Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1958, Page 38

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38 Proceedings of the Forty-fifth Convention

America in the early days following discovery and conquest, when
whole communities of Indians were baptized en masse and there-
after considered Christians. Nor would we care to adopt the
wholesale methods of the Jesuit Francis Xavier and his motto
Amplius; amplius (More, More) in India.

Is the day of mass conversions then wholly past? I should
hesitate to say so categorically. The Christianization of Asia or
Africa might follow some such pattern in the future. This same
Francis Xavier and his followers had an inordinate success in
Japan with an assist from ruling classes. Within a generation there
were 600,000 Christians in the country. Of course, this thriving
church was lost to the faith when the sentiment of the rulers
changed. But what had seemed impossible really did happen, even
if it did not last. Our missionary endeavor in Nigeria in its early
stages was partly a mass conversion to Lutheranism.

Many years ago I read about an episode in the life of Chiang
Kai-Shek, who is now marooned in Formosa. As I remember, it
went something like this. In the 1920's, when China was passing
through the turbulent era of the warlords, Chiang once found
himself completely surrounded by enemies. It seemed to be only
a matter of hours before he would be captured and very likely
killed. An abandoned Christian chapel happened to stand nearby,
and he entered it to consider his predicament. He was not a Chris-
tian at the time, though his wife was. For some reason or other
he suddenly made a vow in that chapel that if the Christian God
allowed him to escape, he would become a Christian himself.
A few minutes later, as though in answer to his prayer, snow
began to fall. In fact, it came down in such quantities during
the next 24 hours that all warfare ceased, and Chiang was able to
effect his escape.

There is no particularly happy ending to this story. Chiang,
it seems, did embrace Christianity, but he obviously influenced
very few Chinese to follow his example. Yet when one considers
that some twenty years later a single man did make China Com-
munist, that almost every Communist country in the world today
turned Communist as the result of a kind of mass conversion,
either persuasive or enforced, the idea that a whole country might
turn Christian because of the example of an influential man does
not seem to be too far-fetched. I have heard it said that both
Gandhi and Nehru at one time in their lives considered including
the Christian religion in their programs, though both decided
against it. Naturally such mass movements are entirely in God’s
hand. We have to bide His time, even as our Germanic forefathers
did a little over a thousand years ago and as the church did before
the Reformation. But if something like this did happen, it might
well be the most impressive achievement of the composite mode
of life in centuries. But we would still have to continue the task
we are doing right now — that of laying the solid groundwork of
doctrinal knowledge, working with individual souls, preparing an
indigenous ministry, teaching, preaching, edifying, doing the acts
of mercy, removing the tensions. For there would certainly be
tensions, even if the miracle came to pass. Many would believe
it to be a hollow sham, a perversion of mission work, a denial of
Christ. Others in their eagerness would be tempted to compromise
on fundamentals and possibly exult in their newly won power