Hudson Taylor
150 years ago this week, on 25th June 1865, Hudson Taylor started the China Inland Mission, now OMF International. It had (and still has, though slightly adapted) the goal of “the urgent evangelisation of China’s millions”.
Taylor was greatly concerned that the Chinese were dying without Jesus. This prompted the sense of urgency which pervaded not only the CIM but other 19th century missions too. They were motivated to take the message of Jesus to people who were being lost, consigned to hell for eternity.
These days, hell is an unpopular and rarely mentioned concept in much of western Christianity. We feel it is distasteful, incompatible with the idea of a loving God, and disrespectful of those who choose not to follow Jesus. We certainly don’t use it in our outreach, preferring instead to tell people of God’s love for them rather than focus on divine wrath.
Whether you agree with downgrading hell to a theological optional extra or not, the disappearance of hell from the evangelistic agenda has removed the sense of urgency. We recognise that telling people they’re going to hell if they don’t repent is not the best way to build a bridge towards them. And while we may not be sure what happens after death to those who don’t follow Jesus, we trust God to be fair and sort something out. Rob Bell infamously flirted with universalism in his controversial book Love Wins, which was welcomed by many people who can’t stomach the idea of God condemning millions of his creatures to burn for eternity for the simple crime of not worshipping him even though nobody had told them to.
Today we prefer to take our time to woo people into the kingdom of God because we’re not in a hurry any more. But that doesn’t mean people have stopped dying without Jesus. In the time it’s taken you to read this blog, thousands have died before being told the message. Whatever you believe happens to them after death, it can’t be as good as spending eternity with Jesus. So go and tell them. Quickly.
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