Page 144 - LD215 History of the Church in Africa A4 final

A History of the Church in Africa

the sixteenth century. Although the religion of the time did not meet
people’s needs, reformers preached that salvation was by grace through
faith. The result was that this message set people free from their sins,
and the river began to flow again! However, it did not flow far enough
and fast enough. Why?

Protestant Failure in Missions

In an attempt to answer the questions concerning why the river did
not flow far enough or fast enough, I want to focus on the five reasons
which follow.

Faulty Theology
Many of the reformers taught that the Great Commission was for the
apostles and the early church. In their view, if the heathen needed to be
converted, God could do it without the help of the church. In this they
over-emphasized the sovereignty of God. The result of this faulty view
of theology was that the Christians of the Reformation Era were not
obligated to send missionaries.

Misconceptions

The misconceptions in Europe about Africa south of the Sahara
Desert were legendary. As a result, we find no record of a European
venturing into what they referred to as the “darkness” of Central Africa
until the end of the sixteenth century. In the words of Edgerton:

Both dangerous and alluring, Africa south of the Sahara was still
thought by Europeans to be the home of one-eyed or two-headed
people among other monsters, as well as ferocious, gigantic
animals, including birds large enough to carry away elephants,
and ants as big as foxes. (7)

Edgerton continues, noting that many Europeans were terrified of
Africa, and some even thought that “every imaginable horror awaited any
European explorer rash enough to enter it—liquid sheets of flame falling
from the sky, a boiling ocean, mountainous waves, and deadly whirlpools
where Satan lay in wait to kill” (8). It was during this period that the
legend of the “dark continent” was formed and unfortunately continued
for centuries.

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