On Sending Missionaries to Iraq

 David Alan Black 

“You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14).

While building our new house in Virginia we have spent a lot of time looking at lighting fixtures. Every time I go to the store and I see a roomful of lamps on display I am fairly blinded by their brilliance.

Sometimes Christians remind me of those lamps. They are not needed for light but are just shining for show. They get together and try to out-dazzle each other when they ought to be shining out in the world’s darkness where they are needed.

Last night on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, NPR aired an interesting debate. The topic was whether Southern Baptists should send missionaries into Iraq. The program included an interview with Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Seminary, who graciously yet firmly iterated the truth about the Gospel and about the believer’s desire to share God’s love with people everywhere. The business of the light, he said in essence, is to dispel darkness. Christians are not meant to be candles in a display case. As Mark Kelly of the International Missionary Board of the Southern Baptist Convention has said, “Our desire in any situation, in this case in humanitarian aid, is to give people a tangible demonstration of how much God loves them.”

“But won’t Iraqi Muslims be offended by your preaching? Surely that would be an insult to Islam!” In other words, shouldn’t you do exactly what the Lord told you not to do—hide your lamp under a bushel? Once again, the answer is clear. The Bible teaches we are to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove, expose, and turn the pure light of God’s Word on them (see Ephesians 5:11). In a related TIME interview, Mohler noted, “The secular world tends to look at Iraq and say, well, it’s Muslim, and that’s just a fact, and any Christian influence would just be a form of Western imperialism. The Christian has to look at Iraq and see persons desperately in need of the gospel. Compelled by the love and command of Christ, the Christian will seek to take that gospel in loving and sensitive, but very direct, ways to the people of Iraq.”

The debate over whether or not to evangelize in Iraq boils down to a fatal misunderstanding about the nature of Christianity. Christianity is a faith that talks. It has always been vocal—and sometimes articulate (as with Dr. Mohler). The family doctor used to say, “Open wide and let me see your tongue.” Likewise, our Heavenly Father asks what we are doing with our evangelistic voice. We may be inclined to say like Jeremiah, “I cannot speak,” or like Moses, “I am not eloquent,” or like Jonah, “I will not speak.” But we ought to be able say, like the apostles of old, “I cannot but speak!”

The Spirit-filled Christian is never a silent Christian, whether he is in Iraq or Ireland or Idaho. He lets his light so shine before men that they may see his good works and glorify his Father who is in heaven.

May 6, 2003

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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