By way of a beginning, John Brand asks a heartfelt question, and suggest three answers. Space will only allow for the first of the three answers this time, so we hope John can whet your appetite for the next article, when he will bring you the other two.

THE question is this. At the end of the twentieth century, with the unprecedented opportunities opened up by modern communication technology and ease of travel, and when the Spirit of God is at work in exciting ways in many parts of the world, why is it that the church of Christ here in the west has, by and large, lost its passion for souls?

What is it about the church now that is so different from the church of our forefathers which was at the very heart of the modern missionary movement throughout the world?

Why is world mission so far down the agenda of the average evangelical church and Christian in the UK?

I believe that part of the answer lies in the fact that we have different persuasions. We no longer believe, it appears, in our heart of hearts, that "no one can see (let alone enter) the Kingdom of God unless he is born again". (John 3:3)

Gospel ... no longer acceptable

Leading evangelicals write of the possibility that people who have never heard of Christ could "wake up on the other side of death to find themselves accepted with God" or be able "to cross over the bridge of Christ without realising that this vital bridge is even there".

Why is world mission so far down the agenda of the average evangelical church and Christian in the UK?

In an age of tolerance, the exclusive gospel of grace with its demand that "you must be born again" is no longer acceptable to many and Christ is no longer accepted as the way to God.

Christian preachers are unashamedly calling Jesus a liar when he claimed that he was "the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me". (John 14v6)

Neither, it would seem, are we persuaded of the biblical teaching concerning eternal punishment.

Hell: politically incorrect

Evangelicals are falling over themselves to argue away this doctrine and are speaking of the more comfortable idea of punishment in eternity".

We cannot bear the idea of a God who is prepared to condemn millions of men and women to the unspeakable terrors of hell, and so have to argue away large sections of God's Word and explain away the fact that Jesus spoke more about hell than heaven and more about hell than anyone else.

Yet, the reality of eternal damnation, of a conscious, Christless hell, however horrific, unpalatable and politically incorrect, has been a stimulus to the world mission movement from the days of the Apostle Paul to William Carey and beyond. inevitably, as these and other foundation truths of God's Word have been undermined and jettisoned by modern thinking, the churches concern for reaching the unsaved has diminished. It has ever been so.

The unsaved are without hope

Church history proves that when Christians lose their confidence in the Bible they also lose their zeal for evangelism. After all, who will risk life and limb, sacrifice career and comfort, endure hostility and hardship, when those to whom they go may at best be saved by some other means and at worst face annihilation beyond the grave. The Careys, the Judsons, the Taylors and Patons of this world gave their lives in obedience to the call of the gospel because they were utterly persuaded that the unsaved are without God, without Christ and without hope.