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Paradigms in Conflict: 10 Key Questions in Christian Missions Today

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Dr. Hesselgrave pulls out the stops to tackle 10 key questions facing missions in our century. For anyone considering, currently active in Christian missions, and also mission-minded pastors and mission committee members, this should be required reading. Without a clear understanding of the paradigms that we are facing it seems likely that the course of Western missions will continue on its downward spiral. However, this does not mean that we necessarily need more Western missionaries as more nationals are starting to fill the gap. Still, the Western church's general apathy, focus on ivory palaces and entertainment, and a marked shift towards a social gospel and humanitarian aid are quite troubling.

Without even mentioning how many evangelicals who do not actually tithe, some statistics state that less than 2 cents of every dollar taken in by the church goes to missions. Is it any wonder that some missionaries take years to raise support, or have come back to their sending country because they lack support? If Christians were tithing and supporting the Great Commission in a biblical manner, missionaries would be turning down support because they already have too much. The church of Laodicea in Revelation 3 comes to mind... I hope that our interaction with Dr. Hesselgrave's questions, and others, will help turn the tide back towards biblical mission.

Some Highlights:
Chapter One on "Sovereignty and Free Will" is well placed at the forefront, as it is an important part of the foundation that biblical missions needs to be built on. If believers don't have these two balanced in a biblical manner there will be a deadening of hearts to the Great Commission. As church history proves, its consequences are far reaching!

Although Hesselgrave mainly looks at the differences between what he calls "Calvinism" and "Arminianism", he at least sees the possibility of five distinct divisions within them. Personally, I don't believe one must, of necessity, be either be a Calvinist or an Arminian. Moving on, Hesselgrave then looks at this issue in light of missions and after analyzing and discussing the two extremes, Augustianian Deterministic Calvinism and Open Theism, he discusses the more moderate views. The most noteworthy and harmonious in regards to the Bible and missions is undoubtedly the mediate position presented by C. Gordon Olson in his book Beyond Calvinism and Arminianism: An Inductive, Mediate Theology of Salvation and Getting the Gospel Right: A Balanced View of Calvinism and Arminianism. My take is that Hesselgrave also sees the inherent value of an inductive study and leans that way himself.

On the other hand, D. A. Carson unsuccessfully tries to breathe new life into Calvinism by using "compatibilism", but in the final analysis he has to admit, "compatibilism remains something of a mystery". Hesselgrave's quote of church historian Philip Schaff puts all this into perspective, "The Bible gives us a theology which is more human than Calvinism, and more divine than Arminianism, and more Christian than either of them". At the end of the chapter there is also and interesting discussion of Romans 9-11 that keeps the biblical context in view.

Dr. Hesselgrave sums up the chapter nicely in that, "God's eternal and unchangeable purpose and plan is that in this age of grace [H]is "new people," the church, preach the gospel to people everywhere so that "whosoever will" may call upon the name of the Lord and be saved (Rom. 10:14-17). It is our responsibility and privilege to go and preach to worldlings. It is their privilege and responsibility to hear and believe."

Under "Common Ground and Enemy Territory" I appreciated the author's discussion of syncretism and Islam since they relate directly to folk Muslims here in sub-Saharan Africa. The connection of Ishmael and Esau to Muhammad is interesting as well. Although Hesselgrave doesn't seem to go that far, I would even question the use of "Allah" for God and "Isa" for Jesus in many of our Bible translations because of all the baggage those names bring with them. As Islam recently became the world's fastest growing religion, more and more missionaries will need to be able to witness effectively to Muslims.

The chapter on "Holism and Prioritism" is summed up: "Missionaries should do their best to seek out individuals and people groups who, by whatever means, have been providentially prepared to hear, understand, and respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ...Missionaries and missions supporters of every generation do well to pray, prepare, plan, and proceed in ways that maximize the possibility of finding people whose hearts and minds have been prepared to receive the gospel gratefully and gladly...We Christians constantly need to remind ourselves that "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10). Amid all the good things that missionaries are called upon to do, they should never forget that their essential task is to seek out those who will humbly confess their sins and throw themselves upon the mercy of God available in Christ Jesus. And among all the needs for which missionary intercessors might pray, they should pray that missionaries will be successful in that search. After all, the reason for Jesus' coming is the reason for their going."

I am encouraged that the author is also an advocate of "storying the gospel" and "a chronological Bible study that follows the progress of biblical revelation from creation in Genesis to Christ in the Gospels, and from the church in Acts and the Epistles to the consummation in the Apocalypse...My conviction is that gospel communication of the chronological and narrative kinds...is crucial to effective gospel communication." (p. 185)

In regards to "Amateurization and Professionalization" I would say that Dr. Hesselgrave advocates an acceptable balance between the two extremes. Although I agree that missions is a "calling", it seems to me that many of the "called" either need to be encouraged and challenged in that direction, or they do their best to ignore or suppress it. Perhaps that is why our Lord Jesus stated that the workers are few. Was that because He didn't call enough? Appeals for workers both to the Father and to those in the pew are thus necessary and biblical as they are means to that end.

Chapter 9 entitled, "Countdowns and Prophetic Alerts" looks at the relationship between missions and the imminent return of Christ. Since the biblical doctrine of Imminency is under siege in some denominations like the EFCA Dr. Hesselgrave rightly points out that since the 19th century, premillennialists, i.e. dispensationalists, have had by far the most impact on missions. The corollary is obvious. Hesselgrave mentions such notables as Darby, Moody, Scofield, A. T. Pierson, Lewis Sperry Chafer, Moody Bible Institute, DTS, Trinity, Bible School movements, and more. If we believe that the return of Christ is indeed "at any moment", then that is part of our motivation and urgency in spreading the gospel.

Chapter 10 has a good section covering the relationship of the Church and the Kingdom. In particular we see that the strength of Alva McClain's Greatness of the Kingdom is because it uses a consistent hermeneutic that upholds a verbal plenary view of the inspiration of Scripture. McClain's work is compared that with George Ladd's "The Presence of the Future", which does not support verbal, plenary inspiration, uses a complementary hermeneutic, says little about the Great Commission, and puts too much confidence in human scholarship. This continuing trend in weakening views on inspiration from some quarters evangelicalism is important to note. (e.g. premill covenant & progressive positions)

Although "Paradigms" covers an important range of missiological subjects, I really appreciate Dr. Hesselgrave's willingness to tackle some critical issues that are not usually touched upon in missions circles. His insights and boldness are to be commended. In that regard, chapters 1, 9, and 10, in particular, shed new light on how what we believe influences how we will respond to these questions.

Dr. Hesselgrave has tackled 10 of the key issues that have needed to be dealt with for some time in the missions world, and he has done it with great clarity and much wisdom. Dr. Hesselgrave is a gifted writer and has contributed much over the years for evangelicals to ponder concerning missions. However, this may be his best work to date. I highly recommend this book to anyone concerned with getting the Gospel of Christ to the Nations.

H. Edward Pruitt

I think Waldron Scott has identified, not a weakness of Hesselgrave's book, but its key strength. It is the fact that the author comes to sound conclusions about each of the ten issues that makes this book a very welcome balance to many skewed modern conclusions of these ten crucial issues. Hesselgrave's Biblical hermenuetics are very well thought out with possibly only one or two exceptions. He's extensively well-read and has a mountain of experience behind him. Strongest of all: he's committed to a Biblical basis for mission as being fundamentally the only foundation we can stand on for any argument within the world of mission.

For more on how I felt about this text, check out Arukiyomi's blog at

Worst book on missions I've read. The author should have picked one of these ten topics to write on because there's simply not enough room to adequately cover things like predestination in one chapter without creating straw men of both sides of the argument. Consistently caricatured positions to make his look better. Rarely came down solidly on one side. Argued against people without even citing their works, only citing dubious secondary sources. For example: the author spent multiple pages calling Barth a liberal and attacking neo-orthodox views of scripture, but didn't cite Barth or even a Barth scholar once.

Awful. I would never give this to someone with questions about how to do missions.

Hasselgrave has written many profound and great resources involving missions and intercultural communications. His book on Communicating Christ Cross-Culturally is a fantastic read. This book is a fantastic read for anyone studying about missions, seminary students, and those wanting to understand the theological implications for missions.

Paradigms presenting are definite points of debate in the Christian theological studies today. Hasselgrave presents fair and mostly unbias views of each paradigm. It is clear that he has a passion for scripture and uses it for his guide in discussing these matters as it is quoted or pointed all throughout this text.

Just a quick annotation for the paradigms presented: Sovereignty and Free Will; Restrictivism and Inclusivism; Common Ground and Enemy Territory; Holism and Prioritism; Incarnationalism and Representationalism; Power Encounter and Truth Encounter; Amateurization and Professionalization; Form and Meaning; Countdowns and Prophetic Alerts; and The Kingdom of God and the Church of Christ.

This a great resource and deserves a wide reading among evangelicals and should be used among the academic circles in today's seminaries.

This book engages ten of the more important missiological questions of our time. It is provocative because it goes against the grain of much contemporary thinking; and stimulating because it prompts to reader to clarify his or her own thoughts on the issues surfaced. Ultimately the book is frustrating because Hesselgrave, while purporting to present an objective duscussion, works from within a unbiblially narrow and freqently outdated frame, which the reader discerns early on,and thus invariably comes to predictable conclusions. Readers comfortable with a dispensationist hermeneutic will appreciate the book more than others.