Jerry Rankin, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board, spoke to The Christian Post last week about his new book with missiologist Ed Stetzer called Spiritual Warfare and Missions.
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In the interview, Rankin explained what Satan's most effective strategy is to stop the expansion of the Kingdom of God and why missions is not the ultimate goal of the church.
The following are excerpts from the interview.
CP: Why did you and Ed write this book? What need did you see in the Christian community that you hope this book would meet?
Rankin: I have been training our missionaries on spiritual warfare for well over 20 years both on the field and since I've been here [in the United States]. Our missionaries they are venturing into Satan's territory and they are going to encounter opposition, resistance and be blindsided if they are not prepared for it.
The whole point [of the book] is not to deal with demon possession, territorial spirits and generational bondage, but to recognize the battle within our own heart of lies and how Satan seeks to defeat us and deter us from the missions task.
Satan is jealous of God's glory and is seeking to deprive God of being glorified in our lives. So that is what my book Spiritual Warfare: The Battle for God's Glory, published about year ago, is about.
This [book] is a sequel, Spiritual Warfare and Missions. Just as God desires to be glorified in our lives His ultimate desire is to be exalted and glorified among the nations and peoples of the world.
Satan tries to deter mission efforts. Satan recognizes the authority of Jesus and he knows that the end times is when he and all his demons will be cast into hell and Jesus will win the ultimate victory. But Jesus says that is not going to happen until the gospel is proclaimed and witnessed among all people.
So the premise of this book is to expose Satan's strategies for deterring and inhibiting global evangelization and the advancement of the kingdom of God.
CP: What is Satan's most effective strategy today in stopping God from being glorified by the nations?
Rankin: There are many strategies. One is keeping nations closed to Christian witness using atheistic, communist, totalitarian governments. But that strategy is not working and we talk about how God is moving in the world today and is penetrating every nation.
