I got this question today from a friend who asked it honestly. I post it and my answer knowing that some of you have the same question, even if you have never verbalized it, and even if you are no fan of Coulter.
Q: “Have you read Coulter’s latest column? Here. Like most of her columns, it punches someone in the gut. Since becoming a Christian a few years ago, the economist in me has always wondered if American Christian Evangelicals have misallocated their resources in God’s economy. Have American Christians put too much effort abroad at the expense of our home? I know it’s not either/or, but where is the best use of our resources? Coulter is easily dismissed due to her ungraceful hyperbole… But I’m curious if leadership among American Christians will pay any attention to the questions Coulter raises.”
A: Yes, I saw someone link to her column this morning. What Coulter is not factoring in is the command of God—or a knowledge of the specific assignment Jesus has given to his church and his instructions on how to accomplish it. It’s not up to us to figure out how to build the kingdom of God, but to follow the Holy Spirit as he does it through us. He laid out our marching orders in Acts 1:8: preach in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. And, as we see in Acts, those were not intended to be sequential. Peter and James stayed in Jerusalem; Philip to Samaria; and Paul to Europe. All when there was a lot of work to be done among the Jews.
What if Paul and the Apostles had taken Coulter’s attitude toward the Gentiles of their day—staying in Jerusalem until the Jews were basically won over? Would any of us Westerners be in the kingdom of God today? In fact, the Apostles seemed to have just that, even though Jesus had given them clear marching orders. In Acts 8:1–4, the whole church was still clustered in Jerusalem. So, God sent a persecution to scatter them. That’s how committed God is to the gospel going global in every generation. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want him to have destroy our church to get us to do what he’s clearly told us to do.
Furthermore, every Christian is re-made in the image of Jesus with a yearning to see the nations worship, and every Christian needs to be engaged in some way in seeing the nations brought to worship. Seeing the gospel advance in all nations, taking the beauty of its multicultural forms, helps you understand the gospel better—particularly in seeing the differences in the real gospel and your own cultural religion. We always say “the light that shines the farthest also shines the brightest at home.” Engagement in overseas mission invariably leads to more and better activity here.
Finally, for whatever reason, the gospel tends to lose its grip on places of religious power and moves toward those whose hearts are in a condition to receive it. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” Jesus said, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” We saw it move from Jerusalem to the larger Middle East; from there toward the West; and now, it seems the center is shifting toward Africa and Asia (see Philip Jenkins’ excellent work tracking this). Those who have rejected Christianity here in the US usually don’t do so because they are totally ignorant of it, but because they are too proud to see their need of it. Clearly, as a pastor in Durham, NC, I am committed to evangelism in the U.S. But can we so callously turn away from the so many in other nations who have never had even a chance to hear the gospel once in their language?
For more on this, see John Piper’s book Let the Nations Be Glad. Piper addresses this question well and thoroughly.
