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The Importance Of Preaching Since we live in the dispensation of the return of Christ, the principle sign of Christ’s coming is the preaching of the gospel. This sign is the cause of all the other signs which speak eloquently that our Lord is coming back. 

From all of our previous discussion on this subject there can be no doubt but that Christ brought the ransom for the sins of His people, His own sheep, the church, His Body, the children of God, those given to Him by the Father, the many.  There are many passages of Scripture that point this out very clearly. I shall mention a few. 

In this series of articles on, “Calvinism and Mission Preaching,” I have devoted considerable space to the subject of particular atonement. Anyone will understand that this is actually the very heart of the matter, because preaching is the proclamation of the cross of Jesus Christ. Moreover, it is exactly at this point where the objection is raised that it is impossible to preach Calvinism with its limited atonement on the mission field.

Efficacious grace is one of the fundamental truths of Scripture preserved for us by the Reformation and maintained by the Calvinists. Calvinism confesses:  Sovereign predestination, by which is meant that the God of all grace eternally decrees to lead His chosen people to heavenly perfection in Christ, where they shall show forth His glorious praises forever; and that also the wicked who are destined to perish in their sins must serve toward the salvation of the elect. 

The period from five hundred to one thousand after Christ is often referred to as The Dark Age. There was much corruption in the church, especially among the popes that controlled the church. Paganism and barbarianism still prevailed in much of the continent of Europe. And there was often a bitter struggle between the church and the pagans. One of the clerics of France wrote in the early part of the tenth century (909), “The cities are depopulated, the monasteries ruined and burned, the country reduced to solitude . . . .

We have come to the very heart of the issue that always distinguishes the sound Scriptural preaching of the gospel to the unconverted from all sorts of human philosophies and corruptions of the truth. Here we come to the parting of the ways between those who maintain that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation and those who insist on a mere offer of salvation which man may accept or reject. Here we either consistently maintain that salvation is of the Lord, and entirely so, or we try to introduce something of man into the work of salvation. 

Our God is the living God.  Before Him the angels hide their faces in holy adoration, the saints in heaven bow in humble worship, the devils and the wicked tremble, and. the church on earth rejoices to behold His salvation. 

The period of history from approximately the year one thousand to the time of the Reformation is characterized by various mission endeavors. There was the mission effort of the Roman Catholic Church to make converts among the barbarians that still existed on the mainland of Europe and the surrounding country. There was, secondly, the attempt to reach into the countries where the Mohammedans had gained control. And there was, thirdly, what may be referred to as the reformatory mission endeavors within the Roman Catholic Church as the Church became increasingly apostate. 

Our thesis has been that the preaching of the gospel is the principle sign of the return of Jesus Christ. It is the principle sign because it is the means in the purpose of Christ to bring about the other signs both in the history of the world and in the development of the church. In our last article we discussed in what way the preaching of the gospel realizes the fundamental division of the world into the two camps of Christianity and Paganism, “Jerusalem” and “Gog and Magog.” We pointed out that in the Christian nations, the gospel has...

There is a good deal of material in the Epistles generally which has a direct bearing on the Principles of Missions. This is especially true of the Epistles of Paul. This is to be expected for several reasons, the first of which is that the Apostle Paul was themissionary to the Gentiles. This being the case, the Epistles of Paul are emphatically missionary epistles. Quite in general it may be said they were written while Paul was on the mission field.