Jim Elliot post World Mandate

If you’re wondering how someone like Jim Elliot, martyred missionary to Ecuador (the Waodani people), might respond to World Mandate, it may be something like what he says here:

You wonder why people choose fields away from the States when young people at home are drifting because no one wants to take time to listen to their problems.  I’ll tell you why I left.  Because those Stateside young people have every opportunity to study, hear, and understand the Word of God in their own language, and these Indians have no opportunity whatsoever.  I have had to make a cross of two logs, and lie down on it, to show the Indians what it means to crucify a man.  When there is that much ignorance over here and so much knowledge and opportunity over there, I have no question in my mind why God sent me here.  Those whimpering Stateside young people will wake up on the Day of Judgment condemned to worst fates than these demon-fearing Indians, because having a Bible, they were bored with it–while these never heard of such a thing as writing. (Shadow of the Almighty, p. 237)

A much needed perspective today.  Thabiti Anyawible writes of this quote, “These kinds of prophetic statements strip us of so much self-absorbed, pretentious, and cowardly cavils at the call of God.  They reduce us to either naked boldness for our King, or that pitiable nothingness that loves self above all else, even the eternal.”

HT: Pure Church (Thabiti)

Caleb Gallifant

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