The global reach and diversity of Christianity, aren’t just demographic questions or marketing issues. They’re part of the DNA of Christianity from the beginning. It’s one of the controversial, and to some even perverse, elements of Christianity, that it is a universalising, missionary religion. It’s eager to win hearts and minds in every corner of the globe. A lot of people don’t like that.

Years ago, I was having a coffee with a friend in a cafe at my local beach. I was explaining to him what our church was doing to promote Christ among the residents of the suburb. At one point, I noticed this woman, a few tables away looking inquisitively at me, and I assumed she was like a fellow Christian or something interested in listening to our conversation. So I just kept on talking. A few minutes later, the woman got up from her table, paid her bill, walked straight across to me and at what seemed like the top of her voice said, “so you want to convert the world? How dare you!” And off she stormed. I realised at that point, she probably wasn’t a Christian after all.

I thought of the perfect comeback about an hour later. But at the time I was dumbfounded. For a moment, I even wondered, maybe our mission is presumptuous. Perhaps promoting the news of Christ is the stuff of fanaticism, rather than a reasoned modern faith. But the fact is promoting the faith to every nation goes back to the beginning of the Bible, and was endorsed in the most emphatic way by Jesus. So way back in the first book of the Bible, Genesis chapter 12, the whole point of God selecting Abraham and the Jewish people is said to be, “and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” 

The logic was simple. If there’s one God, monotheism, it makes sense that the one God is keen on everybody, regardless of location. The biblical God is not a tribal deity like you find in Egypt or Babylon or even Greece and Rome. There is something inherently universalistic and missionary about believing there is one eternal mind behind the universe. That’s why there was even a tendency in ancient Judaism before Jesus, at least to hope and pray for the conversion of all the nations. 

My own doctoral research cut across the consensus of historians in the early 2000s. That was saying at the time that Christianity had really invented the notion of universal mission and that Judaism was simply content to leave all the nations to their own Pagan ways. One important Jewish historian from Oxford, Martin Goodman had described the Christian mission in the ancient world as, “A shocking novelty.” But that’s not quite right. 

There was certainly a new passion and organisation in the Christian mission. But in text, after text in the Judaism of the centuries around the time of Jesus, we find clear evidence of a mission mindset. Many Jewish writers spoke of a miraculous day in the future when all the nations would turn to the one, true God of Israel. One of the most famous Jewish teachers of the period, Philo of Alexandria, who lived right around the time of Jesus, was saying he reckoned one of Israel’s great tasks in the world was to pray for the conversion of the Pagan nations. And there is even evidence from both the Eastern and Western parts of the Roman Empire that some individual Jewish teachers actually sought out Pagans to teach them how to worship the one, true God.

For the two or three of you that might be interested in this topic. You can check out my published dissertation under the title Mission Commitment in Ancient Judaism. My point is when Jesus famously said to his apostles, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28). This wasn’t a shocking novelty. It was the fulfilment and intensification of the ancient Jewish monotheistic hope to be a blessing to all the peoples of the world. 

I know the terms proselytising and even evangelism are almost dirty words for some. Certainly the woman I met in the cafe years ago thought so. And I don’t deny there can be imperialistic bullying versions of evangelism, but there is a logic and a beauty to the core idea. And if you’re a sceptic listening it’s worth at least trying to see things from the perspective of a Christian, there is a unifying reality to everything according to Christians. His name is Jesus Christ. The embodiment of the one God who died and rose again for all of his beloved creatures. Wanting everyone everywhere to know about this is rational and lovely. 

It’s a bit like science – a bit, I hope I don’t annoy anyone here! If you come to know and love science, you realise it’s a unifying reality. It applies as much in China as it does in outback Australia and it blesses everyone equally. To the degree you can, and without becoming a creepy science nerd, you’ll want to advocate for the public understanding of science. 

Well, Christ is the ultimate unifying reality. “In him,” said the apostle Paul in Colossians 1, “All things hold together.” He isn’t just the material explanation of stuff as science is. He’s the reason there is stuff in the first place. He’s the reason there’s something rather than nothing. He was in his historical life, the very incarnation of the God behind the universe. His teaching is the manufacturer’s instructions. His death and resurrection are why everyone in the world can be forgiven for their shared failings. And why we can know there is life beyond the grave for all who want it.

You, dear listener, may not believe any of this, and that’s fine, but if you can imagine what it’s like to believe it, you’ll at least be able to see the logic and beauty of Christian mission. And you’ll have a partial explanation of this weird and wonderful and growing phenomenon we call global Christianity.

By John Dickson

Want to hear the rest of the episode?
Episode 75: “Global Christianity”