“Our Lord told us that the field is the world. In politics today men are thinking in terms of international affairs, in business all the continents are being combed for markets, and even in daily life every news reader is becoming world-conscious. And yet, we, the people of God, have not fully realized that we are to be a testimony to the world. . . . Heathen populations are growing in numbers daily, but we are not reaching them, much less matching their increasing numbers with increased efforts to bring them the gospel. Now is the time as never before to reach men whose minds are swept of old barriers ere other barriers tenfold harder to level come in like a flood and before this generation of heathen passes into Christless graves.
“Our own civilized land also challenges us today as Christian workers. This country once so strong in its Christian testimony is becoming increasingly godless. Our educational systems are taking us away from God. The old standards of morality are fast going, and those great and holy truths once so sacred are becoming the butt of jokes to furnish humor for our periodicals . . . We have been guilty of acting more like the beleaguered garrison of a doomed fortress than like the soldiers of our Conquering Christ. Surely our churches call for men and women to faithfully labor in the word and doctrine.
“Such is the challenge of the task that is ours. The heathen world, the civilized world, and the church of Christ all look to us and inquire, ‘What will you do about such conditions?’ . . . We do thank God for those who are looking upward, and in times like these planning new advances into enemy territory, but large sections of the line are falling back. Supplies are not coming up from the rear, contributions are falling off, and worst of all, the spirit of aggression is gone. . . . Dare we advance at God’s command in the face of the impossible?”
These words were spoken 84 years ago by John C. Stam in his graduation address at Moody Bible Institute. Two years later, he and his wife Betty were martyred for their King whom they had gone to serve in China.
The cry resounds even more loudly today. As this world trembles and shakes, God renews His call for aggressive Christian warfare to share the gospel among the unreached. Will you dare to advance the kingdom in the face of the impossible? God is calling!
1John C. Stam, missionary martyr to China. Graduation address at Moody Bible Institute, April 22, 1932.
