Mere Missions

T he G ospel : E vangelize • 121

organization but a new creation; not democracy but the gospel; not civilization but Christ; we are ambassadors not diplomats.” The most beautiful and relevant presentation of God’s relation to the nations, the outcast, vile, evil, is found in the book of Jonah. Nineveh is completely outside the bounds. Nahum 3.1 describes this city as, “the bloody city, all full of lies and robbery.” It was a center for the worship of Ishtar (Astarte) the fertility goddess. The military rulers were, “a brutal breed.” They ruled their empire and subdued nations with absolute terror and yet God’s desire, flowing out of His heart of love, compassion and mercy, was that the Ninevites would repent. God calls and sends Jonah not to set up a compassion ministry or to deal with the injustices that were taking place in Nineveh. God calls and sends Jonah to proclaim a message of repentance and turning from idolatry to the one true Creator God. The word that Jonah brought, without any demonstration of compassion, justice or even miracles, turned a Kings heart to cry out for forgiveness and to lead the entire city in repentance. Think also of the cultural challenges in Paul’s day. Slavery was an abusive and degrading institution; infanticide, the killing of unwanted babies, was common throughout the Roman Empire; the thirst for blood, violence and gluttony is captured by the people’s cry, “give us bread and games”; temple prostitution was normal practice in the context of religious worship; women in Ancient Rome did not have equal legal status with men; prostitution in ancient Rome was legal and licensed. Not to mention the brutality and swiftness to maintain the peace, the corruptions and injustices of politics, police force (no body cams); political corruption. And then there was the inescapable health issues of the Roman Empire. “Infectious disease was long part of Roman life. Even the richest Romans could not escape the terrors of a world without germ theory, refrigeration, or clean water. Malaria and intestinal diseases were, of course, rampant” ( Smithsonian Magazine , April 2020).