centuries certain heretical sects began to put grossly sensuous and material interpretations upon the Millennial prophecies and in consequence this aspect of the original Apostolic teaching passed under a cloud and was largely banished from "official" theology. The teachings of Augustine, in the fourth century, paved the way for what became a very general belief in Christendom, that is the thousand-year reign of Christ in which He vanquishes all His enemies (1 Cor.15.24-28) is during this Age before Christ comes, and not in a future Age after He has come. That theory sounded all right at the time it was formulated, when Paganism was rapidly giving way to Christianity in the political sphere as well as the religious, and it looked as though the Church was destined to sweep on from triumph to triumph until it had conquered the world. It does not look so convincing today, when from the outward and natural viewpoint, Christianity is in retreat almost everywhere and the prospect, not only of winning new ground, but even of regaining ground already lost, is bleak indeed. It is becoming more and more obvious that the Church of the first two centuries was entirely right and that our calling is to continue with our missionary work with as much, or more ardour. We do it not in expectation or hope of converting the world now but certainly in the firm conviction that we are sowing the seed that is to result in world conversion after Christ comes.

There is a very significant remark in the comprehensive answer that Jesus gave to His disciples in response to their question as to how they would know when the time of His return and the end of the Age had arrived. (Matt. 24). Amongst the sequences of wars and rumours of wars, famines, pestilences, persecutions, that were to characterize the successive centuries of the Age, we find this statement. "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come." (Matt.24.14) The importance of the statement is shown in its setting. Up to that point, Jesus was speaking of the characteristic events of the Age. "You will hear of wars and rumours of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet." After that point we are in the time of the End itself, there are signs and portents and events associated with the transition period during which the "kingdoms of the world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever". (Rev.11.15). It would appear therefore that this "preaching the gospel of the Kingdom" must be done in the whole world, not at this time for their total conversion, but "for a testimony to all nations" before the end can come. In other words, the full understanding God's Plan of Redemption is locked deep in the "determinate wisdom and foreknowledge of God". The Age for world conversion cannot come until the gospel has been preached first for a testimony "to the uttermost parts of the earth".

Such an understanding of the matter should give greater impetus than ever before to every effort for Christian witness. If the essence of present-day evangelism is to take the Gospel to places where it has never before been, and failure to convert all who have in past time been reached does not of itself imply any thwarting of the Divine purpose. then the closing of doors that have been opened for centuries past need not occasion undue despondency. The Gospel has been preached, the testimony has been given: a few have retained the seed in their hearts and even if the doors do close upon them and we see them no more, we may have confidence that those same doors will swing open again, never more to shut, at "His appearing and His Kingdom". Even though faith in a country such as our own is at a low ebb and the signs are that it will sink still lower, yet our country has had the testimony and a few remain witnesses to the saving power of God in the life. The tide will turn again. That is the great hope and expectation to sustain faith and zeal while as yet our missionary work goes on. He promised to return—and under the administration of His Kingdom Christian evangelism will soar to heights previously undreamed.

There are Christian observers who point; out that in a geographical sense the statement in Matt.24 has now, albeit recently, been fulfilled. The disciples set out from Jerusalem and speedily carried the name and message of Christ throughout the Mediterranean world. Successive generations of evangelists pushed on, but it was not until the phenomenal increase of missionary work in the 19th and 20th centuries that the utmost limits of the world were reached. It is an established fact that the Gospel has now been preached "in the entire world" "to all nations for a testimony". If that is so, we may be much nearer to a tremendous change for the better in earth's affairs than is generally thought or hoped. No one will dispute that a change is necessary. If the present appalling prospect that faces mankind is in fact destined to be resolved by some kind of Divine intervention few will be found to criticise the change except those whose interests lie in the maintenance and continuance of evil and evil things. This will save men from the worst consequences of their own folly, and will put the Christian Church in a position of immeasurably greater influence than it has enjoyed at any time past,

Speaking to the philosophers of Athens. Paul declared that God "has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead" (Acts 17.31). Christ Jesus is that one, the time, clearly. that of His Second Coming, and the day, consequently, the one that Jesus referred to when He said "Truly I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man shall sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel". (Matt. 19. 28). Such a statement cannot he referred to this present Age when the last thing a Christian disciple expects is to occupy a throne or the prerogative of judging anything or anybody. The Apostle Paul expressly relegates the time of ruling and judging to the future, as in 1 Cor. 6. 2 "Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?"

The preaching of St. Peter at Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, as recorded in Acts 2 and 3, associates the coming of the "last days" with a great opportunity for salvation and a time of world conversion. "In the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh…And it shall be that whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Acts 2.17‑21). This is coupled with a call to repentance as preparation for the coming of this future day of grace. "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old." (Acts 3.19-21). These passages obviously pre-suppose a time at the end of the Age, at the Return of Christ, when there will he a great outpouring of the Gospel upon the peoples of earth and a correspondingly great response. There is a definite basis for this belief in the Old Testament. For instance, Zephaniah says (3.8‑9) "'Therefore wait for me' says the Lord 'for the day when I arise as a witness…to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out upon them my indignation; for in the fire of my jealous wrath all the earth shall be consumed. Yes, at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord' " All this indicates very clearly the Divine intention that a day of grace, and a most successful day of grace, is to succeed the day of judgment which brings this "present evil world" to an end. The Book of Isaiah is eloquent on this subject. The great Hebrew statesman saw very clearly the nature of that day which is yet to be, when all missionary and evangelical effort will converge into one great work of reclamation and reconciliation among all mankind. The figure of Messiah is predominant in all his pen pictures — the king who will "reign in righteousness" of Chapter 32, the one who is to "feed his flock like a shepherd" of Chapter 40. the 'servant" who is to "bring forth justice to the nations" of Chapter 42, the anointed One, bringing liberty and healing to the captives, of Chapter 61 "It will be said on that day, 'Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be and rejoice in his salvation'" (25. 9). "And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust for ever." (32.17). "And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." (35.10). "Behold my servant, my chosen in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations . . , he will not fail or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth." (42.1‑4). "For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations." (61.13).

This is only a fraction of the vast store of Biblical evidence that a glorious future is before Christian evangelical work, and a programme that envisages a definite endeavour to reconcile to God every member of the human race who has strayed away from Him or never known Him. The apparent failure of today is only apparent; the Advent of the King will change the entire situation, and set the stage for the conversion of the world.

Scripture quotations in the above article are taken from the Revised Standard Version

The above article appeared in the Bible Study Monthly forty years ago. It was reprinted as a booklet of which copies are still available. It is now reprinted in an abridge form largely because some of the content was out of date ‑ nevertheless it could be reprinted if there was sufficient interest ‑ with a question mark at the end of the title.