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pean religion. Penetration into Af–
rica and Asia was negligible or
nonexistent for more than a millen–
nium-even beyond the Dark Ages
(476-c.IOOO A.D.).
Modern Times
Outlawed, persecuted, clandestine
sects lived amidst the surrounding
spiritual darkness by hand-copying
biblical texts and by expounding to
individuals and small private groups
whatever truth they had . The
masses of people, however, had
nothing Christian in their own lan–
guages, either written or oral. So
little was changed-until just before
the Reformation, whicb "could not
have happened without the in–
vention of printing, which put the
Scriptures into the hands of the la–
ity. Before Luther nailed his 95
theses to the door in Wíttenberg,
Gutenberg's Bibles had been in
print for half a century. By 1500, at
least 60 German towns had printing
presses; readers had access to at
Ieast 14 editions of the Scriptures.
Put another way, the Reformation
was the child of printing"
(Christian
Century,
April20, 1977, p. 379).
From the time of the pre–
dominance of prin ting, a higher de–
gree of Christianity began to be
more common. Morality improved.
More individuals were personally
converted instead of having merely
been reared to regard themselves as
"Christians."
And yet for another three cen–
turies- virtually down to our own
day- Christianity was not yet on its
way to becoming the worldwide reli–
gion we now know. By 1800, though
Catholicism had been widely en–
forced in South and Central Amer–
ica by the conquistadores, the real
faith of the masses was Little af–
fected. Native "Christianity" was for
centuries either outright paganism
or thinly veneered at best.
Though composed to a greater de–
gree ofEuropeans, our North Ameri–
can colonies were not much better.
"American mythology makes us
think that all our forefathers were
deeply Christian people. Such
things~
as the language of the Mayfiower
Compact, the tradition ofThanksgiv–
ing Day,
The Scarlet Letter,
and
The
PLAIN TRUTH September 1978
Washington's prayer at Valley Forge
nourish the impression that the per–
son who didn't attend the Sunday–
morning worship service, who hoed
com on Sunday afternoon, or who
coveted bis neighbour's ox or ass was
the exception to the rule"
(Christian–
ity Today,
December 3, 1976, p. 13).
But not so.
"The World Was Waltlng"–
ForWhat?
You may wonder what the mis–
sionaries were doing up till the
nineteenth century. Strange as it
may seem today, there was little
missionary effort, and such as there
was was stymied by complications
on every hand. It seemed the door
to worldwide rnissionary etfort and
mass evangelism had not yet been
opened.
For tbeir first three hundred
years, the Protestant cburches were
mainly occupied-or preoccupied–
with the relations of the various
groups with one another or with
Catholicism. Sometimes it was war
to the death instead of brotherly
love.
Such missionary etforts as were
made were usually the work of the
state or of traders rather than of
churches. In 1559, for example,
King Gustavus Vasa of Sweden
sought to send the gospel to the pa–
gan Lapps in the north of his do–
main . Church buildings were
provided, complete with preaching
services, but spiritual results were
slight. Why? Perhaps because all
services were spoken in Swedish,
which the Lapps did not under–
stand. And the gathering of them
toge~her
was made the occasion for
collecting the royal tribute!
With similar results, or lack of
them, the Dutch East India Com–
pany officials in Ceylon and In–
donesia, thinking it to their best
commercial and política! interests to
buiJd up a population of "Chris–
tians" surrounding their trading
centers, even translated the Scrip–
tures into the native languages. But
the kind of Christianity they caused
to be inculcated was purely one of
externa) conformity: memorization
of the Ten Commandments and the
Lord's Prayer, morning and evening
prayer, grace before and after
meals, acceptance of the Helvetic
Confession, and baptism. What was
to be achieved by the converts? Not
spirituality, but favors from the gov–
ernment which, it was given out,
were strictly reserved for Christians.
Roman Catholic missionary work,
whi le more extensive, was likewise
fieeting in results, hampered by its
own mistakes, notably its stress on
externals and syncretism with the
heatbenism of the lands. That is, the
prevailing pagan religion of an area
was scarcely more than "baptized"
and called Christian. "Then further,
the spirit of the missionaries was too
lordly, they meddled too much with
political atfairs, and thus stirred up
against themselves fear and deadly
hatred. It was on account of such
blunders and sins that they were
driven out of Japan (16 14) and
China (16 18), and in great numbers
their poor followers were tortured
and put to death. After a steady
decline it had come to pass [about
1800] that Catholic missions, in for–
eign lands where they had once
been prosperous, were in many
cases almost extinct" (D. L. Leon–
ard,
A Hundred Years of Missions,
3rd ed., 1914, pp. 38-39; see also
Stephen Neill,
A History of Chris–
tian Missions,
1964, pp. 206-208).
During the 1700s the Protestants
too carne to almost a full stop in
their early attempts at missions.
This was the time of the renewed
Moravian Church and its missions,
and the time of the early Method–
ists. Nevertheless, the expansion of
Christianity had come to a stand–
still, indeed in many cases gone
backward.
"We might sum up and set forth
the reason in few words," continues
Leonard, "with the suggestion that
the world was not ready, the fullness
of times for the universal spread of
Christianity had not come, and cen–
turies of preparation must first in–
tervene" (p. 4 1).
The world was waiting-marking
time.
"And above all," wrote Leonard,
"the religious world was waiting for
the rise of a great people (Ameri–
cans] beyond the Atlantic, untram–
meled by tradition, God-fearing,
13