Advancing the Vision: The Fourfold Gospel in Contemporary and Global Contexts

By Bernie Van De Walle, Jenny-Lyn de Klerk and Jura Yanagihara

After more than 130 years, the Fourfold Gospel--Jesus Christ, our Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King--continues to find a ready following and creative expression around the world. Its success, however, means that it has come to be understood, expressed, and practiced in ways somewhat differently than it originally was. This volume, written by scholars from across the globe, explores these emphases in detail, articulating how the passage of well over a century and the crossing of oceans has resulted in the advancing of the original vision.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Release date: Feb 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9781532657153

Book preview

Preface

Let’s be frank. When one thinks of the Christian and Missionary Alliance one is not likely to picture a long and storied tradition of rigorous theological scholarship as one might with other traditions. In fact, such a perspective on the Alliance may not even seem like a remote possibility. This posture may be the natural outcome of the Alliance’s strongly activist character and its thoroughgoing commitment to the completion of the Great Commission. To such a movement, theological investigation, contemplation, and reflection may appear, at best, to be unnecessary luxuries or impractical distractions to the true calling of God and the urgency of the task at hand. Such a posture would incline a movement to provide little attention and to supply meager resources to the theological task. While not devoid of theological self-consideration, the history of the Alliance shows that such efforts were random, sporadic, and occasional.

Historically, therefore, the Alliance’s prominent theological voices have been pastors rather than trained theologians, and its most influential theological sources have been sermons rather than deeply researched and carefully argued treatises. As such, these sources have been both unavoidably shaped and inescapably limited by the pastoral context and considerations of both the preacher and the intended first audience. To this day, the tradition’s most powerful theological voices continue to be that of its founder, A. B. Simpson (1843–1919), and of A. W. Tozer (1897–1963). While they were each men of profound thought, they were not (strictly speaking) theologians, nor was the articulation or development of a particularly Alliance theology their fundamental intent.

Yet, scholarly contributions to the development and articulation of an Alliance theology are not wholly lacking. Of particular note and a key exception to the general rule was 1987’s The Birth of a Vision. Edited by Charles Nienkirchen and David Hartzfeld, this volume was prepared by faculty members of Canadian Bible College and Canadian Theological Seminary in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, to mark the centennial of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. This volume provided significant teaching in several areas pertinent to Alliance history, theology, and missiology. Yet, it is now thirty-five years old and the world (even the Alliance world) has moved along considerably since then. Moreover, it was written primarily by North Americans—primarily male Caucasians—and, therefore, cannot help but be constrained by their perspectives, their concerns, their goals, and their agendas.

Recently, the International Commission for Theological Education (ICTE) of the Alliance World Fellowship took on the tasks of addressing this historic deficit, of encouraging those currently engaged in this investigation, and of broadening the spectrum of those contributing to the discussion. First, it sought to foster a culture within the Alliance and its various regions conducive to deeper biblical, theological, historical, and missional examination and reflection. Among other measures, the ICTE has organized theological symposia in the Alliance World Fellowship’s six regions, venues for national and local leaders to focus on and to celebrate what have historically been called Alliance distinctives. Second, looking to the future, the ICTE has made the identification, development, and encouragement of young scholars another priority. Consequently in 2019, the ICTE operated its first Young Scholars’ Training Initiative, drawing on select delegates from around the world, encouraging and equipping them to increase research, writing, and instruction on topics of Alliance interest. Third, realizing that the resources necessary to this kind of research is not readily accessible to many, the ICTE has applied its resources to the collection and development of digitized materials and placed them in an online repository for all to enjoy. Finally, significant steps are being taken to encourage current research and develop of a cohort of Alliance scholars. In your hands, you hold one of the products of that emphasis. This volume contains theological contributions from Alliance scholars from many of the AWF’s six regions. As such, this publication is simply without precedent. Our prayer, of course, is that this contribution will simply be the first such effort of many more to follow.

A volume of this kind does not see the light of day without untold hours of diligent work. Of course, thanks go to each of the authors for their commitment both to their chapters and to this volume. Each has truly advanced our collective understanding of the founding vision of A. B. Simpson and his associates. Second, thanks go to my friends and colleagues, Ben Elliott and Jenny-Lyn de Klerk, for the painstaking effort they exerted in helping to make good work even better. We all owe them a debt of gratitude. Finally, thanks also go to Jura Yanagihara, President of the Alliance World Fellowship, for encouraging this project from its conception through its publication. It has been a great pleasure to work both with and for him.

Bernie Van De Walle

Introduction

A Manifesto for Christ-Centered Deeper Life and Missions

Jura Yanagihara

The Christian and Missionary Alliance is a Christ-centered movement committed to the deeper life and missions. Revivalism and a great enthusiasm for missions made up the fertile ground in which the experiential development of A. B. Simpson’s theology took place. The Alliance’s message was both an articulation of the theology of the sixteenth-century Reformers and an outcome of the spiritual revival of the third Great Awakening in the late nineteenth century. The bulk of the foundational literature of the Christian and Missionary Alliance is formed by Simpson’s writings, as well as books by A. W. Tozer and missionary reports from R. A. Jaffray and other pioneers. Proper and fair scrutiny of these writings is essential for understanding the roots of this movement and to renew and strengthen its sense of identity and purpose.

Advancing the Vision brings together some of the best of Alliance scholarship in a collective effort to understand the Alliance theological heritage, apply it to present global and local contexts, and lay a foundational path for the Alliance to continue to be relevant in the future. Over the span of 130 years, the Christian and Missionary Alliance evolved to become a global movement with a presence in more than 80 countries. Around 90 percent of its current membership of 6.2 million reside in the majority world. However, the bulk of scholarly reflection on the Alliance’s history and theology comes from North America. Although Advancing the Vision still reflects this imbalance, it attempts to expand the locus of theological reflection to the whole world. It brings together Alliance thinkers from various regions to collectively reflect on the message and practice of the Alliance movement. Although the authors do not explicitly interact with each other, their chapters present a common motif (the understanding of the true gospel) and a common motivation (its faithful living and proclamation).

The shift of the center of gravity of Christianity to the majority world has meant that the message of the gospel is going to be articulated in a diverse religious and cultural setting by people born in that context. Now, a worldwide movement such as the Christian and Missionary Alliance has a unique opportunity to reflect on spiritual life, church, and missions outside the Judeo-Christian western tradition that has shaped Christian theology and practice for more than two thousand years. What Lee Beach points out about the Christian and Missionary Alliance leading the way for the church to rediscover its true identity in a post-Christendom society is also valid for global Christianity. Since cultures are also theological resources, the global Alliance church is uniquely positioned to refine its message by conducting a collective work of spiritual discernment that takes cultures into consideration and goes beyond them to proclaim the gospel as a universal message.

The Fourfold Gospel has been the trademark of the Christian and Missionary Alliance that uniquely articulates the gospel of Jesus Christ as our Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King. Russell Huizing notes that the Fourfold Gospel encompasses multiple aspects of Christ’s ministry that, together, address the diverse manifestations of universal human need. The Fourfold Gospel can be viewed as a unified proclamation of the gospel uniquely able to contextualize its message to all people. Nowadays, the ministry of proclamation is anchored in the essential tenets of the Alliance as the Fourfold Gospel continues to be used extensively by the Christian and Missionary Alliance worldwide. This book is an attempt to bring contributions from natives of different cultures and their expressions of the gospel to particular peoples in a manner relevant to their situations.

One interesting example of contextualization is presented by Christopher Vena. He reframes the ministry of Jesus Christ, the Sanctifier, to extend its effects to the whole of redeemed creation. Sin has corrupted the capacity of humankind to exercise dominion over the earth and develop its full potential, which has resulted in the structural sin manifested by ecosystem degradation, poverty, inequality, and injustice. For Vena, each aspect of the sanctification of the believer—such as separation from sin, conformity to the likeness and will of God, and love for God and others—affects the way we interact with the creation to restore its condition as it was first intended by God. Compassion ministry has been central to the Christian and Missionary Alliance movement since the beginning. CAMA Services (USA), Justice and Compassion (Canada), CAMA Zending (Netherlands), and Hong Kong Alliance Mission, for example, have been on the frontline of this ministry. As the Alliance has grown as a movement, more national churches have started building their own capacity in relief and development that is fully integrated with both their church planting and missionary efforts.

Jesus Christ, the Healer is the subject of two chapters of this book. Simpson viewed divine healing as part of his deeper life experience and the culmination of his holistic experience of salvation. Ben Elliott surveys the implications of the concept of healing in the atonement as proposed by Simpson, arguing that a broader understanding of the atonement, beyond the vicarious or substitutionary element, will help us understand healing. He also introduces other elements such as the mystery of God, the victory of Christ, and the incarnation, as presented by different theologians in their understanding of the atonement, to help pastors address the dilemma of why some believers who earnestly seek and pray for healing are not effectively healed. Franklin Pyles also deals with the question of why healing in the atonement is incomplete when the atonement itself is not. Pyles proposes that instead of considering healing as part of the atonement (in the atonement), we should consider healing as a consequence of the atonement (through the atonement). In this formulation, healing should be placed in the realm of the already-but-not-yet eschatological tension of the kingdom of God. Healing is available but not in its fullness in that we can be united with Christ through the Holy Spirit to experience healing now. This was where Simpson had put his emphasis.

As a Christ-centered movement, the Christian and Missionary Alliance has sometimes struggled to convey and articulate a message that properly balances its emphasis on the centrality of Christ and the offices of the other persons of the triune God, particularly of the Holy Spirit. Gordon Smith describes a kind of Spirit-centered spirituality that puts too much emphasis on supernatural aspects of the ministry of the Holy Spirit and neglects fundamental elements such as the spiritual disciplines and suffering. Smith proposes a return to a Christ-centered spirituality that emphasizes the centrality of Christ and locate[s] the ministry of the Spirit in Christ, to be thoroughly Trinitarian and attend to the ways of the Spirit—Word, sacrament, and the fundamental practices of the spiritual life.

A. B. Simpson was one of the most prominent promoters of the higher Christian life (or the deeper life) in Christ. Paul King surveys how the Higher Life movement started and evolved in the nineteenth century and how it influenced Simpson’s theology and the formulation of the Fourfold Gospel. Relating Simpson’s view to the early church fathers, the Puritans, and Simpson’s contemporaries who emphasized the higher life, King reflects on doctrines pertaining to Christian life and ministry such as the royal priesthood, identity with Christ, the authority of the believer, and the inheritance of the believer, among others, from the point of view of higher Christian life. He concludes by affirming that the C&MA worldwide should rediscover and reemphasize these classic principles of Alliance heritage.

Eschatology and missions were tightly interconnected in Simpson’s thought. Premillennial hope has been the driving force for Alliance missions since its inception. Reflecting on the development and the results of the Alliance missions, Peter Laughlin reframes the Alliance missionary eschatology to be supportive of premillennialism when context dictates it as well as adaptative to the global and diverse nature of the Alliance movement. On the same issue, Miguel Palomino emphasizes the need of biblical preaching on the return of Christ and its proper tie with missions as Latin American evangelical churches in general have distanced themselves from this fundamental teaching.

Besides A. B. Simpson, no other worker has had a more profound impact on the theology and practice of Alliance missions than R. A. Jaffray. He was a missionary statesman who opened fields in China, Indochina, and Indonesia, where he died in a Japanese war camp during World War II. Yakob Tomatala presents a portrait of Jaffray’s thought by revisiting his mission reports, which are full of insightful biblical reflections on his theology and philosophy of missions. Yet, the landscape for missions have changed dramatically from Jaffray’s day, so new approaches are necessary to access the unreached and frontier people groups who live in countries usually closed to traditional missionaries. Engaging Christian professionals and businesspeople in missions so that they can fully use the gifts and talents that God has given them is a necessity for missions to be sustainable for the global Alliance church. More resources can be mobilized in terms of people, finance, and strategy to enhance capillarity on both ends of the missionary effort. Diaspora ministry has also had a great impact on missions. It has opened channels to share the gospel with unreached people in a less hostile environment and it has been a driving force to engage less-resourced national churches with missions. Although distant from Jaffray’s time and landscape, mission-minded Christians will be inspired by Jaffray’s thoughtful approach to missions.

Persecution has been tightly connected with gospel proclamation since the days of the apostle Stephen. Marco Wittenberg claims that if we as the Alliance want to be faithful witnesses amid persecution (in the present and the future) we need to be, more than ever, filled with the Holy Spirit. This aspect of the so-called deeper life is imperative in missions and especially to be a faithful witness in times of persecution. This is a particularly relevant insight since the persecution of Christians has increased over the centuries. Missionaries working among unreached people have faced increasingly hostile opposition. In this sense, deeper life and missions are not only connected on the motivational level but also fundamentally linked because the filling of the Holy Spirit is an essential presence for the missionary to proclaim the gospel under persecution.

The writings of A. B. Simpson have received increased worldwide attention and scrutiny inside and outside the Christian and Missionary Alliance. The existence and continued growth of this movement, more than one hundred years after the death of its founder, is a testament that God has a unique role for this movement to bear in the greater scheme of his plan for the salvation of humanity. Present Alliance leaders must collectively discern how this Christ-centered, deeper life, and mission movement, born in the nineteenth century, is to evolve if it is to proclaim Christ faithfully and effectively in the twenty-first century, serving both as a prophetic voice and a transforming presence in this world.

Finally, Bernie Van De Walle is to be commended for his vision and effort to bring the present book to fruition. This book is, of course, a small representation of what Alliance theology for the present age looks like but, in part, its intent is to open the door for many other similar initiatives. May its tribe increase.

1

Christ-Centered or Spirit-Centered?

Why the Question Matters; Why the Answer Makes All the Difference

Gordon T. Smith

From my experience as a young pastor of a Christian and Missionary Alliance church in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada in the late 1970s, I carry two abiding impressions when it comes to the language and understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Both of these impressions have been reinforced over the succeeding decades. The first was something I observed from my involvement in the Evangelical Fellowship of Peterborough, an association of pastors of evangelical congregations in the city—some spoke a Jesus language and others spoke a Spirit language. For some pastors, their language of God and grace and the life of the church was all about Jesus with virtually no reference to the Spirit. The others spoke Spirit language when they spoke about God and the grace of God. It was all about the Spirit. As one might suspect, the first group tended to be from Baptist churches of various stripes. The other group came from congregations that were affiliated with a Pentecostal or charismatic fellowship. Neither group, however, seemed to me to be actually trinitarian.

The second impression came from an observation made by a woman in my own congregation. One day she noted that most of the congregation had experienced Christ and had known the grace of forgiveness and salvation but failed to experience the fullness of the Spirit. What was lacking, she said, was an experience of the Spirit that would take them into a higher and deeper experience of the grace of God. From this perspective, knowing Christ is a good thing; even better, however, is to have an experience of the Spirit—a more transformative and elevated experience.

As noted, these initial impressions as a young pastor were not unique to that chapter of my life and ministry. I have observed both of these as recurring themes again and again and again. And here’s the challenge: both are a problem. First, it is problem when we are not truly trinitarian. Second, it is a problem when the relationship between Christ and the Spirit is ambiguous. In the reflections that follow, I wish to speak to both. First, we must insist that the church be thoroughly trinitarian-affirming in doctrine, worship, and Christian spirituality, an in-depth appreciation of the life of one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But, second, our particular challenge is to be very clear about the relationship between the second and third Persons of the Trinity including the implications of such for Christian worship and Christian spirituality.

In what follows, we must, of course, make sense of the witness of the New Testament regarding these questions. But I am also very intentionally going to consider the relationship of Christ and the Spirit through the lens of my own theological and spiritual tradition, the Christian and Missionary Alliance. In so doing, I am seeking to speak to my own people—to those who work and witness with me in this particular faith community. Beyond that, however, I am hoping to speak to these questions in a way that might be helpful to those of other denominational communities since what we are wrestling with in our house is not unique to us. Further, all of us do theology from a particular lens, so I am seeking to be intentional in the way that I am considering these themes from a particular vantage point.

The Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada has as its current slogan, Christ-Centred, Spirit-Empowered, Mission-Focused. This slogan very effectively captures what I hope to stress in this chapter, namely, that the Alliance is both Christ-centered and Spirit-empowered and how these are nuanced and distinguished matters and makes all the difference. (As an aside, while I will not be speaking about mission in this essay, it is important to stress that we can only be on mission when we are Christ-centered and Spirit-empowered.)

My thesis is simply this: the faith and witness of the New Testament is decidedly and radically Christocentric. And more, we are truly and only a Christ people, in our worship and in our Christian witness, when we have a dynamic appreciation of and experience of the Holy Spirit. However, one of the challenges—indeed, this may be one of the great theological challenges of our generation—is determining the relationship between the Spirit and Christ. Can we have a pneumatological Christology and a christological pneumatology? Indeed, could it not be the case that the only Christ we know is the Christ we know in the Spirit and that the only Spirit we know is the Spirit whose grace is one of fostering our capacity to live fully in Christ? Yet, we need to go further and ask specifically how this relationship is understood and nuanced. I wish to consider this with particular reference to Christian worship and to Christian spirituality, our understanding and practice of the spiritual life.

The Witness of the New Testament to Christ and to the Spirit

1. Christ-Centered

My first contention is this: the New Testament witnesses to an understanding of worship and Christian spirituality that is decidedly Christocentric. This point is foundational to all that follows. And it cannot be overstated. When you read the Gospels, it is clear that the hero, the focus of attention, is Christ Jesus. Even when you come to the Gospel of John, where we have rich and nuanced teaching on the ministry of the Spirit, Jesus is clearly the central focus and hero of the Gospel story. Indeed, one of the key points that John makes in John 14 is that the Spirit will glorify the Son. When you read the apostle Paul, it is not an overstatement to say that it is all about Jesus. Take Ephesians and Colossians as but two examples. The opening of Ephesians is an ode to Christ Jesus—a paean of praise, affirming that all things find meaning and purpose in Christ Jesus. In Colossians, Paul speaks about how the whole of his own ministry is about presenting each of his readers mature in Christ and that, in coming to Christ, in receiving him as Lord, the essence of the Christian life is that we are rooted and grounded in Christ, growing up in him, in thanksgiving (Col 2:6–7). All of this is captured wonderfully in those words of the apostle in speaking of the longing of his heart: Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col 1:27). When you read the book of Hebrews, it is all about Christ Jesus, with a primary focus on his cross and his ascension. In reading 1 Peter, we see that this letter is calling us to be shaped and informed by the Christ story—his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Finally, we turn to the book of Revelation where the climax of the biblical narrative ends unequivocally in the consummation of the kingdom where Christ is all and in all. In sum, Christian worship and spirituality is Christ-centered. More on that to come, but I begin with this baseline.

This Christocentric vision is definitively evident in the preaching, writing, and hymnody of the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, A. B. Simpson. The lyrics of his hymns may strike us today as rather quaint and even simplistic. (This is why, perhaps, they are not sung much in many Canadian Alliance churches anymore. Understandably so.) But however simple they were, they did attempt to capture this immortal theme—the hope and longing of the church is to be found in Christ. I think, for example, of two hymns in particular. Consider the lyrics to Jesus Only, for years a standard of any gathering of Alliance folks:

Jesus only is our Message,

Jesus all our theme shall be;

We will lift up Jesus ever,

Jesus only will we see.

Jesus only, Jesus ever, Jesus all in all we sing,

Saviour, Sanctifier, Healer, Glorious Lord and coming King.

¹

This hymn speaks of the deep longing of the people of God—to be found in Christ as their true home and to preach Christ as the very heart of what it means to proclaim the gospel. The other hymn I would like to reference is titled Himself. The opening verse is quite extraordinary in terms of what it affirms as the longing of the Christian and of the church:

Once it was the blessing, Now it is the Lord;

Once is was the feeling, Now it is His Word;

Once His gift I wanted, Now the Giver own;

Once I sought for healing, Now Himself alone.

And then the grand conclusion and chorus: All in all forever, Jesus will I sing / Everything in Jesus, and Jesus ev’rything.

²

I remember a casual conversation I once had with Clark Pinnock, the gifted and wise Canadian theologian who taught in several schools, including Regent College and McMaster Divinity College. His question, which was really a comment, was Is the Christian and Missionary Alliance Christomonic [meaning, they only think about Jesus and not about the Father and the Spirit]? I, of course, immediately insisted that the denomination is thoroughly trinitarian. Yet, you can see what lies behind his question. These hymns seem so absorbed with Christ, so consumed with the vision of Christ, that one could naturally wonder, What of the Father and the Spirit? My response was that the Alliance is very much aligned with the New Testament vision—we are trinitarian. Still, we are also Christocentric. We just might not be as good at nuancing this as the New Testament, which always locates the person and work of Christ within the fellowship of the Holy Trinity and within the gracious work of the Trinity. An example of such is this grand benediction from the apostle Paul to the Corinthian church: the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Cor 13:13). But mainly I would highlight this—the hymn Himself is a staggering declaration that all we need and long for is found in Christ Jesus. Furthermore, it declares that something is askew, not quite right, when we long for feelings, healings, or even power. For Simpson, the heart and soul of the Christian life is the longing for Himself alone. More on this below, but first, we need to highlight something else from both the New Testament and from A. B. Simpson.

2. Spirit-Empowered

If my first emphasis is that the New Testament is decidedly Christocentric, my second contention is that we can only be genuinely and thoroughly a people who are in Christ if and to the extent that we worship and live in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. When you read the Gospel of John, consider the dual witness of Luke in his Gospel and in the book of Acts, or confront the ways—both explicit and subtle—through which and by which the apostle Paul speaks of Christ, there is no avoiding the following: any experience of Christ, any knowledge of Christ, and any reception of the grace of Christ is mediated to the Christian and the church through the Holy Spirit.

The longing of the Gospel of John expressed in the abide in me as I abide in you (John 15:4 NRSV) cannot be conceived apart from the deep affirmation of Jesus who said, I will not leave you orphans . . . but I will send another, [an] Advocate (John 14:18, 26). The Luke-Acts sequence is profoundly significant. Luke’s Gospel chronicles the sequence of the incarnation—from Jesus’s birth, through his life, to his death and resurrection, and then ascension. The latter event both closes the Gospel and opens the book of Acts. It is in Acts, of course, that we come to the day of Pentecost without which all of this would have very little, if any, significance to the world. Pentecost is essential if what was accomplished on the cross is going to take effect in our lives, the church, and the world. On the day of Pentecost, those present were assured that if they responded to the preached word, they would receive the gift of the Spirit—and the church of the book of Acts is very obviously a church that sought to live out the full implications of Pentecost, that is, to be the church in the fullness of the Spirit. This reality is made clear throughout all the writings of the apostle Paul and, perhaps, most notably in Galatians and Romans. Romans 8, for example, includes the definitive statement: Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ, does not belong to him [that is, Christ] (Rom 8:9 NRSV). Furthermore, it is by the Spirit that we know in our hearts that we are children of God (Rom 8:16).

Albert Simpson recognized this, of course. Yet, like many of his contemporaries, he was struck by what seemed to be a lower-order Christian experience lived out by so many people in the church. Their Christian identity was one in name only. Since the fruit of the Spirit was not evident in the lives of many with whom he associated, he could not but conclude that something was missing. And like many of his contemporaries, he did two things. First, he sought and had an experience of the Spirit that had a profound impact on his life and ministry. Second, he taught that it was essential that Christians experience a particular grace—what the Statement of Faith of the Alliance World Fellowship speaks of as a crisis . . . experience . . . subsequent to conversion.

³

While there were many variations on the theme, this teaching—the idea of an experience subsequent