If I told you that there is a lot of controversy within the Church surrounding our remembrance of the Lord’s Supper, which on its face is a relatively simple act of eating some bread and drinking some wine or juice, you may not believe me. However, believe it or not, that is reality.

As it turns out, there is by no means one uniform view on the practice of communion. People, wouldn’t you know it, have found many things to disagree about. Today we are going to unpack some of these disagreements and attempt to come to a biblical conclusion on how we ought to practice it, as well as what happens spiritually during communion.

Starting with the Basics

Jesus Christ left the Church with two ordinances to follow.

The remembrance of the Lord’s Supper is one of those ordinances in the Church (sometimes called sacraments), with the other being baptism. This simply means it is one of the sacred rituals/ceremonies Jesus instituted for the Church to do. Some people believe there are more than two, and include the practices of oil-anointment, foot-washing, confirmation, and many others in their list of ordinances. The writer would respectfully disagree; there is nowhere in scripture where Jesus commanded the Church at large to observe these on a regular basis.

To get back on track, though, a typical communion service will consist of the leader or pastor recounting the story of the Last Supper and reminding the Church why they are partaking in this act of remembrance. They will often quote Jesus word-for-word from passages such as Luke 22:19, in which he said “this is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

Often accompanied with this retelling of the Last Supper is a visual demonstration—a breaking of bread to represent Christ’s broken body and the pouring of wine or juice to represent his shed blood on the cross; this is the same visual representation Christ gave the disciples two thousand years ago during the Last Supper.

After this, the congregation will be invited to eat and drink the bread and juice/wine, which are referred to as the elements of communion.

Who Should Participate?

Good question.

Some people say anyone who desires to should be able to take communion, regardless of whether they are a believer in Jesus Christ. This would be a minority view, but it does exist.

Others say anyone who professes faith in Jesus Christ can take communion, but the practice is barred from those who do not actively follow him. Many churches would hold to this view, and a large number would take it even a step further and only permit members of their own particular church or denomination to partake. This seemingly strict rule does not necessarily have to come from a place of haughty exclusivity; many churches likely just want to ensure they do not give communion to anyone who is unworthy, and only permitting individuals who have gone through a membership process is a way of ensuring that.

Speaking of the word “unworthy,” that is the central theme of the passage we will be looking at to receive an answer to the question of who should participate.

²³ For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, ²⁴ and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”  ²⁵ In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. ²⁷ Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸ Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup

1 Corinthians 11:23-28

Here, Paul is talking to a church whose members by and large were not at all taking communion with reverence. They were taking it sinfully and with selfish hearts. Now, our exact situation is not going to be the same as the Church of Corinth, but we can still extrapolate some principles from the text.

Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is adamant that believers take communion with the right attitude. Not one of dismissal, or self-service, or with sin festering in their heart, but with a willingness to proclaim the sovereign Lord’s death—with the proper respect for what communion means.

It is because of this passage that we can conclude participants in communion should be—first and foremost—individuals who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. If someone is not a member of God’s Kingdom, then there is no justification for them taking communion, as they cannot effectively proclaim Jesus’ sacrifice if they have not even accepted it for themselves…much less can they participate in a worthy manner if they do not have the blood of Jesus covering them!

There is no scriptural basis for participants needing to be a member of a specific denomination or of the church holding the service in order for them to partake. There is simply an absence of supporting passages to argue a convincing case for this. To summarize, then, anyone who is a member of God’s Kingdom, saved by the loving sacrifice of Jesus Christ, may participate in communion so long as they do not do so in an unworthy manner.

Who Should Lead?

The Bible does not explicitly say what type of person should or should not lead a remembrance of the Lord’s Supper, aside from the implicit and obvious requirement that they need to be a believer. There is nowhere, for instance, stating that to lead a communion service, you absolutely must be the pastor or elder of a church.

Since the Bible does not provide a clear answer, it seems best to reach our conclusions with prayer and discernment. With that said, I would suggest that the leader of a communion service should be a loving servant of God and others. They should be someone who is not needlessly divisive within the Church, continually living in unrepentant sin and modeling a bad example to the rest of the Body of Christ. Basically, there character should be such that it would not be a distracting issue as communion takes place, taking the focus away from Christ’s sacrifice.

Differing Views on Communion

Now things get really fun. There is one more major area of contention in the conversation surrounding the Lord’s Supper, and that is the degree to which Christ is present when we take communion.

The following summary of the different viewpoints is in no way comprehensive, and I recommend Wayne Grudem’s Bible Doctrine if you wish to study them more in-depth.

Transubstantiation

This view, taking literally Jesus’ statement that the bread and wine are his body and blood, believes that the elements physically become Jesus’ flesh and blood. It would maintain that when we take communion, we are literally eating Jesus’ body.

Furthermore, proponents of this view believe as soon as the bread is elevated by the leader of service and broken, grace is instilled within everyone in the vicinity, but it is given in proportion to their own spiritual receptivity. They also believe that in every instance communion is held, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ happens over again, which is the source of the grace everyone receives during the service.

Consubstantiation

This belief maintains that, while the elements do not literally become Jesus’ flesh and blood, Christ is instead present “in, with, and under” them. It could be said this is a slightly more reserved version of transubstantiation, still desiring to take Jesus literally in his “this is my body” statement without making the claim that we are consuming the Christ. Many advocates would say he is present in the elements the same way water is in a dishcloth; it is in the cloth, but it is still distinct from the cloth itself.  

It is also worth noting that this view does not believe Jesus’ sacrifice is repeated with each communion service, nor does it believe grace flows from the breaking of the bread into everyone who is present.

Symbolic View

The third and final belief regarding communion is that it is largely or perhaps even purely a symbolic act. Holders of this view do not believe Christ is literally present in the elements or even present “in, with, and under.”

The bread and wine/juice are instead representative of his flesh and blood respectively. Is this to say they believe Christ is in no way present during a communion service? Not at all, as they would believe Christ is omnipresent, and he is especially with us as two or more gather in his name. They believe Jesus blesses and spiritually nourishes us during communion—he simply is not a part of the elements in any manner other than a symbolic one.

Which View Is Right?

That’s ultimately on you to decide for yourself, but I would like to firmly make the case for the symbolic view. To me, it is by far the most reasonable.

Firstly, transubstantiation’s conviction that the elements literally become Jesus’ flesh and blood would seem to negate the symbolic manner in which Jesus often spoke. Christ did not always speak literally. He often spoke in parables. He used metaphor (i.e. “I am the true vine” and “I am the door”). It seems far more likely he was doing the same thing at the Last Supper when he lifted the bread and said “this is my body” as opposed to telling us a piece of bread and a drink of wine are his actual flesh and blood. Moreover, the transubstantiation belief that Christ’s sacrifice is repeated as a continual source of grace is, in my mind, borderline blasphemous. Christ’s sacrifice is final. We no longer have need for a sacrifice. He said as much in John 19:30 when he clearly stated “it is finished.” Also, there is simply nowhere in scripture to support communion as a continual sacrifice of Christ.

Consubstantiation, while much less objectionable than its cousin, still makes the error of taking Christ too literally. I like the way theological scholar Wayne Grudem puts it:

“In response to the [Consubstantiation] view, it can be said that it too fails to realize that Jesus is speaking of a spiritual reality but using physical objects to teach us when he says ‘this is my body.’”

Wayne Grudem

The symbolic view, in a nutshell, takes into account Jesus’ tendency to use metaphor or symbolism to convey spiritual truth while still maintaining the sacred and wonderful nature of the Lord’s Supper.

Application

Practice Biblical Communion

This one is pretty straightforward. Listen to what scripture says and ensure you and your church are in no way making a mockery out of remembering the Lord’s Supper or otherwise approaching communion in an unworthy way.

Thoroughly examine yourself before taking part. Are you doing this joyfully and respectfully, or thoughtlessly and selfishly? Remember the words of Paul. This is how we honor our glorious God. Take it seriously.

Enjoy Spiritual Nourishment

There is a profound and powerful spiritual nourishment that comes from participating in communion. In so doing, we enjoy and glorify God by proclaiming the perfect love of our savior and fill our spirit with unique renewal and sustenance.

I have talked at length at how we are to respectfully and reverentially partake in communion, but we are to do it joyfully as well! It is an honor and a privilege to exalt Christ in this way, and it illustrates how we, as the body of Christ, all take part in the benefits of his holy sacrifice.

Take It in a Worthy Manner

In his epistle to the Corinthians, Paul gives them a pretty important warning.

So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 11:27

The Corinthians had turned communion into more of a mindless, indulgent social gathering in which those who were able ate far too much and those who were less fortunate had little to nothing. They were not taking communion with sober reflection on their sin and what Christ did for them.

We would do well to follow the principle of this text: do not take communion in an unworthy manner.

When you participate in communion, do not do so thoughtlessly, or with a sinful, ungrateful heart. Do so with joy, gladness, and worship as you exalt Christ!

We have all done it countless times. Often at the end of the worship service, maybe once a month, or every other week, or perhaps every week, your church probably partakes in communion, also known as the Lord’s Supper.

Perhaps you know the basics surrounding the story of why we do the Lord’s Supper, or perhaps you do not and have been wondering why your church keeps having that weird snack during service. Either way, this article is for you! Today, we are going to explore the rich and meaningful history behind communion, its implications, and what that means for us as Christians today. It is one of the sacred and God-glorifying duties of the believer to practice communion.

Jesus Tells People to Eat Him?

Picture this. You are one of Jesus’ twelve original disciples. You have just crossed over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee with him, and he takes you to a hilly area, where a great crowd of people follows you because they know of Jesus’ miraculous deeds.

The crowd gets hungry. You start to wonder how on earth you are going to feed five thousand men, plus women and children. Jesus has you take some little boy’s lunch of bread and fish, and all of a sudden you’re serving this vast multitude of people a satisfying meal with food to spare afterward. The crowd is amazed. Jesus is glorious. It’s a good day. You go to bed in awe of what you just experienced.

The next day, a crowd of people come to Jesus, and you begin to wonder what wondrous sign he is going to perform today. You are lost in your daydreaming when all of a sudden, you hear Jesus telling the crowd that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood.

That would be quite a rollercoaster of events, wouldn’t it? Well, as you may well know, I am not making that story up.

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. ⁴⁶ No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. ⁵⁰ But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

John 6:44-51

We will pause right here. At face value, what Jesus just said is…well, it’s pretty weird. You don’t get to tell someone to eat your flesh without things getting kind of awkward. That sounds like something out of a cannibalistic horror movie.

However, Jesus is not one to say gross, nonsensical things. There is a higher meaning behind what he is saying. And believe it or not, as grotesque as it sounds, it is a wonderful meaning. The Jews listening to him, however, did not pick up on this.

Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” ⁵³ Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. ⁵⁷ Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 

John 6:52-59

Maybe what he’s saying is starting to make a bit more sense to you. If not, I’ll explain. Without Christ, we are spiritually dead, left under God’s wrath and enslaved to our sinful nature. Furthermore, we are on the fast track to eternal separation from God.

It is only through the loving sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who bore the sins of mankind on the cross, that we can be reconciled to a holy God and enjoy life-sustaining, intimate relationship with him and the Father.

This is why Christ says “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” He is saying that unless we accept the gift of salvation, made possible by the piercing of his flesh, the spilling of his blood, and the brokenness of his body, we will not have abundant life in the here and now. Moreover, we will suffer eternal death in the next life. Nobody who does not place their faith in the sacrifice of Christ’s broken body can truly live.

In this sense, he is like the ultimate manna from heaven. Christ was sent from heaven as manna was to the Israelites in the wilderness, and eating his flesh provides everlasting life: “Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

The Last Supper

This theme of Jesus’ flesh and blood being our saving grace continues later on in the Gospels. Fast-forward to the Passover night Jesus was betrayed. How precious these final moments with his followers must have been, made even more so by what he said.

  ⁴ When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. ¹⁵ And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. ¹⁶ For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” ¹⁷ After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. ¹⁸ For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” ¹⁹ And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁰ In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Luke 22:14-20

This passage, which has not failed to bring tears to my eyes as I read it, is Jesus’ loving commission to begin the sacred practice of the Lord’s Supper, which is a remembrance of his atoning sacrifice.

Communion is a powerful picture of what Jesus did for us. When we eat the bread and drink the wine/juice, we are doing so in remembrance of him—in remembrance of the perfect love he had for us. In remembrance of the unfathomable suffering he went through…for us. In remembrance of the fact that it is only through the broken flesh and the spilled blood of Jesus that we may be saved.

To participate in the Lord’s Supper is to honor and glorify Christ for the miracle of his mercy. It is not some boring ceremony to do out of habit or another hum-drum church event. It is one of the ways we glorify and enjoy Jesus.

With this in mind, there are some practical ways we can apply this in our personal and communal worship of Christ.

Application

Participate Joyfully

As previously mentioned, the Lord’s Supper isn’t another box to check off your spiritual to-do list. It is a commemoration of Jesus’ unparalleled servanthood. That’s not something to do mindlessly.

How precious it is to that Jesus died for us! And how precious it is to be able to honor him together in this way. We owe it to our glorious God to approach communion in the right spirit—in worship and awe and gladness. As his servants who live to honor him, that is truly the least we can do.

So next time you partake in communion, treasure the story of the Lord’s Supper in your heart. Do it in remembrance of him instead of absent mindedly eating a cracker or going through your mental list of everything that you have to do when you get home. This is a great way to grow more intimate with God.

Participate with Reverence

There is, or at least there should be, a certain weight attached to communion. I am not referring to a weight of sadness or despair. Rather, there is a sort of spiritual weight—a sort of reverence—that we should be taking with us as we remember his body, broken for us, and his blood, which was poured out for all mankind.

The imagery associated with communion, eating Christ’s flesh and drinking his blood, is intense. That is putting it mildly. But it is also powerfully beautiful, a reminder of what the almighty God of the universe did for us, and what he let us do to him so that we might live.

Communion is a reminder of God’s unparalleled, indescribable love, and we should approach it with every bit of worship and reverence it deserves.

One of the most challenging questions of the Christian faith is: What is the fate of those who have never heard the gospel? According to the Christian World Encyclopedia, it is estimated that in A.D. 100 there were 181 million people in the world, of whom less than 1 million were Christians. There were around 60,000 unreached people groups (i.e., tribes, nationalities) at that time. By the year 1000 there were 270 million people, 50 million of whom were Christians, with 50,000 unreached people groups. In 1989 there were 5.2 billion people, with 1.7 billion Christians and 12,000 unreached reached people groups. Although there is no way of knowing exactly how many people died without ever hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is safe to conclude that the majority of human beings who have ever lived fall into this category. What happens to them? How can God bring a negative judgement on their lives?

In this article, I want to explore the wideness of God’s mercy. God is infinitely more eager and passionate about bringing people into a relationship with himself than we are. God, in the expansiveness of his generous mercy, has providentially set up conditions to make himself universally and sufficiently known that all nations, tribes and people can respond positively to God’s offer of grace.

The Wideness of God’s Mercy

It is a few days before the crucifixion. Jesus speaks this parable in judgement on the religious leaders who rejected him. In doing so, he sets this judgement in the much wider landscape of the Father’s mercy.

² “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ³ He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.⁴ ‘Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’⁵ “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. ⁶ The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. ⁷ The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.“

Matthew 22:2-7

The king in the story represents God the Father. The son represents Jesus. Those invited represent the religious leaders. The rejection was very willful and personal as evidenced that some of the ones invited went as far as mistreating and killing the messengers of the king. The king invited these people out of his great generosity. He has every right to be outraged at their hateful actions. Destruction is the result. The story does not end here, though. This king was determined to have a party.

⁸ Then he said to his servants, “The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. ⁹ So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.” ¹⁰ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Matthew 22:8-10

He sends out more servants to invite anyone and everyone. This invitation is wide and extensive. It is indiscriminate as it is being offered to “both good and bad.” (v.10) The wedding hall is “filled with guests.” (v.10) The invitation to the banquet goes out to all. Unexpectedly a problem arose.

¹¹ But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ¹² He asked, “How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?” The man was speechless.¹³ “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.“

Matthew 22:11-14

One individual thought he could come to the wedding on his own terms. When the king arrived, there was one guest not dressed in wedding clothes. The king requested an explanation, but the man remained silent, refusing to accept the king’s grace by entering into dialogue. Clearly the king showed love and acceptance to this person, but he desired to come to the feast on his own terms. Consequently, he is excluded from the party because he refuses to come on the king’s terms. Jesus concludes:

¹⁴ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

Matthew 22:14

It is important to notice that the first invited guests, as well as the guests invited as replacements, are all recipients of the king’s undeserved favor. Robert Farrar Capon explains: “Nobody in the parable is outside the king’s favor; everybody starts out by being, as far as the king himself is concerned, irrevocably in…. Nobody is kicked out who wasn’t already in. Hell is an option, but it is given to us only after being offered an invitation at the banquet.” (emphasis mine) God includes all in his grace and excludes in judgement only those who spurn that grace. Only those who decline to accept God’s grace are rejected.

This wideness and expansiveness of God’s mercy, as seen in this story, is a prominent theme of Jesus. On several occasions Jesus commented on the extraordinary faith he saw among Gentiles such as the Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:21–28) and the Roman centurion, whose daughter was healed (Matthew 8:10). In this last instance, Jesus concluded:

I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 

Matthew 8:11

In announcing his crucifixion, Jesus declared that the effect is a universal call to all people to follow him:

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.

John 12:32

As Paul declares, God…

wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

1 Timothy 2:4

What About Those Who Have Never Heard?

So, if God has an amazing and indiscriminate wideness to his mercy, what does this mean for those who have never heard? Let’s look at several biblical answers.

The Melchizidek Principle.

This principle goes back to Abraham, who traveled to the pagan dominated Canaan and encountered a priest by the name of Melchizidek, after rescuing Lot. (Genesis 14:18-20) Abraham, though given the special covenant revelation (Genesis 12:1-3), will receive blessing from Melchizidek and tithed to him as a spiritual superior. (Psalms 110:4, Hebrews 7:1-4) Abraham encountered a “pagan” who still had a true knowledge of God. So what? Missionaries, for generations, have observed this “Melchizidek principle” through cultures all over the world. Don Richardson tells of many accounts of God’s work among pre-Christian peoples in his book, Eternity In Their Hearts. One fascinating story is detailed as follows:

Two Christian missionaries came to the Santal people in India. One day they heard an elder speak of the “genuine God,” Thakur Jiu. When they inquired who this God was, they heard a fascinating story of how the Santal had worshiped Thakur Jiu before they came from the Middle East to India. As they migrated toward India, they could not find a pass through the mountains, so they propitiated the evil spirits of the mountains to let them through. Once through, the people had felt obligated to continue to appease the evil spirits. Over time they lost much of their knowledge of the Creator God, but they longed for reconciliation. The two missionaries concluded that Thakur Jiu and the God of the Bible were the same, and they proceeded to inform the people of what this God had done through his Son to reconcile them. The people were overjoyed to hear that their God had not forgotten them, and a remarkable number of baptisms followed in the years ahead.

Richardson observes that this revelation of God goes back before the time of Abraham, perhaps the Tower of Babel. (Genesis 11) Melchizidek obviously possessed it or something like it.

The Unknown God Principle

Paul says to the Greeks in Thessalonica that no one has been left “without testimony:”

 Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.

Acts 14:17

He explained to the philosophers in Athens that they had a knowledge of the true God because:

²⁶ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 

Acts 17:26-27

Like the Santal people, among their many idols, they still had been given a knowledge of the true God, THE UNKNOWN GOD.

So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

Acts 17:23

A knowledge of the true God has been universal, going back to the Tower of Babel, evidenced in hundreds upon hundreds of ancient writings, songs, pictographs, rituals and tribal customs. These appear as an “interim Old Testament” for pagans which find their greater fulfillment in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Bible declares that God has been as sovereign over these other nations as he has Israel:

“Are not you Israelites
    the same to me as the Cushites?”
declares the Lord.
“Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt,
    the Philistines from Caphtor
    and the Arameans from Kir?

Amos 9:7

The Cornelius Principle

God gives more knowledge to those who respond faithfully to the knowledge they have. In Acts 10, a man named Cornelius was a Roman soldier who was “devout and God-fearing.” (10:2) He had a limited but true knowledge of God. God sent an angel and gave him instructions to find Peter. (10:3-5) The Cornelius principle states that when people respond faithfully to the knowledge they have, God gives them more. Hundreds of missionary stories can be recounted along this line. For example, an Ethiopian people the Gadeos, had some who worshiped the Omnipotent Creator God, Magano. A tribal leader named Warrasa Wange received a dream from Mangano that two white men would come sharing a message. There are many details to this dream which became fulfilled. Two Canadian missionaries, Albert Brant and Glen Cain showed up in 1948. The Gadeo people responded to Jesus and in three decades there were 200 churches among them.

Dr. David Garrison, a missionary and researcher, compiled over one thousand interviews from Muslim-background believers. Those interviews have been collected from forty-five movements of Christianity in Islam in fourteen countries. He says that quite commonly these people come to Christ through visions and dreams sharing these common threads:

• “Jesus speaking Scripture to them, even Scripture they had never heard before.”
• “Jesus telling people to do something.”
• “A dream or vision that led to a feeling of being clean or at peace.”
• “A man in white physically appearing.”

The Thief On the Cross Principle

Jesus is revealing himself to multitudes on their death bed who do not know him, and like the thief on the cross (Luke 23:40-43), their simple response of repentance and faith merits for them the declaration of the Savior, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” It has long been noticed that Christ meets many people with his Good News of peace near their time of death. I believe that at this door between earth and heaven is a place where God often gives a final invitation to salvation.

What Does This Mean?

Fulfill the Great Commission.

The Bible gives us great hope for the nations and the unevangelized because of the wideness of God’s mercy. This hope, though, points us to the fact Jesus Christ is the desire of the nations. (Haggai 2:7) Every nation needs the gospel and finds its purpose in the gospel. (Matthew 24:14) This understanding should cause us to labor more purposefully that the nations be won for Christ.

All the ends of the earth
    will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
    will bow down before him,
²⁸ for dominion belongs to the Lord
    and he rules over the nations.

Psalm 22:27-28

Let’s live on mission.

God has made all things to point to Christ. He is the universal Savior. This knowledge should spur us to greater worship and obedience. As Paul declares:

For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Romans 11:36