Every time God calls a person he gives them missions. People who were called by God in the Old Testament were given missions. Biblical thoughts suggest that God is sovereign, the creator and sustainer of all things. He is absolutely supreme, and all orders of things are according to His liking. Therefore, all the creations are subject to God’s dominion. In the book of revelation, an ultimate picture of the worth of God’s creation is drawn showing the essence of creation. Missions involve all the activities that are conducted towards the promotion of the kingdom of God. The purpose of this paper is to show the role that man’s reign is mandated by God in His mission. It is clear that Gods mission is fulfilled; man worships and serves God.
In the Apostles of John, it is revealed that the essence of creation by God is to magnify and honor the sustainer and creator who is God. In the book of Genesis man is portrayed to be sharing similar attributes with God since it is stated that man was created in the likeness of God. The attributes are love and holiness since at the time of creation man was created innocent.
At the time of creation, God gave man the will to choose, and man was created for a specific purpose of having dominion on earth. By having dominion, man was to rule over the earth and serve God as the administrator over all creation.
Relevance of the New Testament and Old Testament Texts that Relate To Missions
God had declarations that required to be fulfilled by human beings in his Mission. In the Old Testament, the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden for two main reasons. God wanted to have a fellowship with them while at the same time testing their competency. If man had passed the test by God, human beings could be enjoying eternal leadership over the creation by God on earth. Sins would not have come to earth and man would be eating from the tree of life.
The Old Testament states God’s plan for the universe since Israel was not chosen against the other nations but for the sake of the rest of the nations. In Israel, there was an inward focus where parents were required to constantly repeat the story of salvation to their children. The story on how God had to be good on them was to be passed from one generation to the other as part of the instructions by God.
For the other nations, there were outward focuses who were the gentiles. People in the Old Testament had missions that were targeted towards those who never believed in God. Prophets such as Amos, Obadiah, Ezekiel and Jonah had prophesies about other nations and not only about the people of Israel. In the Book of Genesis Chapter six Verse three, it is stated that God’s warnings had a purpose.
Man was also mandated multiply where he was required to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The Book of Exodus in the Old Testament, states that the mission is proclaiming the message.
Universal Mission
In the Old Testament, missions began after the emergence of sins where the followers of God were required to deliver the message of God to the other people. Occasionally, the people of God were never successful in their mission as demonstrated by Adam who failed to lead his family to God.
The biblical flood was worldwide as well as the mission by Noah where he called all the people to enter the ark. Before the flood, people were called to repent, but, unfortunately, the efforts never bore fruits. The universality of Gods mission can also be seen in the story of Abraham when God promises to bless all the nations through Abraham. Abraham travelled, lived and built altars in many places.
The Solomon’s Temple was not exclusively for the Israelites, but it was a house of prayer for the whole nations in the world. It is through the temple that all the nations would be engaged in prayers.
Nature of God In Relation to His Mission
God’s nature necessitates the centrality of the Mission of Theology as seen in the New Testament. Sending His only son is a representation of the utter love God has foe people. The nature of God explains the reasons why He was determined to save humankind instead of allowing sins to cause eternal destruction. The grace and love of God are seen when He creates all the things. The scripture reveals God as being holy, just and loving and the only eternal being that is in existence. God is not isolated, not withdrawn but a God of relationships.
God has attributes including omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence. Omniscience means that God is all-knowing and that He is knowledgeable about His creation. Omnipresence refers to the presence of God everywhere at all times. Every individual can feel God’s presence wherever they are, and one can be called by his or her name for a mission. Omnipotence means that God has all the powers as demonstrated in the flood during the times of Noah. It can thus be argued that the missions have their origin in God’s effort to provide eternal life to His people.
Mission of Theology Relationship to Other Aspects of Theology
Trinity
The New Testament teaches on following Jesus Christ who is the way to the father that is God through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Eschatology
Contained in the Book of Revelation where there is condemnation to eternal hell of those who do not believe in Jesus Christ. It is common for human beings to choose those doctrines that favor the way that they live. As such, some people even think that eschatology in what they believe will be convenient to where or what they belong to. Eschatology dimension in a mission has a start point with a consistent model of guidance. The reasons for the differences are because Jesus Christ is coming back and nobody knows the details of His second coming.
Ecclesiology
Is the study of the church, showing what is the church, why it exists, what it is supposed to do and how it is supposed to conduct its activities. It seeks to explain the nature of the church, differentiate between the body of Christ and the local churches. It also explains the relationship between Jesus Christ and the church where the church is required in missions that serve the Kingdom of God.
Christology
As a part of theology, it deals with the Jesus Christ as the Lord. It comprises doctrines concerning Jesus Christ work and the person of Jesus Christ. It seeks to answer questions like: Who is Jesus Christ. The Bible states that Jesus was more than a prophet and a teacher. Christology is important as it helps understand the essence of the deity of Christ.
Anthropology
Addresses the relationship between human beings and God where human beings were created in the image of God. Man has exceptional references to God as compared to other living beings. It is thus concerned with the relationship between God and human beings. Sins ruin the relationship between humans and God. The restoration of the relationship between man and God was achieved through life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Key Motifs of Mission Theology
There are three motifs in the Mission Theology where the first is the Kingdom of God that is described as mysterious. It is considered to be present currently but not yet, in the world but nowhere in the world. The kingdom of God is given in the form of a gift, but it requires sacrifices.
The other motif of Mission of Theology is Jesus Christ since it is through Jesus Christ that God chose to redeem humankind via His sacrifice of death on the cross. The third motif of Mission Theology is the church which is referred to as the bride and body of Christ. It is a bride since it is an object of sacrifice and love. As a body, since Jesus chooses to convey His message so that it has an impact on the lives of people.
The two key motifs of theology mission that are addressed in the scripture are Shalom and The Kingdom of God. The motifs are useful to believers since they help believers in understanding the exact nature of Christianity, relationship with the spirit for the understanding of Biblical Christianity.
Jesus Christ identified the Kingdom of God as a key motif in the missions. Jesus stated that the gospel concerning the Kingdom of God would be preached like a testimony to all the nations of the world and finally the world would come to an end. Preaching about the Kingdom of God is the main task assigned to human beings by God. Prophet Isaiah talked of the Kingdom of God as for the entire race of humans.
The other key motif is the idea of Shalom, which it is important since there is no other true Shalom apart from God in Christ. The New Testament idea of Shalom is similar to the one contained in the Old Testament. It implies that the salvation of Jesus Christ comes from God particularly the eschatological salvation. It is worth noting that the ultimate Shalom will be experienced when Jesus Christ returns and as such, believers are required to spread and share the good news.
Conclusion
In order to have a good theology of mission, it is necessary to understand the central theme in the scripture. The theme is the desire by God to reconcile the lost human beings and to restore the relationship that has been broken by sins. In the modern days, church leaders, missionaries and lay people still maintain in the reconciliation ministry as the main motif of the Theology Mission.
God’s story, as expressed in the Bible, aims to redeem His creation. God works on earth through churches. As such, Christians in churches practice mission theology. The mission theology can be related to missionaries, lay people and church leaders. The mission theology is not just for missionaries but also a vital element for the church, missionaries and the lay people.
Mission theology requires the understanding of biblical doctrines as well as an insight on spiritual, social, economic and political issues that face the people that are being evangelized. Theology cannot be isolated from the mission task; and theology needs to be reflected in research and teaching.