Historically, the English
Puritanism provided a launching
pad for modern Protestant
mission movements. In fact,
behind this missionary thrust
was their theology which
inspired, motivated, and guided
these missionary thrusts.
It was also in the era
of the English Puritanism that
we find a classical example of
preaching that
that effectively reached the
hearts of the audience outside
as well as inside the Church.
Again, it was out of the well of
the Puritan mission theology
that their powerful preaching
sprang out.
Theology of Partnership with God
in Redemption
Paul Pierson observes that
in the colonial period those
Puritans had interesting
theology which led them into
mission. As seen in the
Pilgrim’s Progress, they had
theology of partnership with God
in redemption. With them, to be
a Christian was more than to
accept God’s gift. To be a
Christian was to be involved in
the partnership with God in
redemption.[1]
With Puritans, God in
his divine sovereignty asks more
than individual souls. Every
structure of life must be
subject to His will. Here was
the heart of Puritan mission in
England and in America. Sidney
H. Rooy states, 'The divine
mission asks the redemption of
the soul, the perfection of
society, and the accomplishment
of history' (1965:325). In
short, the Puritans strove to
attain the realization of
Christ’s rule among the nations.
The message of the
Scripture is Jesus Christ. The
Puritans emphasized that by His
death Christ has procured grace
for all men. What the Puritans
called common or universal grace
brought blessings for every man
and woman. This enables them to
perform formal action of
approval to the Christian
faith. Universal grace is
sufficient for salvation in the
sense that God will give the
special grace to find salvation,
provided man and woman
faithfully do what he or she can
in order to seek it (:312).
The Puritan’s Goal of Mission
The Puritan’s goal of
mission was “simply the
conversion of souls. No matter
was greater, since this was
God’s concern in sending his
Son. Jesus was the greatest
soul-winner that ever lived, and
Paul followed his example” (Rooy
1965:316-317). This idea is
strongly expressed in Richard
Baxter. For him, the immediate
goal of the mission was
primarily the conversion of
unbelievers, to be followed by
the establishment of churches
which were to live in unity with
one another. He emphasized that
the eternal kingdom, indeed
begun here in a spiritual way
but fulfilled in eternity.
Through the work of conversion
and the unity of believers,
God’s Kingdom would come. The
fulfillment of history comes in
eternity. Love begun on earth
is fulfilled in heaven.
Fellowship with believers on
earth becomes communion with the
saints of all history. The
grand design of history is the
reconciliation and saving of
lost mankind (:155).
Rooy argues that the
sense of urgency for conversion
was motivated not primarily out
of ‘fear motive,’ but ‘love
motive.’
The sense of urgency for
conversion was frequently
heightened by an appeal to
the last judgment,
especially by Baxter, Eliot,
and Edwards. However, this
fear motive remained
secondly; Baxter stated this
explicitly, Eliot turned
Indians to constructive
action, and Edwards’
judgment sermons constituted
but a small part of his
preaching. Rather, love for
the sinner and concern for
his present and eternal
state provided the basic
motivation in the attempt to
secure his conversion. The
love of God constrains me,
says Baxter, to seek the
conversion of my neighbor.
When I thus love my
neighbor, my own love for
God grows (1965:314).
Thus, coming to New
England, the Puritans believed
that their mission was to
convert the native Americans or
the Indians as they called them.[2]
The Missionary Motives
The primary motive for
mission was to glorify God.
They believed that God is
glorified when the Kingdom is
advanced. Here we find the
direct relevance of glorifying
God and mission.[3]
Second, there was a
soteriological motive. The
soteriological consideration
that men must be brought to
personal conversion dominates
the Puritan message. The
practical use of doctrine was at
the heart of Puritan preaching.
The direct application of
spiritual truth to men’s
situation was the Puritan
purpose in preaching.
The Puritan’s
soteriological motive stems from
their anthropological
considerations. The utter
lostness of man apart from God
and the utter impossibility of
salvation apart from grace were
problems calling for
resolution. In this respect all
men, whether the Lawyers at
Grey’s Inn or the Indians in
America, were alike. Sibbs and
Baxter were as deeply filled
with compassion for their
hearers and as vitally concerned
for their souls, as Eliot,
Mather, and Edwards were. There
was no distinction here between
Jesus and Indians, between
unbelievers in the church and
those outside (Rooy 1965:314).
Pierson remarks that, in
the Puritan view of humankind,
“Every person is sinner, but
every person has full potential
to be the child of God and full
human being.”
[4] He comments that the
evangelical awareness—that we
are lost in sins, and we are all
equal—provided the Puritans with
the motivation to carry the
gospel across races to the
non-Whites, to non-Europeans.
Pierson also suggests that
the Puritans had the high view
of the church. They saw the
Church engaged in warfare
against evil. The mission was
to plant the church throughout
the world.[5]
This they did when the first
English Puritans came to America
in the seventeenth century.
Finally, as Pierson
remarks it, there was an
eschatological motive. The
Puritan hope had an
eschatological anticipation, the
coming of Christ and the final
victory of the Church in this
evil world. They believed that
when Christians come from the
far ends of nations will be the
time of the fulfillment for the
prophecy for the coming Kingdom.
The Role of the Church for
Missionary Advance
For the Puritans the church
had a double nature. First, she
was the mystical body of Christ,
the communion of all true
believers. Membership in the
church, in this sense, did not
depend upon attendance at the
preaching, and the sacraments or
living holy life, though all of
these were considered
important. Rather, membership
in the body of believers depends
upon faith as fulfillment of the
covenant of sovereign grace,
knowing God experimentally.
Second, there is the organized
form of the church which bears
the divine sanction and call.
To her are entrusted the
ordinances of furthering and
consolidating the advances of
Christ’s kingdom. The church
thus has a twofold character: as
gathering of the members of the
body, and as means to further
the gospel (Rooy 1965:317-318).
The Puritans had a high
view of the church. Baptism
implies to them warfare. They
saw, therefore, struggle against
the evil as their mission on the
earth. When the English
Puritans came to New England in
the seventeenth century, they
came with the vision to build
‘New Zion’ in the wilderness.
They believed that their task
was to show to the world what
the lives of men and women in
covenant with God should be.
Minister as Missionary Pastor
Rooy observes that for the
Puritans the mission duty of the
institutional church is carried
by ministers. God has appointed
them primary agents in
redemption. Ordinary ministers
are ambassadors of God to their
parishes. Their duties are not
only to the church members;
rather, if necessary, these
should be neglected and the
unbelievers sought out
(1965:320). As Richard Baxter
puts it, “True pastors and
bishops of the church do thirst
after the conversion and
happiness of sinners, and spend
their lives in diligent labors
to these ends…” (1888: II. 157).
The Great Commission of
Christ (Mt. 28:19, 20) makes it
evident that part of the
minister’s work is “to teach,
convert, and baptize men, to
bring them out of the world into
the church” (Baxter 1888: 1.
639). This commission was not
restricted to the apostles
(:639-640).[7]
The Puritan’s Mission
Principle—Baxter’s View
In the first principle,
God is Lord of the mission. For
Baxter, the radical nature of
man’s depravity makes redemption
apart from divine grace an utter
impossibility. Without Christ’s
redeeming death, no one can be
saved. Without the Spirit’s
regenerating work, no men can
believe. Divine initiative
indicates divine willingness;
divine sacrifice secures the
gracious covenant; and the
divine gift of repentance
accepts the divine invitation
(Rooy 1965:149).
The second principle is
that the divinely appointed
means accomplish the mission.
Baxter accentuates the primary
significance of the proclamation
of the gospel. He, however,
introduces two significant
qualifications. First, he
introduces the general, unfixed
minister who becomes the
missionary beyond parish bounds
in the homeland or in foreign
lands, alongside of regular,
fixed ministers of the
churches. Rooy comments that his
new and broader view of the
ministerial office in English
Puritanism made him possible to
suggest some methods for
reaching heathen nations (:150).
The third principle is
the willing response of man to
the gospel as the object of the
mission, which Baxter
dramatically set forth by his
unceasing call for conversion.
The emphasis of his appeal in
his early ministry was upon
repentance from sin, and later
upon contemplation of God’s
graciousness, but throughout his
life conversion of men was made
his earnest business (151).
Fourthly, believers in
general have a call to
participate in the mission of
the Church. For Baxter, the
believer’s plain and urgent duty
through the church, weak and
struggling as it is, is to
witness to unredeemed humanity
at home and abroad (Rooy
1965:102).[8]
As Rooy remarks: “Here
is where the theology of
missions must begin and where it
shall end. Those who bear
Christ’s name must bear his
character. He is the divine
Redeemer. His followers must be
redeemers too, the means through
Christ’s Spirit to save and to
heal” (1965 :327- 328).
Methods of Spreading the Gospel
The first method by
which the gospel is spread is
the witness of every redeemed
person. Regular ministers are
witnesses to the gospel in their
parishes. And general ministers
(missionaries) go out to seek
the unconverted wherever no
churches are, at home or abroad
(Rooy 1965:153).
Second, promoting the
public good, doing well to men’s
bodies and loving men as men
will accomplish good for their
souls. A full knowledge of the
ignorant and unbelieving
condition of the world is
necessary. So is responsible
stewardship of our gifts and
prayer. Missionaries with
philological abilities might
learn foreign languages and
teach natives so they might
spread the gospel
(:153).
Third, the brokenness of
the church has hindered the
gospel more than anything else.
Unless concord and peace come to
the church, we are unfit to
recover the world and convert
unbelievers. The love of
Christians to one another is
almost as needful as preaching
to win the world to Christ
(:153).
Fourth, the unity of the
church and the conversion of
unbelievers alike require
putting the essential truths
first. We must agree upon and
teach what is necessary to
salvation first; then we can go
to other things. The Great
Commission gives the proper
order: preach the gospel;
baptize; teach all things
(:153).
For Baxter, the
communicative nature of the
faith results in the spread of
the gospel. Thankful worship
and joyful service speak for all
to hear. As light comes into
the world by the sun, so good
comes by the Christian.
Christian must love their
neighbors, shine as lights,
preach by blameless lives, light
the way like candles, speak of
their faith, pray for
conversion, and communicate
goodness. A silent Christian is
a contradiction in terms (:155).
Mission in a Context of
Nominality
Rooy observes, “The
‘extensive interest’ of the
church (as Baxter calls it) has
a double dimension: the
unbeliever and the non-Christian
world. Both are objects of the
believer’s witness at home and
the church’s witness abroad”
(1965:119).
Rooy summarizes Baxter’s
description of nominalism in
England of the seventeenth
century:
In England where the gospel
abounds more than in any
other Nation
in the world, hosts of the
common people live in
sensuality and
religious unconcern. Men
forget that prayerless
families make powerless
lives. Religiously
uninstructed children and
servants are too often
brought up by cursing
householders, indifferent
hypocrites, and worldly
drunkards[9]
They abuse of money and time
in outright sins of
immorality and drunkenness,
in useless play-books and
feigned histories, in
willful laziness and
slothfulness of spirit,
while the soul remains under
God’s curse and while God’s
work is undone, is
self-deluding blindness
(1965:119).[10]
Baxter asserts that it
is required for pastors “to
convert these seeming Christians
to sincerity, because such
seeming Christians may be
visible members of our
churches." He affirms that
“many such are usually in the
church” and “we have therefore
ground enough to deal with them
for their conversion." Again,
he stresses, “The work of
conversion is the great thing we
must first drive at, and labour
with all our might to effect”
(1888: IV. 381).
CONCLUSION
The mission theology of the
English Puritans has
implications for missionary
proclamation in our days. There
is a parallel between the
historical context of the
English Puritans and that of our
days. We have, as they had, the
missionary task to proclaim the
eternal gospel in a changing
society. As they were, we are
in a time of social change. We
are moving from modern to
postmodern world, from the
twentieth to the twenty-first
century. And, like them, we are
facing nominality as an emerging
mission frontier. In this
chapter, we have observed the
five ingredients of the
Puritan's mission theology that
has implications for missionary
proclamation in our days:
The puritans had
theology of partnership with God
in redemption. With them, to be
a Christian was more than to
accept God’s gift. To be a
Christian was to be involved in
the partnership with God in
redemption.
Second, their emphasis
on transformation. The Puritans
strove to attain the realization
of Christ’s rule among the
nations not just by winning the
souls but also by transforming
the society.
Third, their
emphasis on transformation.
The Puritan’s goal of
mission was simply the
conversion of souls. No
matter was greater, since
this was God’s concern in
sending his Son.
Fourth, their unity
of exposition and
application in preaching.
The direct application of
spiritual truth to men’s
situation was the Puritan
purpose in preaching.
Finally, their
emphasis on evangelistic
outreach. The church has a
twofold character: as
gathering of the members of
the body, and as means to
further the gospel.
In short, the
Puritans by their mission
theology brought new focus
on God as well as new
dynamics in preaching.
Indeed, The Puritan's
mission theology is relevant
to us in that these are
exactly what we need for the
revival of the Christian
faith in our days.
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