The Fundamentals - Torrey - LVII - Chapter 17 (Foreign missions or world-wide evangelism)

Required reading
The Fundamentals edited by R. A. Torrey (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Chapter 17 (Foreign missions or world-wide evangelism).

My summary
Today Speer speaks about the importance of world-wide missions.

Firstly Speer gives us some reasons for world-wide evangelism:
(i) God is god of the world;
(ii) men must believe in God in Christ;
(iii) Christians have a missionary responsibility;
(iv) humanity needs missionaries to go to them.

Then Speer answers an objection that foreign mission is unnecessary with the following conclusions:
(i) Christianity is the only religion which is trying to make good its claim to universalism;
(ii) at the root of all things is the idea of God and here all religions meet to be judged;
(iii) from its unique and adequate conception of God, it follows that Christianity has a message to the world which is full of notes which the non-Christian religions do not and cannot possess;
(iv) in its conception of sin, Christianity is unique and satisfying;
(v) Christianity is the only religion which is at once historical, progressive and spiritually free;
(vi) the ethical uniqueness of Christianity entitles it to absorb and displace all other religions;
(vii) Christianity is the final and absolute religion.

What grabbed me
I loved Speer's comment about what it means if Christians don't seek to evangelise the world: 'Men will only know a good and loving Father as their God, i. e., they will know God, only as they are brought into the knowledge of Christ, who is the only perfect revelation of God. For those who have this knowledge to withhold it from the whole world is to do two things: It is to condemn the world to godlessness, and it is to raise the suspicion that those who think they have the knowledge of God are in reality ignorant of what Christ was and what He came to do.'

Solemn words for those who are not fervent about the salvation of all nations.

Next week's reading
Read Chapter 18 (A message from missions to the modern ministry).

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.