Jesus, But Perhaps Not You, May Or May Not Save

[purejuice]

Will someone please tell me on what part of the New Testament missionaries and proselytization is based and what people have interpreted this to mean?

I've always wondered, from the days the missionaries first got their claws into me in Africa 'til last week when two guys came by asking if anyone in the house spoke Spanish, so they could read the Bible with them. Saw two very very way too pink young Mormons trudging alongside the highway in the desert with gigantic backpacks, spindly bicycles, and their pinkening scalps showing through the white-blonde buzz cuts.

I have been moved to ask this question by auntysocial's amazing JESUS SAVES pix and post.

Comments

[auntysocial.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but it's got to be in there somewhere. They are so passionate about it, and they're not just doing it for fun, or to annoy people. "Witnessing for the Lord" is how the fundamentalists put it.

Thanks for the mention.

[villagecharm.livejournal.com]

The most famous passage in the New Testament, generally known as the Great Commission, is Matthew 28:16-20, after Christ appears to his loved ones following the Crucifixion:

Now the eleven disciples when to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

(That's from the New Revised Standard Version, btw)

There's similar language in the other three Gospels and in Acts, but Matthew is the big passage cited by missionaries. As with everything in the Bible, there's much dispute over what it means. Catholics and Orthodox Christians generally interpret it to mean that the role of missionary falls to the literal successors to the apostles who received the commission; i.e. the bishops, and religious and clergy. Protestants generally interpret it to be a commandment to all Christians.

[villagecharm.livejournal.com]

Whoops, in Matthew 28:16, that should be, of course, "Now the eleven disciples WENT to Galilee." THUS WE ILLUSTRATE THE INHERENT RISKS OF TRANSLATION!

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

thank you very much, i appreciate the accuracy of the citation and your explanation. i'ma go look in my massively annotated new oxford & etc. and see if anything interesting can be located in the notes.

[pomo-drunkard.livejournal.com]

villagecharm beat me to it, but the other big scene in the New Testament beyond the Great Commission is the Pentacost, found in Acts 2, where the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples and they suddenly find themselves being able to speak the Gospel in the languages of the world and use that ability to convert thousands right then and there. It is the moment in the Bible where the Holy Spirit enters them, and is considered by some to be the birth of the church, and emphasizes the evangelical aspect of their mission.

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

thank you very much.

[panjianlien.livejournal.com]

There are also those who look to an OT source for the basis/legitimacy of proselytization. Isaiah 42, God is speaking to Isaiah, basically about what God's mission for the Jews is:

6 "I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,

7 to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

Interestingly, Jews have historically taken this to mean that the relationship with God itself makes Jews into the or l'goyim, the light unto the Other People, and that by living as God's people one provides that light, no overt proselytizing or door-knocking required.

Jews for Jesus and other Messianic groups, on the other hand, not so much. And I have seen some Christian organizations cite Isaiah as basis for their proselytizing efforts.

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

thank you, very enlightening!