Revisiting the “Ends of the Earth”

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In Jesus’ final appearance before His ascension, He described how the Holy Spirit would enable the disciples to be His witnesses all over the world, starting in Jerusalem. The well-known sequence in Acts 1:8 of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the ends of the Earth is used to describe how we should be taking the gospel progressively outward all over the world. It is often used today to encourage Christians to participate, or at least support, evangelism that goes out from wherever they are.

This use of the passage takes its physical meaning, but it is also sometimes used figuratively by applying it to cultural, relational, racial, or economic differences. The idea is to reach those who are different from ourselves, rather than those who are far distant from ourselves. Note that in either case, we place ourselves at the center of the sequence.

This essay considers a different way of looking at the sequence by placing God at the center and thinking of the sequence as a series of spiritual steps. I hope that this perspective can shed new light on ways to reach the growing darkness in today’s world.

To start with, it’s good to recognize that Acts describes the fulfillment of Jesus’ sequence in a physical sense. Evangelism started in Jerusalem, then spread to other regions of Judea, eventually getting to Samaria, and eventually to regions far from Judea. That is the most direct, literal interpretation.

However, it doesn’t really make sense to follow the same physical sequence today since the same countries and regions don’t exist and Christianity has already spread far from Jerusalem. Instead, the sequence is generally applied either by placing ourselves at the center instead of Jerusalem, or by taking the sequence figuratively.

When we place ourselves at the center of a physical interpretation, the ends of the Earth become places that are far from ourselves or our church. For example, for a church in America, that might mean going to Africa. But for a church in Africa, that might mean going to America. The point seems to be to get far from home.

If we take the sequence figuratively, then we often interpret it to mean we should reach people who are different from ourselves in some characteristic. The difference may be cultural, racial, economic, or any number of other ways we describe groups of people. So a wealthy church may reach out to the poor, or intellectuals may be sent to the uneducated, and so on. Once again, this generally places ourselves at the center.

Going back to Scripture, we find that the term “ends of the Earth” is also sometimes used figuratively. It’s often used in the Old Testament to describe places far from Israel, but also sometimes refers to Gentiles without regard for their location.

In fact, Paul uses a quote from Isaiah 49:6 in exactly that way. It mentions God’s salvation going to the ends of the Earth, and Paul applied it to reaching Gentiles instead of Jews. In other words, what Paul seemed to be focusing on was people’s spiritual state, not their physical location.

Paul’s quote seems to be from the Septuagint, which is commonly how the Old Testament was quoted in the New Testament writings. Interestingly, Jesus used exactly that Greek phrasing in Acts 1:8, even though He used other terms in the Gospel accounts that are also commonly translated “ends of the Earth”. In other words, Jesus used different wording in Acts than He used anywhere else, and that different wording matched the Septuagint translation for the Isaiah passage that Paul used.

Could it be that Jesus also intended His sequence to describe spiritual states in addition to physical ones? It’s hard to be sure from such a brief statement, but it certainly wouldn’t be the first time His statements often had layered meaning with spiritual undertones.

At the very least, it seems reasonable to take a spiritual perspective like Paul. In that case, the phrase “ends of the Earth” refers to those far from God, having no relationship with Him at all, perhaps even hostile to Him. There are certainly people all around us in that category today. In other words, we don’t need to travel to encounter the ends of the Earth, we just need to be aware of people’s spiritual states.

Note that this interpretation not only has us focus on the spiritual, it places God at the center of the discussion, rather than ourselves. What becomes important is their relationship to Him, rather than their relationship to us.

An interesting followup question is to ask whether there are equivalent meanings to Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. Going back to Paul’s encounter in Acts 13 again, we see three groups of people mentioned before he turns to the Gentiles (a fourth group). They are Jews, proselytes (converts to Judaism) and God-fearers (people who respect or worship god without fully converting). In some ways, these match the physical sequence:

  • Jerusalem is the city of David, the center of Jewish religion. So it most clearly matches pure Jews.
  • Judea was the greater Jewish nation, still focused on God but with a greater involvement with secular activities. This nicely matches the group of people who, although converted to Judaism, were not necessarily culturally Jewish.
  • Samaria was the region of mixture, where Judaism had blended with surrounding cultures, keeping some aspects of the religion but not purely Jewish. As such, it matches the mixed nature of people who fear God but haven’t completely committed to Judaism and likely still live as Gentiles.

There are probably many ways these can be aligned to today’s world. For example, Jerusalem may represent devoted Christians who are deeply involved with church (a center of religious activity). Judea may represent people who are Chrisitan but not involved with traditional religious activities. Samaria might then represent those who are spiritual, perhaps like some aspects of Christianity, maybe even attend some church events if invited, but don’t describe themselves as Christians.

These categories probably are not that important, but thinking through them helps us learn to see people with eyes of faith rather than eyes of flesh.

One initial observation with this perspective is that those at the “ends of the Earth” may have little to no interest in attending church events. Given the prevalence of Christianity in our culture, they often feel they have enough exposure and without any relationship with God, have no interest in changing that. As such, we need to make more deliberate efforts to go to them. This, then, raises a series of questions about how to evangelize people who have no interest in church or Christian activities.

In other words, while it’s easy for those immersed in church-based faith activities to settle with an invitation-based strategy, Jesus call to go to the ends of the Earth should make us realize that this will not work for everyone, may actually be working less and less effectively over time, and that we need to deliberately go to people who are far from God.

I think this spiritual structure can lead to other insights and challenge us to look for new approaches. At least, it has for me.

The Importance of Evangelism

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The way of the Lord is justice and righteousness, summarized by Jesus as loving God and our neighbor. This is to be our nature as members of God’s family, and this theme is repeated throughout Scripture. However, the Old Testament also makes it clear that legalism cannot create such kingdom people – we need transformed hearts, a new covenant. Legalism relies on human ability, but the prophets looked forward to the coming of a Messiah who would fulfill God’s promises through the power of God.

Continue reading “The Importance of Evangelism” →

Sharing the Gospel with the Spirit’s Words

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As described earlier, the Spirit led people to speak the gospel in ways that listeners needed, and He gave them power for the task.. Another way to picture this is as two different ways of speaking – words powered by human abilities, and words powered by the Spirit. The events at Pentecost showed people being given power from the Spirit, but He also continued to enable them to speak effectively after that.

For example, Peter boldly stood before the crowd at Pentecost and proclaimed Jesus even though he previously shrank from even being associated with Him. Such boldness continued as he confronted the very Jewish leaders who had earlier intimidated him. It also empowered other believers when they prayed for boldness in Acts 4, and the result was that they were filled with the Spirit and spoke the word boldly (v 31).

In another aspect of the Spirit’s power, Peter’s bold speech not only communicated well, it touched the hearts of his listeners (Acts 2:37). In a similar manner, Stephen, filled with the Spirit, later spoke such that his opponents “could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking” (Acts 6:10).

Both of these are clear examples of the Spirit empowering believers to speak the gospel effectively, but there are many more. The power to go, to speak prophetically, to speak beyond one’s station, to live aligned to the words spoken, to refute opposition, to speak in love and with Godly wisdom, and so on.

References to these things run throughout Scripture once you look for them, but one of the clearest statements is when Paul is reinforcing the Thessalonian’s faith and recounting how they had originally come to salvation through Paul’s words. He described them as accepting his message as the word of God rather than the word of man, and that it was at work in their lives (1 Th 2:13).

It seems that we can proclaim the gospel in many ways, but for people to accept it as the word of God, it must be shared with the Spirit’s power rather than just human wisdom and abilities. Then it can work in their lives.

Speaking with the Spirit’s power doesn’t guarantee success, but we still need to seek His help to reach into the darkness of today’s world. We still need the power from on high that Jesus promised.

Speaking in Power

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In a previous post, I described how the Spirit enabled the early church to speak in ways needed to proclaim the Gospel. Jesus had foretold that the Father would give words to be spoken and the miracle at Pentecost was a sign of that starting. Paul recognized this and asked for prayer, and Scripture gives many other examples of how the Spirit enabled the early church to adapt the word to different contexts.

However, I think that using words that communicate effectively was just one manifestation of the “power from on high” that Jesus promised and when He told them that they would receive Holy Spirit power to be His witness all over the world (Acts 1:8).

When that happened at Pentecost, Peter boldly stood before the crowd and proclaimed Jesus, even though he previously shrank from even being associated with Him. Such boldness would continue as he confronted the very Jewish leaders who had earlier intimidated him, and it would also empower other believers (Acts 4:31).

Peter’s bold speech not only communicated well, it touched the hearts of his listeners (Acts 2:37). In a similar manner, Stephen would later speak such that his opponents “could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking” (Acts 6:10).

Clear communication, boldness, speaking to the heart, and standing against opponents were just the beginning of ways the Spirit would empower believers to spread the word. Scripture shows that they would be spiritually sent, spiritually guided, speak beyond their stations, speak in Godly wisdom, speak in love, speak words of knowledge, and so on. All of these were empowered by the Holy Spirit, continuing the process that began at Pentecost.

Speaking in power would now compliment the “power and authority” to perform miracles that Jesus had previously given the disciples (Luke 9:1). Since they are both expressions of God’s power, it seems easy to confuse them. In particular, our modern mindset separates the spiritual and the material in a way that was not common in the first century. Because of this, we may interpret ambiguous passages in a way that assigns physical manifestations where it was not meant, and vice versa. Therefore, we need to be careful to distinguish the type of power at work when reading Scripture.

While this brief essay describes speaking in power, there is still an opportunity to seek God further about its representation in Scripture and the various ways it is manifested. In doing so, we can open the door for Him to work through us today.

Developing a Spiritual Pointer Called “Whole Reality”

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As I’ve sought the Lord about new spiritual insights for sharing the Gospel over the years, one concept has consistently been forefront as an example of the principles: virtual reality photography. Not as something perfect to be copied, but something different to help me seek. Prayerfully working with it, both online and as a witnessing tool, has shown how new approaches can open doors that have been closed to conventional witnessing.

Studying apologetics has also shown some new ways that this way of grabbing people’s attention can be used to point to the Gospel. Bringing these insights together, I hope to rebuild the experimental efforts that I used over the last decade into a next step.

It starts with the idea that we need to get people’s attention, and does so with a particular type of photography. We need to point to the spiritual without necessarily being explicit about it at the beginning. This is done through the use of metaphor, symbolism, and so on, and the goal is to enhance the link to the spiritual through writing, although the initial content is intended to engage people with concepts that they already find interesting – their “unknown gods” – and point them to deeper consideration.

Like Paul’s efforts in the Athenian marketplace, this hopefully leads them to want more. That deeper content, more directly spiritual and leading to the cross, would be presented in a different site called “Kelvin’s Clouds”.

There are two reasons for keeping Kelvin’s Clouds separate. First, due to the post-Christian nature of our society, I think we need to be careful about introducing spiritual concepts, especially Christian, right away. A separate site allows Whole Reality to engage people with abstract ideas without immediately triggering any anti-religious sentiments.

Second, there may be other ways to bring people to the content being developed for Kelvin’s Clouds, and it may be best to not confuse those paths with what to some is a rather obscure photographic interest.

At any rate this is the initial plan. Whole Reality is described below.

Comments are more than welcome.

Whole Reality is an exploration of the art and craft of spherical photography* and its use to convey ideas and emotion. This is common with some types of standard photography such as fine art, abstract, and so on, but is much less common with spherical photos.

Instead, spherical photos are normally used to provide viewers with a “you are there” experience by allowing them to look around a scene in any direction. Examples include Google StreetView, showing real estate or hotel rooms, and making immersive games. These applications are useful and fun, but still leave plenty of room for new artistic expressions.

As a result, there’s an opportunity for new thinking to develop this capability.

To start with, some existing photography genres use techniques that can be adapted to spherical photography. So a key opportunity is to learn techniques that can be adapted to spheres – the way images are composed to express ideas, how colors and lighting are used to evoke emotion, how symbolism can be used to communicate ideas, and so on. Exploring these ideas in spherical photography involves first understanding and practicing standard photography.

There may also be possibilities that work only with spherical photography. For example, making prints that are not flat, finding ways to experience spheres other than just panning around, and making standard photo prints come alive with virtual content. In fact, the connection between standard and spherical photography is another reason why regular photography is part of this work.

The results may still be beautiful, but also interactive, surprising, eye-opening, and fun. They can encourage us to consider more than just a fixed view, illustrating the value of looking around and paying more attention to the world around us.

While it is valuable to learn to see more, the ultimate goal is to learn to understand more. The vision-expanding nature of spherical photography is also useful for exploring things like the nature of consciousness and self, reality and transcendence, beauty and perception, and connections (especially human). Many of these are ideas that stretch the limits of rational thought and therefore benefit from being explored through art.

Much of this seems to be uncharted territory, so to a large extent it represents a journey rather than a well-known destination. Nevertheless, I hope there are plenty of interesting and useful things to share.

* Also called “virtual reality photography”, “VR photography”, “360 photography”, “Photo Spheres”, and more.

Meditations on Athens (part 1)

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In my previous post, we looked at evangelism in two parts: a sign that points people to God, and the message of the gospel. Looking at a handful of Acts narratives in which both elements were present helped illuminate how both pieces were important and how they might work. Here, we will focus on one of those narratives, Paul in Athens, and see what spiritual principles are at work, then consider how those principles might play out today.

Earlier, we noticed how Paul’s encounters in Athens could be described in the same two parts, although the “sign” part was not typically miraculous. Instead, it seems that his statements in the marketplace served to point people to spiritual realities that he presented more fully on Mars Hill. Here, we will focus on that first part, and how non-miraculous pointers can be used to point people to the gospel. In the next essay, we will look at the second part, and how the gospel can be proclaimed in suitable ways.

The goal of this work is to see it applied to a project that I’ve been led to develop.

When Paul was waiting in Athens, he was bothered by the idolatry of the city and responded by presenting the gospel. Although there are few idols in the same sense today, many people still turn away from God and devote themselves elsewhere. For example, Paul describes greed as a form of idolatry, and that is certainly evident today, but that’s not the only option. In a sense, we still live in a society that is saturated with idols.

However, are we as bothered by this as Paul was? I’ve often wondered if I am as disturbed by people’s spiritual state as I am by their physical, social, economic, or political status. To this end, it has proven fruitful to pray for eyes to be open in the same way Paul’s were.

Paul’s reaction to his distraughtness was to preach the gospel. He started in the synagogues but also moved out into the marketplace and into secular contexts, presumably to reach Gentiles who didn’t know about God. This illustrates our previous observation that it’s necessary to go into secular contexts to reach the lost, rather than stay in religious contexts and invite people in.

Those who heard him apparently didn’t understand what he was talking about, but found it interesting enough to want to hear more. Paul followed up with a more effective presentation on Mars Hill. However, it’s interesting to consider this first part as a pointer in the sense of the previous discussion. Although not a miracle, whatever happened served to get people’s attention and engage them.

One of the challenges with sharing the faith today is the nature of our post-Christian society. Even casual mentions of Christianity, or even just Jesus, often evoke negative reactions in unbelievers. Thus, it may be necessary to interest people and engage them in ways that can lead to spiritual discussions, without immediately jumping to the gospel. Paul’s experience seems to validate the importance of appropriately getting people’s attention first, before presenting the gospel.

Now, the approach of intellectual engagement may not work for everyone, but just as it was most effective for some of the thought leaders in Athens, it may be most applicable for reaching them today. The important thing is to be able to lead into spiritual discussions, so identifying and connecting with the “unknown gods” being worshiped is a good start.

There’s a tension between getting people to think beyond the merely natural, while not triggering the anti-spiritual sentiments that are so common. Perhaps, just as people were always interested in hearing new things in Athens, the intellectually curious today can be engaged with novelty. One place where novelty and the realm of ideas often come together is in art, where creativity and metaphor are fundamental.

To me, this suggests that the right kind of creative expression of spiritual ideas could engage people enough to lead to deeper considerations.

The nature of these deeper considerations will be looked at later when we consider Paul’s speech to the Areopagus and the role of “unknown gods”, but for now, this seems to suggest a framework for engaging with many of today’s secular and inquisitive people.

First, we need to pray and open our hearts to the Spirit’s burden for lost people. Such prayer should give us the boldness to go – away from religious contexts and into the secular. As we interact with people there, we need to get their attention and engage them in ways that point to spiritual truths, albeit without being explicitly Christian. Lastly, it may be helpful, especially in today’s rapidly changing world, to use novelty to get and hold their attention.

Now to make this concrete. For years I have tinkered with creating 360 photographs and have found that they can be used to easily get people’s attention. Even more, they are a great metaphor for encouraging people to “see more” in ways that eventually lead to spiritual discussions. I’ve used them to open spiritual doors that other evangelistic efforts have not.

However, most 360 photography is not used to share ideas, symbolize abstract concepts, and so on. Nevertheless, there seems to be a great potential for doing this, for developing this type of photography along the lines of an art rather than a commercial product. As a result, there seems to be opportunity for creativity and innovation – exactly the sort of thing that many inquisitive people find engaging.

For example, they can be used to illustrate the limitations of science and materialist thinking in ways that encourage more open minds. With such open thinking, moving onto specific immaterial concepts, such as the spiritual, becomes more natural.

I plan to build a variety of ways for people to encounter 360 photographs, some in ways that they will not find anywhere else. They can be presented in various secular contexts, both online and physical, illustrating key themes that point to spiritual truths without being explicitly Christian, so that post-Christian hesitation won’t come into play.

As a pointer, this seems like a path worth exploring and is being developed as a work called “Whole Reality”. But since the goal is to get people to the gospel, there needs to be more. This is handled through an apologetic model that I’ve refined over the years that will be worked out in a different work called “Kelvin’s Clouds”. For right now, though, the next post will present the Whole Reality project in more detail.

A Spiritual Perspective of the Great Commission

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In an earlier post, I looked at the term “ends of the Earth” and saw how, in addition to the obvious physical meaning, it pointed to Gentiles and ultimately, to those who are far from God. Jesus’ statement in Acts 1:8 described the church expanding through various levels of spiritual commitment until finally it broke out into those areas where there was no connection with God at all.

It became clear that today, spiritually, the ends of the Earth today are all around us, not just in far distant regions.

In a similar manner, I think we can revisit the Great Commission in Matthew and note that there is a spiritual application for today that challenges us to think about evangelism in a new way. A way that, at least for me, encourages getting away from standard Christian contexts.

Let’s start by revisiting the passage.

And Jesus came and 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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18–20 (ESV)

Note that the command is to go into “all the nations”.1 This is generally taken to mean something similar to the physical interpretation of “ends of the Earth” – to go even to far distant lands. It also is often taken to mean that every “people group” is to be reached.

However, just as “ends of the Earth” was also associated with Gentiles and not just distant lands, the term “the nations” was also the way of saying “Gentiles”. In other words, Jesus used a term that meant both the physical reality of different people groups all over the world, and the spiritual reality of people far from God (wherever they might be).

This latter meaning of spiritual lostness gets obscured with standard translations so that the emphasis is on going far away – things like international missions and the like. In order to apply the command to our local lives, the word “go” is often rephrased from into “as you go” and then becomes a command to witness as we go through our normal lives.

For myself, however, the neglected spiritual perspective reveals the need to be deliberate and proactive about reaching into the darkness around us. I feel led to go away from church, both physically and metaphorically – away from Christian services, concerts, programs, ministries, and other forms of Christian context, and to find ways to present the Gospel in those spiritually distant places that are all around us.

I think the deliberate act of taking the Gospel into dark contexts involves actions that go beyond our normal activities, and that this is the difference between “go” and “as you go”. In other words, we need to look for ways to go into secular contexts, things we might not otherwise do, that can be used to speak truth.

We need to go to the ends of the Earth that are all around us.

So, what might this look like in practice? Obviously, the first step is prayer, seeking the Lord for new ideas, perhaps meditating on encounters in Scripture for specific principles to use. My previous essay briefly described a technique I’ve been led toward. I’ll write more about that later. But for now, I think that a regular practice of prayer and Scripture meditation is a way to let the Spirit lead one towards options.

This is part of what this blog will work towards.

1. Even though the ESV translates this as “all nations”, it seems the Greek actually says “all the nations”, and more literal translations present it that way.

Signs and Messages

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In the previous post, we saw how Antioch was the church’s true breakthrough to the ends of the Earth, and how it represents the parts of our society that are the furthest from God. A key purpose of this blog is to seek fresh insights for reaching into this darkness. A different post described the spiritual principle that the Spirit will guide us to speak in the ways that are needed.

This was indicated by the direct mention of God’s involvement at the Antioch breakthrough:

Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.

Acts 11:19–21 (ESV, emphasis mine)

We can expect the Lord to guide us how to speak today, but we still need to get people’s attention, engage with them in a way that leads into the words that God will give us. The early disciples seemed to realize this, for when they prayed for boldness to go out and speak, they also asked the Lord to lead the way with signs and wonders:

And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

Acts 4:29-30 (ESV, emphasis mine)

Miracles were not the only way that messages were introduced, and in some cases messages were given without any sort of clear pointer. In any case, there seem to be a handful of places where messages are associated with a clear lead-in, miraculous or otherwise, and although I think more work is needed, there does seem to be a pattern that relates the introduction with the message. We can see that by considering these events at Pentecost, the Gate of Beautiful, Cornelius, Lystra, and Athens.

At Pentecost, people noticed the strange behavior and heard them speaking of the “mighty acts of God”. Peter described how the strange behavior was the fulfillment of prophecy, and described how the mighty acts that God performed through Jesus validated who He was.

When Peter healed the lame man at the Beautiful Gate, he did so in Jesus’ name. Then when he preached to the crowd that formed in Solomon’s portico, he pointed to that sign as an example of God’s power validating Jesus as the Messiah.

When Peter encountered Cornelius, they obviously shared a profound experience. Peter built on that by pointing to the events throughout Judea that they all knew about concerning Jesus, emphasizing his personal experience of the resurrection, something that Cornelius would have had sympathy with considering the profound experience that they had both recently experienced.

At Lystra, Paul healed a lame man, but the people completely misunderstood what happened, even after Paul tried to explain the truth to them. His message seemed to have little to do with the miraculous event that started the incident. Could that be why there seemed to be no fruit? There’s more worth investigating there, but perhaps it could be an example of how some important principles need to be applied consistently.

There is no miracle reported when Paul was in Athens, but his message on Mars Hill built directly on the reactions of people to his message in the marketplace. They apparently didn’t understand about the resurrection, but realized he was talking about some “foreign gods”. Paul used that by starting with their knowledge of “gods”.

There are other miracles and other places where messages are presented without an obvious sign, but these examples demonstrate the power of a “pointer” to introduce the gospel message in some situations. This also needs to be investigated further, but perhaps something is needed to help introduce spiritual concepts in this post-Christian culture for those who aren’t interested in Christianity.

So, this leads to some encounters consisting of two pieces – first a sign or pointer, and then a message.

Working with this concept of a sign, or a pointer, it probably doesn’t need to be a miracle if Athens is any indication. This raises the question of what else might be a pointer today. Perhaps some things that are used in apologetics, such as arguments from science or morality. But I think of pointers more as introductions with context, so they may also include things like art. For example, a compelling work may evoke emotions that lead into a presentation of the gospel that starts with that emotional perspective.

In that way, I’ve been led to explore a type of photography that seems helpful in getting people to think beyond the natural and creating openings for spiritual discussions. It is sometimes called “virtual reality” or “360” photography, and consists of pictures that are viewed in a window by clicking and dragging the viewpoint around. Initial experiences with unbelievers have been positive, and I am starting to expand that work to provide clearer pointers in a photography blog called “Whole Reality”.

Since the photography is intended just to point to spiritual concepts, there needs to be additional content to further develop the ideas that have been raised and take them to the gospel. I plan to have a second blog for this work, called “Kelvin’s Clouds”, for such content. The photographs will point to this section of writings. The approach used in this blog is based on years of prayerful listening to unbelievers, and will help place Christianity within a rational framework that recognizes the profound unknowns existing in even the best materialist descriptions of reality.

This is just a start of digging into this spiritual framework, but gives enough basis to continue work on the two efforts mentioned above. In addition, I hope that simply walking this path myself will lead to a deeper understanding of these principles that may be helpful to others.

The Ends of the Earth Today

~ Jim ~ 1 Comment

In the previous essay, I discussed where the Gentile mission really started and concluded that it began in Syrian Antioch when some unnamed believers began evangelizing Gentiles, walking through the door that had been opened with Cornelius. This helps us understand the Acts 1:8 sequence a little better, but leaves open the question of how to apply this today.

Jesus’ sequence of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the ends of the Earth is sometimes applied physically to us today by starting with our local neighborhoods as our “Jerusalem”, and continuing out until we get to distant lands. Other times, the sequence is used as a picture to describe people instead of location, so that we start with those who are like us, but strive to reach those who are very different from us. These differences may be economic, racial, cultural, and so on.

In either case, these modern applications tend to place ourselves in the center.

However, I think that Jesus’ sequence hints at another way to think about this, by looking at Cornelius. First, recall that the term “ends of the Earth” was closely associated with Gentiles, and physically would have been beyond Samaria, the last region on Jesus’ list.

Now, Cornelius is clearly highlighted as the first Gentile believer, but he was physically in Samaria, not even beyond Jesus’ own travels.1 Also, he was familiar with God, in fact he was explicitly described as a God-fearer — someone who worshipped God, prayed to Him, and gave alms.

Thus, Cornelius was something of a spiritual mixture, just as Samaria (where Cornelius was located) was a religious mixture.2 This suggests another way to look at the Acts 1:8 sequence — as a spiritual sequence from nearness to God, to complete separation from Him.

Importantly, this approach places God at the center rather than ourselves. A spiritual perspective like this can be applied directly today.

For example, just as Jerusalem was the center of religious activity, perhaps we can think of our Jerusalem as those places filled with people who are in close relationship to God. Church services, Christian charity and service, Bible studies and prayer meetings, and so on.

Judea was the land of the Jews, but not explicitly religious. It was where Judaism was lived out in the rest of life, so perhaps today we can think of this as places where Christianity is practiced outside of church — festivals and concerts, non-profit organizations, Christian businesses, and so on. Still primarily populated by Christians, but not church-centered environments.

Samaria was a land of mixture, where some Jewish beliefs, practices and ethnicity were mixed with Gentile influences. Today this might look like places where Christian beliefs are practiced in non-Christian environments. Secular workplaces where Christians live out their beliefs but are not the majority, families that include a mixture of believers and unbelievers, and so on.

The ends of the Earth represented those places where recognition of God was minimized, that were completely dominated by secular Gentile belief. Such places would exist today wherever secular influences dominate, especially where Christian influences are deliberately ignored or even rejected. This may include many businesses, universities, cultural events, and so on.

In a sense, we can think of such places as populated by “spiritual Gentiles”. Gentile, not in the original sense of non-Jewish, but in the sense of being separated from God.

The idea of using the Acts 1:8 sequence to represent spiritual realities can probably be applied in several ways; the descriptions above are just one possibility. My primary focus is the last stage — how do we bring light to those places that are spiritually dark, that are the furthest from God?

People in these modern “ends of the Earth” are right around us — our neighbors, co-workers, civic leaders, teachers, and so on. They may live near us or far away, be like us or very different, but spiritually they are Gentiles in the sense of being far from God. This group is growing, partly because our culture is growing more secular, but also because people who are spiritually seeking often don’t see Christianity as a good path. In addition, there is a steady stream of people leaving the faith.

Because of this group’s spiritual perspectives, they are often unaware and even uninterested in church, in going to Jerusalem. As such, they are less likely to respond to things like invitations to religious or church activities. They need to be reached by Christians going to them, just as Jesus originally said.

My interest here is to seek the Lord about reaching this growing population of spiritual Gentiles. Given the growth of this darkness and the related struggles of current evangelism, it seems that there is something missing. By studying how the Spirit worked in Scripture to reach those furthest from Jerusalem, I hope to learn principles that can make a difference today.

  1. Cornelius was in Cesarea, in Samaria. Jesus went beyond Samaria, to Tyre and Sidon (Mark 7:24).
  2. Samaria was populated largely by Jews who had mixed with Gentiles. Their religion was based on only the first five books of the OT, and had many differences from Judaism. See, for example, John 4:19-22.