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The Gospel and New Beginnings

Early English Missions

One of the results of the Great Awakening was the revival of missions.
Some historians refer to Englishman William Carey as “the father of
modern missions.” Actually, this is not a correct historical fact because
the Moravians and others had been doing missions long before Carey’s
departure for India. As early as 1719, Isaac Watts penned the famous
missionary hymn “Jesus Shall Reign.”

As both the Bible and history reveal, God uses human instruments to
advance His cause. Just as God used Martin Luther to stimulate reform
in the church, so William Carey (1761–1834) became a powerful voice of
missions. In 1779 he received a gospel witness from a fellow shoemaker;
as a consequence, he was converted and baptized in water. Soon
afterward, he became the pastor of a Baptist church.

In 1792, Carey published An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians
to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen. At that time, the
term heathen was a common term Christians used to describe the
unconverted. Initially, Carey was rebuked by leaders of the Baptist
church for his desire to do missions.
He was told: “Sit down young man.
When it pleases God to convert the
heathen, he’ll do it without your help, “Expect great things
or mine” (quoted in Isichei, 75).
from God; attempt

Many Baptists of that time were great things for God.”
steeped in extreme Calvinism
and believed that God was solely
responsible for the salvation of mankind. Even his father considered
his son a lunatic. In spite of theological and family opposition to his
vision, Carey responded to the missionary challenge with the stirring
words: “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”
In 1792, he and his family sailed for India, where he devoted the rest of
life to missionary work. Nevertheless, his wife was reluctant to go and
did not adjust to the culture once she arrived. According to the record,
she became “mentally incapacitated” and died in 1807. However, Carey
remarried and remained in India.

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