Adoniram Judson's Gospel Tract, Still Used Today

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Pergamum

Ordinary Guy (TM)
GULF COAST PASTOR: Adoniram Judson's Gospel Tract, Still Used Today

Truth never goes out of style.

I also liked Dr. Eitel's comments on evangelism by pointing out differences rather than trying to mke Christianity almost look the same as pagan religions:

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) -- In 1816, Adoniram Judson, a legendary Baptist missionary to Burmese Buddhists, completed a tract that still brings Christ's light to a dark world and challenges 21st century missionaries to rethink their methods.

This summer, Judson's tract once again made it into the hands of Buddhists when professors and students from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary proclaimed the Gospel in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

"The tract was directly linked to Judson's first Burmese convert," Keith Eitel, dean of the seminary's Roy Fish School of Evangelism and Missions, said. Eitel came across the tract during research for an essay on Judson and had it translated into the Thai language. Eitel had been studying Judson's missions practices for a book to be published by B&H next year celebrating the bicentennial of Judson's departure from America.

Judson, who became a Baptist soon after entering the mission field, wrote the tract in order to share the Gospel with Theravada Buddhists in Burma (modern-day Myanmar). After reading the tract, Eitel thought it would have a great impact on the Theravada Buddhists in Chiang Mai as well. Responses from native Thai Christians have confirmed his theory.





The tract also displays an evangelistic method that flies in the face of many 21st century theories about how to communicate the Gospel across cultures.

"In order to soften the apparent idea of Christ's exclusivity, some missiologists have borrowed cultural anthropology's techniques and employ a comparative model to communicate the biblical message cross-culturally," Eitel said. "The intent is to build from points of apparent similarity to apparent points of contrast in order to communicate the Gospel."

Such a method concerns Eitel, since it threatens the missionary's ability to share the Gospel with biblical integrity and clarity, he says. In contrast to this method, Eitel suggests that missionaries should begin where religions differ, although always in a spirit of kindness and respect. Judson's tract does exactly this. Even in the first sentence, he undercuts Buddhist teaching:

"There is one Being who exists eternally; who is exempt from sickness, old age, and death; who was, and is, and will be, without beginning and without end. Besides this, the true God, there is no other God."

On the other hand, Eitel said, Judson shows sensitivity to Buddhist culture and concerns. In the last paragraph of the tract, for example, Judson dates the tract, in Burmese style, as being written on day 967 "of the lord of the Saddan elephant and master of the Sakyah weapon, ... the 12th day of the wane of the moon Wahgoung, after the double beat."

Judson's prayer at the end of the tract also appeals to the Buddhist desire for enlightenment. With Judson's prayer on their lips, Eitel and the Southwestern Seminary missions team took this newly translated tract to the Buddhists of Thailand: "May the reader obtain light. Amen."
 
Great tract, until the end of part 1:

"About one or two hundred years hence the religion of Boodh, or Brahma, of Mahomet, and of Rome, together with all other false religions, will disappear and be lost, and the religion of Christ will pervade the whole world; all quarrels and wars will cease, and all the tribes of man will be like a band of mutually loving brothers."

What might cause him to make such a bold statement with no Biblical or practical foundation?
 
Postmillenial optimism.

Don't you believe that the religion of Christ will one day pervade the whole world?
 
Postmillenial optimism.

Don't you believe that the religion of Christ will one day pervade the whole world?

But to claim all other religions will cease and be lost (presumably before Christ's return), and to put a timeline on when it will happen?
 
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