Where is God in the Refugee Crises? Focus on the Word


by Harvey E. Schultz


I well remember when, as a teenager, I heard the news that China had invaded Tibet. Te Chinese took over the land and cruelly repressed all resistance. It was a time of hardship, suffering and persecution for the Tibetans. Prior to that event, missionaries had sought to make inroads


with the Gospel into Tibet. Few converted, and the few who did turn to Christ were brutally persecuted by Tibetan religious and political leaders. Tese persecutions used refined methods of cru- elty, so cruel that I will not describe them in writing. One thing was clear: Tibet and its people had rejected the Gospel. A few years later, I heard a well-known Bible teacher declare:


“God saw what happened in Tibet. He had seen enough. He stood on the Himalaya Mountains and called to the Chinese to invade. Tousands of Tibetans were forced to flee. Many fled south to Nepal and India. Tere, as refugees, they heard the Gospel. Te Dalai Lama himself was directly exposed to the message of salvation. A number of Tibetans turned to Jesus Christ. Tat which was impossible in their homeland became a reality in their exile. God used their exile to create an opening for the spread of the Gospel among those who had so fiercely persecuted His witnesses.” Does that mean that God uses refugee crises, or even orches-


trates them, to spread the Gospel among resistant people? Could that be happening today? Is there any scriptural basis for this viewpoint? A few months ago my attention was drawn to a passage which


teaches just that. It is a passage I have known for years but I had never linked it to what is happening in the present world situ- ation. I had always relegated it to past history. Speaking to the Athenians, Paul declares: “From one man [God] made every nation of men, that they


should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and


find him …” (Acts 17:26-27 niv). Tis statement clearly states that God determines exactly when


and where different ethnic groups will live so that people will seek and find him. I remember reading a missionary strategy study stat- ing that in Africa, new neighborhoods in cites were fertile grounds for evangelism in the early months and years following their cre- ation. As old ties, traditions and cultural practices were torn apart, a void was created in the daily existence of these new urbanites. Tey were searching for new norms and cultural practices. Tey were open to new worldviews and philosophies. Today, we are witnessing an unprecedented refugee crisis. Mil-


lions upon millions of people in this world are refugees. Tey have been uprooted from their homelands. Teir relationships have been upset. Teir values have been shattered. Teir hopes have been destroyed. And millions are now open to new worldviews including the Gospel. Just recently I heard a report that hundreds of home Bible


study groups have been formed in areas where just a few years ago it was unthinkable that such would ever happen. People are un- obtrusively studying the Word of God as it is diffused via modern technology. In the past year alone, hundreds of such new groups have sprung up in the Middle East, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, in Bangladesh. And that is based on a report from just one mission agency which has calculated that for every $40 expended, a new study group is developed. “[God] determined the times set for them and the exact places


where they should live … so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him.” Let’s not misunderstand. God does not initiate wars, tortures


and ethnic cleansings. But as sinful man commits these awful atrocities, God is carefully guiding the process behind the scenes so that millions of people who would never have heard or listened to the Gospel in their homeland, now have opportunity to see and find the One True God who alone can save all people.


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Fellowship Focus, November/December 2018


FellowshipForward.org


By Foreign and Commonwealth Office, via Wikimedia Commons


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