New Worlds and the Gospel

New Worlds and the Gospel

October 12 marks Columbus's arrival in the Americas in 1492 — a moment that changed the world's history, for better and worse. The Christian history that followed was deeply mixed: alongside conquest and destruction came missionaries, priests, and eventually the indigenous-led churches that now represent the most vital Christianity in Latin America. The global mission of Acts 1:8 — 'to the ends of the earth' — was always bigger than any one culture's expression of it. The gospel transcends the failures of its human messengers and takes root in every soil, reshaping local culture in ways the original messengers never predicted.

Acts 1:8 is the missionary charter of the New Testament — the geographic structure (Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, ends of the earth) that describes the expanding circles of witness. The power for this witness comes from the Holy Spirit, not from human strategy or cultural capacity. The gospel was never intended to stay in Jerusalem — it was designed for export, for translation, for the ends of the earth. The fact that it has now reached virtually every people group on earth is not a human achievement; it is the fulfillment of a divine commission backed by divine power. Every local expression of the church is part of this global story. Your witness contributes to the ends of the earth.