The mission of Westminster Theological Seminary states that it “exists to train specialists in the Bible to proclaim the whole counsel of God for Christ and his global church.” Our focus is not local or parochial, but extensive, inclusive, and global. God is calling people to himself out of every nation, and at the heart of all that we do as a seminary is a commitment to support and equip the church of Jesus Christ as it undertakes its mission in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Across the world, there are millions of pastors who are teaching their people and leading the church with little to no theological training. Without solid training in the Scriptures, the church falters. False teaching leads the people astray, so that new Christians never move beyond spiritual milk to solid food, and the church then remains immature, weak, and unfruitful. By providing Bible-based, Christ-centered theological education, Westminster Seminary seeks to address this great need.
RE-THINKING MISSIONS
In fact, Westminster Theological Seminary has been committed to global missions from its inception. In 1932, the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America received a report entitled “Re-Thinking Missions,” which argued that recent years had given birth to a more enlightened view of humanity and that the church should recognize that there is some validity to non-Christian religions. It was claimed that missions should not be so much about bringing the gospel, but about improving the conditions and social status of people around the world.
When J. Gresham Machen read this report, he reacted strongly. In a piece entitled “The Responsibility of the Church in Our New Age” he wrote,
When I say that a true Christian church is radically intolerant, I mean simply that the church must maintain the high exclusiveness and universality of its message. It presents the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not merely as one way of salvation, but as the only way. It cannot make common cause with other faiths. It cannot agree not to proselytize. Its appeal is universal and it admits of no exceptions. All are lost in sin. None may be saved except by the way set forth in the gospel.
For Machen, that was the meaning of global missions. He went on to establish the Independent Board of Presbyterian Foreign Missions in 1933, which sent its first missionaries to China in 1934.
Westminster was closely aligned with that missionary effort from its beginning. Among those who served under the Independent Board of Presbyterian Foreign Missions was Bruce Hunt (1903–1992), a second-generation missionary to Korea. Hunt spent his first sabbatical at Westminster between 1935 and 1936, and from 1936 to 1942 he served as a missionary in Manchuria. He returned to Korea in 1946, and eventually completed 48 years of missionary service. Today’s vibrant and lively churches in Korea are the result of the faithful endeavors of missionaries like Bruce Hunt.
Richard B. Gaffin, Sr. (1907–1996), the father of our esteemed professor, Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., also served under the Independent Board established by Machen. He was, with his wife, a missionary to the Chinese people from 1935 to 1976, at first on the Chinese mainland, and then on the island of Taiwan. Before he left Taiwan in 1976, a first-ever indigenous Reformed denomination had been established there.
Taking our cue from those early leaders and missionaries, Westminster’s Global Ministries department continues to equip the churches in these countries. Two well-subscribed degree programs are offered in the Korean language, and a very successful Bible reading project, “Reading Jesus,” is expanding at an amazingly fast pace in Korea.
Westminster’s Project M offers pastoral training in Mandarin to leaders in the Chinese churches and seeks to nurture well-qualified leaders and competent preachers for the growing church. The resilience and commitment of our co-workers in these regions is exemplary and worthy of our fulsome support as the church moves forward and expands.
In addition to its established global ministries, Westminster is currently developing programs in Arabic and Spanish so that the church is strengthened and supported in those regions of the world.
So, it only makes sense to ask: Why should Westminster continue to make efforts to equip the global church? Given the enormously complex task of crossing cultures and delivering theological education in different languages, why should we engage in a ministry that requires so much work and sacrifice?
WHY GLOBAL?
Westminster Theological Seminary engages in global ministries because God’s heart beats for the nations. The New Testament records five occasions when Jesus taught his disciples about the importance of reaching out to people with the good news and how he commissioned them to such missionary service (Matthew 28:18–20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:44–49; John 20:21; Acts 1:8). The Luke 24 passage suggests that these commands stand on a biblical foundation that goes back beyond New Testament times. God’s missionary heart and his love for the nations is unmistakably declared throughout the Old Testament.
From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is the story of God’s people on mission, and this mission seeks the blessing of others, indeed, the blessing of all nations. That multinational perspective is rooted in the covenant with Abraham to whom God promised that “all the nations of the earth be blessed” through him (Genesis 22:18). The Great Commission of Matthew 28:19–20 echoes the promise made to Abraham and affirms the continued and enhanced presence of the risen Lord as his people undertake this great task which has been entrusted to them.
The ministry of Christ confirmed the loving heart of God for sinners. “When Jesus went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34). In the parable of the prodigal son, Jesus portrays God as having a heart full of love and compassion for his wayward and rebellious son (Luke 15:20). And John 3:16 makes it explicit that it was out of a heart of love for our sinful and corrupt world that God provided a way to rescue and save perishing people.
By opening the Christ-centered, multiethnic focus of the whole Bible in its courses of study, Westminster Seminary seeks to enthuse and empower its students for global mission and ministry. Grasping this vision of a message that promises blessings for all the families of the earth, and that will culminate in an innumerable, international company of people worshiping and praising God, students are enabled to commit themselves wholeheartedly to taking the gospel into all the world. They go out with hope and expectation knowing that the work of missions is God’s work and that “the Son of God gathers himself a church out of the whole human race” (Heidelberg Catechism, A. 54).
SALVATION
Westminster Theological Seminary engages in global ministries because salvation is only found in Jesus. If people could be saved by any other means than through Jesus, then, according to Paul, not only did Jesus die in vain (Gal. 2:21), but we who are preachers preach in vain. But Acts 4:12 is clear that salvation is found in Jesus alone. “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
One thing is perfectly clear—no missionary work that consists merely in presenting to the people in foreign lands a thing that has proved to be mildly valuable in the experience of the missionary himself, which he thinks may perhaps prove helpful in foreign lands in building up a better life upon this earth, can possibly be regarded as real Christian missions.
At the very heart of the real Christian missionary message is the conviction that every individual hearer to whom the missionary goes is in deadly peril, and that unless the message is heeded he is without hope in this world and in the dreadful world that is to come. —J. Gresham Machen
The great New Testament truth is that, since the coming of the Son of God, all saving faith must be focused on Him. This was not always the case, and those former times were called the “times of ignorance” (Acts 17:30). Before the coming of Christ, the great “mystery” of God’s redemptive plan was kept secret. But those times of ignorance have now ended, and the plan of the mystery is now revealed through preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ (Ephesians 3:4–10). The truth is that people from all the nations of the world are now drawn into the inheritance of Abraham through hearing and believing the gospel of Christ.
How does God save? God comes to save in the person of Christ, Immanuel. We understand the progressive nature of the history of redemption and how the war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent lies behind all biblical history. This history of redemption finds its focus and fulfilment in Jesus Christ.
In the lead article of Jerusalem and Athens, a book prepared to celebrate Cornelius Van Til’s seventy-fifth birthday, Van Til says that he writes for his friends and Christian critics so that “we may be of help to one another as together we present the name of Jesus as the only name given under heaven by which men must be saved.” It is this commitment that controlled Van Til’s life, teaching, and work in apologetics, and which underpins the whole curriculum at Westminster.
By developing this great biblical theme, and by teaching the necessity of a Christ-centered focus in preaching and pastoral care, Westminster seeks to equip its students to proclaim the gospel so that people everywhere may see the beauty of Christ and taste the sweetness of the gospel.
Following a recent course offered in the Middle East, one of our Arabic-speaking students said that prior to taking the course he had been reluctant to read the Old Testament. To him, it sounded too much like the religion he had left behind when he believed in Christ. But the experience of studying Genesis with a Westminster faculty member had brought him joy and delight for he was now able to see Christ in the Old Testament, and he could begin to read it through Christian eyes.
BIBLICAL COMMITMENT
Westminster Theological Seminary understands that a commitment to global ministries has significant implications for the church. The Bible is quite clear that, although the work of missions is God’s work, God has entrusted the ministry of reconciliation and gospel proclamation to his church. This ministry is critical in God’s plan for the world. The gospel is both the declaration of a royal decree and an earnest invitation. Sharing that message extends beyond qualified and recognized teachers to every member of the church and requires the support of every Christian believer.
The gospel is both the declaration of a royal decree and an earnest invitation.
There are many benefits that accrue to a mission-minded church and her members. Churches committed to mission are enriched and energized by their missionary involvement. But a commitment to mission makes demands on the church.
Firstly, the effectiveness of mission depends on Christians living godly and holy lives. By exhibiting the genuine life of Christ, and by engaging in Spirit-filled, Christ-exalting worship, the church is attractive to the unbelieving world. Paul repeatedly urges his readers to consider the impact of their lives on “outsiders” (1 Thess. 4:12; Col. 4:5; 1 Tim. 3:7). The church that bears witness to Christ must show the mind and love of Christ in all her relationships.
Secondly, effective mission requires the church to be active in the ministry of prayer. The church has the important responsibility of offering continuous intercession for the raising up of gospel workers (Matt. 9:37). Paul repeatedly appeals to the church not to forget him and his fellow-workers in their prayers (1 Thess. 5:25; 2 Thess. 3:1). We petition the Lord because we know that it is only as God works powerfully in the hearts and minds of unbelievers that they are changed and transformed. We pray in faith, believing that God will build his church.
If Christ can draw one soul to himself, why can he not draw twenty; and if he can draw twenty, why not twenty thousand and thousands of millions? Why should we not live to see many millions of souls converted to God? Let us pray to the Holy Spirit to present the irresistible attractions of Christ to the hundreds of millions in the whole human race. —C.H. Spurgeon
PREPARING PREACHERS
Westminster Theological Seminary is committed to global ministries as it prepares preachers to declare the whole counsel of God to the whole world. The majority of churches in the world are led by pastors without training or resources to shepherd God’s people. Some estimates are that 85% of Christian pastors have no training for ministry and that 5 million pastors in the 10/40 window have no access to any kind of formal biblical training. Unscrupulous pastors are fleecing already impoverished flocks as the prosperity gospel runs rampant. Without solid discipleship and biblical teaching, new Christians are easily deceived by false teaching.
More than anything else, the effective execution of the church’s mission requires preachers, as Paul makes plain. “How are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” (Rom. 10:14, 15). The mission of God in the world is undertaken in obedience to the command of God, and God himself has designated the method. As God’s servants preach the word of Christ, the people hear Christ himself speaking to them and they can respond in faith (Rom. 10:17).
Confronting the unbelief and complexities of life in our contemporary world requires leaders who have a firm grasp of theology and a clear understanding of the challenges of Christian ministry. Effective global ministry calls for a robust program of theological education so that Christ can be winsomely proclaimed in all his glory and perfections. Westminster Seminary’s ongoing commitment to training pastor-theologians and preachers who are specialists in the Bible is crucial for the future of the global church.